Stopping intentional skill development?

[MXGratefulDiver]

Posting the advanced forum.

Reflecting post dive today while I was enjoying photography I dedicated no conscious effort to improving my skills as a diver during the dive. Entirely happy with the mechanics of the dive in their imperfections as they allowed me the joy of being underwater safely and were 'good enough' to let me accomplish what I came for.

If I'm in a high silt SM cave, with a special needs student or testing a modification on a homebuilt rebreather I'm dive mechanics focused. But at the end of the day I love being underwater and if I didn't need to dive to accomplish that, I wouldn't dive.

With a rightful emphasis on increased safety and ongoing training do you still have 'fun' dives where the diving perfection becomes secondary? How or when did you decide your skills were good enough and at a level of maintained you were comfortable not refining them further for a few dives?

Avoiding deadly complacency,
Cameron

Hmmm ... this is something I had a reason to give some thought to last week, when making a free ascent in current off a pinnacle. The ascent went well enough ... but with the currents swirling around I wasn't as able to hold my safety stop depth as much as I'm used to. Thinking back on when was the last time I had to make such an ascent my thought was "I need to practice that skill more often".

Skills tend to fade with lack of use ... and I don't think I'll ever reach a point where I don't think I could improve them with practice ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[northernone]

Hmmm ... this is something I had a reason to give some thought to last week, when making a free ascent in current off a pinnacle. The ascent went well enough ... but with the currents swirling around I wasn't as able to hold my safety stop depth as much as I'm used to. Thinking back on when was the last time I had to make such an ascent my thought was "I need to practice that skill more often".

Skills tend to fade with lack of use ... and I don't think I'll ever reach a point where I don't think I could improve them with practice ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Thank you. It's a timely reminder that we simply don't 'own' skills, they need to be maintained and lubricated occasionally.

On a side note, I had a chuckle at myself. When I read 'free ascent' I thought out of air CESA type ascent and was puzzling how you normally held a safety stop on the way up! Remembered after a few seconds that a free ascent also is not followed a fixed reference to the surface.

Cheers!
Cameron

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Yes, perhaps I should have said "blue water ascent" ... but around here the water's green ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Bob DBF]

I actually want to stop the unintentional skill development that crops up from time to time during my otherwise relaxing dives.


Bob

 

[yle]

Remembering to sometimes just enjoy a dive, and that not every dive must have an objective, is a skill also... which must be practiced and developed.

 

[Ayisha]

If I begin a dive, it's because I want to have fun. Just diving is fun and practicing skills can be fun too. Once the skills are ingrained, you don't have to think about them, they just naturally happen. Every dive is unintentional skills development. If you haven't been diving or haven't practiced in a while, they might be less proficient, but it seems the learning curve is very short if the skills were ingrained already.

So, once you're used to diving in trim (which can feel like you're head down when you're not used to it), neutrally buoyant, and with certain propulsion techniques, you're not thinking about it or actively trying to make it happen. You just have fun and it just works.

 

[Michael Guerrero]

I mainly focus on (and fail to achieve) "perfection" during certification, and am happy to be sloppy most of the rest of the time. That said, I almost exclusively dive open water deco dives, where sloppy isn't likely to get you into much trouble.

If I were diving a lot of cave/wreck with siltout concerns, I'd be more strict about it.

That said, even the silly SNAFUs on fun dives add to experience, so most dives are probably improving the diver.