Loss of enthusiasm?

I was diving off of Catalina, California this sunday when I had a disturbing experience. The first dive of the day was at a site called Ship Rock. It was an exciting pinnacle dive complete with schooling fish and a shark encounter (okay, so it was a three foot horn shark, still a shark). I surfaced after 40 minutes and couldn't wait to off-gas, top off my tank, and get back in the water. The second and third dive of the day were in a shallow kelp forest which was beautiful, if not really as exciting. Anyway, here's my concern: I was underenthusiastic through the second dive and yawning by the third. Afterwords, I felt guilty about belittling two awsome dives that most true divers would have been envious of. Now, I had only recently celebrated my fifteenth dive, so I'm not a "jaded" diver by any stretch of the imagination. I want to keep diving, but I still find it strange that I was able to actually be bored on a long-anticipated trip to a destination I had never been to. Has anyone out there had a similar experience, and did they regain their enthusiam in time for the next trip? Is taking a warm water trip asap the solution, or would that just make matters worse?
Thanks everyone
-Mantasscareme

Mantasscareme:

I was diving off of Catalina, California this sunday when I had a disturbing experience. The first dive of the day was at a site called Ship Rock. It was an exciting pinnacle dive complete with schooling fish and a shark encounter (okay, so it was a three foot horn shark, still a shark). I surfaced after 40 minutes waiting to off-gas, top off my tank, and get back in the water. The second and third dive of the day were in a shallow kelp forest which was beautiful but not really as exciting. Anyway, here's my concern: I was underenthusiastic through the second dive and yawning by the third. Afterwords, I felt guilty about belittling two awsome dives that most true divers would have been envious of.

Click to expand...

First of all - glad you dived Ship Rock. Its my all time favorite dive at Catalina. I love it. LOVE IT. Its very different from the other dive sites along the island - so there is just no way that the others would compare.

I've dived Catalina hundreds of times - I'm feeling you. Nearly exclusively bost diving for years, Catalina was getting stale for me. Especially after last summer's bust - I must have dived the Quarry a zillion times... Oy.

So I started to mix things up. Started diving Ventura more (not an real option for you in LowCal.) That got my interest. New dive sites. Nice.

I started (gasp) shore diving. A lot more. Night dives every week, trying to get in the water in the daytime a couple of times a month. Its been great. New skills, new sites, new people.

I needed to mix things up. I was diving with the same great buddy for a couple of years - Our schedules got out of synch, so I started diving with other people. Now, the old places seemed new again.

I was in a bad funk. I got out of it by changing venues, mixing in some shore diving and diving with a new crowd. It really helped me. Keep swinging - things will get better.

BTW - for me, anything on Catalina after a Ship Rock dive is pretty ho hum.

There have been many dives that were a big yawn for me. Sometimes your head just isn't in the game... even in perfect conditions. Its just a simple fact. Every dive isn't going to be like the first couple of hundred! :10:

---
Ken

On these not so great dives practice some skills. When you are on top of it all you can specialize in something. Take pictures. Learn more about the site so you can find those small critters. I have been diving the same 5 sites for the past 10 years and I still love them. Sometimes I can spend 30 minutes watching a cleaning station, sometimes I cover a lot of ground. Mix it up.

I agree with about everything said so far. Try being an instructor and doing a month of nothing but open waters. Egad.

I'll try and mix things up by hopping on the kayak and diving someplace unexplored by me (and, who knows, maybe I'm the first to dive there ever?). That makes it interesting. Sometimes I'll dive the ocean by the golf course and see how many balls I can find/collect. Sometimes I'll just pick a shrimpgoby hole and watch it for awhile. The above suggestion about finding a cleaning station is good advice.

Basically, mix it up (locales/buddies) or take a specialty course.

I had a bit of a crisis around my twentyfith dive thinking, damn I paying 25 dollars and I'm bored and cold (and that was a both great and cheap dive).

It just passed, I went on to enjoy other aspects of diving that I hadn't thought of before. Now I have a pretty clear idea about what I like about diving and what I can expect from a dive so if I'm kinda lukewarm divewise one day well ... I know I'm going again another day.

That said it would be a bit sad to be standing on top of Mount Everest wondering whats on discovery.

Its probably the reason I like wreck diving so much. Its a nice change to get off shore.

Mantasscareme:

I want to keep diving, but I still find it strange that I was able to actually be bored on a long-anticipated trip to a destination I had never been to. Has anyone out there had a similar experience, and did they regain their enthusiam in time for the next trip?

