How good do you need to be?

This is perhaps the big question in this sport.... the question of standards.

Let's answer it by asking these questions:

1) who are you trying to please, and why?
2) what will it take to please them?

A few tips here. Who you are NOT trying to please, if you think this through, are:

- Other divers (except possibly your regular buddy)
- "Experts"
- Your instructor
- Your instructor's agency
- Any kind of Hero stereotype

So, who are YOU trying to please?

R..

I go out of my way to please nobody with respect to diving. I do what I do and how I do it because I want to enjoy diving forever and to always know that I and my buddy are as safe as possible.

Having read Blackwood's response in #7 below, I will add this quote which I suppose does apply to my situation:

So I guess you need to please Charles Darwin and Mother Earth.

Click to expand...

You need to be good enough so that your ascents equal your descents. Other than that though there is a wide range. I wonder about my skills, are they demonstration quality or do they just work for me? I know that my method for clearing a mask is not "demonstration quality" but it works for me so it is "right"? Probably not but I never cared until I decided to become a divemaster, now I need to please my instructor and their agency.

I want to be a better diver for myself. I want to be still in the water, even when contending with the surge-y conditions we get here in socal. I want to be able to swim over a site without kicking up any silt (for myself and for others that are around me). I want to be able to calmly deal with things that go wrong....from an OOG buddy to a lost mask to a free-flowing second stage. I want to be a thinking diver who is always analyzing what changes I can/should make to ensure the dive is as enjoyable and safe as possible.

I don't need to impress my friends with how good of control I have or how calm I am in the face of danger....I want these things so I can be a safer, more confident, and more competent diver. I have my theories on how these things can be accomplished (much of which includes just getting out and diving as much as possible) and will be constantly working toward my goals.

In addition, I'm sure there are numerous things that I don't know yet that I don't even know I should know. I want to always be learning and figuring out those things that I don't know that I should know...

Hm, please conjurs up visions of co-dependency to me and lack of self-confidence. I dont think I try to 'please' anyone, but I know I bring ire out in people sometimes.

What an odd question. You need to be "good" enough to plan a dive, dive that plan, safely modify the plan if necessary/desired, safely deal with any emergencies, and not leave an impact on the environment.

So I guess you need to please Charles Darwin and Mother Earth.

Blackwood:

So I guess you need to please Charles Darwin and Mother Earth.

Click to expand...

Hmm. One is dead and I have no experience with the other, so I can't exactly take that route.

I may be presumptuous, but it sounds as if the OP might be trying to ask a slightly different question, "Who are you trying to impress?"

I might try to "please" my partner, if I am leading, by traveling at an appropriate speed, for example. Or perhaps I could please them by showing them something they have never seen. However, that doesn't mean I'm trying to "impress" them. That implies that I'm trying to build myself up as some sort of 'expert', which I definitely am not. I like to think that I attempt to bring happiness to my dive partners by being pleasant, providing (and be willing to accept) a modicum of safety, and generally having a good time enjoying dives within our training. That does not mean that I'm trying to impress anyone, though.

Everybody on the internet.

Diver0001:

This is perhaps the big question in this sport.... the question of standards.

Let's answer it by asking these questions:

1) who are you trying to please, and why?
2) what will it take to please them?

A few tips here. Who you are NOT trying to please, if you think this through, are:

- Other divers (except possibly your regular buddy)
- "Experts"
- Your instructor
- Your instructor's agency
- Any kind of Hero stereotype

So, who are YOU trying to please?

R..

Click to expand...

Initially, I tried to please my instructor, which turned out to be a very good idea, since he was happy when I learned what he was trying to teach. This meant that when my BC failed, I didn't plummet to the bottom of the Santa Rosa Wall, and when a big wave came up and the boat ladder whacked me in the face, it only bumped my reg instead of knocking out my front teeth.

Later I decided to please my wife. I do this by not getting killed while diving. So far this has worked out nicely, making both of us happy.

Terry

This is a GREAT question....
I began diving for someone else....and now that I am no longer with him, I am doing it for myself.

It didn't take much to please him though, the fact alone that I had gotten my OW was good enough for him...

Me on the other hand, I am SO hard on myself with diving that I am not as easy to please!

Diver0001:

This is perhaps the big question in this sport.... the question of standards.




Let's answer it by asking these questions:

1) who are you trying to please, and why?
2) what will it take to please them?

A few tips here. Who you are NOT trying to please, if you think this through, are:

- Other divers (except possibly your regular buddy)
- "Experts"
- Your instructor
- Your instructor's agency
- Any kind of Hero stereotype

So, who are YOU trying to please?

R..

Click to expand...