Psychology of Tec Training

[ccrprospect]

Hello team,

This is more of an introspective post. I would however welcome your views and personal experiences.

I have been diving for some five years now and I am at a sufficiently advanced stage at my technical training (finished my hypoxic trimix) to be at the crossroads of choosing one or more of the following courses: CCR (mod 1), and/or cave (intro).

I often ask myself however if I would truly enjoy doing these courses and the dives they would enable me to do, or whether that drive arises out of a need to be an "expert". It has been a while since finishing my trimix course and I miss that feeling of accomplishment - that sense of mastery that comes out of acing a complicated skill, doing demanding dives, and knowing you are a better diver as as result.

More generally, my question is how much of your technical training has been driven by a legitimate curiosity for new dive adventures versus that need to be an expert (or some would say ego)? Is the desire for expertise and that sense of accomplishment a good enough reason to expand your dive training (even if you don't necessarily care for, by way of example, doing multi hour cave explorations on CCR)?

 

[AJ]

What do you value in training? The cert or the experience and knowledge?

I don't care about the cert myself. I do however like the learning experience. I like the feeling of extending my knowledge and skills. For instance, I consider Tech 1 or CCR Mod 1. Not necessarily because I'am going to do the dives right away, but because it makes me a better diver and giving me the possibility to do these dives in the future.

So yes, I do understand your motivation and I think it's a legit motivation if it fulfills your desire to learn and evolve as a diver.

 

[Colliam7]

EXCELLENT POST, AND QUESTION(S)!

I often ask myself however if I would truly enjoy doing these courses and the dives they would enable me to do, or whether that drive arises out of a need to be an "expert" . . . that sense of mastery that comes out of acing a complicated skill, doing demanding dives, and knowing you are a better diver as as result. . . . . More generally, my question is how much of your technical training has been driven by a legitimate curiosity for new dive adventures versus that need to be an expert (or some would say ego)?

I am quite comfortable acknowledging that much of my dive training, including my initial pursuit of open water certification, was driven by a desire to say that I could 'do' something. And, I felt / feel no particular need to say that to anyone else, rather it is a desire to say it to myself. I do not consider this to be a matter of ego. Technical dive training helped me to become a better diver, a more competent, confident, situationally aware diver. Divemaster training did some of that as well. OK, when I received the certification cards after both, I felt a sense of pride. But, that pride did not arise from being able to say, 'I am now a tech diver'. Rather, I was pleased that I had set a goal for myself, I had worked to accomplish it, I had not given up until I did what I set out to do (even though I did 'quit' several times during the course, out of frustration with myself).

Is the desire for expertise and that sense of accomplishment a good enough reason to expand your dive training (even if you don't necessarily care for, by way of example, doing multi hour cave explorations on CCR)?

For me, yes. But, the answer for you is something that only you can determine. If your answer is, 'Yes, that sense of accomplishment is a good enough reason to expand my dive training', I will (re-)assure you that you are not alone. You are in good company. If your answer is, 'No', I will offer the same (re-)assurance. We - the community of divers represented here on SB - dive for different reasons, we train for different reasons. And, we also do both for similar reasons.

I have said in a number of threads that, for me, every dive is a training dive. On every dive, even when I am coaching others, I am working on something for myself. As an Instructor, that may be finding a better way to explain something, a better way to demonstrate something, a new way to help another person improve their diving. Or, it may be working on improving my trim, on better buoyancy control, or finding a better equipment configuration. For me, pursuing additional training is part of becoming a better diver, and that is, frankly, probably more important than the adventures that might be opened up for me by the training.

Having said this, I also acknowledge that I do enjoy being underwater, I enjoy seeing underwater life, I enjoy touching history. I enjoy doing all of that with other divers, and I enjoy doing all of that by myself.

