How to be a better diver ?

[Divingblueberry]

As I am starting my diving endeavour, I keep thinking about the learning curve and the mistake one could make (without even been aware of it). I have been lucky enough to do 80 dives this year. I learned a great deal. As I am getting closer to the 100 dive mark, I obviously feel a bit more confident in the water. Yet, I keep thinking about the stupidity curve (image below) every time I empty my BCD.

Maybe SB people could chime in to shed some light on what are "not yet experienced" divers biggest mistakes. Too confident ? Not enough knowledge of the theory ? Feeling they are not beginners anymore and become leniant, leazy ?

I would appreciate your views and comments.

Safe diving

 

[yle]

As I am starting my diving endeavour, I keep thinking about the learning curve and the mistake one could make (without even been aware of it). I have been lucky enough to do 80 dives this year. I learned a great deal. As I am getting closer to the 100 dive mark, I obviously feel a bit more confident in the water. Yet, I keep thinking about the stupidity curve (image below) every time I empty my BCD.

Maybe SB people could chime in to shed some light on what are "not yet experienced" divers biggest mistakes are. Too confident ? Not enough knowledge of the theory ? Feeling they are not beginners anymore and become leniant, leazy ?

I would appreciate your views and comments.

Safe diving

Great questions.

Too confident? Absolutely. My favorite was the customer that tried to explain to my son (who is an instructor and was running the dive shop at the time) how awesome he was at diving because he was AOW and he had completed NINE dives. Which meant, of course, that he had zero dives outside of the nine required for his two courses.

That guy was delusional. You sound like you're at the other end of the range: cautious and aware that the more you learn, the more you imagine how much more there is to learn. I would say that if you are closing in your 100th dive and you have been open to learning something from every dive, you're in great shape. Just keep doing what you're doing.

Read the accident and incident forums. It's a great place to read about how things can go wrong, even for experienced divers, and the analysis that follows. You'll find yourself wondering how even experienced divers could make the mistakes that they do, and there usually isn't a clear explanation. Except that they do. Even experienced people make mistakes, and the only way to mitigate those mistakes is to always be aware of everything you do.

Always do your buddy/equipment checks and dive planning before every dive. This is where your stupidity curve comes into play. It's typical for new divers to do buddy checks because they just learned about it in OW class. Then divers get 30 or 40 dives and think they know enough to skip the "beginner stuff"... and they tend to skip their buddy checks and a dive plan. And I will confess I was guilty of that. It took becoming an instructor, and teaching a lot of new divers, to help me really appreciate the importance of planning and equipment checks (especially dealing with so much rental gear on so many students.)

Hope this helps! Safe diving!

 

[yle]

I just looked at your stupidity graph, and it was a little different than what I assumed. I thought it would be How much people think they know vs how much they actually know. That graph has a weird shape.

But I like yours, and it does bring up an important point: your "mount stupid". Yes, be careful of people that seem waaaay to eager to tell you how to do things, offering aggressive unsolicited advice, especially if they insist that you're doing it wrong if you're not doing it their way. Those are the people at the top of the mountain on your graph.

One way to handle these kind of people is to just thank them for their advice and tell them that the way you're doing it has always worked for you. Of course if the person is your prospective buddy... well, that's part of dive planning: giving you the chance to find a better buddy before the dive starts.

 

[Bob DBF]

From your post I don't think you have much to worry on that account. Keep diving, having fun, learning, and pick up all the good habits you see in other divers.


Bob

 

[Ayisha]

To answer your question specifically, try to have situational awareness, knowing what and who is around you and what is happening around you. Keep track of your air consumption. Stay close with your buddy and position yourselves so that you can communicate with each other. Keep planning, keep doing self and buddy checks, keep diving - what improves diving the most is in-water time just diving. Keep observing divers around you. See what works well and maybe what doesn't seem to work as well and think about what to incorporate or not in your diving.

Keep an open mind as you're doing and keep learning and getting better. You're off to a great start.

 

[happy-diver]

dive beyond your training within your capability

 

[Shafqat Ahmed]

@yle is this what you were thinking of (Illustrative graph of Dunning-Kruger effect)?

 

[Edward3c]

DBB,

It doesn’t matter how many dives you have done, when you move to a new location i.e. warm to cold, Caribbean to SE Asia you’re a novice again. I’ve seen plenty of experienced cold water divers completely screw up when diving in the tropics.

The buddy check is done for a reason. Those whom don’t want to run through it, I don’t want to dive with. Prevention is so much easier than a cure.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Watch divers in the water. When you see someone who demonstrates the skill and attitude you feel is appropriate approach them and ask them to be your buddy/mentor. Try to mimic what they do. It isn't about the number of certificates they hold. I know Instructors I wouldn't buddy with and simple OW divers I would trust with my life. In water skill, attitude and willingness to call a dive without recriminations are the most important things. Often experienced mentor quality divers enjoy sharing their dive passion and appreciate having a willing buddy.

Remember diving is supposed to be fun. If fun for you is practicing skills fair enough but if fun for you is more about the environment that is fair too. You don't seem like the kind of person who is likely to ignore the safety procedures.

Get as much bottom times in as you can. Don't stress about getting into perfect trim, air consumption etc all at once. Things will come together and skills will develop with practice. Know your limits and dive within them. Keep safe and keep blowing bubbles.

 

[chillyinCanada]

+1 for Situational awareness (Ayisha)

Always know how much air you have. If at any given time, your buddy, dive guide, instructor, whomever asked you how much air you have left, try to know that give or take a very little bit

Get the book "Diver Down". There's a very good chance that at this stage of the game, it will be of far more value to you than reading Accidents and Incidents here on Scubaboard.