Changing dive op attitudes to "solo"

[tye1138]

Seems like a gross generalization. I was certiified within the last 10 years. I had to be able to set up my own equipment.

Right, but most likely your buddy did the final check of your equipment. So set it up and let someone else verify you did it right, a buddy or the instructor. Nothing wrong with that at all, but it was just an example of how reliant we are on other's. We aren't taught to "do it right", we are taught someone else will help if we do it wrong.

There is some shoddy instruction of course. But I think that a lot of good instruction is done.

Agreed, there are absolutely a bunch of top-notch instructors. However, when it comes to general open water divers, things could be a lot better. I've been involved with classes from SSI, NAUI, PADI and TDI, with a wide range of instructors all around the country. From my experience, a lot of OW instructors abuse the buddy system tremendously and they under teach what is necessary for success in diving. That's what I've physically seen with my own eyes. They don't allow students to demonstrate the same skills repeatedly over and over again, over a long period of time. So when a student is making mistakes, they tend to give them a helping hand to get over that hump, every time. Sometimes there are amazing students, who get things right way. But most of the time, that's not the case and it winds up creating divers who are constantly relying on others.

If the student then wants to not dive for a year and have forgotten half of what they learned when they show up at a resort or on a boat, that is the student's fault, not the instruction.

Well, yes refreshing basic skills is important. However nobody is going to refresh an advanced or rescue course, which are the critical elements to solo diving because mostly all of those skills aren't taught in OW.

Not that it matters but my instrurctor was an SDI/TDI tech qualified instructor.

I worked with a few TDI guys and from my experience, they put more emphasis on self preservation for sure.

 

[uncfnp]

Right, but most likely your buddy did the final check of your equipment. So set it up and let someone else verify you did it right, a buddy or the instructor. Nothing wrong with that at all, but it was just an example of how reliant we are on other's. We aren't taught to "do it right", we are taught someone else will help if we do it wrong.

I don't see it this way. Buddy checks and self reliance are not mutually exclusive. I was taught with expectations that it would be "done right" and the buddy check was backup, not primary. I felt like I failed if a discrepancy was found (my personality not the instructor). But its just common sense if you are buddy diving to mutually confirm each other's gear, even if its just informally. Doesn't make one any less self reliant. We all know how to deal with the unexpected when it occurs, even when its our own fault. The buddy check is just an added precaution, not a replacement for personal responsibility.

 

[RJP]

I worked with a few TDI guys and from my experience, they put more emphasis on self preservation for sure.

More emphasis on self-preservation vs other things? Or as compared to other guys?

 

[lowviz]

... So when a student is making mistakes, they tend to give them a helping hand to get over that hump, every time. ...

As hard as it is for me to agree with that as a fact of life, I have to. That is, indeed, the heart of the problem.

And exactly what "muscle memory" is that reinforcing? That there will always be someone there for you to handle one's really big mistakes?

 

[NAM001]

No what i am saying is that, for the boats teh no solo is working fine. Its a difference of perception from the boat operators who see say 1% of divers that solo to the 20% that is seen on SB. I think that probably most all that support open solo that are on SB are those that are capable to do those type of dives. I think that those of us on SB see things from a different perspective than those just off thte plane trying to get on the boat. Its teh same issue as with BPW. Large population on SB however low population globally.


I agree with you about being self relilant. but both names to date is operationally the same. As far as the thread goes no operator cares if you are self reliant or not. as long as you are diving with a buddy. Certainly there are a number of factors that drive the attitude but what ever they are its lawyers that draw the lines. Liability Lines for Taxi boats are different than dive operation boats. I would like to see more boats cater to the solo community but untill ins co.s come around and a boats bottom line can support it, I dont see things changing. And for soem ballance solo is not the nly tabo on many boats. dry suits and doubles and banned on many boats. Like solo,,,,, not all but many to most.


[/QUOTE]
you actually making the slippery slope argument against dive ops allowing solo diving because of the negative influence on other divers? And further postulating that SB is the source for this change and that lastly, this trend is a dangerous one?

Hmmm. Can't agree with any of that. I don't have the long historical perspective of diving, such as Akimbo, but to my limited observations this trend is more a reflection of the general diving community as evidenced by several diving agencies acknowledging it as a legitimate option (even if they don't call it that). And the trend that I am seeing more then solo diving itself is the self reliant diver, a diver equipped and hopefully mentally prepared to self rescue. I don't know how anyone can argue this is a bad trend. If SB is somehow responsible for more self reliant divers, I am thrilled to be a small part of that.[/QUOTE]

 

[tye1138]

Buddy checks and self reliance are not mutually exclusive..

I'm going to tell you guys a true story. The names have been changed because these guys still dive. I heard this story from the horses mouth and even though us New Englander's love to enhance our stories, this is pretty much how it went down.

