Intermittent diving - is it safe?... and a question about diving styles.

[Echinoidea]

Dear SBers

I'm a long-lapsed OW diver (PADI). I trained when I was 14 (23 now), did about 7 dives and then stopped. I'm now thinking of getting back into diving (just standard recreational diving, nothing techie) but I have a few questions before jumping in and getting trained:


1) Due to the nature of my life (I'm a biology grad student who often has to work long hours and weekends, who also enjoys other time-consuming hobbies such as hiking and sailing) I will of necessity be a fairly intermittent diver. I won't be one of the once-a-year brigade (I'd prefer not to dive than to dive every time on year old skills - asking for trouble!), but I can see myself being able to go diving recreationally about once a month on average, and can foresee gaps of 4-6 months on occasion. The exception to this is training - I can organise myself so that I am free for the requisite number of weekends/evenings for that. I'm also perfectly happy to do refresher courses after every long break if that's sensible. My question - is it possible to be a safe, reasonably skilled diver on that sort of timetable? I ask because I recently gave up glider pilot training after concluding that I couldn't keep my skills honed to a sufficient degree with the amount of time I was able to commit to flying, and thought that diving might be a good alternative that didn't require quite such continuous training/practice to stay on top of it.

2) One of the principal reasons I gave up diving as a teenager was due to a few less than satisfactory dives on holidays. I like to look at things in detail, and would prefer to spend 10 minutes looking at one critter, really getting a good idea of its behaviour, anatomy etc. rather than see 10 critters briefly, but on most of the guided dives I've done the modus operandi seemed to be more of an "underwater hike" i.e. moving continuously and quite rapidly over the reef (no, these weren't drift dives). I remember seeing something interesting, stopping for a good look and then almost immediately having to move on as the group was swimming away. This got to be extremely frustrating. I would like to know how easy it would be to find a buddy who feels the way I do and would prefer to stay for a while in one good spot - seeing the natural behaviour of the reef etc., rather than swimming all over the place scaring the fish. Maybe an underwater photographer would make a good buddy for me?

3) In relation to question 2, how easy would it be to find guided dives that better fit this "slow down and look" diving philosophy, or could I dive safely unguided immediately out of training e.g. with a more experienced buddy or hired divemaster on easy dives (I'm in the UK)? I'm really not interested in too many more "underwater hike" type dives, unless they're drift dives - that looks fun!

Sorry for the long post, and thanks for any answers!

 

[Crush]

Welcome back to diving, Echinoidea!

1. I would recommend a refresher course, or even just some serious one-on-one mentoring with a DM;

2. I dive every month in the summer (sometimes every week) then go up to five months without diving. I notice personally that after 2 months I am "off" in the water. I find that one or two easy dives help me get back into it, so if (after a break of several months) I were to do some dives to 80 feet in cold water with 15 foot vis I would go shore diving the day before and play with my buoyancy and kicks in shallow water;

3. With respect to your frustration with other divers racing around - I hear you! I stared a thread here: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ne...ring-diving/427785-suggestion-new-divers.html which seems to have been favourably received. Personally I think that the experienced divers will take it easy - it is the new divers that tend to race around.

Cheers,

Crush

 

[Altissimus]

Hi Echinoidea,

As a fellow Brit, I feel your pain! It's certainly difficult to get frequent dives around here, but there are ways. It depends where abouts in the UK you are, but there are some options.

First up, I would consider getting dry suit certified. You can do this in any of a number of LDS close to your home (found with a quick google search). A dry suit has the significant advantage that it allows you to dive all-year around in nearly all conditions. I know an instructor in Gozo who dives with his even in summer when the water is 28 degrees. But really it's designed to keep you warm when the water is freezing. Which, around the UK, it more-often-than-not is.

Assuming you're not in the extremeties of the country, you may well end up diving at somewhere like Stoney Cove in Leicestershire for the final part of the dry suit course. This is also a good place to meet (a lot) of other divers, and find someone who matches your dive style (there are more than you think who see the benefits of "diving slowly"!). Alternatively you may be lucky and be by the sea-side, and find a LDS near you there. Again, ask around and you are sure to find a buddy who appreciates diving slow, because, frankly, many divers do.

The above is really the best way to get any decent number of dives done in the UK, otherwise you're dependent on weekly trips to Sharm when you can afford it, and that doesn't quite fit what you were asking for.

Hope the above helps.

A.

