Diving Tips From Experienced SB Divers to nOObies

[Paco]

Build a good relationship with a local dive shop.

 

[SueMermaid]

When you make buoyancy adjustments, stop before you continue. Take some slow breaths before you adjust further. Take your time. Breathe in, rise up, breathe out, go down. :japanese: Things happen a lot more slowly underwater.

Alex, I take exception to your post. Just because someone isn't terribly experienced does not mean they don't have good advice for you. Number of dives isn't everything. I have known some serious dive boobs who have thousands of dives.

 

[alikws]

especialy after missing a couple months or so, look over one volume of your dive logs, amazing how the small details come back...
________________
'happier then a carp in a septic tank...'

 

[lamont]

I think this thread is a great idea but "experienced" is a very relative thing. It would have been more useful to post what sort of dive resume is considered "experienced" and request those who meet that resume to post their tips/tricks.

--Matt

i found the entire notion that you should discount advice because a divers resume isn't impressive enough to be pretty stupid.

someone with 3,000+ dives has probably completely forgotten what it was like to have only 2 dives under their belt... they may also have picked up dangerous and complacent habits over the years, so its no guarantee of a correlation with good advice... caveat n00bie...

 

[scubavince]

My favorites center on developing buoyancy control, so I'll add:

ALWAYS breathe from your primary reg WHILE looking at your SPG just before you hop in. You will see clearly whether your gas is on, and that's a good thing.

What's a SPG? Just being a newbie..

 

[StSomewhere]

What's a SPG? Just being a newbie..

Submersible pressure gauge, it tells you how much air you have left in your tank.

 

[miketsp]

When you make buoyancy adjustments, stop before you continue. Take some slow breaths before you adjust further. Take your time. Breathe in, rise up, breathe out, go down. :japanese: Things happen a lot more slowly underwater.
..snip..

Just remember there are exceptions - once had to grab a guy on a wall dive as he was rocketing downwards through 40m. He was losing buoyancy faster than he could get the air into his BC due to the compression of his wet suit and his BC.
He should have been inflating as he descended but put in too little and too late.
The way he was going he would have reached bottom at 600m.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

Having "the little things" makes diving go much smoother. Ground tarps for shore diving; hangers and clothesline for gear if you're camping; a towel on a hanger to wipe your face after the dive; a canopy to shade your picnic table and hang your stuff from when shore diving; a dry bag or box for clothes, towel, first aid kit, etc. when boat diving; a save-a-dive kit that includes the basics plus assorted zip ties, snap links (one and two sided), clip-on strobe, chem light or equivalent and one extra set of batteries for your light; a bucket of water to rinse your mask in before donning it so you can be completely geared up except for fins when approaching the water on a shore dive.
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[getwet2]

Don't stand on the corals.

 

[getwet2]

Don't grab that poor little Pufferfish.