New PSD.

[Lock Down]

I recently got a position on our county Dive team. I have been diving for two years, and I love the sport. I am also just starting to get into tech diving. My basic diving skills are good (buoyancy, air consumption, ect.) although I know that I will never stop learning and improving. I was just wondering if anyone had any suggestions for me concerning skills, gear, knowledge, or anything else that would help me improve or excell as a psd diver.
Thanks for any advice or info you can give me.

 

[bridgediver]

I recently got a position on our county Dive team. I have been diving for two years, and I love the sport. I am also just starting to get into tech diving. My basic diving skills are good (buoyancy, air consumption, ect.) although I know that I will never stop learning and improving. I was just wondering if anyone had any suggestions for me concerning skills, gear, knowledge, or anything else that would help me improve or excell as a psd diver.
Thanks for any advice or info you can give me.

Welcome!
Just keep diving!

If you're serious about doing tech AND PSD you'll find HUGE contradictions between the 2 disciplines. Don't try and morph the 2 together because it doesn't work.
learn to wear 2 hats

 

[seductiveconcepts]

I recently got a position on our county Dive team. I have been diving for two years, and I love the sport. I am also just starting to get into tech diving. My basic diving skills are good (buoyancy, air consumption, ect.) although I know that I will never stop learning and improving. I was just wondering if anyone had any suggestions for me concerning skills, gear, knowledge, or anything else that would help me improve or excell as a psd diver.
Thanks for any advice or info you can give me.

I am a PSD and have been one for going on 3 years, I really enjoy it. Some tips for a new PSD. Trust your gear, trust your teammates, and trust your instructor. There is a good bit of difference between sportdiving and what we do as a psd... as a PSD we don't get to pick the viz, temperature, time of day, or location that we dive. We dive when noone else wants too. The biggest bit of advice I can give you, is that you make sure your team all has matching gear, (identical regs, bc's, all on the same configuration), and that your team uses actual PSD training agencies that only train PSD's.(dive rescue international etc....) Best of luck to you and remember BE SAFE, the best dive is where everyone comes home to dinner!

 

[Gary D.]

I am a PSD and have been one for going on 3 years, I really enjoy it. Some tips for a new PSD. Trust your gear, trust your teammates, and trust your instructor. There is a good bit of difference between sportdiving and what we do as a psd... as a PSD we don't get to pick the viz, temperature, time of day, or location that we dive. We dive when noone else wants too. The biggest bit of advice I can give you, is that you make sure your team all has matching gear, (identical regs, bc's, all on the same configuration), and that your team uses actual PSD training agencies that only train PSD's.(dive rescue international etc....) Best of luck to you and remember BE SAFE, the best dive is where everyone comes home to dinner!

Good boy, you paid attention in class.

The one bit of advice I can add is a tough one. But it needs to be first and foremost all the time. It is simply; DO NOT LET PEER PRESSURE PUSH YOU INTO ANYTHING YOU ARE NOT READY TO DO!

Peer pressure can be a killer.

If you remember some prior posts my entire team stood right there in front of everyone and said they weren’t ready to do the dive we had facing us and it was well within our policy. I have never been so proud of a bunch of guys, especially LEO’s, because sometimes we just don’t know when to back down or back off.

Gary D.

 

[Lock Down]

Thankyou everyone for the advice and tips. I will keep diving and learning.

 

[BladesRobinson]

DO NOT LET PEER PRESSURE PUSH YOU INTO ANYTHING YOU ARE NOT READY TO DO!

Gary is right on target but I will add a couple other considerations too.

Risk/Benefit Factor ... It is prudent to ask yourself (and for your teammates to ask themselves), "Is the risk worth the benefit?" If you or others on your team are not 100% comfortable with the operation, have the courage to speak up and say so. As Gary mentioned, "peer pressure" can get public safety divers in trouble. In a "recovery mode" the benefit is minimal and the potential for risk should be too! If someone has already drowned, it does no one any good for a PSD to loose their life too.

Making the Dive/No Dive Decision ... along the same lines of Risk/Benefit, have the courage to make the "no dive" decision when the operation begins to exceed the training, skill and ability of the team and team members. It is a tough call to make but I feel it is important to remember; Good teams are comfortable making good decisions and there are times when the "no dive" decision is a good decision to make. You should strive to be affiliated with a good team where EVERY TEAM MEMBER IS EMPOWERED TO MAKE THE DIVE/NO DIVE DECISION!

Dive safe and keep BRIDGEDIVER's comments in mind too. There are HUGE differences between recreational, technical and PSD. They are each complimentary disciplines but also distinctly different. In the same manner that you get "technical diver training" from a "technical diver" you should strive to get public safety diver training from an instructor who has actually had some experience making public safety dives and is an active member on a recognized team, with considerable experience.

Regards,

Blades

 

[Lock Down]

I have my first training day coming up. I will let you all know how it went. Thanks for the input and also for the advice.

 

[bane51031]

Good points made by those above, as PSD's we need to make the call as it is our lives and those of our team at stake. We train and train some more as much as we can, not every scenario can be trained for but, we try to be as prepared as possible.

Do not dive if the situation is out of your scope of training and again it is your resaponsibility to recognize that.

And yes, recreational diving is nothing like diving as a PSD.Very few recreational divers would venture into zero vis.,3 feet of duck/goose crap and God knows what else tied to a line. But hey it is what we do...
Be safe......

 

[Gary D.]

3 feet of duck/goose crap

A bit of Orange Glaze with a Bloomin Onion and Twice Baked garlic spuds goes good with Duck and Goose.

Gary D.

 

[dittrimd]

I thought I could find nothing worse than goose crap until I recently showed up on scene and found four swans two white and two black swimming around. They take the cake when it comes to not only size but smell!!!