What Is The Most Important Skill For A New Diver?

[cdiver2]

Bad buoyancy (except a runaway accent) bad trim silting up the bottom (in open water) will not kill you. bad dive plan, bad gas management, bad navigation and bad buddy skills could.

 

[scuba-sass]

Communication - before the dive. That means taking in info from the pre-dive briefing, dive planning with your buddy, being honest about your skills, gear check etc. A good dive starts before anybody gets wet.

Scuba-sass

 

[eponym]

Most important skill for a new diver to work on?
(Since you already have your c-card, we assume you at least know how to breathe.)

Without buoyancy control:

your consumption's unpredictable (Gas Management)
you'll be plowing the bottom anyhow (Kicking)
your buddy will be down there / up there (Buddy awareness)
you can't dive your plan (Dive Planning)
you can't go where you want (Navigation)
and you surely aren't Having Fun.​

 

[skeet]

The choice was gas manegment not breathing or holding breath. Got to get buoyancy control to be able to improve on the rest.

 

[baitedstorm]

(Since you already have your c-card, we assume you at least know how to breathe.)

Assume nothing

 

[Queen]

When I first certified (1979) my instructor harped on buoyancy control, perhaps because without it here in the midwest you'd spend your dive stuck in muck up to your armpits if you couldn't contol yourself?? Anyway, I spent a bunch of time getting good at it and found with buoyancy under control all the other things fell into place better.

 

[eponym]

Assume nothing

ROTFLOL

Thanks, Storm.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Bad buoyancy (except a runaway accent) bad trim silting up the bottom (in open water) will not kill you. bad dive plan, bad gas management, bad navigation and bad buddy skills could.

Being able to stay with/aware of a buddy or follow a dive plan is dependant on being ablt to control position in the water.

 

[ScubaFreak]

Communication - before the dive. That means taking in info from the pre-dive briefing, dive planning with your buddy, being honest about your skills, gear check etc. A good dive starts before anybody gets wet.

Scuba-sass

I'm with Scuba Sass on this one. Communication is a biggy for me. Buoyancy improves with every dive. If the OW course was taught properly, the student should know the basics of buoyancy control. I'd prefer my buddy to communicate with me instead of shooting from bottom to top without letting me know what he/she is doing.

SF

 

[goodknight411]

Bouyancy. All those other skills will improve as
your bouyancy does.