Do you listen to the Voice?

[dsteding]

He is a friend of mine!

He talks a lot about reading your environment and the instincts that have been "domesticated out" of us. I loved that book, it was life altering because it supports many of my tendancies. The discussion about "bending the map" and the chapter on the physiology of panic, I enjoyed very much.

That's very cool, please let him know I am enjoying his book. I've taken to downloading audiobooks to my ipod to listen to while working out, and books of this genre go very well with long runs and lifting weights.

I'm enjoying the way he weaves the conceptual side of things into the stories. Very interesting so far, and I find lots of it to be really helpful in articulating the concepts I've started to develop on my own.

 

[Cacia]

(He is working on a book now about using survival skills to overcome life-threatening illnesses.)

He marvels at how a 4 year old survives lost in the woods more often than, say a twelve year old.

He is a pilot as well, Peter guy. He tells a story about his father, a WW2 pilot who had survived a crash, who tells him years later when Laurence is a cocky teenager "Son, acting cool and being cool are not the same thing.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

I listen to the voice and then try to find a reason for it, if I don´t find a reason then I´ll dive anyway...

I agree with this. I get the voice fairly often and I look at the dive plan and my surroundings to see if I can find what's bothering me. I've called a few dives based on the voice and they were good calls. My buddies and I were planning a 90 foot dive one day and I got all tight-chested and anxious. I told one of my buddies I wasn't comfortable with the 90 feet so we changed it to 50 and the feeling went away. Once we were in the water and at 50 feet I felt ok for the 90, of course we didn't go below 50 since that was the plan but the heebie jeebies had gone away when the number 90 flashed in my head.

The voice has served me well throughout my life. It occasionally produces false alarms but I figure it's better to avoid something that gives you a bad feeling than to go ahead and do it and find out the bad feeling was correct.
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[nymbus]

Interesting... I was just out at one of our "premier" dive sites on wednesday, and got that creepy feeling that I just shouldn't be there right then. I have this voice often when diving- just a little whisper, something that tells me that it might not be a good idea to be doing something you might be thinking about doing or worse yet, in the process of doing. (Like taking a bc off to reach head first into a hole in a current to grab a lobster or three...)
I hardly ever ignore it, I might change the plans I had, or rethink a plan- but I'm lucky about this. As an female instructor, people don't really argue with me if I say something is a no-go... even if it is something that I really could and want to do- I won't take someone else on a dive that doesn't make sense for them.. though I generally take the fall out as being a "worried girl"... (which I am NOT).
And please don't get me wrong, I listen to it, but I don't let it dictate life either.

 

[nymbus]

Maybe I should add- I work in Oregon- cold, generally dark water...
there are a lot of things that make that voice pop out- especially when I have new OW students out with me...

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

I was diving a quarry and leading the dive, last summer. We were diving the shaker house, and I paused on an outside landing to let everyone catch up. I shone my light into the doorway, because we were going to go through the building, and came face to face with my first experience with black water. (and got quite a jab in the ribs from "That Feeling") I changed the plan midway through and we had an enjoyable (if not a little boring) dive. The divers I was leading weren't very experienced, and when I explained what I'd seen, they were glad I didn't lead them in there.

Bad viz sucks, Nymbus. Been there many times, in lakes, rivers, and quarries, and one time in Panama City Beach, the weekend that Hurricane Emily came ashore. It was rumored that we dove the Black Bart, a sunken tugboat, but I never saw the damn thing. LOL

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I listen to all the voices ... sometimes it gets very confusing ... :11:

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[CheddarChick]

What Catherine said about looking over the reef first is Spot On!!!! Critter will always react before we do....

 

[Old Diver]

We are here because our ancestors paid attention to that back-of-the-neck tingle. The others who didn't became leopard chow. Yes, sometimes we get away not paying attention, but why push it?
Catherine; ask JB if he pays attention, I bet I know the answer!

 

[micks]

My Voice has a name.. it's called "laziness"

Oftentimes, I plan a trip where I want to dive everyday, but when I get there, all I wanna do is drink beer or nap. Then dive every other day or so.