Diver Storytime - Qualified Diver?

[PhatD1ver]

I spent nearly 11 years in the military, 10 on active duty and 2 in the NG. The 10 years of active duty were as an Army aviator. One reason that the US Army has the best safety record in the world for their military flight activities (eliminating aircraft that are shot down)... is that SAFETY is trained from the day you enter your Officer Basic Course or the Warrant Officer Course at Ft Rucker. There is nearly three months before you even begin flight school, where safety is pounded into your head with all the other basic military training.

After that, you start flight school, and as you progress thru flight school (in my day) you started with the TH-55 training helicopter, then moved to UH-1H (Huey's), then to the Kiowa (OH-58 A/C), and finally for me, I flew the OH-58D (before they loaded it with guns). In each of those aircraft transitions, you memorize and learn the emergency procedures. Flight instructors grill you daily on these procedures, you are always subject to a modified 'engine out' emergency in flight, and on approach, autorotations to the ground happen frequently. The point of this training is to prepare the aviators mind to always look for the factors that lead to emergencies in their environment, to know their guages and be able to react to incorrect or faults. And most of all, always know where you are going to land. Helicopters in the military rarely operate in their true flight mode more than 100 feet above the ground, and generally, are 5-10 feet above trees and obstacles. In this environment, there is ZERO tolerance in an emergency, you need to recognize and react. That's my training background.

And with that background, I've read Jim's book, and I think it's good stuff. And, to be honest, I didn't get the 'full monty' in my training that someone like Jim might offer, and I've been making up for it since. That said, with a total of 29 dives, 24 of them since February, I'm not completely helpless. But, it does bother me that I'm not what I would call a totally self-reliant diver (well, maybe I am, but let me continue)...

In flight school, I planned my flights, I knew my flight path, I selected my nav points, and I flew my flight plan with pretty much ZERO deviation (unless taking simulated fire)... in scuba 'school', I did all my required tasks, and I believe I do have those key four that Jim L hits on nailed down. I have excellent buoyancy and trim (I have to believe that four instructors on four continents over 6 months can't all be lying to me). I know how to plan a dive and my gas consumption. But I still have a little apprehension on one point.

If I'm diving from a boat, I get the dive briefing, I hear all they say, I process it, and plan from it, but standing at the gate, I'm still a little apprehensive about just jumping into someone else's pond (so to speak) that I've never been in before. Telling me there is a horseshoe shaped reef and I can follow it out to the point and back, okay, I get that.. but I'm used to knowing the hazards I'm supposed to watch for, I'm used to some kind of visual reference (called a MAP)... and in scuba, you get hardly any of that, at least in most locations.

In Thailand, one plus for my training, and maybe it was a crutch was that they had underwater topology maps, carefully detailing the terrain around each little island. You could see where the depressions and main rocks were, you could see where the lagoon on the backside of the island was (where the boat would pick you up), you could see that by swimming with the reef and island off your shoulder that you'd go against the current for about 1/3 of the way, and then pick up a small drift back to the pick up point... great stuff.

Compare that to the Philippines where I am going in two weeks. I just dived on 9 sites back at the end of June. My aviator memory is going to make them more familiar, and I won't have nearly the apprehension I did 8 weeks ago. But other than naming the site as "Cathedral" and telling me there are several large rock formations along the reef that they put crosses on, and a mini castle, whoopee, I get that, and I can wander around it poking the rocks for nudies and blue ringed octopus, and maybe I could do it without the DM on our boat... but the it's his pond, and he's been down there 100 if not 200 times a year... why wouldn't I want to follow this guy if he's guiding the dive to my plan?

And that's my point. Am I not a qualified diver because I don't know the local area well enough? How can anyone know 45-50 dive sites at a location they might visit once in a lifetime? Am I really supposed to trust a 5 minute briefing describing what is beneath me and then jump in with my buddy (wife) without any thought for what else I might find? I mean, if someone told me to go 100 m out at 80degrees from the house reef to find a sunken helicopter, I'd have no problem with the general direction of the dive, and I know I can get back to shore easily, the only factor in that dive is that the helicopter is at 30m, so I need a new buddy, because my wife isn't deep qualified, and doesn't want to go deep.

