What makes a great diver?

[Deefstes]

Bob said it before, but a great diver would never get there in the first place...

This sounds beautiful but I'm not sure I really buy it. Or more accurately, I should say, as an unexperienced diver I sincerely hope this is not true because I don't believe that anyone is always 100% in control of his circumstances. For one, no matter how great a diver is, you have no control over what stupid things other divers with or around you might get up to.

I've heard and read too many stories of supposedly great divers who encountered problems, some who have even died. Sheck Exley is a case in point. Is the mere fact that he eventually died diving enough to say that he wasn't a great diver then?

Look, I can agree that great divers would be better at staying out of troublesome situations but in my humble and novice opinion I don't think it is accurate to say that a great diver "would never get there in the first place".

And, to be honest, as a novice I am more impressed with those who are so good that they can get out of a pinch than those who are so good that they've never know what a pinch is like.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

This sounds beautiful but I'm not sure I really buy it. Or more accurately, I should say, as an unexperienced diver I sincerely hope this is not true because I don't believe that anyone is always 100% in control of his circumstances. For one, no matter how great a diver is, you have no control over what stupid things other divers with or around you might get up to.

I've heard and read too many stories of supposedly great divers who encountered problems, some who have even died. Sheck Exley is a case in point. Is the mere fact that he eventually died diving enough to say that he wasn't a great diver then?

Look, I can agree that great divers would be better at staying out of troublesome situations but in my humble and novice opinion I don't think it is accurate to say that a great diver "would never get there in the first place".

And, to be honest, as a novice I am more impressed with those who are so good that they can get out of a pinch than those who are so good that they've never know what a pinch is like.

Diving is as much about judgment as about skills ... and as you become more experienced, your judgment tends to improve just as your skills do. And the point I'm trying to make is what can differentiate a good diver from a great one often boils down to the decisions that they make.

A great diver will anticipate potential risks associated with their dive and will be prepared to deal with things that can go wrong in a way that avoids an emergency. A great diver will recognize a developing situation and take steps to "break the chain" of events before the accident happens ... so that even though they need to take unplanned steps to deal with whatever's going wrong, it does not constitute an emergency. A great diver cannot control how other people behave ... but they CAN control how they respond to that behavior, and will usually take the appropriate action to keep themselves from becoming victimized by someone else's behavior.

Yes, sometimes great divers will get into accidents and even die. That makes them human ... none of us are infallible. But it is often the case that the underlying cause of a diving accident was due to a decision that was made before the dive ever started. A great diver is someone with the experience and knowledge to recognize those errors, and to either abort the dive or take steps to fix the problem so that it never leads to an emergency ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[bigken462]

Good post Bob!

Kenny

 

[b1gcountry]

What Bob said.

... a diver who can sort out a failing regulator, while untangling himself / someone else from an obstacle, while shooting a SMB, being narced, having had his mask kicked off and a burning fire in his bum from a Devil Firefish sting

This is an unrealistic scenario, and anyone with the inexperience to let this many failures accumulate would not be able to survive it. One of the marks of a good diver is they just don't have war stories like this because they solve problems before they escalate into something really threatening.

Tom

 

[KROBI]

What qualities mark someone out as a "good" diver?

What should we aspire to? Who should we look up to ?

What makes a great diver, the one that brings a cooler of cold beer...

 

[Diverreefer]

A great diver thinking he or she can't get into trouble in the first place does not fit with the proposed trait of humility.

I would bet that most of the "great" divers got that way by screwing up a few times. I don't think you can be great until you are tested in some form or another.

I don't want to be great. I want to be good without ever being tested if you don't mind.

 

[b1gcountry]

You can have high self confidence, and still be humble about it. One person especially comes to mind, and He definitely had reason to be self confident.

Tom

 

[Monkey_Gland]

Isn't is often the case that those with the most experience and confidence have nothing to prove so display the humility, care and humour that we all seem to perceive as the traits we'd like to see and emulate.

I think we need some heroes. Divers on TV? Divers in the press? in the Movies? Steve Zissou?