Post-dive analysis and minor incidents

[scagrotto]

I figure if I'm around to ask questions I did it right.

I think that's one of the most popular mistakes people make in deciding whether or not they're doing things safely. In general, people are extremely bad at realistically evaluating risk and safety. "I've done it 200 times with no mishaps". Congratulations, maybe your chance of making your last mistake is only 1 in 201. Most people who drive drunk make it home to ask questions, but I'm sure you don't think driving drunk is the right way to do it. There are plenty of other things where it's not nearly as obvious when we've made mistakes and been close to serious problems, especially when we don't pay attention.

I think the most important point from the OP is that the big problems often start with little problems. Fail to notice them or take them seriously and the big problems seem to come with no warning.

he goes miles beyond normal logging.

I think the idea of paying attention to what you've done is a wise idea if you want to be safe in any activity that might be risky. subcooled is doing technical diving, including caves and sump diving, has been at it for only 4 years, and has no more than 500 dives if his profile is up to date. He'd be an idiot if he thought he wasn't still learning and making mistakes. One of the things that cave divers, and probably most (all, if they got a good education) other technical divers, learn is to plan "what if" not "what for".

Everybody should have complete freedom to determine their own acceptable level of safety, as long as it doesn't endanger anyone else. In terms of endangering others, I don't include those who willingly accept risk to save your ass or bring back what's left, so I don't mind if you take risks that I consider very significant. If you think subcooled's attention is excessive I won't argue, but if you think it's anal retentive I think you're completely out of touch with reality.

You appear to be fairly new diver doing mostly easy diving. There are about 7 billion people on the planet, and about 100 million of them will die in any given year. It's not quit as important with east recreational diving, but I'll suggest that if you ever get into technical diving and keep the same attitude there's a much better chance that you'll be one of the 100 million sooner than necessary.

 

[victorzamora]

I know I've psoted this around before, but I end every dive with: "So how do you think that dive went?" No matter who the buddy is. On simple, easy reef dives my wife typically responds with how she felt (cold/tired/cramped/headache) and will sometimes comment on her SAC rate (relative to others). If we're working on something, and we try to pick something specifically every dive, she'll mention how it felt. I'll ask her and she'll normally respond with: "I wasn't too cold, but I'm tired and am calling it for the day. My SAC rate was AWESOME! I beat you, didn't I? My buoyancy was good, but I kinda struggled on the safety stop. What'd you think of my buoyancy?" I'll do the same thing. Then we talk about fishies. If we're working on something (like her new drysuit), we have a long discussion about what is meant by what and what to do next time...both in terms of technique and additional gear (different fins, different boots, thicker undergarments).

On cave dives, my buddies and I discuss everything. How the primary and secondary tie-offs were, line routing, time to the gold line, flow, visibility, ours and our buddy's trim (tank and body), SAC rates relative to eachother, we confirm if/what gear had a malfunction, we talk about communication, swim speed, light signals, and how closely we followed our exact plan. We also discuss anything interesting we saw, or thing we want to check out more closely the next time.

 

[Texasguy]

Mmm, received my daily dose of "you are going to die" on Scubaboard, logging off until another day. Some people jump off airplanes, some climb mountains, I just visit Scubaboard to get my fix. Ta da!

 

[NAM001]

Everyone has thier own logging methods and i would not attempt to go into the whys. My log entries are simple and I attempt to include a comment about skills on each dive or group of dives. (FROM MY LOG BOOK) New FJ wet suit is warm but am top light with LP120's. Need to work on this. Next dive with LP95 to RAISE motion center. Also a tad light perhaps a weight belt to help. New can light really lights up area. Really tough keeping track of 5 other divers. Avoid large dive groups in future.
Got some good pics dispite so-so vis. Red filter is working.

 

[flots am]

I know I'm human, and humans make errors. I do, too. And I know that my wife will be seriously pi$$ed off at me if I go and get myself killed or seriously injured through stupidity or recklessness. I really don't want my wife to be seriously pi$$ed off at me, even if I were dead...

I also promised my wife that I wouldn't get killed, and stick to dives where any failure can be properly handled using normal OW procedures, and as a last resort, surfacing is possible, even if inconvenient.

This means that if I die underwater, it's probably from a medical problem that could have killed me on land, too.

Most dives involve making sure I have gas and can breathe, have my pony, aren't feeling exceptionally stupid or accident prone that day and that my pee valve is actually connected.

Other than that, it's:

• Jump in
• Swim around
• Come back when:
  • Cold
  • Tired
  • Low on gas
  • Low on NDL

Also, based on nothing scientific, I only allow myself two chances to die on a dive. If something stupid happens (jump in with air off for example), I'll deal with it and continue on. If something else happens after that, I'll just bag the dive. "Three bad things" seems to be the magic number before something awful happens, so my cutoff is two.

I have had had a couple of incidents that could have been fatal, and they've all involved things I was taught to not do in OW class. It's not too complicated and doesn't need a lot of analysis.

 

[TSandM]

Texasguy, people are just different. Some are very analytical, and some find that kind of focus annoying. Each group doesn't understand the other . . . I fall strongly into the group that likes to overthink and analyze everything, and I tend to believe that that results in a higher degree of safety, as the OP clearly believes. However, for people who just work in flow state, overanalysis may even get in the way of how they manage things.

I don't think there is any reason to be hostile to one another. The OP is an analyst. So am I. You are not. We all like diving . . .

 

[diverrex]

I understand those that want to analysis all their dives. I also understand those that log dives in detail. But I do neither. I only download my dive computer. I don't add any narrative. Likewise unless something unusual happens on a dive I feel no need for a debrief on every dive. Most of dives are very typical with nothing unusual happening. That doesn't mean I don't think about the dive and try to learn from I just don't turn that into a formal process. I dive only for pleasure.