A little piece on self-assessment

An except from a book I am working on...


Self-Assessment: an antidote to complacency? | Doppler's Tech Diving Blog

Nice article.
A self-assessment question I ask of myself ( ): Would my buddy be happy to dive with me today?
If I answer No then the dive doesn't happen.

I don't dive solo but I think the question then would be: Is there anything about today that feels wrong?

Good read. Thanks, Steve.

As it happens, I was just reviewing chapter 7 of your Six Skills for my current divemaster course.

My own pre-dive checklists (and log pages) have always included a "go/no-go" line, encapsulating self-assessment, buddy assessment, and risk assessment. Maybe I need to expand that item . . .

-Bryan

Agreed at self assessment on so many levels... the more honest the better...


on a side note i recent acquired and started reading six skills as well... good stuff

In addition to doing this at the last moment before a dive, I also try to ask myself some questions every couple of weeks or so . . . are there any skills I haven't practiced lately that ought to be reviewed? Are there any places where I'm letting myself get sloppy because it's easier? Have there been any moments in the last few dives that didn't make me happy, and is there anything I need to do to avoid them (whether that's taking myself in hand, or my dive buddy ).

Doppler, might I ask who the intended audience is? It's a good article but something stood out to me, as a tech layman.

Giving an example of re-breather diluent as a "simple" thing divers might miss completely, through complacency, escapes me. First of all, I've only seen one re-breather in my life. Second, I have no idea what a diluent is or why a "positive/negative" check after a refill would even be considered, much less important. (I suspect you mean for weighting purposes--am I right?)

If you're going for novice divers or newbie tech divers as your audience, maybe consider a more pleeb-like example of something simple one might overlook through complacency.

Also, you spell defense like a Brit (defence), which isn't a problem, just something I noticed.

EDIT: Disregard the Defence portion... I didn't realize you were in Canada. For some reason I was thinking you were in California. Canada spells things like Brits as much as they do like us "Mericans" so it makes more sense now.

fjpatrum:

Doppler, might I ask who the intended audience is?

Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback... intended audience for the new book that the piece is excerpted from is advanced divers... people who are taking or who are thinking about taking an intro-to-tech class or something equivalent... and your suggestion is a great one.

By the way, positive/negative check has to do with the integrity of the rebreather's loop to make sure it does not leak gas out or water in. Taking one of the bottles off effectively breaks the loop... a bit pedantic of me to use it as an example.

I spell like a Brit because I grew up in the UK but am Canadian... good catch.

Great article.