"I just want to be a better recreational diver"

[HenrikBP]

Excellent question TS&M - thanks for posting.

I'm brand new at diving, but have been through a similar learning process riding/road racing motorcycles (I'm just a hack, but I'm having fun ). I got my MC license 29 years ago and have been street riding since. 10 years ago I did my first 2-day track riding school, and what an eye-opener that was. Bottom line: Up until then I'd been doing the same 1 year worth of learning for 18 years in a row. Getting onto a race track with no distractions and pro instructors as well as classroom instruction instantly made a huge difference - and probably saved my life a few months later.

Morale of the story: it's easy to fall into the trap of just "doing the same old thing". Especially as a newbie, where I most likely don't even know what I don't know and don't realize which of my skills are lacking, and if I do, which method of practicing offers the best results.

So while SB provides lots of excellent information, and dive, dive, dive - practice, practice,practice is true, some formalized guidance, for me at least, would be helpful. Short of a mentor, I like the workshop idea.

Thanks again for bringing up the question.

Henrik

 

[Teamcasa]

Excellent question TS&M - thanks for posting.

I'm brand new at diving, but have been through a similar learning process riding/road racing motorcycles (I'm just a hack, but I'm having fun ). I got my MC license 29 years ago and have been street riding since. 10 years ago I did my first 2-day track riding school, and what an eye-opener that was. Bottom line: Up until then I'd been doing the same 1 year worth of learning for 18 years in a row. Getting onto a race track with no distractions and pro instructors as well as classroom instruction instantly made a huge difference - and probably saved my life a few months later.

Morale of the story: it's easy to fall into the trap of just "doing the same old thing". Especially as a newbie, where I most likely don't even know what I don't know and don't realize which of my skills are lacking, and if I do, which method of practicing offers the best results.

So while SB provides lots of excellent information, and dive, dive, dive - practice, practice,practice is true, some formalized guidance, for me at least, would be helpful. Short of a mentor, I like the workshop idea.

Thanks again for bringing up the question.

Henrik

I agree, good question. Lynne amazes me with her insights.
Just remember, Practice does NOT make perfect, it only makes permanent. Get good instruction and then practice and strive for continuous improvement.

Dave

 

[grazie42]

First you need to decide what makes a good recreational diver. To me the main components are attitude, fitness and skills

For attitude I´d recommend rescue.
IMO, you´re not a good recreational diver unless you have been taught to rescue your buddy if he needs it but more importantly learn to look for the signs that prevents an accident from happening. The rescue class, IMO, is more about mindset than skills and if you adopt it you will be a better recreational diver.

For fitness I´d recommend hitting a pool. Swimming will not only give you the "right kind" of fitness but also increase your in-water comfort. Free-diving/snorcling is also good but depending on your location it might not make sense for you. Being "fit to dive" won´t only help you achieve grace under water which will lower SAC, help comfort and teach you that going fast isn´t always the fastest way of getting things done uw it will give you a "margin of safety" when something unexpected happens.

For skills (besides the rescue-skills) a good idea of the "bar" can be found in JJs book or looking at any of the skills videos out there. If you want help reaching it a PPB-class from someone who is actually commited to teaching it to you and who has the ability to achieve it themselves. A cavern-class from an instructor who dives caves will give you that and more. From the reports so will dir-f. Or just "mentor" or pay to dive with someone who dives the way you want to, be sure to be upfront with your expectations...

Other than that, dive with a comittment to excellence and continuous improvement. Expose yourself to different enviroments and different divers. Ask everyone you dive with to give feed-back on your diving and be clear that you´re looking for things to improve, not fishing for compliments. Ask questions of anyone who looks remotely willing/able to answer them but always get a second opinion. Be a thinking diver and don´t adopt/discount anything for your own diving that you wouldn´t feel comfortable defending on it´s merits rather then who/what organization/what course that taught/disaproves of it.

Eat as much "humble pie" as you can stomach, the only guarantee is that when you think you have all the answers....you don´t...

dive, dive, dive.

 

[evil_xander]

At about 50 dives (or in a time scale, 3 months ago) I decided to ditch the AOWD/DM idea at the moment and go for GUE-F. I see it as something that will provide me with more knowledge and point me out to proper skills then anything else I have locally available. The rest is then up to me. Of course, keep diving as much as possible prior the course and after the coure.

Let's leave the whole DIR vs non-DIR debate out, I'm there to hear, see and learn something I can apply to my type of diving. I will however, not limit my diving after the course, whatever the outcome is, to doing 10 dives a year just to do it by the book...

