Do you plan your rec (not tech) dives?

[diverrex]

To a casual observer it would appear that most of the dives we do are not planned because we discuss very little before the dive. But after you have done the same general sites, on the same boats and with the same buddies a couple hundred times it's not that the dives are not planned but you are simply repeating a dive planned and done many times before. Most of our diving is shallow above 60 FSW. The boats generally want us back in 60 minutes. So we know the max dive time and know from experience that if there is nothing much below to see we may think about coming up after 40 minutes. We already know NDL and air are not issues. We do not say to each other "let's plan on 3 minute safety stop" because we already know we do one on every dive. What we do always discuss is where we will drop and what our initial bearing will be. Most of our dives are not objective specific like visiting a wreck at a very specific coordinate but rather they are dropping on a reef and moving where the fish and critters are. When we are on a deeper site we will discuss plans more directly. If we are with a new buddy then we will discuss more, but I don't think I have dived with a new buddy in a couple years.

 

[TSandM]

diverrex, I know what you mean -- "We're going to do the standard 70 foot tour of the Cove" conveys a whole spectrum of information about depth, time, navigation, gas reserves, and the like.

 

[SC_Hoaty]

To a casual observer it would appear that most of the dives we do are not planned because we discuss very little before the dive. But after you have done the same general sites, on the same boats and with the same buddies a couple hundred times it's not that the dives are not planned but you are simply repeating a dive planned and done many times before. Most of our diving is shallow above 60 FSW. The boats generally want us back in 60 minutes. So we know the max dive time and know from experience that if there is nothing much below to see we may think about coming up after 40 minutes. We already know NDL and air are not issues. We do not say to each other "let's plan on 3 minute safety stop" because we already know we do one on every dive. What we do always discuss is where we will drop and what our initial bearing will be. Most of our dives are not objective specific like visiting a wreck at a very specific coordinate but rather they are dropping on a reef and moving where the fish and critters are. When we are on a deeper site we will discuss plans more directly. If we are with a new buddy then we will discuss more, but I don't think I have dived with a new buddy in a couple years.

diverrex, I know what you mean -- "We're going to do the standard 70 foot tour of the Cove" conveys a whole spectrum of information about depth, time, navigation, gas reserves, and the like.

Like a football team running a play - all planned and rehearsed many times. Call the audible, and everyone knows what to do.