Sharings of the Rookie (a.k.a. Learn From the N00b)

[BalekFekete]

@Verses recently posted a thread that took some personal insight and courage, highlighting to the new and/or relatively newly initiated some learnings - or as he calls them 'mistakes' - identified during his first dives after finishing the OW certification. Given I am in the exact same boat, now a few weeks back from my first "real dives", it's inspirated me to share some of my learnings in hopes that those who are about to embark on the same journey might have a few more nuggets of knowledge in the memory banks and may learn something from my personal issues/shortcomings.

Advanced warning - this is going to be long (so much so that I need to break it into two sections...10000 character limit? Really?? ), so settle in.

I'm discounting our first dive as OW certified divers - we refilled our tanks after our 4th training dive and just went down and around the quarry ourselves - and will talk to a pair of two tank dives we did on a recent cruise. Our ports of call were Bermuda and St. Maarten. The Bermuda dives went off without a hitch. Our dive operator (Fantasea) was professional yet hands-off enough that we needed to use most of our training each time down. We set up our own gear, did our pre-splash buddy checks, good paired decents with a reference line, and dove throughout the 45-ish minutes at around 40' in style. Ok...fine...my trim leaves something to be desired and I'm an air hog - but I can live with both of those as just room for growth (more on the latter later ). I end the dive with about 800lbs of air in the tank, having carefully monitored it throughout as the DM had instructed. Of course the Mrs. had almost 1400lbs, so my competitive mind is screamin' at me. Either way, our ascents were done in a group from the bottom to a safety stop and final exit out of the water without incident. It was a literal 5 minute jaunt over to the next stop, but we relaxed, rehydrated, and just shot the s*** with the other divers so we didn't even take note of our SI (again...I'll come back to that...) and simply dove again when our DM indicated we could start gearing up again.

Exact same results on the second dive - I even felt comfortable enough to take the GoPro down the second time.

Now, fast forward two days to our stop in St. Maarten. This was an afternoon dive, and as we got to the marina and were signing in, our DM asked right away "Do either of you have a problem with seasickness?". It happened that wind was blowing around 25 kts. around the island, making for some rough boating out to the dive sites. Not so much that the dive had to be scrapped, but it wasn't going to be a pleasure cruise like two days prior. We get set up on the boat, get our gear assigned to us, at which point I start getting ready to assemble my rig. The DM looks at me and says "No mate...just sit back and relax...we'll take care of that.". Umm....okaaay. Sure I guess? He proceeds to set up all the rigs on our way out, while the three divers work win the staring contest with the horizon (and not upheeve over the rails). As we near our first site, the DM tells us that we'll get into the water in a particular fashion. In pairs, we'll put on our mask, weight belt, and fins, and take a seat at the back of the boat, feet over onto the lower sill (apologies for failure to know/learn all the real terminology ). The captain then will bring over our kit and help us into it. Giant stride into the water and we'll go down together. No worries I think...and it goes off without a hitch. Nice 48' dive at 50' throughout, and up and out like our earlier dives. I'm still sucking air tho', ending the dive with 600lbs in the tank after starting the ascent with 800lbs (vs. 700lb target the DM had set at the start of the dives).

Onto the next site - which at first we were told would be a drift dive. Both the wife and I tell the DM we've never done a drift dive before, but he let's us know that where it's a small group (4 incl. the DM) we'd stay together and be OK. However, surface conditions led the captain to convince the DM he'd prefer we did a stationary location, so we instead route to a spot about 30 mins away. Seas are still very rough, so it's back to staring at the horizon for the full time. DM changes out our gear in transit, and we head down just like before. Now for some of the "fun". My wife has some trouble with her mask at the surface, plays with it some, and thinks she has it sealed. We're decending, she's clearing it two or three times on the way down to 35' or so. At that point she realizes she can't keep up with it, and starts to head to the surface. I look around and the other fellow has already surfaced as well (turns out he forgot his camera and wanted it) and DM followed him up, so I'm all alone now. I realize that's not a good idea, and head up to the bottom of the bouy down line (boat put out a life ring with a weighted line down to about 20') quickly - but not watching my computer ascent rate. It'll show me later that I violated the ascent rate. I wait there for the 3 at the surface to get sorted out and for them to come back down as I hold on. About 5 minutes later, we're together and head down to 50' for a nice dive around reef/wreck diving.