Click to expand...

1. Dive with a newbie. Their enthusiasm is infectious.

2. Learn more about your dive envirionment. Once I learned basic fish names, then I started watching behavior more closely. The more I learned and observed the more intricacy and detail I saw, bringing up more questions, and more behaviors to investigate.

I get bored on dives all the time... that's not to say I don't enjoy them, I just sometimes get bored. I have found that after about 30 - 45 minutes on a dive site, no matter how incredible it is... I've simply had enough. There are very few exceptions to that rule for me. 1. If I'm in the water with a whale, a predatory shark like a White, a Tiger or Bull, or if playful dolphins, Sea Lions or Mantas won't leave me a lone. I tend to like big animal encounters and thats really all that can keep my attention for any period of time.

I do enjoy penetrating wrecks, shooting video of macro subjects etc... but after a time I admit I get bored. I don't think boredom is all that uncommon among divers... especially those that dive often. Speaking for myself, I continue to dive after 9 years because I know that everytime I hit the water... theres a chance for grand excitement.

At your age I would be more concerned that you are having other issues in life that subconsciously overtake you at different times of the day... in other words some mild depression. If that is 100% not the case, then you may just need the types of excitement that keep me going... Look for the niche that excites you... seek it out... and dive in those locations that offer what you're really looking for...

Happy Diving...

Ken

Mantasscareme:

I was diving off of Catalina, California this sunday when I had a disturbing experience. The first dive of the day was at a site called Ship Rock. It was an exciting pinnacle dive complete with schooling fish and a shark encounter (okay, so it was a three foot horn shark, still a shark). I surfaced after 40 minutes and couldn't wait to off-gas, top off my tank, and get back in the water. The second and third dive of the day were in a shallow kelp forest which was beautiful, if not really as exciting. Anyway, here's my concern: I was underenthusiastic through the second dive and yawning by the third. Afterwords, I felt guilty about belittling two awsome dives that most true divers would have been envious of. Now, I had only recently celebrated my fifteenth dive, so I'm not a "jaded" diver by any stretch of the imagination. I want to keep diving, but I still find it strange that I was able to actually be bored on a long-anticipated trip to a destination I had never been to. Has anyone out there had a similar experience, and did they regain their enthusiam in time for the next trip? Is taking a warm water trip asap the solution, or would that just make matters worse?
Thanks everyone
-Mantasscareme

Click to expand...

1. Get caught up in finding and looking at the small stuff. I was always a big picture diver - where you have to be on a wall or wreck to enjoy yourself. I was never into the small things, like finding a nudibranch, decorator crab or warbonnet. Now all those things get me charged. I dive one site regularly in Seattle and it's awesome. If I do 8 dives there a week, I'll see completely different stuff and have a great time.

2. As someone else mentioned - work on skills. With only 15 dives I'm sure there are still a few things for you to perfect. Work on your fin kicks, do OOA drills with your buddy, inflate an SMB and nail all your stops, remove and replace your mask while hovering and don't ascend or descend more than a foot, hover motionless on your 15' stop and don't move up or down, see how much you can control your depth by just using your breath etc....

If you follow these two steps, you should be able to get a few thousand dives in before you get too jaded.

Mantasscareme:

...I was underenthusiastic through the second dive and yawning by the third. ...
-Mantasscareme

Click to expand...

First, I see you are a fairly new diver with 0-15 dives, so let me say, Welcome to the wonders of diving.

Second: you do not say how often you dive and what type of physical condition you are in. I will wager you were a tad bit tired by the second and definatly the third dive.

Third: I too did 3 dives in Catalina off a boat. Came home beat and I dive often and I am in better than average shape. Some dives are simply awesome, some are fantastic and some are good. I would wager that if you had done the third dive first, you would have felt differently about it.

Last: When I first started diving my dive reports were filled with saw this fish and that fish, now they say "usual suspects". But I still love diving.

Now I see you are a SoCal diver. May I suggest beach diving often. http://www.sandeaters.org will help. Not a club, but a description of local beach dives in Los Angeles and Orange County and a schedule on the internet of a dive every Sunday where, if you are there, they may be other divers. No dues, no membership, no club officers, no club, just diving. They also have a very effective e-mail system to sent out e-mails to other asking to go diving or you can always answer a request for a dive partner.

Also don't forget to visit us on this forum at Clubs: North America/United States/California Kelp Divers/SoCal section for local dive talk, dive reports and to hook up with local divers to get wet with.