Mentors ...

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MXGratefulDiver

Mental toss flycoon
ScubaBoard Supporter
Scuba Instructor
Messages
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Location
On the Fun Side of Trump's Wall
# of dives
2500 - 4999
Last night I was doing a presentation for one of our local dive clubs and I found out that a good friend of mine is being honored by Dive News Network as "diver of the year" at our upcoming regional scuba show. I'm happy to see this recognition, because for the 13 years that I've known him he's always done a lot for the dive community, working with local governments to keep some of our most popular dive sites open, donating time to various causes, and often paying out of his own pocket for the maintenance and repair of buoys and other gear used at local dive sites. But the thing I remember him most for happened the day we met ... when I was a very new diver.

It was my second ever boat dive ... my first after AOW class. I was buddied with a similarly-experienced friend ... I don't think either of us had even 20 dives yet at the time ... and we were headed to one of the most popular dive sites in Puget Sound ... Possession Point Ferry. The dive site is advertised as "advanced", and neither of us really understood what that meant. What we knew was we both had a card that said we were "advanced", and for the boat captain that was good enough.

We show up at the boat ... the only two people on board diving wetsuits and rental gear. Most of the folks on board, while sociable enough, kept well clear of us. But this fellow came over and started an amiable conversation. He was clearly enthused about going out and doing this dive ... and more than willing to tell us all about it. As we approached the dive site, pulling into our wetsuits, he asked us if we'd like him to show us around the site ... "I know where all the good stuff is". Are you kidding me? Of course we would! This guy's spent his whole life as a diver, doing thousands of dives as first a military then a commercial diver, and he's asking a couple barely wet behind the ears newbs if we'd like a tour? Lead the way, dude! He looks at this little SL4 dive light my buddy's carrying, and noticed I didn't even have that much, reaches into his bag and pulls out this big-ass eight-cell primary light and hands it to me ... "you're going to want one of these", he says. And with all the enthusiasm of a kid on Christmas Day, off the swim step we go ... 70 feet down to one of the premier wreck dives in our area.

Back in those days I was a human shop-vac ... my dive buddies used to tease me they could see the sides of my tank move when I inhaled ... and so 20 minutes into the dive I'm giving the thumbs-up, indicating that I'm down to the agreed-to pressure. At the surface, I was embarrassed when I noticed that his gauge still read over 2000 psi. He was all enthused about the dive, and what he'd shown us, and I was thinking we probably wrecked this fellow's dive day with such a short dive. I'm changing tanks without saying much, thinking he'll dump us for the second dive. But as the boat sidled over to a place called "The Fingers", he comes up and starts briefing us about the dive site ... just assuming that he'll show us around again ... and seeming just as enthused about it as he had on the previous dive. Off we go on another incredible dive, and once again after what I'd today consider half a dive, I'm giving the ascend signal. Up we come, back on the boat, and this fellow's still all smiles and enthusiasm.

It stuck with me. I've done probably a hundred dives with him since then, took an advanced nitrox/deco class from him years later, helped him with some of his projects over the years, learned a lot about moving heavy objects around underwater, and maintained a friendship that I value to this day. But it's that first dive that always comes to mind when his name comes up.

We see a lot of talk on ScubaBoard about training ... usually it's less than complimentary about how inadequate it is. So I'd like to use this thread to share some stories about the other side of training ... your experiences with mentors who showed you things you may have not even heard about in class, and helped you learn and hone skills that the class only mentioned or introduced you to. And taught you valuable lessons about how to think about diving. In many ways, mentoring is as important to our development as a diver as a formal class ... in some ways more so, because there are no agency constraints or criteria. I've been lucky over the years to have had a few mentors who impacted my diving in ways that classes never did ... and I'll talk about another one of those at some point. But first I'd like to hear some of your stories.

Who were your mentors? How did they impact your diving? And what did you learn from them? One thing I learned from this first mentor that always stayed with me is that the priority in diving isn't about how good you are, how many dives you do, how many cert cards you own, or what equipment you use ... the priority is to have fun. It's something that I try to instill in new divers, because it's so easy for them to put pressure on themselves, to obsess over gear, or their lack of skills, or their fear of "ruining your good time". And remembering this fellow ... who could have probably had a much better dive without the burden of a couple of newbies ... coming up with a huge grin on his face after those two dives has helped me always keep in perspective why I got into diving in the first place.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
 
Uncle Pug?

