100+ Dives And I Still Suck

[Bubbletrubble]

You konw the quadrants, right?

1) unware/incompetent
2) aware/incompentent
3) aware/competent
4) unaware/competent

these are more or less the stages of the learning curve.

Basically, in terms of the learning curve, even after may years of diving I'm still somewhere between 2 and 3 on some things. on some thiings I'm between 3 and 4. on a few things I'm a definite 4.

@Diver0001: I think I would reverse the order of #3 and #4. The final stage should be "aware/competent." Being unaware/competent indicates that you still lack the proper insight into your own abilities/skill level. That's problematic, IMHO, since you can't realize your full potential.

 

[Herk_Man]

By definition, all scuba divers must suck. Typically about 2500psi from an AL80 tank. In fact, I think a great motto for scuba would be, "Suck or Die!"

:rofl:

 

[cmaha76]

"8) Vacation only warm water divers generally suck a LOT worse than I do... and that's sad."

This statement is starting to annoy me a bit. I don't get the elitism of some of those that dive in cold water. Face it, sucky divers suck period, doesn't matter where they do the majority of their dives.

I was on a boat in aruba where some d-bag in technical getup proceded to tell me how great a diver he was, how I was some inferior bath tub diver and then he proceeded to get his reel entagled on the reef and had to surface after 30 min. of hoovering through his air leaving my buddy, the dm and me to untangle his mess. His 200 cold water dives didn't make him any less sucky than me.

Does that mean I can say, most cold-water technical divers I've met suck a lot worse than I do, and that's sad? Nope, it doesn't... maybe one key to moving up the sucky scale is to quit making generalizations about divers you've never met or dived with just because they don't hold up to your macho gear or temperature standards.

 

[senseiern]

Even J. Cousteau was once at 100 dives. I would wager you know more about diving at 100 than he did, because you have the wisdom of all those who came before you. I hear that for most of his dives he didn't use a BP/W.

 

[Dhboner]

I have been mountain biking for 30 years and until recently I was convinced that I sucked, because I was constantly evaluating myself against the abilities of others. I've been running marathons for an equal amount of time and, once again, until recently believed that I was a lousy distance runner (never as fast as I thought I should be).

Then about 2 years ago someone shared their view that the secret to happiness is to: a) Find something you love to do and then...
b) learn to love the way YOU do it!

That simple turn of a phrase was an epiphany for me (I'm not kidding). From that point forward I learned to try my best, be driven to improve, train as hard as my body would let me...but at the end of the day smile and feel great that I'm still able to "play hard" at 52 years of age.

I know I suck at diving (try being behind me on a silty swim-through) but I absolutely love to dive and I absolutely love to improve as a diver. So even if I always suck I will always smile (and hopeful make a few of my buddies smile too).

Many thanks to the OP for this wonderful thread!

Bob (Toronto)

 

[Diver0001]

Bob,

I love your attitude!

In the end, the only critic we have to face is our own internal one.

R..

 

[diver_doug]

"8) Vacation only warm water divers generally suck a LOT worse than I do... and that's sad."

This statement is starting to annoy me a bit. I don't get the elitism of some of those that dive in cold water. Face it, sucky divers suck period, doesn't matter where they do the majority of their dives.

I was on a boat in aruba where some d-bag in technical getup proceded to tell me how great a diver he was, how I was some inferior bath tub diver and then he proceeded to get his reel entagled on the reef and had to surface after 30 min. of hoovering through his air leaving my buddy, the dm and me to untangle his mess. His 200 cold water dives didn't make him any less sucky than me.

Does that mean I can say, most cold-water technical divers I've met suck a lot worse than I do, and that's sad? Nope, it doesn't... maybe one key to moving up the sucky scale is to quit making generalizations about divers you've never met or dived with just because they don't hold up to your macho gear or temperature standards.

Geez...I think you're way overdoing it here. Note that he said "VACATION ONLY warm water divers." While I'm sure there are some very good vacation-only warm-water divers out there, in general, they're probably not great...and likely not nearly as good as cold water divers that dive frequently (infrequent diving+typically easy conditions+minimal gear vs frequent diving+typically difficult conditions+maximum gear...who do you think is likely to be the better diver?). As far as cold-water elitism is concerned...the OP said that he sucks-this doesn't strike me as someone with an elitist attitude. It sounds like you are an overly sensitive warm-water diver (I personally envy you...I wish I was a warm water diver) who's reading too much into a pretty mundane comment.

 

[SkimFisher]

"8) Vacation only warm water divers generally suck a LOT worse than I do... and that's sad."

This statement is starting to annoy me a bit. I don't get the elitism of some of those that dive in cold water. Face it, sucky divers suck period, doesn't matter where they do the majority of their dives.

I was on a boat in aruba where some d-bag in technical getup proceded to tell me how great a diver he was, how I was some inferior bath tub diver and then he proceeded to get his reel entagled on the reef and had to surface after 30 min. of hoovering through his air leaving my buddy, the dm and me to untangle his mess. His 200 cold water dives didn't make him any less sucky than me.

Does that mean I can say, most cold-water technical divers I've met suck a lot worse than I do, and that's sad? Nope, it doesn't... maybe one key to moving up the sucky scale is to quit making generalizations about divers you've never met or dived with just because they don't hold up to your macho gear or temperature standards.

My first clue on the d-bag you're talking about is that he ran his mouth on dry land. It's best to just shutup while topside and let you're diving speak for itself. It's like that old saying, "the loudest one in the room is the weakest one in the room".

You never know when you'll make a mistake and I don't like the taste of shoe.

 

[Hoomi]

I'm sure it also depends on the definition of "Vacation Only" divers. If we're talking about someone who dives only a couple of times while on their annual vacation, and really doesn't worry about practicing skills in between dive trips, then it's only to be expected that they're going to dive like perma-noobs.

My wife and I probably count as "Vacation Only" divers, in that the nearest diving is at least a weekend getaway trip away. We don't live someplace where we can just decide to go dive on a nice afternoon after work. The Sea of Cortez is about a five hour drive, and the Pacific Ocean is about an eight hour drive. We don't even have a quarry for diving in the Tucson area.

On the other hand, when we go on a dive trip, we'll get as much diving in as we can, and spend some time on each trip revisiting and honing some of the basic skills, lest we forget them or get complacent about them. Yeah, I'm still basically a n00b, but that doesn't mean I have to resign myself to staying one.

It doesn't hurt my feelings at all, though, that we've gotten to do pretty much all our dives in warm water. We're planning another trip to Mexico next month, and I suppose I really should try diving in my 3 mil wetsuit at least once on this trip, just so that I get the feel of the difference a wetsuit makes in the experience. So far, though, all our dives in Mexico and Fiji have been in warm enough water that we felt comfortable in just the rashguards.

I didn't really understand so many of the other divers on our trip in Fiji, wearing wetsuits every day. Even down at 80', the water was a pleasant temperature, and I'm not the kind of person that does well with cold.

 

[cmaha76]

I'm not mad at the OP, I agree with the majority of his post and think ihe has a great attitude. In fact, I didn't try to dispute his point that most cold water divers are good, because in my personal experience, they generally are. I've just had a couple of experiences with blow-hards.

I don't think I'm overdoing any worse than the statement (a numbered point) was that vacation divers generally suck a lot worse. The point of my post is that we all suck in our own way and one should be careful when making generalizations. I don't think I'm being sensitive... but maybe I am, if so I'm sorry.

***Edit*** - I'm not a warm water only diver, I do the majority of my dives there, when I've got the funds, but the local quarry or lake Erie are always options.