 

[TMHeimer]

All good advice. I would think how "challenging" (deep? currents?) a dive you do intermittantly would depend on how intermittant it is. If you're only diving once monthly (ei., never a stretch where you dive once weekly for 3 months, etc.), I would advise to probably keep it simple and shallow. Refresher after 6 months may not be needed if you've dived regularly for 20 years, but in your case I would advise it. I like the idea of hiring a DM or just going with an experienced buddy who shares your slow pace idea.

 

[Echinoidea]

Thanks so much for the replies!

Really glad to hear that slow diving is appreciated more than I thought - thanks for the link to the thread Crush - so true about seeing more by slowing down. I hadn't considered poor buoyancy control as a reason people race, I guess I didn't have that problem as buoyancy control was always one of my stronger skills when I was training (except the time I didn't have my inflator hose ready to dump on ascent and was heading into the infamous polaris missile ascent - luckily it was only 2-3 metres before I figured it out and pulled the shoulder dump valve).

Altissimus - I reckon I'll take your advice and get dry suit trained if I do take up diving again, as I plan on doing a fair amount of UK diving. Apart from anything else it's probably easier to move around in a dry suit compared to the 8mm semi-drys we used in training (in Vivian quarry in North Wales)!

---------- Post Merged at 11:39 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 11:27 PM ----------

TMHeimer - sorry, missed your post when I was writing my reply, just wanted to say great advice, thanks. Totally agree with keeping it simple/shallow for now (one of the things I learned from flying gliders is that in technical sports like flying and diving you can't push the envelope very far before it rips). Then again, I'm angling to get a 6 month break after I get my PhD in about 2 years - I can think of worse things to do in that time than get skilled up for some more challenging diving.

 

[Thalassamania]

Most scientific diving programs understand this problem and specifically train for it, both in terms of "over-training" so you never forget what to do and using specific exercises that you can use with a buddy to tool back up for the next field season after a few years in the lab. If your institution has a Diving Safety Officer, talk with him or her, if not talk with the DSO from a nearby institution.

---------- Post Merged at 12:47 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 12:47 PM ----------

Most scientific diving programs understand this problem and specifically train for it, both in terms of "over-training" so you never forget what to do and using specific exercises that you can use with a buddy to tool back up for the next field season after a few years in the lab. If your institution has a Diving Safety Officer, talk with him or her, if not talk with the DSO from a nearby institution.

 

[Scuba_Noob]

I think diving one occasion (two dives) each month is more than many divers. I'd suggest after a four or five month break that you do some skills practice in a pool before heading out in the open water again. Also, I'm sure the UK has some great local diving; with drysuit certification, you can practice your skills all the time.

As for your inclination to dive slow, I'm in the same boat. I love just looking at animals, and now I take photos of them too! On vacations, just let the DMs know that you want to go a bit slower, and maybe they'll compromise.

 

[Searcaigh]

Maybe an underwater photographer would make a good buddy for me?

Maybe you would be a good buddy for an underwater photographer to carry a spare camera housing with different lens attached

3) In relation to question 2, how easy would it be to find guided dives that better fit this "slow down and look" diving philosophy, or could I dive safely unguided immediately out of training e.g. with a more experienced buddy or hired divemaster on easy dives (I'm in the UK)? I'm really not interested in too many more "underwater hike" type dives, unless they're drift dives - that looks fun!

Many ops around the world do just that, I hate the mass crowds of dozens of divers at one dive site. My UK dives are generally with few people and generally shallow shore dives around Oban looking at critters.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

If you can dive monthly, with an occasional gap of several months, you are a very active diver. A refresher up front is a good idea. If you go more than 90 days between dives, it is also good to do a pool session just to re-acquaint yourself with your gear. Many, I would even say most, divers dive one trip per year or less. I think it is a shame to be deprived of diving for such long periods. But Debbie and I get only 2 to 4 trips per year, plus local diving from June through October. We have gaps of four months from time to time, and find the pool session useful.
DivemasterDennis

 

[Peter Guy]

OP -- Thank you for asking the questions. As someone who had a very long surface interval (much longer than yours but also more diving the first time around), I have a slightly different take.

a. Retake the Open Water course. There may well be new stuff in it, the gear may be somewhat different, who knows, you may find you key on very different stuff. In any event, it has been long enough, in my opinion, you should start over with the whole class -- not just a one night refresher.

b. IF you can, plan on going to a pool on a somewhat regular basis to go "blow bubbles." Working on buoyancy control, stability, basic skills, in a pool is a great way of keeping fresh -- even if you aren't going to do a "real dive" for some time.

c. Join a dive club, keep up with the folks in your class, etc. to find buddies who want to dive as you do -- that is, slow and friendly.

Good luck.