Bill has lots of experience shore diving in the North East of the US. He has over 100 logged dives, done the rescue and advanced courses with his best friend Teddy. The two of them were inseparable, both in their 50's and became friends through their open water course not very long ago. Bill was an avid photographer and one day his wife bought him an underwater still camera. Bill couldn't wait to try it, but his buddy Teddy was ill that weekend. He called the local dive shop and hooked up with a group going to a site Bill knew very well. He rented tanks because Teddy was his tank supplier. At the dive site, Bill was very excited and was playing with his new camera constantly. He was buddied up with someone his own age, but Bill was so busy playing with the camera, he didn't have much time to talk before entering the water.

The group swam out about 100 yards from the shore before descending in a group. Bill was the last one down and once the group leader saw everyone was down, he turned around and started swimming. Bill of course was the last one in the group and the moment he saw something cool, he slowed down and took a picture. It didn't take more then a few minutes for Bill to realize something was wrong. The hose on his 2nd stage was getting shorter and shorter, eventually popping the regulator right out of his mouth. Luckily Bill didn't freak out, he stayed calm, reached around to find there was no tank behind him! He grabbed his air 2 octo and was able to breath off it, but he started to panic. He looked up towards the surface and started swimming. On the surface, he was frantic because the tank was putting so much force on the inflator hose, it was hard for him to hold onto it. In a last ditch effort, he held onto the inflator button and finally calmed down. His heart was racing, but he controlled it quickly and started swimming towards shore. In the calm shallows, he pulled the BC off, pushed the tank right back up into the bands and tightened it back down. He was more frustrated then anything else.

He turned around and headed back towards the group, which was marked by a dive flag. He descended and got right back into line with everyone else. Nobody had bothered to turn around and look for him, they didn't even know he was missing. Within the next few minutes, he found a skate going along the sandy ocean floor at a good rate of speed. He chased after it, unknowingly headed away from the group. He snapped his picture, looked around for the group, but it wasn't in sight. Since he was only 40 feet down, he decided to surface. He found the flag, made a compass reading and dove back down, using his compass to find them. As he swam however, he noticed it was getting harder to breath. He shrugged it off as perhaps being his heart rate being higher from all that swimming chasing the skate. However, he went to suck on his regulator and it was way worse. He looked down at his gauge, zero PSI. Bill immediately shot towards the surface, swimming as hard/fast as he could. With a huge gasp of air, he erupted with a splash, panting from being scared and working his body so hard. He floundered around, trying to orally inflate his BC, which he managed to do. He just lay there on his back, trying to calm himself down. Being an analytical guy, he went through everything that happened in his head, but couldn't make sense of what happened. He made it to shore, put his tank down and turned the tank off. He noticed it the knob only turned a tiny bit. Bill couldn't believe what he felt, this whole time, he was diving with a tank where the valve wasn't fully open. When the tank ran low on pressure, there wasn't enough pressure to push open the 1st stage position.

Moral of the TRUE story?

Bill was an excellent diver but because he was reliant on other people, he never fully understood a few basic points.

Bill's friend always supplied the tanks. Bill never bothered checking the tanks because his buddy took care of them. What Bill didn't realize is that he was diving with HP steel 100's in the past and the rental tank was a LP 80. Even though the tank was physically the same size to Bill, the manufacturers were different and the diameter was slightly different as well. He didn't even think twice because he simply had no experience diving with any other gear because everything was taken care of him by his buddy. Also, because his buddy always checked his gauges, Bill used that as a reminder to check his own. Without his buddy around, he simply assumed the tank's he rented would last him the same time as the tank's he was use to diving. Bill's tank valve catastrophe was simply bad luck, a combination of the valve closing as it went through the straps and when he grabbed it to pull it back up again. He should have exited the water, gone onto shore, checked over his gear and waited for dive two.

These are the kind of things you learn when you're self reliant. You focus on gear much harder because you're use to dealing with it, instead of it being supplied to you. In solo diving, you bail out of a dive if there is any technical issue, return to home base and go over what happened. With buddy diving, you're so use to someone else being at your side, you become over-confident. That excess confidence can lead to issues, like the one's Bill had on this day.

Bill continues to dive and I ran into him last summer in New England. He's 62 years of age and finally own's his own tanks.

 

[lowviz]

... With buddy diving, you're so use to someone else being at your side, you become over-confident. ...

Yes, odd thing about buddy diving. With "big" technical dives (any agency) the buddy system is alive and very well. With DIR it always was alive and very well. 90% (wild-ass guess) of the diving done today is where buddy diving is a complete charade.

Instructors are responsible for that mindset, by the way. Not all of them, but most. My true and trusted buddies are good old Al Faber, BT and tables. And Murph. he always shows up just to keep me honest...

 

[uncfnp]

...//...
These are the kind of things you learn when you're self reliant. You focus on gear much harder because you're use to dealing with it, instead of it being supplied to you. In solo diving, you bail out of a dive if there is any technical issue, return to home base and go over what happened. With buddy diving, you're so use to someone else being at your side, you become over-confident. That excess confidence can lead to issues, like the one's Bill had on this day.

Bill continues to dive and I ran into him last summer in New England. He's 62 years of age and finally own's his own tanks.

