TheOnlyRae
Contributor
I learned to swim, before I learned to walk.
Being in the water makes me happy...and I'm pretty comfortable in it.
I absolutely consider myself a noob and dive with my pressure gauge/computer in my hand, because I'm constantly monitoring it. I also have to fight my natural instinct to swim with my arms....just because I always have.
My noob question is - which is worse? to dive with a paranoid noob or a comfortable noob?
Case in point - this past weekend I went on a shallow shore (15/20ft) dive. My first shore dive (boat dives under my belt), but as stated, am comfortable in the water. I had computer issues, but my pressure gauge was fully functional and I knew the dive was max approx 20 ft. At this depth, I would run out of air (still consume it quickly) before I maxed out dive tables. I did let another diver know that my computer was not functioning properly and he indicated as I felt, that at that depth, I would be OK as long as I monitored time.
I ascended after a leg cramp not long into the dive (with the intent to descend again after cramp abated). On the surface I identified a strap issue on BC and decided to abort the dive and stay on surface with BC inflated until the group went back to shore. I was lucky, there was a kayak, so I swam to it and stayed with it until the group went back in.
My buddy was diving with another person, we were a group of 3, she had a dive flag and also her regular buddy was snorkeling above us.
In retrospect, I did not let my buddies clearly know that I was having equipment issues. I'm kicking my own butt for that, so please don't mercilessly flame me. I did stay close to the dive flag on the surface, swimming behind it, and it was shallow enough with about 40 feet vis, with the thought process being, the 2 divers below could see me.
As a new diver, I could have panicked. I didn't.
In retrospect, as I read the incidents threads, I wonder, did I, by my lack of panic totally eff up? At deeper depth, or less visibility, or boat diving I would have aborted dive immediately, (Clearly). Did the shallow/visibility/shore combo make me too complacent?
In the moment, I thought I was making the best decisions based on information at hand. (I also had a watch on, and immediately checked the time when I saw computer wasn't working - so I knew approx. how long I had been under). The dive group I was with was pretty fantastic, a shore dive clinic, and there were lots of experienced divers in the group, whose intent was for beginners to gain experience/comfort in the water and learn the basics of shore diving.
By remaining calm and mostly quiet (on surface I spent a lot of time being irritated at myself for not having a banana at breakfast and enjoying the peace the water brings me) - was I a menace to my dive group?
I try very hard to prep before every dive...to the point of being OCD about re-reading OW book regarding hand signals and BWRAF.
I know I'm a noob, and look to more experienced divers for guidance. I don't want to be a noob that puts others safety at risk or is a menace. So my posting here has multiple goals. Identify additional mistakes (other than crappy buddy communication) and verify if my actions (keeping calm and quiet) were a good choice or a bad choice.
I want to learn. I want to dive safe. I need your experienced suggestions, so that I can improve as a diver and hopefully someday be able to help a noob diver myself. In my experience, a brand new diver is easily clueless, and with each dive I become more aware of potential worst case scenarios.
These boards are great, thanks for your time.
Being in the water makes me happy...and I'm pretty comfortable in it.
I absolutely consider myself a noob and dive with my pressure gauge/computer in my hand, because I'm constantly monitoring it. I also have to fight my natural instinct to swim with my arms....just because I always have.
My noob question is - which is worse? to dive with a paranoid noob or a comfortable noob?
Case in point - this past weekend I went on a shallow shore (15/20ft) dive. My first shore dive (boat dives under my belt), but as stated, am comfortable in the water. I had computer issues, but my pressure gauge was fully functional and I knew the dive was max approx 20 ft. At this depth, I would run out of air (still consume it quickly) before I maxed out dive tables. I did let another diver know that my computer was not functioning properly and he indicated as I felt, that at that depth, I would be OK as long as I monitored time.
I ascended after a leg cramp not long into the dive (with the intent to descend again after cramp abated). On the surface I identified a strap issue on BC and decided to abort the dive and stay on surface with BC inflated until the group went back to shore. I was lucky, there was a kayak, so I swam to it and stayed with it until the group went back in.
My buddy was diving with another person, we were a group of 3, she had a dive flag and also her regular buddy was snorkeling above us.
In retrospect, I did not let my buddies clearly know that I was having equipment issues. I'm kicking my own butt for that, so please don't mercilessly flame me. I did stay close to the dive flag on the surface, swimming behind it, and it was shallow enough with about 40 feet vis, with the thought process being, the 2 divers below could see me.
As a new diver, I could have panicked. I didn't.
In retrospect, as I read the incidents threads, I wonder, did I, by my lack of panic totally eff up? At deeper depth, or less visibility, or boat diving I would have aborted dive immediately, (Clearly). Did the shallow/visibility/shore combo make me too complacent?
In the moment, I thought I was making the best decisions based on information at hand. (I also had a watch on, and immediately checked the time when I saw computer wasn't working - so I knew approx. how long I had been under). The dive group I was with was pretty fantastic, a shore dive clinic, and there were lots of experienced divers in the group, whose intent was for beginners to gain experience/comfort in the water and learn the basics of shore diving.
By remaining calm and mostly quiet (on surface I spent a lot of time being irritated at myself for not having a banana at breakfast and enjoying the peace the water brings me) - was I a menace to my dive group?
I try very hard to prep before every dive...to the point of being OCD about re-reading OW book regarding hand signals and BWRAF.
I know I'm a noob, and look to more experienced divers for guidance. I don't want to be a noob that puts others safety at risk or is a menace. So my posting here has multiple goals. Identify additional mistakes (other than crappy buddy communication) and verify if my actions (keeping calm and quiet) were a good choice or a bad choice.
I want to learn. I want to dive safe. I need your experienced suggestions, so that I can improve as a diver and hopefully someday be able to help a noob diver myself. In my experience, a brand new diver is easily clueless, and with each dive I become more aware of potential worst case scenarios.
These boards are great, thanks for your time.