I still dive with a fellow named Pete who moves with little effort, and in great trim when he dives, and hardly breathes either. A great guide over some of the local wrecks up in Tobermory. Earlier on, before I knew much about trim, I thought "I want to dive like that!", and learned by watching and emulating.
 
Uncle Pug's another mentor, and the other story I'll tell ... would like to hear from some other folks first ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
 
My biggest influence in diving has been Jimw and DiveDivaDM. When I was in dire need of a dive buddy at BHB, they invited me to go with them. I had no idea what a troll was. They stuck me with the flag, which really was for my benefit. They were (and still are) very patient. Diving with them taught me to slow down, which in turn quickly decreased my air consumption. My buoyancy has improved. I've even called them my scuba parents :). They've even known where I was going to dive and gone to the site to see how it was. It's been a tremendous pleasure meeting and diving with them. They love to tease me that they are diving while I'm stuck at work. They've also introduced me to some other divers that I really enjoy diving with, such as DJTimmy. Tim has a tremendous eye for spotting things and I appreciate his patience with trying to show me what he sees. As a group, I can't say enough good things about these 3 divers which I consider friends.

Chris
 
Excellent start, Bob. As someone who has searched for mentors but not been able to dive enough to commit to the relationship, I really appreciate SB as my "virtual" mentor. I read a lot on here, especially from the helpful folks such as yourself, Lynne, Dan, Diver0001, BoulderJohn, and a few others, and learn as much as I can then try to put it into practice. I've had a lot of comments from my instabuddies that imply my efforts have been paying off in dive performance. I'll keep looking for real life mentors but I'll never quit SB while I'm still "actively" diving.

Whenever I go out, I'm still generally the newb but I'm always enthusiastic and people can tell. Hopefully that sticks with me even if I get to a thousand or more dives some day.
 
When I was a brand new diver, I connected briefly with a very nice woman who was kind enough to go out diving with a newbie. She was the person who turned me on to spring straps, and to ScubaBoard. When I got here, I read everything I could get my hands on, and at that time, there was a pretty active group on what was then the Orca Bait subforum for the PNW. One day, I saw an ad for a "Big Buddy" dive, designed to pair novices with experienced buddies just to get out and do some diving and maybe pick up some tips. I signed up with alacrity and enthusiasm.

When I showed up for the dive, I discovered the guy who had organized the event had read my journal of my open water class, and found it hysterical. He had decided he needed to meet the woman who had written it, so he signed himself up as my buddy. We talked over the proposed dive, got in the water, and I promptly executed my trademark descent, by venting all the air out of my BC and falling on my back until I hit the bottom, and then rolling over to go diving. The dive was my usual dive, marked by a total inability to stop, a fair amount of buoyancy yo-yoing, and a silt trail you could backtrack to the shoreline. On the other hand, I looked at my buddy, who was horizontal, seemed to manage to dive without using his hands, didn't disturb the bottom, and had the absolute COOLEST light . . . Then and there, I said, "Whatever this guy has, I want it.". And he said, at the end of the dive, "Well, we have some work to do!"

To my amazement (which persists to this day) this generous gentleman took me under his wing as a project, and set about teaching me to dive and to love the animals we dove among. He eventually sent me off to take Fundies, where HE had gotten those skills, and the rest is history.

Thank you, as always, NW Grateful Diver, for making a diver of me. I strongly suspect I would not be active in this sport today, had that not happened.
 
I have been blessed to have & have had wonderful mentors. No, they were not "well knowns" here, or anywhere, for that fact. Most were former students of my current instructor & my instructor himself. I made myself a fixture around the shop & have not only learned a lot about different types of diving, but I have learned a lot of the "ins" & "outs" of the industry & equipment repair skills along the way, over the years. Now several years later it is now my turn to mentor those coming up. I thoroughly enjoy it! Watching them grow & become more skilled & experienced. The one part of mentoring that is the rain on the parade, are those that put it down because of the risk. Yes, there is some risk, but there is risk in anything you do. Let's face it,... anyone can sue anybody for anything..... At this point, the enjoyment is worth the risk. Anyone skilled in their trade or recreation or whatever, that freely helps another to advance, earns my profound respect.
 
