SINGLE most useful thing you have learned?

[ScubaFeenD]

While still fairly new to this great activity I have been fortunate to learn an exceptional amount of knowledge and skill from two extraordinary instructions local to me. I have learned stuff ranging from decompression tips all the way to basic gear setup hints and as a result of my out of water and in water education I feel ultra comfortable in the water and confident in the skills I do have at the limits I have been trained to.

However, Lynne got me thinking beyond just the tangible obvious education. Instead, her question begs a more broad ranging education from one simple nugget of info. For me it was this rhetorical exercise in fundamentals: "How do you do a lot of diving? You live a long time." It seems silly on the face of it, but if you think about the statement it makes, it really helps you always go back to priority number 1 for any dive, and that is to make it as safe as possible no matter what.

I am glad that my fundamentals instructor threw out that wisdom. Simple yet powerful.

 

[Teamcasa]

The single most useful thing I have learned:

Slow is always preferred to fast.

Slow down everything from my breathing, finning, ascents and the video camera. But most of all, slow down when it comes to judging others.

 

[BabyDuck]

i've been thinking about this, too, and i think what i've come up with is -

the internet.

yep. i've had a blast diving & learned a ton & decided to learn to dive caves & ended up pregnant & found a permanent dive buddy snugglebunny & lots of general dive buddies...all because of the internet. diving, for me, would be very different without all y'all. the people i've met in real life are because of the internet, the fact i'm diving at all is because of the internet, and i've spent countless hours in fairly serious research & very serious time-wasting diving on the internet.

 

[xjeslesx]

To not get dead, while diving.

It is pretty good advise.

 

[pjhansman]

decided to learn to dive caves & ended up pregnant

if that's a common side effect then my hopes of my wife joining me cave diving just got killed :shocked2:

 

[Dsix36]

..................... decided to learn to dive caves & ended up pregnant ...................

That all for me folks. I am finshed cave diving. I ain't gettin pregnant too.

 

[Divedoggie]

Assuming we all learn pretty much the same thing in our formal dive educations, I would have to pick something that I learned along the way, maybe even the hard way.

Don't be afraid to communicate or listen to predive concerns even if it might offend your buddy or an op.
Many times observations and concerns that go unspoken before the dive become major problems in the water.

A recent experience with this may just inspire me to start an interesting thread.

 

[SeaHorse81]

To the many great ideas already on the thread, I will add this: Aside from doing all the necessary things to avoid dying or getting injured, the most important thing I have learned is to treat every dive as if it is the last I will ever be able to make. I imagine each time that this is the last time I will ever see the blue, commune with the critters, experience weightlessness and flight, etc.

The fact is, you seldom know what your last experience of something will be until after it has already happened. An accident or illness in yourself or someone else, a change of life circumstance, or even just the breakdown of the only available dive boat on your vacation. Anything can mean that the last time you dove will be the last time, for awhile or forever. Hopefully it won't be, but just in case it is, you will have spent that dive drinking in every last detail, every feeling, every bit of wonder. And if, as is most often the case, you get to go back in again, then have that same magnificent experience, and keep doing it every time.

 

[Kevrumbo]

GUE Fundamental/UTD Essential Procedure of the Team Head-to-Toe Equipment Check: Works not only for pre-dive so you won't forget anything, but also packing for overseas travel and un-packing on initial arrival & gear set-up at the dive-ops or liveaboard. . .

 

[DennisW]

Never hold your breath.