What makes a good diver?

[Steve_C]

Given a choice I prefer a buddy. There are many dives I would not do without a good buddy. Diving solo does not necessarily alter the social side. Most of my diving is off a boat. Say we are diving on an easy site I know well. Perhaps my instabuddy goes through their air fast or has some other issue. I will follow them to anchor line and maybe part way up. Watch them until I know they are safely up. Or maybe send them up with another diver I know and that they agree to go up with. I then complete my dive. When I get back up we all still talk. The different groups discuss what they saw. If I note something interesting when solo I will point it out to nearby divers.

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

I teased her a little when we got back on board but next time out I'm going to make sure she practices navigation skills.

Just to leverage - do you practice drills or figure out gas management for your dives... If you do - have her coordinate the drills on the next dive. If you dont you may consider a shore dive or boat dive where she is responsible for the dive and you are only there as a buddy - other than that sit back and watch. I ask my son to come up with some drills - as simple as mask clearing, using tables for depth and time (he has a computer but I want him to understand tables), removing BCD and or weights, buddy breath off one regulator - I keep a list of drills to do to mix it up. Then we do a short critique of the dive.

 

[boulderjohn]

I would be willing to bet good money that a lot of the fatalities associated with buddy separation also include the most deadly (in my opinion) hazard underwater - panic.

And you would be correct.

The very thorough study recently done by PADI and DAN found that, aside from fatalities associated with cardiac issues, the most common case of dive fatalities was roughly this sequence: drowning preceded by air embolism preceded by rapid, panicked ascent to the surface preceded by OOA with no buddy nearby. If the divers had calmly done a proper CESA after being OOA without a buddy nearby, they would almost certainly have lived.

 

[TMHeimer]

"Good" of course is relative. But I can't really find anything in this thread I disagree with. Especially a good idea to have your daughter do some leading. Regarding buddy diving I always say that THE important thing is to ALWAYS be close enough to help out--to the point of obsession (maybe that's a side reason that I solo dive a lot?). If you're not always together it doesn't matter much how good your buddy skills are. Seems you and your daughter are pretty good at staying together.

 

[drrich2]

Diving is generally a social sport.

It often is, and starts out that way. Dive boats lends themselves to this, as do most OW classes.

We are individual divers with individual diving agendas.

Indeed.

To me it seems that it is a little sad to start saying I had one bad buddy experience and so now I'm going to go solo.

Whatever rhetoric people engage in, I don't think this is a common root of people deciding to solo.

But it seems a little short sighted to me that we promote the virtues of solo diving and seemingly denigrate the benefit and fun diving with buddies.

People share their viewpoint, yes, but it's worth noting most divers had 'buddy' experience with their instructor & one or more classmates in the OW course, perhaps again in AOW, and probably on a dive boat trip. They're experienced buddy diving. Perhaps not optimal buddy diving, but they have had the case for buddy diving made to them, and they've gotten to see for themselves a taste of it.

People posting about solo diving don't pitch it to newbies, from what I've seen, and often advise caution & fore-thought as people consider it. So those people to whom solo may be 'pitched,' if only indirectly, tend to be at least somewhat seasoned (e.g.: 100+ dives), so they ought to be able make a reasonably informed decision.

Of course people present some of the positives; it's a message that, unlike buddy diving, doesn't automatically reach everybody.

Richard.

 

[AfterDark]

The ability to control panic. One of my diving credos is " Panic is the last thing a diver does." That has a double meaning, the 1st is panic kills the 2nd is it's the last thing a diver should / or will do.

Situational awareness, to stay out of trouble know what's going on around you, recognize trouble or a potential problems and avoid them.

These things are hard to teach, IMO they are self taught and come from the third thing I think makes a good diver,

Experience Nobody comes out of training a good diver, A knowledgeable, potentially good diver certainly but without some experience good and bad that potential will go undeveloped. A diver will never have the chance to know if they can control that feeling of panic welling up in their stomach unless something makes it happen and they discover they can think then take the action that gets them out of trouble. That isn't going to happen in a pool.

Equipment knowledge Knowing how gear works is key to being able to fix it or provide a work around until the dive can be ended.

 

[NAM001]

My GF just got certed last sommer and we have dove several times since. She is not good by any real technical means. certainly not good because she is with me or mine.
She was so excited that she completedOW that she couldnt get into the water again. That bothered me but i knew something was not right with her and diving.
A week later wse went fo another dive site and we started over somewhat. I put her in a back plate and set her up long hose and all. The first thing she thought is this is neet its not moving back there more. Then for a few dives we did the trim things and after changeing to an al plate the roling over stopped and she trimmed fine. a few dives later she realized she did not have to fight the gear anymore and voila she cant wait to get wet again. Its "come on there is still light and air in the tank for another quicky". She is now enjoying sight seeing and is slowly becoming concious of me being there and starting to be more buddy oritented. She has made about every mistake one could make including forgetting fins , mask and air off. Got to give it too her she learns quick, especially with the air thing. She suddenly realized what I ment by there is no emergency underwater except no air. We got seperated once (my fault) and I found her on the surface loking for bubbles after i could not hear her regulator sucking. My newbyness concern for her dissappeared. She does what she needs to do when she needs to do it and if asked she has the right reason why. She used to swim behind me and now its beside me. Something about "my fins dont understand what she is waving". Her attention has spread form site seeing to include her gages, environment and me. Is she good? I dont know. She is not a hazzard any more.....she still cant se a compass very well, of course she cant shoot a buoy either. If i had an emergency (OOA) could she save me. Yess. I know that cause we work the drill every day we dive. It has become natural for her. when she gets good a hovering we will take on the buoy shooting. She knows good doesnt happen over night,, and she thinks i am good, so obviously she has some sence of good judgement.

 

[KeithG]

Good diver? Situationally aware and open to suggestions. Capable of learning from life experiences. Not rigid in their thinking: these concepts seem to apply to most life situations?

Now back to the topic of diving with your daughter: Leadership starts above water. You need to dive as a team. You need to have the same understood objectives before you splash. She can take the lead BEFORE the dive and formulate the plan. Once agreed you execute the plan as a team. Leading underwater comes after leading above water.

I claim true dive leadership occurs above the water, before you splash. A dive team (buddy pair?) should have a concrete dive plan. It may be extremely rigid (cave people!) or it may have some flexibility (warm water wussy vacation divers like me), but it should be well understood before you hit the water.

My divebuddy & I have executed the same dive plan over 700 times (we are simple folk). Sometimes she leads, sometimes I lead. But we both start EVERY dive with a complete understanding of the plan - even if it is a simple plan. We discuss the intended plan, and as curlers, we also discuss Plan B. A significant amount of the time ( >1%) we end up diving Plan B. We do not dive random plan C.