Written Checklist vs. Avoiding Shortcuts & Mistakes from Memory/Rushing

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FredinPH

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I am certainly new to diving and am studying the OW eLearning Course from PADI. I am finding it all very interesting and a real learning experience. Where I live there is more to enjoy underwater than most places in the world.

One thing I find interesting reading posts here and information gleaned from other web sites is I have not seen the mention of a written "Check List". It is far to easy to become lax and/or rushed and miss something that might be the one thing that sets a chain of events into motion that leads to injury or death. I was a military pilot and used check lists for Pre Flight, Take Off, Landing and Post Flight and I assure you that though many of my peers would often want to rely on memory to go through the check list I always insisted in going by the book. It was more than just a walk around, kick the tires and light the fires. There is no such thing as an "Old Bold Pilot" was drilled into me by a very competent Instructor in the beginning of my career. It usually is not just one thing that results in an aviation incident or accident.

There are threads here talking about the subject and searching Google found that PADI provided a written Checklist for Rebreathers for Technical Divers and find information on BWARF. I have not found a written checklist that could be used by a diver prior to every dive.
Am I missing something?
 
I have a written check list on my phone for predive trip preparation.

Some divers have a short saying of some sort that is in essence a check list.

A check list would undoubtedly have saved a few lives or bad experiences. But the rec dive culture (I cannot speak for Tech) is such that most folks would not want to be seen going over a written check list.

Probably need to personalize it.
 
I know it's a little biased but I think GUE nailed it with GUE EDGE which is

Goal of the dive (what's the point of the dive)

Unified team (aka buddy's and who's leading the dive or laying line)

Equipment match (non-GUE go over where Octo regulator is and deployment plus bcd releases and emergency equipment such as smbs, spools and knives as well as checking inflators, regulators and valves)

Exposure (max depth and time)

Deco strategies (no deco for 95%of people)

Gas strategies (min gas pressure, turn pressure, all usable ect ect as well as check to make sure valves are on)

Environmental issues (strong current possible or known entanglements on wreck ect)

EDIT
On the back of my wet notes I have a laminated sheet with
GUE EDGE as
Goal
Unified
Equipment match

Exposure
Deco
Gas
Environment

Equipment:
Mask/hood
Valve check
Purge/breath primary regulator
Purge breath secondary
Inflate wing/deflate
Dry suit inflate deflate
Light check/ cord tuck
Release/cutting device/weight belt
Right pocket continence (whatever I am carrying
Left pocket continence (whatever I'm carrying again
Fins
DIVE TIME!

This should take about 5 minutes to do everything from top to bottom and hits the dive briefing as well as an equipment check



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
The reason checklists are not used for every dive, I would argue, are twofold: firstly, the detailed list of equipments carried on a given dive depend greatly on conditions and diver preference, secondly, the broad guide rules applicable to every dive are easy enough to remember, so that there is no need to have them written down.

I agree with you that a certain attention to detail is warranted no matter how simple the dive, and that adherence to a certain "ritual" may prevent accidents. But my observation is that most accidents, specially those not involving rebreathers, that occur due to problems that could have been detected before the dive were let happen not because the safety check procedure was too complex to be remembered without the support of a written checklist, but because of carelessness or excess confidence. A checklist only helps if it's intended user is willing to spend some time going through checks.
 
You will see check lists more often where ready access to the surface is not a possibility and the stakes are higher. That said people can and do jump in with their air turned off, BCs not connected to the low pressure inflator or fins missing. Any of those can spin into a serious accident. Taking two full breaths from each second stage and verifying your SPG does not drop would have saved a few people. Also a good habit is to pause at 10 feet of depth and do a valve check. This amounts to reaching back and verifying you can touch your valve and open it if needs be. That saves you from rocketing down to 80 feet and only then realizing your value is only partially open and cannot be reached.

Anyway mnemonics seem to be more common that checklists. SADDDDD is an other one. This article has a very nice pre-dive procedures you can use as a checklist DIR-diver.com - Pre-dive procedures
 
I did a search on Google for the GUE EDGE and found it. Now I have a better idea of what GCullen94 was talking about.

I read an interesting discussion on people starting their dive only to discover that someone had shut off their tank and they were breathing the leftover air in the hoses, which was drawn down fairly quickly. It still allowed some of them to descend 25 feet. Not a good position to find yourself in and I would think it would certainly be avoidable if proper checks and procedures had been followed. Kind of reminds me of dipping a finger the tank to check that fuel had been topped off and even if the fuel gauge failed I was still safe in computing flight time and allowing for reserve. I could not calculate fuel consumption, but I knew I had fuel in case of gauge or electrical failure. A gauge failure for a diver could be far more catastrophic and diving with your air off or little air left could screw up your day.

Being a newb I can't contribute to what a proper checklist would consist of and look like, but from my perspective can see a benefit. I hope that others will chime in with their perspective and practices. This is a great venue to gain some insight.
 
Rebreather divers are supposed to use written checklists, but that's in part because their equipment is so much more complex, and the checking procedure is multi-step.

A memorized mnemonic like the GUE EDGE seems to suffice pretty well for recreational diving. At least, my friends and I have been using it for the last nine years, and the only time it has failed us is when it isn't employed . . . which is the weak link in any safety procedure.
 
I use lists for a lot of things, including scuba. Bad memory. My diving is very basic, simple most of the time--easy shore dives. These don't require a list--not even just what to bring to the site. For the odd charter I do I go over what I need (this may be once a year). As I don't DM very often (usually only in the Fall), I go over a list of the 20 skills I may need to demonstrate--I have little suggestions to help me remember and so everything goes smoothly. I skim over 2 pages of the EFR (CPR) manual daily and alternate doing an Air & Nitrox table problem--that's a total of maybe 2 minutes. I skim over 2 pages of a manual from a course until that one is done, then on to review the next manual. Mnemonics can be good as well. You do what you have to do for whatever kind of diving you do.
 
For CCR I have a checklist I've drafted myself to fit how I like to built my unit, which makes it much more likely I will actually do each step and then check it off; then I have a revo standard closed check engraved on one side of a mini-slate, that's done immediately after the unit build is done and is frankly annoyingly duplicative of some of the build list; finally, on the other side of the mini-slate is a pre-jump check list for everything you need to do while fully geared up and right before you fall off the boat. I'm religious about the first and last, and only deviate from the second one insofar as I think calibrating multiple times in a short period is stupid.

For OC, I think checklists are less important not necessarily because of CCR's great complexity, but because OC is so incredibly simple to function-check while CCR can seem perfectly fine but in actuality be 100% ready to kill you. With OC, you breathe deeply from each second stage several times (I like three) and confirm the SPG needle stays put, you inflate the wing/drysuit and confirm the SPG needle stays put...and then you're good to go. If you forgot/screwed up a critical prior step, it will be immediately clear to you from that series of simple checks. As noted above, however, entering an overhead changes the equation--it's possible to forget something not immediately obvious there that would be quite bad (what's the status of your lights' batteries; etc).
 
You actually need two checklists.

The first one is your packaging list (don't forget the fins at home). This list can either reside in your memory, or on paper, or both. It could hang on the wall or be located in some other convenient place. Be systematic. Check your diving suit (incl. fins, gloves, mask, ...), then your buoyancy/weighting system, then your breathing apparatus, then gauges and computers, and finally lights and other tools.

The second one is the pre-dive check list. GUE edge is a good system.
 
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