Advice please: Newer Diver Diving with More Experienced, GUE-Trained Divers

[dsteding]

Greetings all,

I am a newer diver (20 or so dives, 14 in a dry suit) that is fortunate enough to have teamed up with some really great DIR trained dive buddies. For me, diving with these people has been an eye opener.

My training plans are to do AOW with Grateful Diver (next week, his class sounds both challenging and useful) and then do Essentials and/or Fundies in the next six months or so. I'm probably up to logging about 10 dives a month-I wish it were more, but I got to pay the bills. I am focussing now on getting bottom time, working on trim and buoyancy, and developing a stable platform from which to build skills.

My dive buddies are an awesome support network for this. For instance, tomorrow I have two dives in the afternoon with TSandM, and I always learn something from Lynne when we dive. Grateful Diver is another awesome mentor, and I learn much from him every time we dive as well. This weekend I managed to get paired up with another DIR diver for a charter up in the San Juans.

As I said, I am fortunate.

However, I got to thinking that it may be appropriate to ask all of you what you would want from a newer diver when you dive with them? I'm specifically asking this because I am diving with a new DIR diver that I've only met in the parking lot before. I have been frank about my experience with him, he seems willing to work within my skill level, but at the same time I'm interested in working with him so we can have a good time on Sunday (and I am one of those freaks that thinks skill dives constitute a good time).

I know some mention that the great thing about Fundies is to learn good muscle memory and develop good habits, I'll get to that as soon as I can, but in the meantime it seems to me that I need to work on being a safe buddy that can be a sufficient resource to my dive partners so that if the crap does hit the fan, we can work together to get out of that situation safely. I don't want to develop a mindset where it is them leading me, but us working together as a team, and I feel like I am getting to the point in my diving (i.e., past struggling with my buoyancy and the newness of a drysuit) where developing this awareness should become my primary task (which I don't see changing even as I gain more experience, this seems like a constant project to work on).

Undoubtedly, by the time Grateful Diver gets done with me in a couple weeks, I'll have greatly enlarged my skill set. But, in addition to that, I'm hoping to start a brainstorm here. I've been lurking a bit for a while, but haven't seen anything like this from a DIR perspective. Any thoughts, pointers, comments, rants, or stories about personal experiences with someone like me would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

-Doug

[TSandM]

You are walking a path I've already trod, and we've talked about some of this, but I'll share a couple more things. It's been my experience that the more "senior" DIR divers I've been fortunate enough to dive with have been enormously patient. Attitude is more important than skill -- skill will come, if the attitude is good.

The one big lesson I learned, which I don't think you have to, was to be entirely up front with my teammates about my abilities and limitations. The only time I got into trouble was from trying to be a "good marine" and tackle more than I was capable of doing. Even then (and I was entirely culpable), my teammate and my instructor were entirely kind when they could very justifiably have chewed me up one side and down the other.

Be honest and frank, stay where you can be seen, and refrain from shining your light in anybody's eyes, and the rest will go just fine.

[dsteding]

You are walking a path I've already trod . . . Attitude is more important than skill -- skill will come, if the attitude is good.

Why Lynne, this is very Obi Wan Kenobi of you (or is it the Queen of the Borgs)

Be honest and frank, stay where you can be seen, and refrain from shining your light in anybody's eyes, and the rest will go just fine.

A good lesson taught to me early (well, at least the honest and frank part, I think I zapped poor Bob pretty bad the first time I went on a dive with him-at least it was his 10w HID instead of the Salvo).

Learning that it is okay to be honest and frank--indeed the fact that the DIR philosophy encourages this--is one of the most comforting lessons I've learned so far. We all are afraid of what our peers will think of us, and I think that leads to situations where we end up pushing ourselves too far. This could only have minor consequences in some activities, but in diving it can have serious ones very fast. The fact that such an honest and frank attitude is not only accepted but encouraged says a lot about the DIR approach to diving, at least it did for me.

-Doug

BTW, for anyone that hasn't had a chance to dive with her, Lynne is a great ambassador when it comes to DIR. She's been super patient and helpful with me, and I'd like to think we've both had a good time diving together.

[onfloat]

I would say you are on the right path and are in good hands. Be like a sponge absorb all you can. If you don't understand something ask questions. Don't be afraid to let them know what you don't know.

[BarryNL]

However, I got to thinking that it may be appropriate to ask all of you what you would want from a newer diver when you dive with them? I'm specifically asking this because I am diving with a new DIR diver that I've only met in the parking lot before.

Clearly not proper DIR divers because DIR divers don't dive with strokes

Seriously, I'm doing some diving now with highly skilled tec divers (both DIR and non-DIR) and I've found the most important thing is simply to be honest about my skills and not try to do stuff outside my comfort zone just to try and avoid appearing inexperienced.