Changes that Senior divers make?

[mi000ke]

A senior is anyone older than me. (I’m 70)

What’s changed over the years?

Sometimes I forget to log my dives.

Sometimes I forget I even booked a dive.

I almost always have to pee between dives now.

When the DMs I know well invite me out for beers I now have to stop after 2 or so, and have to be home and to bed by 9pm

I stopped wearing a speedo under my wetsuit so as not to frighten others on the boat

I’m running out of people who are obviously older than I am to jokingly tell them “Wait until you get to be my age." Now I have to say to the younger folk, "Wait until I get to be your age."

I get really pissed off when the DMs I know well insist on carrying the “old man’s” gear on and off the boat.

The good news is that I can still do an hour every morning on the elliptical, lift weights 2 -3 times/week, and can still bench my body weight (good thing my weight dropped from 180 lb to 73 lb as I aged ).

 

[Antient Marriner]

These are some really great posts that made me think about may current and former dive practices.

I'm 77, 6' tall and 192 pounds. I'm a very active person, but don't have a regular regimented exercise program. I building a house addition all by my self and that serves as my physical exercise.

After being around the water all my life, I got my OW certification in 2006. I'm a PADI Master Scuba Diver and regularly do First Aid and CPR refresher courses. I've been diving nitrox 98% of the time since 2010. I continue to religiously keep a digital and paper dive log book. I have 360 dives and logged 210 hours under water averaging about 35 minutes per dive. I do a lot of underwater hunting; spearing, lobstering and stone crabbing. I regularly dive strong currents in low (15 to 20 feet) visibility with my buddy tethered to my side. I always buddy dive. I plan my dive and dive my plan.

What have I changed? I went from Cressi Reaction fins to Mares long blades four years ago. Why the change? A buddy left me in the dust on a long surface swim back to the boat. Not any more.

I designed an Excel log book page that has a lot of check boxes and contains the data that is important to me. It's printed on Rite In The Rain paper.

And my hand writing has gotten deplorable!
View attachment 676304

I like the log book- and understand the hand writing issue. At 06 yrs younger than thee-- my handwriting fits the description of J. Swift--"I write a hand like a foot'

 

[SlugLife]

Quite Senior Citizen Diver with my View; One, all you young pups need to realize that with age comes the lessing of ALL functions of the body. If you do not dive with that Knowledge, you might as well swallow an electric eel underwater, and be done with life. For me its shore dives, shallow water, shorter time underwater and related tidbits.How would you like to 'bet' the 'older diver' who died in the water, which was posted here a short while back, did not remember that Detail?
Recall the apt adage; "Gracefully surrendering the joys of Youth" or near to that.

I'd ask which story, given I've seen quite a number of these. It's often indeterministic whether the diver had some medical-issue underwater, or something else happened.

I suppose eventually, life decides it had enough of our BS and sends us on our way, no matter what we do. But there might be some ways we can prolong how long we can be an annoyance.

 

[scubadada]

I'm only 67 1/2, but realize I'm on longer invincible. I've been diving DSAT since 2002, over 2000 dives, about 5% light deco. I started doing a 5 min SS and padding my deco stop well before the Shearwater adaptive SS. Now, there is no guessing. I have had a Teric for a bit over two years, Now, I ascend with a SurfGF of no greater than the low 80s. Over the last 160 dives, my avg. surfacing GF is 59 (25-80). No more guesswork, I recently did some very challenging diving at Malpelo, I'm glad I had guidance.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Well, I've already given some of my insights here. But let's concentrate on the positives:

--Diving is great exercise. When you stop exercising, your body's ability decreases. Every time you dive, your body learns more.

--Breathing a higher percentage oxygen than air at 1 atm is good for the body. Nitrox is probably even better, but I don't have experience with nitrox.

--Breathing Grade D breathing air (from our cylinders) is probably healthier than the ambient air in many places now, due to outdoor air pollution and wildfire smoke.

--The mental gymnastics of diving will help keep an older diver better mentally fit. Trying out photography underwater also requires some mental agility to ensure that what you are doing will work, and it gives benefits too of knowing you can still do it.

Just a few random thoughts from a 75 1/2 year old diver. Here's a recent dive, and learning experience.
SeaRat

 

[Anish]

Im 55 so maybe not quite Senior yet. But I have never been into Shore diving where I have to lug equipment, so only boat for me. I also prefer very little surface swimming which I find exhausting (I'm not a great swimmer to start with) so like the dive boats where you dive from a dinghy and get picked up wherever you may surface. I also refuse long swims facing into the current. Id rather just hold on to a rock and watch stuff go by. Drift is okay though. Most of this is not due to age as much as laziness

 

[rick00001967]

nothin' wrong with that. just make sure you continue to keep your fitness level up eventhough you do not plan on pushing your limits.

 

[dead dog]

I stopped doing beach dives. I was doing 40% nitrox for the hump up the beach and across the parking lot. Way too much huffing and puffing with my 130. I'm 73

Get a small (2-3 cu ft) oxygen bottle for that walk back to the car.

 

[dead dog]

For just over 30 years, I worked in a career that had a Compulsory Retirement Age of 55. I retired at 54.

So you beat the system. lol

 

[Hoag]

So you beat the system. lol

Sort of. I retired from a job I loved, where I was working with people I genuinely respected a few months before I would have been forced out. I picked my retirement date (September 11th 2013) rather than it being my 55th birthday.