Are you a flyer or a looker?

[Seaduced]

My hat is off, Grateful Diver. Kudos.

+1 Yet another aspect of the talented Grateful Diver...

I start every diver as a looker. But, as my air and camera battery get low, I pull up under the boat and practice soaring, sculling with my fins, floating in odd attitudes, positioning my fins so I corkscrew as I descend and other less useful, but entertaining skills.

 

[_Blue]

definitely a flyer. one of the reasons I took up scuba was because it afforded me the ability to finally "fly". it's like when you're a kid and you talk about what super power you'd want if you were a superhero, I could care less about super strength or invisibility or nifty space ray shooting accouterments, it was always, "I'd like to be able to fly".

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Flyer. Don;t need vis or stuff to look at. I may even close my eyes and just be. Listen to my breathing until that fades into the silence and then listen to my body tell me up, down, tilting, in trim, out of trim, etc. Seeing is neat but there are times when it is really overrated.

 

[JTinSD]

Flyer, definitely.

Yesterday, on my third dive of the day on Point Loma kelp sites, I lost my insta buddy in 10’ visibility, about 45 fsw. I was leading, after leading the first dive, and he leading the second. I tend to go very slowly, and especially so in bad viz. When I looked back, he was gone. I pivoted for awhile with my light directed out, but when I didn’t get any response, I made my way by compass to the boat. I surfaced and told the DM I had got separated. He said he could see bubbles that had come from my direction and passed under the boat that were probably from my buddy. I told the DM I would go back down the anchor chain and noodle around the reef where the anchor was set, in case he surfaced and wanted to find me.

So I did, and it was something of a revelation. The reef was about 10-15’ wide and 25-30’ long. There was a strong surge working north-south, the 25-30’ direction. I positioned about a meter above the reef, and just went with the surge. Back and forth, over and over, trying to stay at a meter above. After a couple of minutes of this, fish started appearing all around. I guess with me drifting with the surge, only slightly finning, and breathing really slowly, I became part of their environment.

I can’t imagine doing this other than solo. My usual dive buddy is a real looker, constantly zig-zagging and rapidly moving around to see what is in this crevice, or around that outcrop or just beyond those kelp strands.

If I had been with a buddy, it would not have happened. I am glad it did, as I got a whole new perspective somehow. I keep thinking about how it felt just drifting with the surge, and then all the fish appearing, swimming around like I wasn’t there.

I don’t have the experience, training or equipment to dive solo, but that little interlude gave me a taste that I probably won’t soon forget.

Flyer, definitely.

 

[noreastDIVER84]

I would definitely be a flyer. I find myself completely relaxed and just happy to be under the water. Even here in the northeast I find that because I am more of a flyer than a looker, I see something different everytime I enter the water, even at the same location.