 

[redrover]

Lynn I’m that hypothetical diver. I like to take classes but it’s expensive. I wish I had just one mentor.
What I do is dive, dive, dive. With as many different people I can in as many different places I can. I read; last night was the cavern manual and the Blueprint although I have really no desire to do either. Dark Descent; jeepers! I’m never going to see the Empress. The board; tons of info, attitudes, solutions, conditions, perspectives, things to try, not to try. Watch videos of divers diving, examine photos of divers diving. It’s my observation; there is no one source of knowledge, and knowledge to be found everywhere.

 

[spectrum]

I agree that the more diving and experience the better. However, it does need to be done with buddies who are experienced enough to help you learn and to help you learn the right things and not some of the bad habits that are out there.

I have taken a special interest in diving with new divers I have found growth in those dives. Revisiting some of my early challenges as they deal with the same things is a good process. When diving with a more seasoned buddy or peer it's easy to find your self being casual about things. With a new diver I find the bar is raised in trying to set a good example, keep them safe and maybe provide them with some growth. I think a healthy dose of rookies is a good growth opportunity.

Pete

 

[spectrum]

I think the condensed time and similarity of conditions allowed me to work on my core skills without all the outside/other distractions...I feel I'm much more capable of applying those skills going forward in other dive environments...

I think what you experienced is a lot like kids and computers.

First of all you experienced growth because you took charge and worked for it. Most of us KNOW much more than we ever find time to put into practice. We do work skills in but not as often as I'd like to. Frequently I think I will do some stuff on the return led of a dive but if someone is low on air, cold, tired or the dive is just darned nice we're on the beach before we know it. You set the time aside and challenged yourself.

Now the kids and computers......

Computers have an operating system, remember DOS? Today it's windows, Unix, whatever. There is a lot off clever stuff in there but with all that cleverness you can't do much. When you add applications (Office, Outlook or a web browser) you really can do things, like post on ScubaBoard.

Kids? Until 4th grade they are focused on the basic 3Rs with some other stuff thrown in. Once 4th grade hits the more content intensive subjects like science and history kick in. You need to get know how to read, write and do math in order to get anywhere in a history or science book.

What you did on that vacation where you made it a point to push yourself a little was to enter the 4th grade and begin to learn some applications. Bravo.

Pete

 

[bubba105]

I was that diver.

I have no interest in wrecks, caves or 300 feet. Perhaps if I'd have started diving at an earier age but that's a moot point now. The bride is my dive buddy and as we're getting older, our travel vacations center around diving, which keeps the vacations interesting. There is a lot of good diving in the NYC area, where I live, but, it's cold and I hate being cold. Someone offered to lend me a dry suit and some doubles but I'm a bit of a panzy when it comes to being cold. We'll see.

I am lucky enough to have a couple of good friends who have been diving for a long time, have all the skills down, they're instructors and we go on diving vacation together, 4 times a year. I had never thought of them as mentors, but, yeah, they are. They took my sorry butt from needing a second belt to hold all that lead, sucking a tank inside out and a total lack of buoyancy to a not too shabby diver. Of course, it took them somewhere in the vacinity of 300 dives to get me this far. Along the way, I got my AOW, without realizing I was taking the course. All this took place in locations like Palau, Tahiti, Figi, Costa Rica and a bunch of other exotic locales. So, I think having a mentor or 2 and diving as much as possible (cold water excluded) is working for me.

The best part is giving back some of the stuff I've learned to new divers.

 

[pengwe]

Some people seem to think about doing DM at this point. I did GUE-F. I couldn't find anything else.

There is no substitute for actual diving, but a class can help put you on the right track

 

[kidspot]

If you can find an instructor that offers a real AOW class - take it. Same for PPB, LOTS of stuff that can be taught in either "if" the instructor is willing to take the time.

Lynne - You may not have wanted to limit answers to GUE-Fundamentals, but that or the 5thDx Essentials class will definitely S T R E T C H nearly any diver. I've even considered taking fundies again if the opportunity arises because I think I can learn a lot more taking it a second time.

For a basic "self-help" person I'd pick up one of the videos from 5thD-X either the essentials or intro to tech disks. Even if you have no interest in DIR they show some good examples of what to strive for in terms of trim, balance, bouyancy and basic propulsion techniques. (btw I think the intro to tech DVD is the better choice due to the narration)

If a person is looking for an instructor in their area who will work with them and help them stretch themselves asking here on Scubaboard is a great place to start.

Aloha, Tim