Interesting story and thanks for sharing. A few thoughts.

Self accountability is not something that can be taught in a typical dive course. Most likely Bill, and others like him, has the some approach to other aspects of his life as well. Not sure I believe a dive course, even an exceptional dive course, can teach personal responsibility to an adult learner. However, an instructor can and should reinforce this concept and stress the critical nature as it applies to diving. Do they? I am not a dive instructor and have no answer to that. My personal experience is that they do. But again, this perception may be heavily colored by my own strong conviction in self determination and responsibility. Concepts that I brought into the class with me.

Could an improper application of buddy diving, such as your story, lead to complacency? Sure. But again I stress improper. I am no one to lecture on buddy diving or buddy checks but when applied properly it is a mutual activity, not one diver relying exclusively on another diver. Bill was clearly diving as a dependent diver and his guardian was solo diving. That's not buddy diving.

 

[tye1138]

Ya know, Bill could have been one of those guys who just relies on others. At the same time, I've seen other examples of that kind of reliance throughout my short career teaching diving. I use to teach underwater photography/videography to more advanced students and many of them had issues with basic diving skills. I'd watch from a distance as they built their rigs, staring at other people in the process to make sure they did it right. The one's who really struggled, they'd always seek help from another member of the course. I'd just look on and wonder how these guys with many verified logged dives, survived. That's when the puzzle came together… these guys were reliant on a buddy all the time. Since they didn't have someone else to mimic, they were struggling to do basic tasks. Are those people compliant outside of diving? Maybe… but it doesn't really matter.

I did a bunch of diving back there last summer, had a great time. I wanted to hook up with a group because it's more fun to talk with others during surface intervals, etc… My first dive back there, it was a group of 7 divers. The leader was an instructor and she was puking her guts out all morning before getting in the water. Two of the people on the dive were rookies and watching them assemble gear was agonizing. At one point, I made a subtle suggestion which allowed them to finish quicker so we could all get in the water. During the dive, they struggled with buoyancy and were looking for each other the entire dive. I just stayed on their tail, to make sure nothing happened, expecting to do a rescue at any moment. However, they survived the dive and during our service interval I asked them how many dives they had, they kinda laughed and said this was their first dive outside of the OW course. Ok, I get it… newbies, but holy **** was that scary. The moment our group leader made it back to shore, she puked her guts out once more. She was pail beyond belief and barely able to talk. I told her I knew the dive site like the back of my hand and could lead the dive if she wanted, but she refused because I wasn't insured anymore. The second dive was worse because it was shallower and everyone was bouncing off the bottom and surfacing, going back down, bouncing off the bottom and surfacing. At one point, I reached over and did buoyancy control for one of divers myself! I kept on surfacing with the guys who struggled to give them tips on the surface before going back down, it was a train wreck of a dive.

I do think a lot of divers are simply ill prepared for diving after the OW course, without someone looking over their shoulder. I also think many instructors believe they're super hero's and incapable of doing wrong. They're taught to follow the guidelines and do the class within a certain amount of time, even if some students are struggling. I do see a lot of good divers coming out of basic OW courses, partially due to instructors actually caring and partially due to students being comfortable underwater early on in the course. However, with the speed at which most courses are taught, it's truly impossible to make good divers out of everyone. So a lot of instructors abuse the buddy system as a way to get people through the course quicker. If you don't know something, your buddy will and visa versa. It's like having a cheat sheet for a test.

My point in mentioning any of this goes back to the basic reality that a lot of divers are ill prepared for solo diving because of their trained reliance on others. It's up to the instructor to teach self reliance as part of the course. This mean's teaching gear setup in a self reliant setting with variables in tank sizes, gear type and weighting. Teach students how to do their own weighting depending on gear/tank type, etc. It seems like over kill, but most people don't own gear and it's critical they have experience with different types so they're more prepared.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Ya know, Bill could have been one of those guys who just relies on others. At the same time, I've seen other examples of that kind of reliance throughout my short career teaching diving. I use to teach underwater photography/videography to more advanced students and many of them had issues with basic diving skills. I'd watch from a distance as they built their rigs, staring at other people in the process to make sure they did it right. The one's who really struggled, they'd always seek help from another member of the course. I'd just look on and wonder how these guys with many verified logged dives, survived. That's when the puzzle came together… these guys were reliant on a buddy all the time. Since they didn't have someone else to mimic, they were struggling to do basic tasks. Are those people compliant outside of diving? Maybe… but it doesn't really matter.

Some of it also boils down to where people predominantly dive. I've met people with hundreds of dives over many years who struggle if they have to put their own rig together ... because they predominantly dive in places where the dive op crew always does it for them. Like any task, you learn through repetition ... and if you've only ever had to do it in a class, and then dive in places where someone else does it for you, you will not retain the memory of how to do it for yourself. This is one reason why, while emphasizing the buddy system, it's still important to stress to people that you, and only you, are responsible for your safety ... and that responsibility entails knowing that your equipment is assembled and functioning properly before getting in the water.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)