 

[BalekFekete]

It's just about time - based on my air - to start working our way up. The DM has us circling around a grassy area which - as it turns out - was near where the boat was sitting. We start up towards the down line, but as I finally look at my computer (wasn't looking at on the way up again ) it has thrown an error and indicates a mandatory safety stop. I remembered reading about how the computer displayed deco. stops, but admitidly didn't fully incoporate it into my mind since I thought "Well...we're not going deep, and on the timed dives we're on, we couldn't possibly get close to NDL". As it turned out, I got within 10 mins of my NDL and all the way up to Pressure Group U. My computer mandated the safety stop when you get within 3 PGs from NDL. We did the safety stop that satisfied my computer, and we go to exit the water. On the plus side, I was concentrating on slow, even breathing throughout the dive and got MUCH better - ended with almost 1100lbs. I'm on the surface, being the gentleman and letting everyone get out first. It hits me when I get to the ladder - I'm exhaused. Way more so than after the second dive in Bermuda. I get out under my own power, but I'm two-footing each ladder step not because it's the right way to do it, but because I need to. I'm out of the water, out of my gear, and sit down again in the shade. Off we go and I stare down the horizon again.

Only now I'm not just feeling the prior pseudo-nausea of the seas, but also some minor cramping in my upper forearm muscles in each arm. Not painful by any stretch, but sore like you feel after doing a few sets of freeweights. At that point my mind starts racing. "Did I just bork our entire cruise and am going to end up riding a chamber?!?" I say in my mind. Half way back to the dock I get the DMs attention and let him know what I'm feeling. He asks more direct questions - is it pain, or aching. I respond the latter, fully. He summarizes it's likely dehydration (after he asks how much I've been drinking, answered "nothing due to the seas), and says I should keep an eye on it for the immediate future and see the ship's Dr. if it doesn't improve.

The story ends with me getting up onto the dock, drinking about 30 fl. oz. of water, wolfing down the pair of bananas I had on me, and feeling back to 100% in about 10 minutes time. But still scared silly and had me dwelling on it ever since.

So what did I pull away from this, all of it from the second set of dives:

• First and foremost, I need to own my gear and be a buddy. I get the shop was trying to give full service, etc., but it lulled me into a point where I didn't do the gear checks that I feel I should be doing, and was trained to do. I checked everything once it was donned, and the Captain did, but not my buddy. And I didn't do it for my buddy.
• Continuing on the buddy theme - stay with my buddy! Yes, she was on the surface with the DM and at a life ring attached to the boat. But I wasn't with her. So not only was she without a buddy - but so was I. I was alone at 20-25' for more than a brief moment. Who knows what could have happened, and whether I'd handle it properly. All I know is I'm less likely to make it out alone than I would be with someone there.
• Control my ascents. I knew enough to get a good dive computer before we went, but I didn't incorporate into my head the idea that I need to be watching it anytime I'm making any changes of depth of significance. Twice I violated my ascent rate and didn't know I did it. Dangerous and can be prevented by just turning my wrist up.
• Eat and drink, even if I might lose it over the rail. We were taught how important proper hydration is, and how many calories we burn diving, but I was worried about looking like a fool hurling my meager breakfast into the seas than what the implications would be by not eating/drinking.
  
