The Magic 20!

[NickR]

Hello everybody

After hanging around and reading the excellent advice on this board I thought I was about time I had something to share. I did my 19th and 20th dives today, and I must say that they were both awesome! The sites themselves were great (I always enjoy diving off the Perth coast) but I found that my skills are noticeably improved over my previous dives.

I am finding it easier to control my buoyancy at depth and I am using less air. But the best improvement of all was being able to hold my 3m safety stop without hanging onto the line. I think one of the reasons for the improved buoyancy was because 4 dives ago I dropped 4lbs of weight, so I’ve been getting used that.

Where to from here? Well I would like to try some better kicks, and sort out my trim, I seem to be able to hold a nice position while swimming, but on the stop I found it easier to maintain 3m if I was vertical in the water, rather than horizontal (which I understand to be better). I’ll just have to keep diving, and keep practicing.

I had heard that it can take 20 dives to get to a reasonable level of comfort, well that seems to be true for me.

Cheers
Nick

 

[Uncle Pug]

Now for the next 20 and the next 20 and the....

 

[chepar]

I still remember the first dive that I did where I actually experienced neutral buoyancy. It was thrilling - I recall being able to hover- motionless - and thinking to myself how awesome that moment was.

It's a particular kind of thrill that I still feel at times - when I actually think about it during a dive now. Most of it is almost second nature now - the automatic adjustments you make as you descend and near the bottom - but sometimes I'll catch myself and the wonder of it is always great - when the conditions are right, it feels like flying sometimes.

Improve and refine your skills, but don't lose the wonder and excitement of what it felt like when you first started.

 

[Lane Zimmer]

Nick,

Congrats on the dives!

Your skills and techniques will only get better.

Just a few suggestions you might want to work on for the future:

Try moving weight around your system to tweak your trim. A good horizontal position makes you a faster, slicker diver while consering your air!

Moving weight around will also help you on your deco stops. Horizontal is definitely the best way to deco, especially in heavy current. Once you start doing more dives, the horizontal ascent will also become seamless with the rest of the dive.

Try learning the frog kick, backwards kick and helicopter turn. It will amaze you with what you can do with those 3 kicks that most new divers can't.

Just a few things that WILL make you a better diver.

Cheers!

 

[clearwtr]

Good show! Improvement and fine tuning now will become more fun.

 

[NickR]

Thanks for all the encouragement. I’ll be practicing those kicks at each opportunity. In my experience so far they seem a bit tricky, but I guess practice makes perfect. I don’t have anybody to mentor me so it’s a case of watching those cool videos and trying my best.

Take it easy.
Nick