Beliefs turned on their heads?

[mstroeck]

Hi everyone!

When following lenghty discussions here and on other boards, I often wonder how much is actually learned from them... How often, if ever, have you changed basic assumptions about diving (or life in general) due to a thread on this board or elsewhere? If you were seriuosly wrong about something, what helped you through the period of denial before you finally saw the flaw in your reasoning?

If you want to, you can even tell us what exactly it was that you changed your mind about

 

[ScubaJeep]

Well, this website has pretty much convinced me to never buy a scuba regulator from LeisurePro (although I still would order a wet suit, mask, fins, etc. from them)...

This website has convinced me of the uselessness of spare air as a bail-out option from depths where a CESA is difficult...

I used to think that rebreathers were simply square boxes of death, but I now know that rebreathers aren't always square...

 

[pipedope]

I used to think that rebreathers were simply square boxes of death, but I now know that rebreathers aren't always square...

A RB can be a box of life, especially as a bailout gas supply for commercial divers working deep where OC will not supply enough gas to get out safely.

 

[roakey]

The web was responsible for me turning to DIR, which means I had to throw out just about every assumption taught to me by the recreational SCUBA industry and 25 years of diving.

It was a *huge* epiphany.

Roak

 

[H2Andy]

i've learned a lot, most recently:

1. wearing a snorkel won't kill you (i still dive without one)

2. split fins are not devil spawn (but haven't gotten around to trying one yet)

3. i'm too lazy to dive without a computer (and i haven't died yet)

4. i don't need 17 lbs of lead to sink (0, 2, and 4 lbs will do it nicely, depending on
what set up i'm using)

5. it's ok not to be a gung-ho tech diver (though i really want to be one!!)

6. staying horizontal throughout the dive IS the way to go for me; love it

7. i don't have to spend $6,0000 in camera equipment to take underwater pictures i am proud to show others

8. there are a lot of good divers in the world, and there are a lot of bad divers in the world, and I am certainly not as good as I wish i could be, but hey, there's always room for improvement

9. ScubaBoard buddies are the best there are

and 10: there is no such thing as a bananafish

 

[Rick Inman]

Hi everyone!

When following lenghty discussions here and on other boards, I often wonder how much is actually learned from them... How often, if ever, have you changed basic assumptions about diving (or life in general) due to a thread on this board or elsewhere? If you were seriuosly wrong about something, what helped you through the period of denial before you finally saw the flaw in your reasoning?

If you want to, you can even tell us what exactly it was that you changed your mind about

"The older I get, the more I learn that I don't know. Some day I hope to learn that I know nothing about everything, and then, I will have arrived."
I learnt I bunch O' stuff here, including that they'll let just about anyone post their hair-brained ideas - including me.
But the best learning I received was by hooking up with some of these divers and watching them actually apply what they post.

 

[Snowbear]

The site has taught me nothing.

Some of the folks on it have changed my mind about more than one issue

 

[MechDiver]

Diving, along with any other acitvity I can think of, involves continual learning. If you come to a board with an open mind, you'll learn. If you come with preconceived ideas and get answers that don't agree with what you think is correct, you either learn or become stagnant.

Sometimes knowledge is painful, a fact that is lost on many posters on internet boards. As Rick put it, if you learn what you don't know, realize that you don't know, then start seeking answers and applying them to further questions, you'll go a long ways.

Good topic.

MD

 

[CBulla]

Easy to think of many things I've picked up, learned, modified in my own diving - do I feel like listing them? Naw.. feeling lazy today, but its a good list of things.

 

[sea nmf]

I've seen many ideas that I normally would not have heard of. I have actually learned quite a few things.

The most recent is the idea of deep stops. After reading it here, I found it in Dive Alert magazine.

But I've learned a lot more. You just have to wade through a whole lot of "not-so-good" to find them.