Some of my mentors are people I've never met in person. I think as a diving instructor that my biggest influences have been from people I know online. I won't name them all for fear of forgetting someone, but suffice it to say that I wouldn't be *nearly* the instructor I am without the help of a number of dedicated people who have shared with me over the years what works and what doesn't work.

In another sense, I owe a debt of gratitude to a number of local divers who introduced me to the hogarthian way. I won't say DIR but a couple of them were, in fact, active in the local DIR community (I was not). I think that if I could find a good DIR mentor (and I know what Lynne is going to say here...) that I could plateau again. For various reasons I haven't gotten around to it. It makes me wish (hard) that I lived in Vancouver again so I could dive with people like Lynne and Peter on a regular basis and challenge myself on some levels more while having a LOT of fun in the process.

Finally, I think my biggest influence in diving to date have been some of my own students and early buddies. One, in particular, became my tek instructor but many have impressed me with their attitude and more than anything, their contagious enthusiasm keeps me feeling motivated. You don't have to be the most experienced diver to be having the most fun. :D I hope in my own way that I'm able to give some of that back and to motivate them in return.

R..
 
I started school at the University of Florida in 1979. I regularly dove Ginnie Springs, and met Wes Skiles there. There really was no cave certification then, but he took me under his wing. We did many caves - Devils Eye and Peacock Slough were my favorites - close enough to reach from Gainesville on a student budget. We practiced gas management & rules of thirds before it was a rule. He showed me how to keep from silting everything up, run a line, convinced me to have back up lights. Every so often, he scared the pants off me - a good thing to keep you honest in the caves. I remember my heart in my throat when he pulled off his tanks to push them ahead in a tight spot. I saw a pale hand reach back thru & wave me on in!

He made me a better, more thoughtful diver, and it was a lot of fun!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Mentors Bob simply awesome thread!
Like so many others out there you learn to dive from an instructor but the lucky few of us who are drawn into the dive life encounter mentors.

From the first moment I met MSDT Mark I knew that we were kindred spirits.
His passion for diving and his training philosophy was infectious.
Soon he imparted the passion and our journey began from OW-AOW-Rescue- DMC then into the Tech realm.
From early on the emphasis on self reliance, skill mastery, and the frequent training to prevent complacency.
When we were cave diving together last week I looked over and just smiled never had I enjoyed any dives anymore or spending time with a remarkable person.

Dale Musser of Sea Level Scuba was my first Tech instructor and I took a considerable amount of time selecting him.
As we spoke on several occasions it became obvious that the passion for diving and training was familiar to me.
Dale taught me far more than skills his passion for the wrecks of the Great Lakes made our check out dives incredible.
Adv. Nitrox / Deco. from Dale was incredible and a turning point for my dive goals.

Tom Johnson of DAYO Scuba started the Cave diving off with Cavern and Intro it was a intense training that opened a whole new world to me.
The level of awareness, skill mastery, and training was incredible I was lost to it!
What started as a desire to be a better wreck diver took a new direction into diving working my way to Cave / Full Cave diver.
I took my time gaining experience diving at the Intro level learning and training.

I took my Cave / Full coarse with Tim Stahl of REC to TEC and the wisdom of taking the time to grow into an aware Tech diver.
It is very easy to understand that out of great training great divers are made but Tim took it to another level guiding shaping us into competent, independent, dive planners who could plan, execute, enjoy cave dives.
Lessons for life that have made every dive there after better and brought me to where I am today.

Has there been others? Many many more.
GUE, DIR, INTD, studied their philosophies learned so very much.
MSDT Mark encouraged us all to be students of diving open to learn new things, training hard mastering skills, keeping the passion of diving alive and fresh.
In my travels north and south I meet friends from all over.
I am in a community of great and wondrous diversity we are all divers from coast to coast north to south.
THANKS TO ALL WHO HAVE TAKEN THE TIME TO TALK, TRAIN, DIVE, to you all I am very grateful.

CamG
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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