lulubelle
Contributor
- Messages
- 863
- Reaction score
- 96
- # of dives
- 500 - 999
I poo poo'ed quarry diving when I first started diving. After all, I had a perfectly good ocean in reach. But I did my training OUS, so I had no local shop with which I was affiliated, and was having a hard time meeting other divers my first few months after I did my OW. So in January 2009, I made a pot of chili and joined a local group at the quarry for a New Year's Day gathering. No way was I going diving that day, but I met a ton of divers. So it has proven itself to be a great place to meet other divers from my area, as opposed to diving offshore, which is in large part, divers from everywhere else.
Since then, it has shown me even more value. I go there when I have new equipment to check out, to work on a skill, to practice skills needed for an upcoming class offshore, or just when I want to hang out with other local divers. It is absurd to practice a skill ad nauseum when you are paying for an offshore charter. I dive offshore a lot. I have realized that I need to spend more time in the quarry to practice skills.
With that being said, I'd like to add a note to the points made by others on "quarry divers" going offshore without ocean experience, or with only "tropical" ocean experience. I do wish, very sincerely, that there be some requirement for competency checks in each new dive environment. I certainly would find a way to go through that process myself if I was diving in cold water Vancouver for the first time. Resorts generally make people do check out dives, could ops not do something similar? Not that it would be practical to do that here in NC, but perhaps the first offshore dive here might carry a requirement to hire a DM, since they do not guide dives here otherwise. I just see a lot of freshwater divers, and tropical water divers, some with exceptionally high levels of training and skills, have trouble here despite very thorough briefings. Last weekend, in heavy current, I spent a few minutes in terror when one let go of the anchor line and was swept out of sight.
At the end of the day, as divers, we are all responsible for evaluating new dive environments and our readiness and preparation to dive them. And to seek the training or guidance we need to come into a new dive environment safely. I don't think that training standards or operators can legislate this but so much, although I would like there to be some ocean requirement for OW. We as divers have to have the self awareness to do so.
Since then, it has shown me even more value. I go there when I have new equipment to check out, to work on a skill, to practice skills needed for an upcoming class offshore, or just when I want to hang out with other local divers. It is absurd to practice a skill ad nauseum when you are paying for an offshore charter. I dive offshore a lot. I have realized that I need to spend more time in the quarry to practice skills.
With that being said, I'd like to add a note to the points made by others on "quarry divers" going offshore without ocean experience, or with only "tropical" ocean experience. I do wish, very sincerely, that there be some requirement for competency checks in each new dive environment. I certainly would find a way to go through that process myself if I was diving in cold water Vancouver for the first time. Resorts generally make people do check out dives, could ops not do something similar? Not that it would be practical to do that here in NC, but perhaps the first offshore dive here might carry a requirement to hire a DM, since they do not guide dives here otherwise. I just see a lot of freshwater divers, and tropical water divers, some with exceptionally high levels of training and skills, have trouble here despite very thorough briefings. Last weekend, in heavy current, I spent a few minutes in terror when one let go of the anchor line and was swept out of sight.
At the end of the day, as divers, we are all responsible for evaluating new dive environments and our readiness and preparation to dive them. And to seek the training or guidance we need to come into a new dive environment safely. I don't think that training standards or operators can legislate this but so much, although I would like there to be some ocean requirement for OW. We as divers have to have the self awareness to do so.