Diving Burnout?

[bdshort]

Thanks for the responses everyone. Diver0001, thanks for that list... there are already a few things on there I'll be doing soon, taking a trip to Cozumel and Akumal being the first! Depending on a couple of other things happening within the next month or so, I also intend to take the Divemaster class in the first half of next year. I also haven't spearfished in awhile, so I'm thinking I may take my gun out to a site I haven't been to in awhile and try to get some fish, or possibly explore what's off a couple of the other beaches here that I haven't dove from before. There are one or two I haven't been to just because I hear they are boring, but maybe I should just check them out for myself!

 

[BabyDuck]

i took a hiatus. i didn't plan it, but had a preemie & couldn't go much of anywhere or do much of anything for the past 2 years.

and really, though i missed diving, i didn't have the mental energy to mourn it.

now, though, he's doing great and i'm signed up for the classes i was planning fall of '06 next month and have the drysuit i was planning fall of '06 - and i'm so psyched!

so if your path turns from diving for a while, try to focus on what you need to do. it will be there when you can get back. (op, i know that isn't really what you were talking about, but thought it might resonate with someone else...)

 

[KyDodenhoff]

Check out those "boring" sites. Everyone I talked to told me Oregon Coast diving is horrible and nothing to see or do. Then I went to another shop who did spearfishing trips, went on one and had the time of my life, nailed the fished and the life down there is amazing! So dont take other ppl's word on diving sites!

 

[SkipperJohn]

Gosh, I just wish I could dive till I got burned out! or halfway there! The reason i don't dive as much as I'd like has nothing to do with not wanting to. It has to do with obligations in other quarters.

I'm with you!

 

[Doc Intrepid]

Life has a habit of getting in the way of our plans!

Like Marci, I've gotten heavily into diving for years, then taken years off, in a random cycle that has run since the mid-1970s. I feel fortunate to have had diving in my life, it has been a constant source of inspiration.

On the other hand, when it's been 'off', I've found other interests to pursue, including raising a couple kids, etc. It's all good.

Like many of the others have noted in this thread, the good part about diving is that when you're ready to get back into it, it will be waiting for you. And it will offer just as much satisfaction and enjoyment the next time around as it did the last time you pursued it.

Don't worry about periods of burn-out...they just set you up for a return to diving at some unscheduled time in your future!

 

[Jon C]

Wow, is this the perfect thread to check back in with the living!!! Suddenly it has been over a year since I posted on Scubaboard!!! New job, new house, and old crummy conditions in SoCal took time away from diving (and posting). Missed you all...good to see some familiar names still around.

While I do try to dive every weekend when the conditions are right, work and home duties sure have kept me busy. I pledge to step it up and participate more. I will not step back from it; but step it up!!!

I have added "Maui 2009" on my office white board under "Long Term Goals". Not what the boss had in mind but...

Best to you all.

Jon C

 

[chucklindsey]

Hey Brian! Havent seen you in long time hope all is well up there!

Man I go through the same thing here sometimes! When you guys coming to PR for some warm water diving?

 

[bdshort]

Hey Chuck, welcome to SB! I'll PM you. Hope you enjoy it here, it's a great forum. I think RT still posts here sometimes too.

And I definitely still have my desire to dive... must be the clear, cold weather and clear water

 

[TSandM]

mudhole, that was YOUR article? Thank you so much for it . . . Reading that as early as I did in my diving career warned me that people DO get stale and tired, and gave me ideas on how to avoid that or head it off at the pass when it began. Diver0001 has the key in a phrase, as he so often does: Do something new.

For me, it's hitting new sites, taking new divers out, working on my skills, sometimes taking a trip, diving off our own boat . . . anything that makes me a little insecure and refocused on the dive from a different perspective.

 

[mudhole]

mudhole, that was YOUR article? Thank you so much for it . . . Reading that as early as I did in my diving career warned me that people DO get stale and tired, and gave me ideas on how to avoid that or head it off at the pass when it began. Diver0001 has the key in a phrase, as he so often does: Do something new.

For me, it's hitting new sites, taking new divers out, working on my skills, sometimes taking a trip, diving off our own boat . . . anything that makes me a little insecure and refocused on the dive from a different perspective.

TSandM, thank you for responding to the article. . . Just like bubbles, sometimes ideas that we learn the hard way, seem to disappear, before we can pass them to someone else.

I started diving when there would be 200 to 300 divers get together for a spearfishing contest. We followed state rules and only shot "rough" fish. We had cookouts, talked diving, played vollyball and yes most drank a little beer after dives. I knew several 3 time national champions, and the vice president of the Underwater Society for competition. As best as I can find these divers now, they have all quit. I never met a 4 time champion. . . too much work for just another trophy. I moved from spearfishing to instruction. . . and yes after a few hundred it was just another. When I could put extra effort into getting a young lady really interested in the underwater world, the boyfriend or husband would do something stupid, and both would quit diving. Now I meet certified divers that are near that quitting point, several dive shops will help me find someone. Take them out on a dive they haven't been to before, or help them shoot their first fish for supper. Or help them get a good underwater photo, help them recover something they've lost overboard. A diving instructor from the '50's, taught me that to keep them coming back, was to plan the next dive, the next weekend, "Just one more reason" to get back in the water.