Confessions of a newbie - My U/W Navigation Stinks!

[ScubaRev]

Get a big beach towel and a buddy who can use a compass. Go to a park or someplace where there are lots of things around...

This is a great suggestion! I'm doing the same thing. Underwater nav and land orienteering are different. This is a great way to learn to "fly" by instrument. You do get some strange looks from the picnic crowd, but when they figure out what you're doing, everyone wants to get in the act. Great fun!

It's also a good illustration of breaking down a skill and training it on dry land (or a pool) before taking it to the open water where the variables multiply exponentially.

 

[chewie]

as others have said, make notice of a reference point wherein you can start your navigation. keep your compass steady at eye level. if you want to turn to a new direction, jest rotate your bezel to the heading of that particular direction & take note of your new bearing. if you want to go back to where you originally came from, just turn 180 degrees it takes a lot of practice & familiarity with the dive site. if there is a current, learn to compensate for the distance being travelled & adjust accordingly. (if a current is drifting you to the left, try to swim at an angle to the right, taking note of your general direction)

 

[TSandM]

Two things I'd like to say, one of which has already been more or less mentioned.

First off, natural navigation is IMPORTANT. Learn to note the features of the dive site and know what you've seen already; pay attention to contour and depth lines. Sometimes that's all you need to navigate quite well.

Second, I absolutely sucked at navigation until I quit trying to do anything with the stupid bezel. All it did was make navigation more complicated than it needed to be, and add to my task-loading. Now, I just look in the window of the compass and note the heading. I know what N, S, E and W are; I took a bearing before the dive to know where I want to go, and that tells me how to get back. Yes, that means keeping some numbers in my brain, but in my book, it beats the you-know-what out of trying to twist that silly bezel.

 

[bluefrogfish]

Hi Steve,
Navigation takes time to master. I get very disoriented when I take photos, mostly at night or in flat reefs.
When it is sunny and if you are shallow enough or if the water visibility lets you see the sun, this can be a good reference or where you are heading to. Also the bottom profile, for instance, going deeper in a certain direction, the sand ripples at the bottom, the wind direction when you can see the surface,... are some references you can use when you don´t have a compass.
With the compass, you can start with some basic skills like only going back and forth in one direction before you attempt more complicated patterns.
Good luck practicing,

 

[scubatexastony]

as an old land surveryor, crusing timber and staking oil wells, I learned to have the compass well in front of me and almost eye level. I want to look down the lubber line and keep the heading spot on in the site window, as just a degree of error will net nearly 2 feet every 100 ft. Considering a good compass (aka. SK7) is marked at 5 degree increments, it's easy to get off a bit.

As others pointed out, go slow and correct slowly. I like to have the compass on the back of my left hand (bungies work well) and the depth guage on the right wrist. If you're using a console mounted compass, extend it fully, placing the hose over your left shoulder if necessary to get extension.

Practice makes perfect, but as another poster replied, always orientate youself prior to hitting the water, having a mental map of the dive site always helps me "see" where I should be during a dive.

Happy trails!

tony

 

[CAPNVINNY]

I always tell my students to forget degrees and number headings,use just the cardinal points,N,S,E,W, and visualize them on the surface first. Want to do a square pattern? start on a cardinal point and all the points will be cardinal points.It's real easy to make it a lot harder than it is. Good Luck

 

[tstormdiver]

If it makes you feel any better, during a night diver specialty course, I had to do a straight line navigation with my buddy. We surfaced, too our heading to shore, submerged and began our swim. To say the least we had the instructors & DM's on the shore laughing so hard they couldn't stand it . They were watching our lights & said we made the absolute most perfect circle they had ever seen:11doh: . When we got back to our starting point we surfaced again to take another reading and were both laghing so hard that it was a while before we could go back down. The second time we made it. Isn't it great when you can look back & laugh at yourself? Just keep trying. It does get better.

 

[jpcpat]

Compass and depth gauge navigation is tricky. Key is practice, practice, practice. Adding in natural navigation makes it easier. Thermoclines in quarrys make good depth references, for example. As you descend, ask yourself what the hell this will look like on the way back. This includes the boat! How many props, what do the ladder and hull look like? Work this from landmark to landmark, and you can usually find your way home. There's nothing wrong with a mid-dive orientation if conditions permit.

When you screw up, and come up alongside the wrong boat, admit nothing. You didn't get to the wrong boat, you just heard they are a much better boat and wanted to check their schedule.

This far north, sometimes the best way is with a wreck reel.

 

[Midnight Star]

I fall into the "you stink" category of U/W navigation

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The biggest problem i've had is keeping my arm in it's original position during the swim from point A (my current location) to point B (the destination). I'm using a compass that shows both indirect and direct readings (a top reading and side reading compass)

Here's what I do when i'm practicing:

1) On the surface I use the side reading part to get the bearing, like 230deg, to my destination. But MOST importantly, note the position of the compass in relation to your face; it should be directly infront so your looking evenly over the top with the lubber line pointing STRAIGHT to your target - having your arm (or the compass) to much to the left or right will surlely put you off course! On the surface, where you can directly see the target, it doesnt matter much because you will "visually" adjust as you swim.

2) Next, I deflate my BC and vertically descend to a depth of around 20-30ft. Once I reach the desired depth (not swimming around, but going straight down. swimming around will change your destination bearing ), I get neutral. As far as remaining at depth, I can usually tell if i'm going up or down by the effect of water pressure on my ears. If you need to watch your depth as you swim, try getting a console mounted compass where you can hold it with both hands, elbows in.

3) Place one arm out like a lubber line and grasp that arm with the arm wearing the compass and place the compass EXACTLY as you did before in relation to your face. Remember too much left or right from the original position when the target bearing was taken will put you off course during the swim. The farther you swim, the more off course you'll be.

4) Swim away, and have fun!

For me, the most difficult part is keeping the compass in the EXACT position before and during the swim. But practicing is diving, and diving for me, can never be a bad thing. Besides, who said I needed to hit the broad side of a barn anyways!

-----

Mike.

 

[theskull]

All good suggestions so far.

In addition:
1. Practice at a site you already know pretty well, so you will have clues (landmarks or features) as to how you are doing along the way.
2. The better your buoyancy control is, the more attention you can pay to travelling in the correct direction and kicking straight ahead.

theskull