Arnaud
Contributor
I love diving. I always want to learn more and improve my skills. Scubaboard helps a lot, not necessarily in affording the kind of detailed knowledge that you'd find in a book, but in raising issues or asking the questions that makes you want to research a subject matter more.
Besides, I've never subscribed to the remove-the-cover-place-tray-in-microwave-heat-up-and-eat-it philosophy. Anyone who will make a sound argument to question a belief is welcome as far as I am concerned. Whether I choose to agree or not is virtually irrelevant. What matters is gathering and weighing in all the elements to form an opinion and reach a conclusion. And if new elements are found along the road, or just as time goes by, the opinion will have to be reconsidered again. Methodical doubt is good!
However, improving knowledge and skills does not happen over night. As unfortunate as this may be, most of us have to work to make a living. We also have to spend time with our family. So reading, practicing and taking courses are all part of a very long and winding road. In the DIR-F book, one of the great advices that JJ gives is that furthering your instruction is a good thing, but it's also important to balance that attitude with a lot of personal diving (i.e., not as a student or an instructor). That takes time, too. All my Saturdays and one Sunday in the month are dedicated to diving. That's all the time that I have.
So at this point, I am, for lack of a better word, a recreational diver. The next instructional steps for me are DM and taking a DIR-F course in the fall. As a recreational diver, and a happy one, I use a computer and know how to use the tables (actually using the table is a completely different issue). Should I do things differently? Maybe. I like some of the arguments that I have read. But right now, I don't know any better because I have not been trained for anything else.
I do have a few personal rules. I avoid going deeper than 65 fsw. I usually never dive more than 3 tanks a day, with at least a 90 minute SI. If I dive a fourth tank, it'll be reserved for a very shallow and quiet night dive. I'll use EAN32 whenever available. And since I'm mostly diving the So Cal reefs, my dive profiles are sort of V shaped. I'll sink to my max depth and will start a long and very slow ascent along the reef, enjoying the great marine life we're privileged to have in this part of the world. I'm always back on the boat with at least 750psi and have never come remotely close to the NDL shown by the computer. I know there is nothing impressive in what I do, but impressing the crowd is not my goal here. I also know that some of you would find this kind of diving very boring. I don't. And until I acquire the knowledge and gain more experience, how could I possibly do things differently?
Besides, I've never subscribed to the remove-the-cover-place-tray-in-microwave-heat-up-and-eat-it philosophy. Anyone who will make a sound argument to question a belief is welcome as far as I am concerned. Whether I choose to agree or not is virtually irrelevant. What matters is gathering and weighing in all the elements to form an opinion and reach a conclusion. And if new elements are found along the road, or just as time goes by, the opinion will have to be reconsidered again. Methodical doubt is good!
However, improving knowledge and skills does not happen over night. As unfortunate as this may be, most of us have to work to make a living. We also have to spend time with our family. So reading, practicing and taking courses are all part of a very long and winding road. In the DIR-F book, one of the great advices that JJ gives is that furthering your instruction is a good thing, but it's also important to balance that attitude with a lot of personal diving (i.e., not as a student or an instructor). That takes time, too. All my Saturdays and one Sunday in the month are dedicated to diving. That's all the time that I have.
So at this point, I am, for lack of a better word, a recreational diver. The next instructional steps for me are DM and taking a DIR-F course in the fall. As a recreational diver, and a happy one, I use a computer and know how to use the tables (actually using the table is a completely different issue). Should I do things differently? Maybe. I like some of the arguments that I have read. But right now, I don't know any better because I have not been trained for anything else.
I do have a few personal rules. I avoid going deeper than 65 fsw. I usually never dive more than 3 tanks a day, with at least a 90 minute SI. If I dive a fourth tank, it'll be reserved for a very shallow and quiet night dive. I'll use EAN32 whenever available. And since I'm mostly diving the So Cal reefs, my dive profiles are sort of V shaped. I'll sink to my max depth and will start a long and very slow ascent along the reef, enjoying the great marine life we're privileged to have in this part of the world. I'm always back on the boat with at least 750psi and have never come remotely close to the NDL shown by the computer. I know there is nothing impressive in what I do, but impressing the crowd is not my goal here. I also know that some of you would find this kind of diving very boring. I don't. And until I acquire the knowledge and gain more experience, how could I possibly do things differently?
