"Ignorance Is Strength" - 1984 - G. Orwell...

[dbulmer]

Erik,
You need to reconsider who you dive with. As I see it, you may have the opportunity with your current buddies to improve your skills but it is coming at a price. It sounds to me that your dive buddies are adding quite a bit of peer pressure mingled with ego which ultimately could put you at risk. It's good to practice skills and receive feedback but not at the price of not enjoying your diving. Try getting some other buddies and get back to diving for the sheer fun of it. Being good at skills is to enhance your diving experience and not replace it.

What's a real diver? A diver in the Med - a UK diver , a DIR diver, a Northeast Diver, a Cave diver, a wreck diver, a deep diver, a trimix diver .... etc ad nauseaum ? They are labels - what is important to you about your diving?

 

[Erik Il Rosso]

But you might find useful NW Grateful Diver's words to me when I was agonizing about my Fundies checkout dive: Remember, we do this for RECREATION!

Lynne, you are right on target again...

I fully appreciate the way DIR divers dive and I was thinking about taking a DIR-F class but the mere thought of having a checkout dive with a DIR instructor is making me not to pick up the phone, call a DIR instructor and sign for the class...

Ciao Erik Il Rosso

 

[JRScuba]

Erik, it sounds to me like being a perfectionist and we all have it to some degree I guess. I used to be that way with golf, if I didn't hit the ball where I wanted it to go I got down on myself. I always had a hook, I got so mad at myself that I wrapped a 3 iron around a tree once.....that made me realize I was taking golf way to seriously and that I should enjoy it only if it makes me happy ( I don't golf anymore ) Point is, try to enjoy the sport of diving and don't be so hard on yourself....my .02.

That's why you hook.

Your three iron is bent. lol

 

[Skull]

Erik its all about the zen of diving. You either have it or you keeping buying classes and gear till you believe you have it ....it's that simple.

Working on your skills is essential but don't forsake your first love .... less you don't love diving. Which is a entirely different problem -eh?

 

[scubadobadoo]

I admit it, maybe things are not going Ok during the last few weeks and I start to see things rather "Dark" but I cannot stop thinking about it...

What I'd like to talk is about the pleasure we receive from diving...

I mean, I see many people who are extremely happy after diving while I tend not to be so happy lately...

These people don't mind if they lose their buoyancy, they don't mind if they cannot shoot a bag, they don't mind to have their tanks moved around by DMs, they don't mind to touch the up line while resurfacing, they don't care to fin with the right technique and they don't even mind to kill some critters with their fins...
Apprerently, these people are the one who always enjoy their dives and I can see it from their faces while we are on the boat returning to the diving center...

I do not why I care so much about learning to frog kick, take care of my configuration, trying to able to shoot my bag without losing my buoyancy, trying to help others, trying to resurface without touching the up-line and many other little things...
The problem is that if I am not able to do these kind of things my dive is ruined, I have got 200 dives under my belt and I am still learning and I sometimes still look stupid while underwater...

I do not know why everyone is happy with their OWD/AOWD while I had Nitrox, Rescue and I am seriously thinking about taking a DIR-F class...

I wonder why I am doing all these things and why at the end od the dive "They" are happy while I am frustrated...

I started to think that maybe I would be a much more happy diver if I stopped after AOWD or maybe I am unable to progress although I try...

Sometimes I think that "Ignorance Is Strength"...

Ciao Erik Il Rosso

SOunds like you need a week of shore diving in Bonaire without dive boat hassles. This is a doctor ordered trip!

 

[IceIce]

How about a getaway, have a diving vacation on a great remote sites, where nobody knows you except your buddy and travelling friends (find the fun ones), and maybe you can find the wonder in your eyes again when you see new thing.

I'm going to share my secret with you. No matter how bad was my dives, except when I was sick underwater, I always enjoyed it simply by the feeling of flying. It's a great therapy for me. I have no weight on my shoulder, no worries in my brain and no boss breathing down my neck. I'd have to face reality when I'm up, but for that moment, let the silence overwhelm me into the relaxing world.

I'm also a full of worry freak who has burden on every dive. Tomorrow I'm going for the short trip and before anything, I already burden my self with many tasks such as practice my navigation, blow my SMB, test my spare mask, drop one two weight, then last night I thought, screw them, let me enjoy my dive, or at least, I learn and enjoying it and don't treat them as problem, it will stress me out and make me worse.

It's wonderful and we're lucky to be diver. Not much people can find such a an embracing sport.

 

[H2Andy]

Erik:

are you a safer diver today than you were a year ago?

are you trying to be a safer diver in a year than you are right now?

then relax, my friend... that's all that really counts

 

[TSandM]

Erik -- don't let the fear of the checkout dive stop you! I don't know about other GUE instructors, but the two I have met have been great people and superb teachers -- very encouraging and supportive, but also very honest about what is good and bad in one's performance. Or, as I said about Fundies, Steve could tell me I sucked so it hardly hurt at all You don't walk away from a Fundies class devastated, except by your failure to live up to your OWN expectations.

Anyway, it's a very good class. Everybody on SB knows I'm glad I took it.

 

[theatis]

Dear Erik,

Even though you received some incredible advice already i wanted to respond for a few reasons:

1) First you need to stop following Ingsoc principles. "Ignorance is strength"? What's next? "War is Peace"? Declaring that "we are the dead"? (Sorry, couldn't resist; 1984 is one of my favorite novels.)

2) You seem to be making a relativist comparison that is entirely unfair to YOU. You compare your ratio of enjoyment to skill level relative to the ratio of enjoyment to skill level of other divers who seem not to be bothered with skill. So, no wonder they seem to be having more fun than you are! So, the question is, if you weren't comparing yourself to these divers, would you still feel bad?

3) More than anything i wanted to respond because i totally sympathize. I have many fewer dives than you but i also find myself going down the slippery slope that Lynne talked about. Increasingly, i'm thinking about ways to become a better diver and the necessary skills rather than diving for the sake of it. It shouldn't be an exclusive dichotomy and there's no reason why you or i or anyone else couldn't be doing both at the same time. You seem discouraged to go further in your training but it would be a shame if the only reason for that is this comparison that you make that, i repeat, i find to be totally unfair to yourself.

4) My advice: relax, watch the game tomorrow and after you beat the Ukranians you'll feel a lot better!