Do you plan your rec (not tech) dives?

[Storker]

Your results will likely reflect the scubaboard reality as opposed to the "rec diver" reality.

No worries, mate. I'd rather take the advice and experience of an enthusiast than that of the "trust me" divers you talk about

There is still a significant number of vacation divers that do not use computers, or tables for that matter. They do trust me dives. They jump in the water and swim around until the DM brings them back to the boat.

:amazed: :classic: um... impressive. I think.

I determine what level of planning is needed for a particular dive and include that much information in my plan.

With due respect, that wasn't very informative

If my wife sees a turtle, Ray or Shark there would be no point telling her, "dear we only planned to be at this depth for 4.32 minutes, please ignore the critter and move to 40 ft as planned." her response is the universal hand sign for expressing displeasure,
If we have time on the computer and air in the tank we swim.

When I hear people who are fanatical in their adherence to "Plan your dive and dive your plan," I wonder what they do when they descend and discover an unexpected ripping current that prevents them from doing what they intended. I suspect they will change the plan under those circumstances, despite what they might proclaim while writing on the Internet.

As TSandM said better than I can, plans aren't necessarily carved in stone down to the depth profile in centimeters and seconds. A plan may well allow for some flexibility but still be a valuable tool. It's the same with mountain hiking. I plan where I'm going and how long I'm going to be away, but I'm still allowed to take a break and a snack at 10:45 if I'm tired and hungry instead of my normal lunch at 11:30, Or I can climb another summit close to the one I initially was considering. Same thing with my plans, the only thing I carve in stone is the maximum time I've reported to the guys sitting at the surface.

I would like to take a moment and compare what is described above as a rec dive done without a plan with the kind of sophisticated planning typically done with one kind of tech diving--cave diving. Let's see if we can highlight the difference.

Rec dive without a plan: The diver dives in the intended direction until either the pressure gauge indicates it is time to head for the surface or the computer indicates the diver has gotten close to the NDL for that dive. The diver usually does a safety stop at a prescribed depth for a prescribed amount of time.

Typical Well-planned cave dive: The diver dives in the intended direction until either the pressure gauge indicates it is time to return to the cave entrance. Nearing the entrance, the computer indicates if the diver needs to do a decompression stop for a specific amount of time or simply a safety stop at a prescribed depth for a prescribed amount of time.

I hope everyone can see the significance of the difference between the two.

It seems like some folks think that having a plan means diving in lockstep, never looking up, and never changing if the ocean offers up a surprise. Not at all!

I claim that the standard "rec" diver on this forum is way ahead of the standard "vacation" diver in terms of planning and dive execution. So any conclusions from this poll and attached comments are generally ignoring the vacation diver segment.

My intention with the poll was more to see where I am compared to a bunch of enthusiastic and (supposedly ) fairly competent divers than getting representative data for the whole diver population And it seems as if I'm not too far out on the bell curve. I guess my dive planning will become less explicit as I gather experience, but I think that I'll always do some kind of planning, if not more than max depth (slightly adjustable), max time (fixed) and return pressure (fixed).

And thanks for the replies, guys¹. I've gotten some perspective from quite a few of them.



¹ "guys" in a gender-inclusive/gender-neutral meaning, of course. We are politically correct, aren't we?

 

[mac.calder]

I'm another for the "plan as much as I need to" camp. If I am paddling around a groyne with a max depth of 8m and an average of about 4.5, I know that I can do > 90 mins and still have well over a hundred bar in my tank and we are sitting in depths where NDL is ridiculous, so my plan is generally "We'll descend here, swim along the groyne unless we see something, in which case we might follow that. Turn pressure is 150 bar or whenever one of us decides we want to turn around".

The weekly shore dives I do with my local dive shop, 50 bar or 50 minutes is the general dive plan - there are only 2 sites we tend to do (occasionally) where there is a possibility that NDL's will come into play - but to actually reach them you have to really be trying to.

Off a boat, sometimes we plan a lot stricter, with turn pressure and time, initial bearings etc, other times - for example a site with lots of little holes and crevices, where we plan on always being within about 100-200m of the boat - we usually just define the end of dive parameters and dive around the area - none of the guys I dive with are afraid of a surface swim back to the boat - we are all predominately shore divers, so we are all used to long surface swims.

 

[sheeper]

i'm a member of the "plan your dive, dive your plan" camp. With a background in Special Ops, i naturally plan every dive. it doesn't matter if it's a 20 foot shore dive, or a 120 foot wreck penetration. My buddy and i tend to plan like it's a military operation. I've had people quite amused at my obsession on shallow reef dives of 30'. LOL....i also do a hell of a dive briefing.

 

[redacted]

For most rec dives, I plan max depth, objective, and tank pressure way-points (including turn pressure). This produces time expectations.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I would like to take a moment and compare what is described above as a rec dive done without a plan with the kind of sophisticated planning typically done with one kind of tech diving--cave diving. Let's see if we can highlight the difference.

Rec dive without a plan: The diver dives in the intended direction until either the pressure gauge indicates it is time to head for the surface or the computer indicates the diver has gotten close to the NDL for that dive. The diver usually does a safety stop at a prescribed depth for a prescribed amount of time.

