A Divers Paradigm

I'm not sure if I am alone in this but since I started diving a few years ago, I've noticed a monumental shift between my experience level and my dive knowledge.

For example, when I first finished my Naui open water course, I knew everything about diving. After all I passed the course with flying colours, I never had any problem with any of the basic skills, I was pretty much God's gift to diving. One of the elite, I was a scuba diver.

After about 25 dives and the Naui Advanced open water course, I realized I wasn't God's gift to diving after all, but I was still a very good diver. Probably better than most. I did my first dive to 130 feet so not only was I a good diver, but man was I cool!

After about 50 dives and the Naui rescue course under my belt, I realized there was still quite a bit about diving I didn't know. I became obsessed about the sport and read everything I could about diving and began to practise my skills learned in rescue class and started to collect important safety gear such as reels and safety sauages ect. I began to drill their use into my muscel memory until I could deploy them easliy while maintaing horizontal trim.

After about 100 dives and now being drysuit and nitrox certified I began reading obsessivley about gas planning, decompression theory, rock bottom pressures ect. I began to dive in more challenging conditions and with divers who were much better than I was and once again realized that in comparison with some of my dive buddies I was still a rookie newbie in the sport.

After 150 dives and the Naui Master diver course completed I was reading all about diving physics and diving physiology. My dive experience was still increasing as I started diving in more locations and in more adverse conditions taking on more challenging dives.

Now as I approach 200 dives and am reading (or lurking) more and more often on scuba board starting to get introduced to technical diving and hanging out with more and more really good divers, I am constantly amazed how much more there is to learn about this sport. It seems the more experience I get the more about the sport opens up and I realize how much more there is to it. Thats actually one of the things I love most about diving is that no matter how much I learn I know I will never know it all, and there will always be something more to learn and experience. I've come to realize that instead of knowing it all like I thought I did when I finished my open water course a few years ago in reality, I don't know jack about diving and I wouldn't have it any other way.

There's still loads of new things to learn!
So saying that you don't know jack is silly ! You know more than me!

It's the FUN of this sport.
You can just keep on learning,there's a new thing on every dive.

300bar:

It's the FUN of this sport.
You can just keep on learning,there's a new thing on every dive.

Click to expand...

the more you know, the more you realize that you don't know a lot yet

I experienced that feeling for the first time in my first year of engineering-studies.

I had 8h of maths per week from my 16 till my 18 ... => I tought I knew a lot of maths ...

In my first year at the university, we had 15h of math per week ... then I realized that I only had basic knowledge of maths

same with diving.

Paradigm? Sounds much more like a paradox. However, it still rings true.

That sounds so familiar....when I got certified, I did my check-out dives in Cozumel. All the dives were drift dives -- as I drifted along and the current masked all my buoyancy issues, I thought to myself, "I don't understand what people on SB were saying. Buoyancy is easy....I can't believe people actually struggle with this! I am a really good diver....I've got this all figured out." Little did I know that as soon as I didn't have the current to mask my buoyancy issues and allow my air consumption to be super low, I was really going to suck and re-think my original "I'm awesome!" thoughts.

Every time I think I figure things out, I find more things that I've never thought of. The day I stop learning on each dive is the day I should probably end my diving career. I strive to never be complacent, always be learning, and continue to become a safer, more competent, and more confident diver.

Thanks for your post, jjhill. It's good to see that there were others who thought they rocked at first and went on to realize that there's a lot more to it!

same story here,
luckily this sport will always throw some new challenge at you, maybe thats why we have a lifetime of love rolled up into it, you never get to cross the finish line, or do a touchdown dance,
it's a labor of love, and I wouldnt trade it for anything

Same here,except for the number of dives, my buddy and I bought our first sausage and reel two week ago, and I'm kind of obsessed with the safety issue right now.

I was never God's gift to diving. (It was her gift to me?)

I don't know if it's because the instructor and DMs I trained with always looked so effortless, or because I can look back at my own progression from a newbie cyclist to a much more experienced one (who still couldn't hang with the pros on their recovery rides)... I'm just excited when I learn to suck just a little bit less. It's a goal of every dive.

I know Jack! I dove with him a few months ago! Now there is a guy who knows diving!