A value of diving with novices

[amascuba]

On my recent liveaboard trip on the Turks and Caicos Agressor II I found myself buddied up with a person with 10 logged dives. I knew the person and offered to buddy up with him and knew somewhat what I was getting myself into. I did 90% of my dives the week buddied up with this person and found that the dives were pretty task loaded keeping track of depth, time, bouyancy, my buddy, and navigation. It turned out to be a great learning experience for the both of us. His skills improved tremendously through out the week and my buddy skills improved greatly as I was having to be more situational aware of my buddy and our surroundings.

I know exactly where you are getting at TSandM.

 

[TSandM]

Funny...I have just under 200 dives and I still consider myself to be the novice...

I know just what you mean . . . It blew my mind to attend one of Bob's "Big Buddy" dive as the EXPERIENCED diver

 

[rawls]

Great thread. I went diving with some friends the other day and there were 5 of us. There was a young lady new to diving and I told the others I was going to dive with her. We were diving on a wreck in 70fsw and it took us 10 minutes to get to the bottom. She had alot of trouble clearing. I just hung by the anchor line with her. I could tell she was geting frustrated. I wrote her a note and told her to relax and take her time and gave her a smile. We finally got to the bottom and I took her inside the wreck through some rooms and passageways with easy entrances and exits. When we got back to the boat she had the biggest smile on her face which meant the world to me. On the next dive she cleared and was at the wreck in 5 minutes...Half the time. I ended up having more fun than she did...I think. Once again...This is a great thread and I totally agree that diving with a new diver is a wonderfully rewarding experience...Thanks...

 

[stardiver]

For a few years, I did little diving that was NOT with newbies. The gratification you feel when you see someone else's pleasure when they master a skill is intoxicating; that's why I did what I did. That's why I still persue my chosen profession out of the water as well.

I've never minded (well usually not) being buddied with a new diver on a trip. They see things that I might take for granted, or not even notice. Their excitement at successfully completing a dive is inspiring and refreshing.

The past 2 years since we relocated have been void of this. I've selfishly dove for myself most of the time; I needed it, and for a time, it was fun.

Next? Where will I go next? I have a few ideas

*

 

[AquaDuck]

It is a good idea to dive with novices and find out how much you are depending on your own advanced buddies to give you the references you need. It wouldn't be good to learn this when your usually rock solid buddy has a major problem and is no longer a stable resource.

This is one of the most satisfying things for me in training students. It's like looking back at my own struggles as I learnt to dive. It humbles me in knowing that we're all always learning and that we never "arrive" and become dive gods/godesses who know everything and can do everything. If there is one thing I've learnt it is that some people in their daily lives seem to be the most solid, stable, and most unwaivering people you could hope to find; I mean not even the Borg can unnerve these people, but put a mask on their face and a regulator in their mouth underwater and they become students like the rest of us. Everytime we suit up we are really preparing for a new lesson in the marine classroom, no matter what our qualifications are.

TSandM: I tip my hat to your acknowledgement of the value of experience!
:monkeydan

 

[jgmaroe]

Great thread. I went diving with some friends the other day and there were 5 of us. There was a young lady new to diving and I told the others I was going to dive with her. We were diving on a wreck in 70fsw and it took us 10 minutes to get to the bottom. She had alot of trouble clearing. I just hung by the anchor line with her. I could tell she was geting frustrated. I wrote her a note and told her to relax and take her time and gave her a smile. We finally got to the bottom and I took her inside the wreck through some rooms and passageways with easy entrances and exits. When we got back to the boat she had the biggest smile on her face which meant the world to me. On the next dive she cleared and was at the wreck in 5 minutes...Half the time. I ended up having more fun than she did...I think. Once again...This is a great thread and I totally agree that diving with a new diver is a wonderfully rewarding experience...Thanks...

Ha that's good to know, as when I dive with my aunt (MSDT cert.) I feel like nothing less than a nusiance.

 

[TheRedHead]

It is a good idea to dive with novices and find out how much you are depending on your own advanced buddies to give you the references you need. It wouldn't be good to learn this when your usually rock solid buddy has a major problem and is no longer a stable resource.

I've never dived with a more experienced buddy. I always dive with my husband who has the same number of dives and has taken the same classes (at my prompting), but I do enjoy diving on boats with new divers just to see their excitement. Their enthusiasm is contagious and they're more fun than experienced people who compare the divesite to what they saw on the last liveaboard, which of course, is vastly superior to the the dive you just finished.

 

[TSandM]

Well, novice divers are fun because they are so enthusiastic (read this, Doug) but this was a revelation regarding my OWN competence and training. This was great feedback about what I had learned to use to accomplish what I wanted to do. I had learned to use a competent buddy as a reference. I would imagine that people like Georgitsis and Jablonski are NOT dependent on their companions for their stability and orientation underwater . . . but I know from my prior awful dive with the much more advanced companion that it is an easy trap to fall into, to think you are more independent than you are, because you haven't challenged yourself with maintaining your skills in the face of a less accomplished companion.

 

[Erik Il Rosso]

Today I dived with a 2 stars CMAS diver (sort of AOWD), I thought she was a little bit experienced but she did all the dive with one hand on her second stage and the other hand on her power inflator. I asked lots of "Ok", tried to make funny faces to help her relax, used my torch to light up critters but it was no use, the only thing I remember is me losing my buoyancy trying to control her. I asked her to signal 100 and 50 bars without success but while she was not noticing me I was checking her SPG. When we got back to the up line I signalled dive finished and she agreed. We had a very slow resurfacing and once next to the boat discovered that she was not able to take off her fins while in the water and that she immediatly removed her mask from her face.

She was extremely happy at the end of the dive and this rewarded me even if I spent 30 USD for a dive where all I did was controlling her and losing my buoyancy 5-6 times.

Boy, it is not easy to control someone who is on the verge to bolt to the surface, now I know how an instructor feels when has to control a student or a group of students...

Ciao Erik Il Rosso

 

[adjuster-jd]

Having taught my first certification class last weekend, I had such a good feeling at the end of the class. During the tour on the first dive, students were all over the place, up, down and everywhere in between. On each dive they got progressively better. By the time we did the tour on dive 4, I was so proud of my students. Their buoyancy was so much better, they were kicking efficiently and staying reasonably streamlined. We have a nice relaxing tour with every pretty much staying together and not bouncing up and down.
It's so nice to see new divers evolve this way and makes teaching so much more rewarding....