So this story today is a lot of questions and thinking that Jim started with his book (which I recommend to EVERY diver - and some instructors).. From my perspective, I'm learning to be a better diver by returning to locations I've been and seeing how the underwater world expands as I view the same dive a little differently. And then finding something a little different and a little more challenging like learning to dive a drysuit at Catalina. And call it what you want... I even think my dives at the aquarium are beneficial. It's not big, I'm not going to get lost, but I can go down to almost 16 meters, I can swim thru an old galleon mock up practicing my buoyancy, I can hover and wave at people in the walk thru, I can practice buddy habits with my wife, and I can get to know my gear, and keep my new drysuit skills sharp and hone them...

Long story short, being a good diver, like being a good pilot is going to take some time and lots of practice.

 

[TSandM]

Any time I go somewhere I haven't bee before, I am once again a bit of a beginner. I listen closely to the briefing, to find out how diving in that place is done, and I ask as many questions as I need to to make everything clear.

But I also have a conceptual framework into which to fit the dive. What's the depth profile, and how does it relate to the tank size and gas I am diving? What is the drill on diver retrieval, and am I properly equipped for it (eg. SMB).

I may very well follow a guide, especially a good critter-finder, but I will not follow him into trouble.

 

[EFX]

PhatD1ver, I appreciate your candor. With your military training you have the capacity to deal with emergencies which will help you deal with problems in your diving. You seem to be conscientious enough to prepare yourself by listening to dive briefings, do the pre-dive checklist, and dive within your training. I have yet to take a dive charter where the staff did not mention the particular local (major) hazards. A little apprehension is OK. We've all been there before. Don't let an overriding concern for caution turn to fear. Your question as to whether you are qualified must be asked for every dive. I'm sure Jim mentions psychological preparation. Are you prepared mentally to execute the dive? If you're concerned about getting lost stay within site of the anchor line. If you're nervous about a particular dive site hire a DM to lead you. Even on those charters where the DM stays on the boat you can always hire another DM to lead you. Don't push it. As you said, being a better diver takes time. Learn from your mistakes. With experience you will be that better diver.

 

[fnfalman]

You can plan all you want, but there will come a time for you to execute. Why worry about things that you can't control? That's what the training is for. To get you to plan for the dive to the best of your training and knowledge. Who cares if it's the Indian Ocean or the Atlantic Ocean or the Great Lakes or the Red Sea? If you limit yourself to your experience and training, what's the problem?

 

[DukeAMO]

It seems that learning to dive involves a lot of healthy apprehension. Most dives involve something new, especially at the beginning. (I'm at just over 40 dives and still learning a lot on every dive, so I assume the steep part of the learning curve goes to at least 100 dives.) There's that fine line between pushing your limits just a bit to gain more experience, vs. getting yourself into a situation that you're really not prepared for.

If I think back to my first ocean dive in Cozumel, it was also my first boat dive, my first true deep dive (other than the quarry for AOW), and my first drift dive. If I did the same dive today, I think it would be pretty easy. At the time, it was at the limits of what I could do. I was so excited to finally be in the ocean, but so nervous about controlling my position in the water with the current that I finned and floundered way too much. My SAC rate suffered, and I had to start heading to my safety stop after all of 12 minutes at 85 feet. I was so busy just trying to get close enough to see things without hitting the reef, that I also missed a lot of what there was to see. A similar thing happened on my first dive in significant surge; it's hard to learn how to move with the surge. And my first dive with real waves. And our first shore dives as a buddy team without anyone more experienced leading us (lake and then ocean). One good thing is that I'm learning right along with my husband, and our SAC rates match pretty well, so at least we don't feel like one person is holding the other one back.

I think we'll continue to hire our own DMs now and then, and we will always appreciate having someone in the water with us who's really familiar with the site and all of the interesting things to see there. We just don't glue ourselves to the DM now, because we got tired of getting kicked in the face by other divers.

Sometimes the best feeling is when you do a dive and you actually feel completely confident because you're not pushing any personal limits! It's really nice to go back to the same place again and feel more confident there, and see more because of it.

