Have any of you with access to a number of local dive sites ever developed a training program (to develop experience) consisting of diving at all the dive sites on your list?
OK, that was a long sentence and probably not clear. When I first started diving a local dive club had a list of 10 somewhat local dive sites and if a diver completed all of them within their first year they got a free years membership in that dive club (or something like that).
I didn't do that exactly as in I didn't follow their list but I did something similar based on how I prioritized the most important (to me) dive sites. This did two things. I got a lot of experience in general by just diving and planning dives at different locations. Since I prioritized the sites by degrees of difficulty it also gave me experience at one dive site that would help me at the next more difficult dive site.
By the time I made it most of the way through the list I had my most difficult dive to date just based in part on some unforeseen circumstances and conditions. I was very glad I had put together such an informal plan. When sh$t hit the fan I was prepared.
We all get more experience as we dive so it doesn't have to be a plan. In my case it was because that's just the way my mind works and because I did have some more advanced dives in mind.
Have any of you approached things in a similar fashion? I ask because it's not a fact that everyone gains experience in this way or at all.
If anyone cares to share what their method of gaining experience in their first few years was I think maybe it would be interesting. It may even give newer divers some ideas.
Feel free to take it in a different direction. If you had a challenging dive early on that you were able to handle because of prior experience perhaps you could share that and explain what prior experiences were crucial to a favorable outcome.
OK, that was a long sentence and probably not clear. When I first started diving a local dive club had a list of 10 somewhat local dive sites and if a diver completed all of them within their first year they got a free years membership in that dive club (or something like that).
I didn't do that exactly as in I didn't follow their list but I did something similar based on how I prioritized the most important (to me) dive sites. This did two things. I got a lot of experience in general by just diving and planning dives at different locations. Since I prioritized the sites by degrees of difficulty it also gave me experience at one dive site that would help me at the next more difficult dive site.
By the time I made it most of the way through the list I had my most difficult dive to date just based in part on some unforeseen circumstances and conditions. I was very glad I had put together such an informal plan. When sh$t hit the fan I was prepared.
We all get more experience as we dive so it doesn't have to be a plan. In my case it was because that's just the way my mind works and because I did have some more advanced dives in mind.
Have any of you approached things in a similar fashion? I ask because it's not a fact that everyone gains experience in this way or at all.
If anyone cares to share what their method of gaining experience in their first few years was I think maybe it would be interesting. It may even give newer divers some ideas.
Feel free to take it in a different direction. If you had a challenging dive early on that you were able to handle because of prior experience perhaps you could share that and explain what prior experiences were crucial to a favorable outcome.
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