Do you REALLY know how to scuba dive?

[JeffG]

With a blank page? Maybe my ISP won't allow me to see your lurid link...

He is just describing a PADI master diver

 

[Crush]

You do realize you are going to die now.

I commend my soul to the loving embrace of GI3...

 

[JeffG]

I commend my soul to the loving embrace of GI3...

Wearing matching speedo's?

 

[Thalassamania]

I will not ask, if you do not tell.

 

[JeffG]

I will not ask, if you do not tell.

Wasn't that repealed?

 

[Frosty]

Am I a scuba diver? YES. Am I a GOOD scuba diver? NO Why do I feel this way? because I know enough to know how much I don't know. So I have to dive and dive and dive and dive ............ untill maybee one day as they are lowering me into that wooden box at 100 years old my last words will be --"YEP I figured out women and diving-my world is complete"

 

[TSandM]

Actually, something Joel Silverstein wrote a while back resonated with me . . . I think you know how to scuba dive when all the basic functions of diving -- buoyancy, trim, propulsion, position, communication, etc. -- are done without conscious thought, and your entire conscious brain can be devoted to enjoying the dive, or solving problems, or whatever you need to do. I would love to reach the point where everything ordinary was absolutely unconscious. I'm not there yet. Maybe another thousand dives or so . . .

 

[Kern]

I fall in the water, I flop around, I float to the surface when I'm finished flopping around.

So far I'm an expert at falling in the water. Everyone agrees, I do it with style, grace, & panache.

If I live long enough, I might perfect flopping around in the water, & floating to the surface as well.

 

[BDSC]

Actually, something Joel Silverstein wrote a while back resonated with me . . . I think you know how to scuba dive when all the basic functions of diving -- buoyancy, trim, propulsion, position, communication, etc. -- are done without conscious thought, and your entire conscious brain can be devoted to enjoying the dive, or solving problems, or whatever you need to do. . . .

I think that sums it up quite well! When it all becomes second nature to you.

But I would like to comment on one thing. I have seen not only on this thread but on many threads on SB where someone will say something like this:

"After 500/1000 (It's usually some large number) dives, I realize how little I know and still have a lot to learn."

I quit logging dives after I hit #500 (unless it's a pretty incredible dive) so I don't know how many dives I have actually done but I ask myself when I read something like the statement above, do I still have a lot to learn or what more is there to learn?

My diving is pretty much the warm, clear water, caribbean type of diving. So thinking of that type of diving and after more than 500 dives over 20 years in that environment, I really can't think that there is so much more for me to learn. I think anyone can continue to improve on their in-water skills but I don't call that learning. To me that's just more practice. Now I realize that if I were to take my diving in another direction like cave diving for example, there would be a great deal for me to learn because that's a whole nother ball game. Or if I were to go and dive where TSandM dives I'm sure there would be some things I would learn because that too would be something different than the norm for me.

I guess a question I would ask of someone (with lots of dives) who says they have so much more to learn about diving is what, exactly, do you think there is left to learn assuming we are not talking about going into a totally different area of diving?

 

[pixelpixie]

I'm a relatively new diver, still under 25 dives....so from my perspective, the answer is, if all is going well & I'm enjoying (along the lines of imwright1985's response)....staying there...if it's not optimum, being able to stay calm to best address and resolve that to get back to "going well & enjoying."