 

[azstinger11]

You reference it a few time but what book are you referring to when you say "Jim's, Jim L's" book? As a fellow military aviator (AD USAF), I have come up with checklists for things I can control; pre-trip gear inspection, pre-dive setup, post dive, gear reset, done with diving, CESA, buddy breathing, etc. While unlike a flight checklist I don't refer to the written document for every action, just use my memory but it helps. Before I dive, usually after I have geared up and am waiting to get in, I chair dive. Just mentally run through the dive, what I expect to see, what physical action I need to perform, any goals I have (trim, buoyancy, hold SS depth while inflating SMB, etc. every dive is a training dive imho), perhaps a couple of trouble shooting scenarios. It certainly doesn't cover the detail of a preflight brief but it doesn't need to. I also take notes on my slate from the DM brief, provided they cover it (landmarks, POIs, navigational aids, boundaries, hazards, etc). Otherwise I just try and relax and enjoy the dive. I think I have accepted that I won't always get the info that I want, all I can control is my own dive and dive skills. In Jamaica all we got was a site name, approximate depth, and total dive time. In Kauai each DM brief was 15-20 minutes with lots more information.

 

[fnfalman]

You reference it a few time but what book are you referring to when you say "Jim's, Jim L's" book? As a fellow military aviator (AD USAF), I have come up with checklists for things I can control; pre-trip gear inspection, pre-dive setup, post dive, gear reset, done with diving, CESA, buddy breathing, etc. While unlike a flight checklist I don't refer to the written document for every action, just use my memory but it helps. Before I dive, usually after I have geared up and am waiting to get in, I chair dive. Just mentally run through the dive, what I expect to see, what physical action I need to perform, any goals I have (trim, buoyancy, hold SS depth while inflating SMB, etc. every dive is a training dive imho), perhaps a couple of trouble shooting scenarios. It certainly doesn't cover the detail of a preflight brief but it doesn't need to. I also take notes on my slate from the DM brief, provided they cover it (landmarks, POIs, navigational aids, boundaries, hazards, etc). Otherwise I just try and relax and enjoy the dive. I think I have accepted that I won't always get the info that I want, all I can control is my own dive and dive skills. In Jamaica all we got was a site name, approximate depth, and total dive time. In Kauai each DM brief was 15-20 minutes with lots more information.

And this is why the Armed Forces have NCOs. Otherwise things will never get done while you officer types doing all the thinking.

 

[azstinger11]

And this is why the Armed Forces have NCOs. Otherwise things will never get done while you officer types doing all the thinking.

That checks.

 

[gfaith]

Amazon.com: SCUBA: A Practical Guide for the New Diver


I think this is the referenced book, and it is a good one.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

He is talking about my book , "SCUBA: A Practical Guide for the New Diver". It's available on Amazon in print with illustrations and an all text Kindle version. I also have a VERY LIMITED number of copies here I can sign and send for someone who wants one of those.

I wrote it in response to the lack of emphasis on safety and risk I was seeing, and continue to see, in diver training today. Especially the entry level courses where it seems to be more about get em in the water, get em done, get em out, and try to sell them more training that they should already have gotten to begin with.

Dive planning does include the psychological and, as I talk about in the book in that chapter, emotional factors as well. A diver's emotional state can and often does have a huge effect on their planning, level of acceptable risk, and execution of the dive itself.

The diver who relies on someone else to plan every aspect of their dives all the time is one of the most dangerous people in the water. Not only to themselves but to those around them. They even pose a risk to other divers not in the water with them. If one of these people has an accident as a result of not knowing what to do, trusting someone else to do it for them, or perhaps intentionally going beyond their training and experience because they have chosen not to educate themselves about the risk they have needlessly taken up resources that may be needed for someone else.

It's quite selfish really. To put all the responsibility on someone else for your safety is very selfish and worse is that you may have been trained to do that! Trained to do that by instructors that don't see the need to pass on the ability to plan a dive, execute a dive, and assist a fellow diver. Plus not be told in clear and graphic terms what kind of bad stuff can happen when a diver chooses to be a sheep.