is diving Stressful?? Esp Tech

I have a :stupid: Qn to ask :embarr: and hope you guys will share your thoughts with me

I'm a recreational diver. Recreation diving is not stressful, at least to me BUT I always have this thought that technical diving is a very stressful thing. Because of the nature of tech diving, diver got to bring tanks, mixed gases, plan deco stop at certain depth and using different % of gases at another etc. Any mistake they make can lead to string of problem.

IF tech diving is sooo serious, why is it so many people are fasinated by it and why so many work toward tech diving

Diving shouldn't be stressful. For the sake of safety, you have to always make sure that you don't allow the cycle of stress to start otherwise it could lead to panic. The key is to build up your skills and experience so that your comfortable and familiar with what your doing in the dive. This goes a long ways towards making complicated tasks seeming like not that big of a deal. If you find yourself stressed then your outside of your comfort zone and diving beyond your abilities. Not a good place to be.

Stress and panic our an equal opportunity monster and really doesn't care if your a rec diver or a tech diver.

So called 'tech' diving is not a means to an end in itself, nor should it be seen that way - it is simply a means to enable you to dive on the wreck/cave/reef that would otherwise be inaccessible - that is all.
There are risks involved, you can minimise, but never eliminate them, 'stress' isn't a word I would use in the context of diving.

F

I only have stress problems if I'm pushing my personal envelope more than I should.

Yes, there is stress if things go wrong, but I've prepared for things going wrong so I wouldn't consider it a problem.

The main reason I do technical diving is the extra bottom time going into staged decompression gives me. So far, the depth has been secondary.

While the planning for a 30 foot reef dive is considerably simpler, screwing it up can get you just as dead as getting lost inside a cave or wreck.

animian2002 once bubbled...
I have a :stupid: Qn to ask :embarr: and hope you guys will share your thoughts with me

I'm a recreational diver. Recreation diving is not stressful, at least to me BUT I always have this thought that technical diving is a very stressful thing. Because of the nature of tech diving, diver got to bring tanks, mixed gases, plan deco stop at certain depth and using different % of gases at another etc. Any mistake they make can lead to string of problem.

IF tech diving is sooo serious, why is it so many people are fasinated by it and why so many work toward tech diving

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The best way I can equate it is learning to drive. When you first got your license, you thought of driving in heavy, speeding city traffic was a little intimidating. As your experience builds, heavy traffic, bad weather, night, etc. didnt make much difference to you.

Its kind of the same thing with diving. First few dives as a recreational diver are a little stressful. Then comfort level kicks in with experience and some people are ready to progress to more challenging dives (tech). I know some divers who think nothing of jumping off a boat to dive a wreck sitting in 300' of water. I know others that are nervous diving below 30'.

I think it's all a matter of experience, and perspsective.

In tech diving, if you have the time to enjoy the fishes and/or the scenery during the dive, then you are having fun and there will be low stress.

If something goes wrong, and a diver chooses a calm and sound solution, then stress may be hightened a little, but all in all things remain calm.

I manage stress on all dives in advance by carefully screening the divers I dive with. With the right buddies, any dive should be relaxing. If a dive plan sounds too aggressive to me, then I will simply volunteer to be one of the safety divers, and lend support. Aggressive dive plans tend to loosen up on subsequent attempts, when someone else can then be one of the safety divers.

I feel all of the above pertains to rec diving as well. Especially the part about having fun. If you are not having fun, then something is probably wrong, and you probably should not be diving. It may be a buddy problem, or a surge problem, or something else. You do not need technical issues to make an ordinary dive go bad.

For me, rec-diving is about anti-stress.

Tech-diving is about anti-stress too. It's just for longer stretches at a time.

Tech diving does require much more preparation and planning than rec diving and during the dive, you have more tasks that need to be accomplished in the correct order at the correct times and depths.

Consentrating on those tasks, keepeng an eye on my buddy and on what's happening around me allows me to completely forget about anything outside of the dive. I don't think about problems at work or anything else. I'm just there, "immersed" in the moment and enjoying every second of it.

I figure that if I'm working too hard or there's even a hint of stress, I must be doing something wrong or maybe I didn't plan the dive properly. At that point it's stop, breath, figure out what isn't right and then fix it or call the dive. Again, minimal stress.

The exception is when I'm DMing. That's work. Still fun, but work none the less. It CAN sometimes be stressfull keeping watch over new and often very nervous divers. I do my best to LOOK absolutely calm, relaxed and in control at all times (especialy if I DON'T feel that way for any reason) around students. I believe this helps them relax which in turn feeds back and makes my job easier so I can loosen up a bit (just not too much ).

The best thing is to get the stress to happen in training. This is normal and natural and is why we train with good instructors.

With good training and practice the diving and handling of anomolous situations becomes much like driving around a pothole. You just do it and go on.

When I am working I sometimes have stress related to the job but rarely due to the dive.

In rec diving (also tech for rec purpose) I take stress as a sign of something being not right and will usually call the dive.

Stress in training is a good thing, it means that I am learning to handle more and bigger problems so that in a real dive they will just be things to deal with.

During a dive is the ONLY time I can completely remove my mind from daily concerns and relax. This is true for rec AND tech, and for me, DMing as well.

If comfortable with the basic skills, you can relax and focus on RELAXED breathing, relaxed and efficient finning, being aware of the environment (includes fish, hazards, buddy, surveying students, dive booty in the silt, etc.). In tech you are also maintaining a relaxed focus on gas consumption, deco stops, picking up stages and making gas switches.

Whenever you are not relaxed. . . you're not doin' it right. Take a relaxed breath, slow down your thinking, then proceed.

Dive safe and have fun,

theskull

I do agreed with you guys that diving is not meant to be stressful esp if diving with buddies whom you can trust and are competent

As one build up their experience, comfort level will kick in to the extend that it become natural and it don't take much effort to perform the tasks. But from a recreational diver point of view, tech diving is very so alien to me even though I'm attracted to it. I enjoy reading abt tech diving, but the additional tasks at this moment seem sooo stressful to me

Well, I guess I'm simply not ready to take on tech diving

Anyway, thanks for your contribution, guess I have to continue clocking enough experience and comfort level before I plan for more advance kind of diving