Old or incompetent -- Which would YOU prefer?

[TravelDive]

Well, honestly, I was completely willing to swallow his original evaluation. I'm NOT good in midwater, and given the number of dives I have and the training I've gotten, I should be way better.

Dude,

I am **** in mid water (Im 33), alot of people are. Its perfectly natural, more so for people who have vestibular weaknesses and sight-balance compensating (without knowing it). No matter, you still rely on site alot for balance, people who lose balance don't feel great, especially underwater.

Prove the bugger wrong!

Happy Diving!

 

[Darnold9999]

Personally I would rather be told I am too old to do something than to be told I am incompetent.

Too old is a judgement of an objective fact that I have no control over, whereas incompetent is a judgement of me as a person.

I am too old to do lots of things I used to do. The body is just not up to the physical demands of some of the things I used to do. No reflection on my skills abilities this is something that happens to everyone eventually. Incompetent means I will never have the skills and is a reflection on me specifically.

This might be a male female thing with men being more sensitive to their abilities as percieved by others and women more sensitive to their age.

 

[Randy43068]

If that instructor would "miscommunicate" something of that importance and not have the decency to talk to you personally about it when he discovered the misunderstanding, then perhaps it's time to consider a different instructor.

But I know this isn't what's at issue here....

 

[dpbishop]

Why the frack are you still doing classes? Are you planning on a second career working on the oil platforms? From your posts on this board it's obvious you have all the skills necessary to be an excellent recreational diver, and that's what scuba is all about imho, recreation.

I've been diving since '73 and I've never even taken an AOW class; never saw the point to it. Haven't taken a nitrox course cause I don't do nitrox; don't see the point of it. In SoCal there isn't much that you can see at 300 feet that you can't see at 100 feet or less, so I don't do gas. PNW is pretty much the same, I think. For the price of an advanced course I can do a couple of boat dives and enjoy it more then having somebody half my age tell me how to dive.

 

[24940]

Dude,

That would be Dudette....


At what age would a body be too old to withstand the rigors of staged deco, tech1 level dives? If it took you another year to acquire the mid water skills, how many more years till the risks outweighed the rewards?

These are more questions I ask of myself than of you, Lynne. But, I'd be interested in how you answer them.

 

[cool_hardware52]

He said the instructor told him I had misinterpreted what he said. The message was that at my stage of life, it wouldn't be worth the effort and time to achieve the skill level necessary to do more technical diving.

The analysis of effort vs reward is one only you can make.

Tobin

 

[Dive-aholic]

Rob, that is a very unfortunate statement. You've seen her moments after she's gotten out of bed -- can you imagine how old she feels then before the Vitamin I has kicked in? Even without "the grape" she is fortunate for unlike people who don't ache in the morning, she knows she'll feel better later in the day.

Well, Peter, that depends on how you interpret that. I experience pain every day and it worsens before I go to bed and for at least an hour after getting out of bed. I sometimes physically feel twice my age. But mentally, I almost always feel half my age. And Lynne has a young spirit. She doesn't let much stop her...except, at times, her own self criticisms...

 

[drbill]

Hmmm... why can't we be both?

 

[TSandM]

Well, unfortunately, it appears that the wry humor I intended in the original post just didn't come across at all!

Folks, I'm not particularly distressed at being told I shouldn't shoot for open water technical diving. Tech diving in our area is essentially all wrecks, many of them in Lake Washington, where the viz is typically horrible (2 or 3 FEET) and it's darker than the inside of a cat. I'm not big on wrecks, and inspecting them 18 inches at a time doesn't inspire me at all. Doing 20 minutes of bottom time and 30 minutes of green water deco doesn't, either!

I think everybody who knows me know that, if this were something I really wanted to do, I'd dig in, grit my teeth, and work my rear end off to get it done. It isn't, so I don't. Caves, now that was a totally different story.

I just thought it was sort of a humorous choice to be given, to accept being a klutz or accept being told I was too old to do something. A couple of people have actually had some very clever responses to that

 

[Rick Inman]

Tech diving in our area is essentially all wrecks, many of them in Lake Washington, where the viz is typically horrible (2 or 3 FEET) and it's darker than the inside of a cat. I'm not big on wrecks, and inspecting them 18 inches at a time doesn't inspire me at all.

Yeah, whatever. You love those caves, where sometimes the opening is only 18", and you have to spend thousands of dollars to get there to dive them. Ya know, there are wrecks in 100' vis that cost the same or less to get to. Young enough and smart enough to go inside those holes in the earth and somehow get out alive, and then wax poetically, romantically even (never heard you say the things about Peter that you say about caves ) about those rock holes - ya know, like a drug?

I don't know what instructor says you are qualified to go inside those caves, and/or dive HE, but says you're too old and clumsy to do OW tech dives, but I'd bet you they're are under 50 years old.

Brother! Kids today...