Planning a dive

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TSandM

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I don't know about anybody else, but when I finished my OW class, I knew I was to "plan my dive and dive my plan." What I didn't have much idea about was what a dive plan was, and how you made one. Other than saying, "Let's swim out here and wander around and see what's down there," I didn't know what needed to be in a plan. So I thought I would write something about what I've learned in the last year and a half about dive planning. (You can get MUCH more detailed and technical about it than what I am about to say, but this is aimed at a new diver headed out to do a shore dive in local water.)

1) Pick your site, and then research it. "Research" sounds formidable, but it means finding out how to get there, what the parking's like, whether there are any facilities (restrooms, showers), whether there are any issues with access (limited time, physical barriers -- we have one local site where you have to cross railroad tracks to get to the entry!) Find out about hazards -- Do you need to take tides or currents into consideration? Are boats or fishermen typically present? See if there's a map of the dive site available somewhere. Something I learned is that divemasters often have to do a mapping project, so somewhere there are detailed underwater maps of popular sites. You can get some of this information from your local dive shop, or use shorediving.com, or Google the name of the dive site and see what you come up with. In the Seattle area, we have a good published book of shore dives, which has all this information in it.

What you learn about the site may affect what you decide to take with you -- for example, a dive flag or float, or a surface marker.

Once you have arrived at the site and rendezvoused with your buddy, take a few seconds to talk about things like where each of you is storing car keys and whether you have cell phones with emergency contact numbers programmed in them.

2) Decide the responsibilities of each diver. Who is going to lead? How are you going to position yourselves with respect to one another? Single file? Wing-on-wing? What signals are you going to use? (This is the time to make sure you signal numbers the same way!) This is the time to go through protocols like what you are going to do in the event you get separated. (Just a hint from my personal experience: If there is a photographer in the works, it's better if he leads.)

3) Where are you going to go? This includes talking about the topography of the dive site, compass headings if relevant, and what, if any, specific features you are going to look for.

4) Parameters for the dive: Max depth, direction (part of #3), anticipated duration. What's your ascent strategy going to be? (Ascent rate, stops if any -- where and for how long.)

5) Gas. Now that you've agreed on the nature of the dive and the proposed depth and rough duration, do you have the gas to do the dive? What is your required reserve? Shore diving almost always goes better if you plan to use half your useable gas going out and half coming back. (Nobody likes long surface swims!) Knowing your reserve and your gas plan tells you what your turn pressure should be. (See Rick Murchison's recent excellent thread on gas planning for a much more detailed discussion of this.)

It sounds like a lot, but it actually goes pretty quickly, once you get the steps well established in your mind. A lot of annoyance (and some unpleasantness) underwater can be avoided by going through this stuff methodically.
 
nicely put.... it's amazing how FEW folks actually take the time to even KNOW where they're going diving.... just show up and ....
 
You need to add emergency procedures......etc.
 
nice list!

alot really does going in to planning a dive!

Oh you forgot to include local bars and pubs....for your...um deco time after the dive:D
 
I truncated the gas management part and provided a link to Rick Murchison's recent thread on the topic.

As far as emergency procedures go, I'm not sure what was meant. It's a good idea to agree on the address where you are, talk about how you would summon help (thus the comment about cell phones), whether you have oxygen or anything on hand (most non-instructors I know don't). I did mention agreeing on things like lost buddy protocols.

Specific things like air-sharing technique or how to release weights really goes in the pre-dive equipment check, which I didn't include as part of dive planning.
 
ShakaZulu:
You need to add emergency procedures......etc.

I'm not speaking for ShakaZulu, but my interpretation of what is being said has to do with $)(!^ hitting the fan scenarios. For me that would deal with things like OOA situations...alternate air sources and locations...CESA's, entanglements, AGE and DCS..., panic, near drowning, emergency assistance, communication, access to O2...
 
TSandM:
I Once you have arrived at the site and rendezvoused with your buddy, take a few seconds to talk about things like where each of you is storing car keys and whether you have cell phones with emergency contact numbers programmed in them.
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You seemed to have left out something that I found to be important: That is to carefully evaluate the conditions of that day before even dragging the gear from the car. Does the visibility look acceptable, are the seas just a little too high?? Are there wave sets coming in every 6 minutes that will hammer you, especially if you only look at the water for 2 minutes.

I used to teach my students to get out and look at the water for a while to make sure that they want to do the dive. If you just glance at the water and then put all your gear on and drag your butt to the water, you are much more likely to say "what-the-hell" I'm not turning around now.

For some locations, with shore entry off of rocks, some days it could just be too rough to scuba dive, but you could have a fun time snorkeling.
 
Tried to upload a PDF form, can't seem to do it.:
HTML export and paste is the best I can do:

Dive Plan Form

1)If dives are made from an institution vessel a copy of this form, when completed, will be forwarded by the Diving Officer to the Marine Office. The Research Diving Supervisor should carry a copy to show the boat Captain.

2)Except for shore dives made at previously approved sites, all dives require a dive plan approved by the Diving Officer. The Diving Control Board will review all dive plan approvals at the next regularly scheduled meeting.


Research Diving Supervisor: _______________Principal Investigator:_______________


Dive Location:



Check all that apply: (This is supposed to be a 4 column table)
Purpose
☐ Chemistry
☐ Biology
☐ Geology
☐ Physics
☐ Search/Recovery
☐ Instrument Evaluation
☐ Instrument Maintenance
☐ Ship Maintenance
☐ Training
☐ Proficiency Dive
☐ ______________


Platform
☐ Shore
☐ Boat
☐ Ship
☐ Pool
☐ Chamber
☐ Habitat
☐ Submersible
☐ Diving Bell
☐ ____________


Mode
☐ Open Circuit
☐ Line Tended
☐ Oxygen Rebreather
☐ Semi-Closed Circuit
☐ Close Circuit
☐ Surface Supplied
☐ Semi-Closed Circuit
☐ Closed Circuit
☐ Nitrox ___
☐ Heliox ___/___
☐ TriMix ___/___/___
☐ ____________


Special
☐ Dry suit
☐ Dive Computer
☐ Decompression
☐ Dry suit
☐ Cave
☐ River
☐ Lake
☐ Polluted Water
☐ Blue Water
☐ ____________


Detail all `Other':








Description of diving:

















Emergency Communication System:








Emergency Evacuation Plan:











Diving Personnel & Diver ID Number:








Approved Date:_______________Principal nvestigator:_______________________

Approved Date:_______________Diving Officer: ____________________________

Confirmed Date:_______________Chairman, DCB: ___________________________
 
Thanks, DumpsterDiver. I should have added that, but didn't think of it -- We rarely have to do that kind of evaluation in the Sound!
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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