In a similar vein, I enjoy flying, seeing the earth from altitude, smelling AV gas exhaust, hearing the sound of the engine, etc., etc. Yes, I sometimes fly in order to get somewhere. But, while I am 'getting there', I am enjoying the process because I am finding ways to become a better pilot.

And, I have no particular interest in regaling other people with stories of my accomplishments - underwater or in the air - or listing my certifications, or my ratings, etc. What I do underwater or in the air is only meaningful to ME.

I am reminded of a great scene in the movie City Slickers, where the Curly character (Jack Palance) tells the Mitch character (Billy Crystal) about the meaning of life. He holds up his finger and tells Mitch that there is only one thing that's important: 'One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don't mean s**t.' When Mitch asks him what that one thing is, Curly answers, 'That's what you have to find out.'

 

[PfcAJ]

I took all these classes simply because I needed them to go where I wanted to go. I figured out real quick what I was interested in and just worked at it to get there. I needed a set of skills to be able to explore/ help explorers, and that's framed my whole diving career since about 2005.

In my experience, folks that take the courses just to learn the material or to say they "did it" don't last very long. They quit because the diving isnt what motivates them. Once they've got all the classes...well... the boxes are checked and its time to move on to flying, skydiving, sailing, or whatever. I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with that, though.

One thing's for sure though. Just having the cards doesn't make one an expert.

 

[Jack Hammer]

All my training has simply been to allow me to more safely see more things/go places that I'm interested in. I care little about the "bragging rights" of any training or place I've been. I'm in it to enjoy the experiences not to be able to say I did them.

 

[Bowers]

I believe many of us are like minded in tec diving. At one point we saw something deep and dark or someone doing something, and were told “you cant do that” and it didn’t sit well with us . But personally i’ve structured my education to pursue things i want and happen to encompass other things that lengthen my leash.

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

I've heard it takes 10,000 hours of doing something to become an expert at it.

That's a lot of diving.

 

[helodriver87]

I think for me, it's equal parts the need for a new challenge and the need to have options. If it was just about the challenge, I think I would've powered through all the big classes and gotten bored by now.

But I like having options available too. think that anyone who says one configuration is the only way to dive is either inexperienced or intentionally dishonest. It's nice to have an array of tools at your disposal so you aren't barred from seeing certain places. It's why I added CCR last year and why I'm looking into sidemount and eventually hypoxic next. I don't want to have to skip out on the challenge of learning a new site because my toolkit is too small.

 

[Madddogggy]

Ghandi said it best:

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."

 

[tbone1004]

I took all these classes simply because I needed them to go where I wanted to go. I figured out real quick what I was interested in and just worked at it to get there. I needed a set of skills to be able to explore/ help explorers, and that's framed my whole diving career since about 2005.

In my experience, folks that take the courses just to learn the material or to say they "did it" don't last very long. They quit because the diving isnt what motivates them. Once they've got all the classes...well... the boxes are checked and its time to move on to flying, skydiving, sailing, or whatever. I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with that, though.

One thing's for sure though. Just having the cards doesn't make one an expert.

I think for me, it's equal parts the need for a new challenge and the need to have options. If it was just about the challenge, I think I would've powered through all the big classes and gotten bored by now.

But I like having options available too. think that anyone who says one configuration is the only way to dive is either inexperienced or intentionally dishonest. It's nice to have an array of tools at your disposal so you aren't barred from seeing certain places. It's why I added CCR last year and why I'm looking into sidemount and eventually hypoxic next. I don't want to have to skip out on the challenge of learning a new site because my toolkit is too small.

This. The high turnover in technical diving is largely driven by those that do it for the wrong reasons, i.e. chasing cert cards and ego boosts. Not to say they weren't good divers, but they aren't the ones that last.
I've been seriously diving since 09 and have gone through phases where I'm "tired" and don't feel like doing big dives, weirdly usually when I'm doing those dives with the group mentioned above.
You learn to find the satisfaction elsewhere though, usually through mentoring or finding something else about the sport that excites you.