Dive planning doc for open water students (Puget Sound focus)

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Hey everyone,

So I've been teaching a few years, and one of the biggest issues I've seen from my early results and from new divers in my area in general, is the lack of confidence to go off and dive with fellow classmates, sometimes even in the same site where they were certified.

So it took a while, but I put together a dive planning doc focused on the Puget Sound region, that I feel addresses a lot of these issues. I'm making it freely available, as I am hoping that people adopt it, both new divers and instructors (and I hope instructors write addendums for their particular area).

Sorry to be US focused, but the next revision will include metric units. I'll answer any questions and all feedback will be welcome too. Feel free to use and distribute as you wish.
What a great resource. Thanks for making it available. Kudos to you!
 
Did not mean to say that. Just that is not optimum. I did exactly that with another new OW on my first dive post OW. Viz had dropped and was maybe 6 inches as I discovered. Did just like in class. Swam out and then descended. I drop horizontal. First time I saw the bottom was when my face was planted in the silt. My buddy was a same quarry diver. Lost him within 15 seconds. Went up. Located the buddy, went down to him this time without face plant and again lost him within 15 seconds. He just swam off. After this happening twice more I thumbed the dive.

Okay, I should add a section: "Reasons to call a dive". Bad viz is one.

There is section on resources for dive clubs, dive shops, for finding more (experienced) dive buddies.

The point of this is to keep students diving. I find that by teaching students about dive planning, they are more confident to dive with others as well. I've had experienced divers reach out to me with surprise that they didn't have to babysit the divers I certified.

I do believe that the more knowledge a diver has about a dive site that they haven't been to during their class, the more comfortable they will be.

In my OW class, my students will be exposed to the following dive sites: Cove 1, Cove 2, Redondo Beach, and Edmonds (my class consists of 8 open water dives at 4 sites). They have the dive plan for Cove 3 that they can try from the doc.
 
I do believe that the more knowledge a diver has about a dive site that they haven't been to during their class, the more comfortable they will be.

True. I haven't had to deal with your local conditions, but that statement is broadly true. After certification, doing 'dive tourist' 2-tank trips at popular Caribbean destinations such as on cruise ship stops, I learned a few things over time:

1.) I don't know where the boat will go until it's headed there. Weather, sea conditions & other dive boats there first make planning tentative at best.
2.) So there's often no way to research the site in advance.
3.) A staff will give a good briefing, often with a diagram.
4.) Boat environments are often noisy, I may be farther back in the crowd, and I may not hear part of it.
5.) I'm not a good listener; I mull over something he said & miss the next thing, my attention wanders, etc...
6.) I'd have lousy recall at splash for what I did learn from the briefing. So, we're gonna follow the guide & keep him appraised of our remaining gas supply. They deal with vacation diver tourists often, I'm not the worst, I should be okay.
7.) Some people are 'one time & done' learners from spontaneous oral presentations and retain a working knowledge of what was covered long enough to use it on their dive. I tend to think of these people as a different species.
8.) Because boats don't always moor/anchor at the same place, or boat position may differ with wind, there are limits to what can be done about this.

Over the years I've gotten somewhat better, but what I just described, however contrary to the ideology of some, is pretty common on dive boats in popular high-viz., low current, reliably (mostly) benign condition water water dive locations.

Independently wade into more adverse conditions with no guide from shore with that mindset, and things may not go so well. If you give people site info. to study and mentally rehearse in advance, that's powerful.

Richard.
 
True. I haven't had to deal with your local conditions, but that statement is broadly true. After certification, doing 'dive tourist' 2-tank trips at popular Caribbean destinations such as on cruise ship stops, I learned a few things over time:

1.) I don't know where the boat will go until it's headed there. Weather, sea conditions & other dive boats there first make planning tentative at best.
2.) So there's often no way to research the site in advance.
3.) A staff will give a good briefing, often with a diagram.
4.) Boat environments are often noisy, I may be farther back in the crowd, and I may not hear part of it.
5.) I'm not a good listener; I mull over something he said & miss the next thing, my attention wanders, etc...
6.) I'd have lousy recall at splash for what I did learn from the briefing. So, we're gonna follow the guide & keep him appraised of our remaining gas supply. They deal with vacation diver tourists often, I'm not the worst, I should be okay.
7.) Some people are 'one time & done' learners from spontaneous oral presentations and retain a working knowledge of what was covered long enough to use it on their dive. I tend to think of these people as a different species.
8.) Because boats don't always moor/anchor at the same place, or boat position may differ with wind, there are limits to what can be done about this.

Over the years I've gotten somewhat better, but what I just described, however contrary to the ideology of some, is pretty common on dive boats in popular high-viz., low current, reliably (mostly) benign condition water water dive locations.

Independently wade into more adverse conditions with no guide from shore with that mindset, and things may not go so well. If you give people site info. to study and mentally rehearse in advance, that's powerful.

Richard.
Richard,

I think I should add a caveat that this was really intended for people who get trained locally and dive locally. I just don't see it realistically being applied to resort style training. My opinion, but too much, too fast.

I see that most divers are trained to a level (scuba diver) where they just follow a guide (geez, it is hard to type when my dog walks over me, but I digress).

All this discussion is good as it helps me think how to augment/improve the document. I don't know if people will adopt it in their classes with an addendum. For instructors in my area, it is kind of a slam dunk, as I discuss the most popular training sites in the Seattle area.
 
The rock bottom focus is good. I think an enhancement might be a surface worksheet of other typical key parameters and a sample underwater slate of them. That blank page for the dive plan is a bit intimidating. Something like:

#Worksheet:
Loc: Lovers Cove
Phone: ranger station up hill
Hosp: CHOMP
Team:

Rock:
cu ft PSI Diver 1 PSI Diver 2
30' xx
40'
50'
60'

Plan:
...
Safety 800
Surface 500

# Slate:
Plan: 40'
Max: 50' 60 min
Home: 250 deg to beach
Rock: P1 P2
40' xx xx
60' xx xx
Plan:
...
Safety 800
Surface 500
 
The rock bottom focus is good. I think an enhancement might be a surface worksheet of other typical key parameters and a sample underwater slate of them. That blank page for the dive plan is a bit intimidating. Something like:

#Worksheet:
Loc: Lovers Cove
Phone: ranger station up hill
Hosp: CHOMP
Team:

Rock:
cu ft PSI Diver 1 PSI Diver 2
30' xx
40'
50'
60'

Plan:
...
Safety 800
Surface 500

# Slate:
Plan: 40'
Max: 50' 60 min
Home: 250 deg to beach
Rock: P1 P2
40' xx xx
60' xx xx
Plan:
...
Safety 800
Surface 500
I was talking to someone today, and I thought about having a dive plan on a slate with directions, time, cylinder pressure, depth, etc.. You are right, that is a missing piece.

About the blank page, I think I should add some suggestions (choose a path, perform the expected gas volume consumption in a similar fashion as the Cove 3 example. Do you think that would help?
 
About the blank page, I think I should add some suggestions (choose a path, perform the expected gas volume consumption in a similar fashion as the Cove 3 example. Do you think that would help?
A worked out plan would be good. Seeing all the pieces they should think about in one place will solidify it.
 
A worked out plan would be good. Seeing all the pieces they should think about in one place will solidify it.
Consider it done. I'm now working on the next revision. I should be diving, but came down with a cold, so I'm relegated to Internet diving today.
 
When I try and print the file it asks for a password. Would you be willing to share it? I like to print out docs for scuba like this and keep them in a folder to take with me in my dive bag.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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