What have you learned in the last year, regardless of how long you have been diving?

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

So there are all these catch phrases out there, a good diving is a thinking diver, a good diver is a learning diver, a good diver never stops improving, yada yada yada. And that got me thinking and wondering what others both new to diving as well as the old crusty salts might be learning.

So how long have you been diving and what have you learned or improved upon in the last year?

 

[Doc]

I have learned that wetsuits shrink when hung in the basement in the dark.

{After 17 years of being a UW/Nikonos/Ektachrome photographer I quit in 1982.}

I learned that after 25 years of not diving wih a camera, after picking up a simple point-and-shoot Olympus, my entire diving style and process automaticaly changed... for the worse.

I learned that any diver who wears gloves in the warmest waters of the oceans has a ready reason for doing so, always capped off with "I never touch anything".

The same applies to divers (notably photographers) that use "muck sticks". They fall into the same category as glove wearers above.

I have learned that with the availability, low cost and ease of using digital gear, that besides every newbie wanting to drag one along on their first dive, after-dive chats have disappeared. No longer do we sit at the bar talking about what was good and what went bad on a dive. We are no longer doing post dive debriefs and bettering our skills... instead~ we sit and stare at laptop screens and look at the digital images captured from lifetime logged dive #4.

I learned that divers will buy mask defog for $15 a bottle even though toothpaste before every dive works 100%.

I learned that Titanium, the word or the addition of the metal itself to my dive gear, will make me a better diver.

I have seen an increase in the number of people who want a vacation with some diving, versus simply a dive vacation. I have seen a downturn in the "lets get diving" mentality of aging divers.

And yes, from the week-in-paradise perspective, I have noticed that the diving audience is getting older and more in search of creature comforts.

 

[divad]

I learned, in Lake Jocassee last may, that you really don't know what you don't know.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

About this time last year I was just starting my technical training ... with an Advanced Nitrox/Deco class. I've since also taken Trimix classes. I've learned quite a lot, actually ...

- more decompression theory than I thought I would ever need to know ... and the realization that it's still not enough

- that buoyancy control is a relative term, and the more gear you pile on yourself the more important good technique becomes for even the simple things

- that there is such a thing as "darker than dark"

- that helium really does make you talk funny

- that the deeper you go, the more important it is to have someone beside you that you can truly rely on

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

I learned, in Lake Jocassee last may, that you really don't know what you don't know.

Hey Jocassee is my home diving grounds!!

So what did you learn that you didn't know what you didn't know and since you didn't know it, how did you know that you didn't know or come to the conclusion that you didn't know it, since of course you didn't know? I really want to know! You know?

 

[divad]

Hey Jocassee is my home diving grounds!

That's why I mentioned it. I'm going to post the incident (if it can be called that) in "lessons learned." It involves my first free assent, solo with AL30 pony, on my fourth drysuit dive,from 110' in DARK water. I had a brief freak attack but sorted it out.
It got my attention though.

 

[jakeeib]

I learned that my dive buddy (wife) doesnt like walls. On our first salt water dive in Curacao we took a nice shore dive out to the reef and at 35 feet it drops off on a nice wall down to about 90 feet. we got out over the edge and she didnt care for that. Never seen anyone "run" in the water with out touching the reef. I never laughed so hard almost lost my reg. Once I got her calmned down she was fine and we had a great vaction.
Also its hard to tell the differance from a shark and a dolphin at 70 feet, even harder trying to tell your buddy its only a dolphin.

 

[divad]

OK. heres what I (re)learned: that diving is the obverse of climbing in that when climbing without a rope, going up is relatively easy. It's getting back down that's the trick.

 

[Netsloth]

I learned that fitness matters.

I lost over a hundred lbs last year, and while I feel much better, I still have some room for improvement. I'm down to 250 from over 360, and I want to get to 200.

So now I'm wogging in the evenings, drinking only water, and keeping my eye set squarely on my goal, which is to get fit and experienced enough to dive wrecks.

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

evad, I will look forward to reading that. Jocassee can change very quickly. I have been out there and it was bright and sunny and then a strom rolls over the mountains and the water goes a little darker than I would like and then 30 minutes later it is like nothing happened at all.

I guess the big thing for me is proper trim and buoyancy control--I know I really really need a lot of work in that area. I want to be able to hover at will for long periods of time.