• Last but certainly not least - I didn't plan the second dive in the computer to understand what my personal profile would be. I didn't know that diving to plan would put me awfully close to NDL and, as a result, have me with some pretty significant N2 tissue load. After downloading the dives at home, the computer had one tissue compartment in the 85% or so range and 5 compartments above 50%. I'm still learning how to really interpret that information, but I know enough (I think) that getting that close to 100% is bad.

At the end of the day, I came out still enjoying the experience more than words can convey, and my wife went from a less-than-thrilled partner (she went through the process for me only ... not for her by any stretch) to saying "I really wish we saw a shark" at the end. We're in this for the long-haul, no question, and thankfully getting some of these rookie mistakes out of the way early.

Thanks for the read, and thanks even more in advance for those who'll see something else under the surface here that I didn't highlight and can bring it to my attention. Might already be thinking it and didn't put it into text, but err on the side of "how could he not think this" and let me have it.

B.

 

[Neilwood]

I think you analysed your dives pretty well.

I would agree with most of your bullet points:
Gear - it is mine and mine alone. I will set it up and then do a full buddy check prior to diving (especially if I or my buddy are new both to diving or each other). You need to know each others safety items such as clips, cutters etc just in case.
Buddy - you should ascend and descend together every time. If she has a problem, you go with her and vice versa.
Ascents - watch the computer when ascending. All modern computers will show you an ascent rate in some form or other be it a diagram with lines or as s number - know how to read it and know what a safe ascent rate is (30ft/min deeper and slowing up near the surface)
Food/hydration - important especially on a multi dive trip. Scuba burns a LOT of calories. Make sure you drink plenty as well. Couple of bananas and a bottle of water will do wonders. Packing a ginger biscuit or two can help with seasickness as well.
Planning - doing multiple dives especially with short SI will lead to restrictive NDL. A number of computers will penalise you heftily if you are under 1Hr SI. The longer between dives the better though.

You will make mistakes - we all do especially when new. Treat each dive as a learning experience and discuss it with your wife/buddy each time. It is amazing how quick you learn when you take the time to have that debrief every time (even if it is little things such as watching for dangling equipment or spacing/speed).

Welcome to the hobby... actually it is more of an addiction. I think there is a 12 step plan but no one wants it!

 

[-JD-]

I'm a newbie too and have kind of done it in reverse. Check out in Grand Cayman (Sweet BTW!) and since have been diving at Dutch for AOW and now rescue. Good things to think about for when I can actually hit some warm water with viz again!

One thing to think about on the ascent violations. You may want to look at your depth graph at those violation points carefully. If you have a wrist-mounted computer, it is not too hard to dramatically increase your logged ascent rate if you go from reach-down to a reach-up position, especially if your body is already ascending. In the case of the first dive, maybe trailing your arm during ascent and then reaching up for the weighted line or something. Similarly, an ascent @ 30 fpm net, hand over hand on a line results in something approximating a repeating 0 fpm then 60 fpm for your hand. It also might be worth looking for info on exactly what circumstances trigger the violation for your computer. If it happens to be > 31 fpm for 1 second, then that is more of a "caution or reminder," if it is > 60 fpm for 5 seconds that is obviously much more important to address

My point being, understand if you really did anything "wrong" so that you can either figure out how best not to do what was really wrong, or how not to antagonize your computer if you are otherwise doing it right.

 

[wildbill9]

Good read and good job! It brought back memories. It's like betting on the ponies or playing the market, we make some poor selections. Been there, done that and thankfully have a dive shirt to prove it. Bottom line as long as your exists equal entrances life is good. Go forth and learn more! We all were the fng at some point. Peace out, go forth and blow bubbles some more. Bill

 

[nolatom]

You've got good insight, pretty good attentiveness, and a good attitude. And a willingness to look at your mistakes (none of which were all that bad, at least in my view) and work on them, sharing with others even at the risk of feeling embarrassed to fess up. Good on ya.

And yes, Mrs. Diver will use less air than you. It's just physiology. But she will not lord it over you, for which be grateful ;-)