Typical Well-planned cave dive: The diver dives in the intended direction until either the pressure gauge indicates it is time to return to the cave entrance. Nearing the entrance, the computer indicates if the diver needs to do a decompression stop for a specific amount of time or simply a safety stop at a prescribed depth for a prescribed amount of time.

I hope everyone can see the significance of the difference between the two.

I think the most significant difference involves the aspect of planning that answers the question "What can go wrong, and how well prepared am I to deal with it?"

When I do a recreational dive, my pockets are usually empty. My contingency plan for gas is my buddy ... or if I'm solo diving, my redundant air source. My bailout plan for most problems amounts to "surface and swim in".

When I do a cave dive, my pockets contain a spare mask, extra light, extra cookies/arrows, and wet notes. My contingency plan for gas is to use both my buddy and my redundant air source. I have redundant lights (three, at least) in case of a light failure. I have a safety reel in case I lose visibility, and therefore lose the line. I have training that specifically addresses how to use that equipment to deal with the issues that a cave diver might have to deal with.

And the biggest difference is the mental preparation for the dive ... I'm far more likely to turn a dive due to a single failure inside a cave than I would on a recreational dive. My tolerance for "wrong" is a LOT lower.

These are all aspects of dive planning. There's way more to it than just depth, air pressure, and NDL ... and I put a significantly greater amount of effort and preparation into a cave dive than I do a recreational-level OW dive. Fundamentally, anytime you're in an overhead environment ... physical or due to deco ... you need to be better prepared to deal with contingencies without being able to surface. That's all part of planning. And if you haven't put the thought into it, and prepared to carry with you the equipment and supplies you'd need, and acquired the skills and training to effectively deal with whatever you can anticipate might go wrong, then you haven't really planned your dive properly.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Rhone Man]

I am also a "plan as much as I need to". 90% of my dives are on sites I am highly familiar with, in gear I use every week, with other divers I trust implicitly. I do not calculate turn pressures, headings or anything else. There are clearly also dives which I do which I need to plan and plan carefully. And so I do. Maybe I am cynical but I look at divers who overplan simple recreational dives in much the same way as I look at guys who use SatNav for drives that they do many times.

 

[PfcAJ]

I would say that on all the "unplanned" recreational dives, the divers also know the expected depth of the dive. If they have been diving for a while, they also have a pretty fair idea how long it will last. They also know how long their deco (safety stop) will be. My point is not that planned. My point is that there is a lot more planning in those "unplanned" dives than some people are willing to admit.

And on a cave dive, I will admit that I usually only have a rough idea ahead of time how much deco I am going to do at the end of a dive. All of my cave training and subsequent cave diving was done agencies and with people who do not believe computers are the spawn of the Devil. On every cave dive I have ever done in which there was a possibility of doing deco, we came to the end of the dive, looked at our computers, signaled to each other how much deco was called for, and we did what it called for. For some people, that sounds like something terrible, but I will admit to doing it, and I will further admit that I have done that with some extremely famous cave divers.

That's a great way to outrun your deco gas.

Every time I do a deco dive, I know how much deco gas I have (usually in the form of "x-mins of o2, y-mins of 50%, etc etc), taking in to account the needed reserve. I've turned the show around on a dive or two because a longer BT would result in tapping into deco gas reserves, and that's just poor form.

If your deco time is a surprise when you get back to your bottles, somethin' ain't right. Imo, this is a place where the idea of 'ratio deco' shines, as its gives you a good idea of the req'd deco time as a function of time on the bottom. Really helps with knowing how much 'play time' you have on the dive.

 

[261311]

If it's strictly recreational I might not do any intense planning unless it starts to get close to the NDL limits. I do however always like to determine the time and depth and returning PSI so I can definitely stay on track of my goals.

 

[Searcaigh]

As a photographer on local dives, I know my depths and NDLs however what I do underwater depends on local conditions at the time and what I find to photograph. I might spend one hour at 20M over an area the size of a normal living room or lounge room if there are enough subjects to photograph and keep me occupied or I might go exploring a bit, depending on what lens is fitted to my camera and the visibility, current, depth etc., and if I find a nudibranch I have never seen before I might spend the whole dive just photographing it.

In summary though, I plan the depth, time (+/-) and not to run out of gas.

 

[boulderjohn]

I think this thread shows all dives are planned; the questions are how much they're planned, and how much they should be for particular types of dive.

That was my point.

That's a great way to outrun your deco gas.

Every time I do a deco dive, I know how much deco gas I have (usually in the form of "x-mins of o2, y-mins of 50%, etc etc), taking in to account the needed reserve. I've turned the show around on a dive or two because a longer BT would result in tapping into deco gas reserves, and that's just poor form.

If your deco time is a surprise when you get back to your bottles, somethin' ain't right. Imo, this is a place where the idea of 'ratio deco' shines, as its gives you a good idea of the req'd deco time as a function of time on the bottom. Really helps with knowing how much 'play time' you have on the dive.

Of course I have a rough idea of what the deco will be, and I have more than enough gas for it. I don't know to the minute what it will be, but I know I have plenty of gas for it.

The recreational diver planning to do an ascent with a safety stop is essentially doing the same thing. There is a difference of degree, but it is a difference of degree. I am simply saying that what we are calling an unplanned dive does indeed have a plan that works fine for that dive in that location and for that purpose.