Question Do you take detailed notes on your dives?

[DiveLikeAMuppet]

Do you or did you take detailed notes such as direction within 5 degree precision on every cave change, gas, distance, arrow/jump/side passage locations on your intro to cave level or early full cave dives in touristy (known, well dived, well lined) caves?

I recently had a chance to dive with someone trained by a famous Mexican sidemount shop who attempted to essentially survey each cave we dived. claiming that’s mandatory for survival … in the first 300 meters of Ressel (1T two straight tubes no navigation), within the first 20 cave dives of both of us, to the point of losing situational awareness and silting out the passage, never mind the accuracy of 5 degree precision on a tiny compass. Meanwhile I checked the map before the dive and then just looked at pretty rocks…

Just wondering if someone teaches that and if I missed something and have too much of a YOLO approach.

 

[rduquesnoy]

I do make a plan before the dive, but don't use details such as direction in degrees (general direction yes). What I do write down is the lines I intend to follow, jumps we want to make (where and how many), (estimated) average depth and gas consumption etc. All of this is written down in my wetnotes. I rarely need to verify the plan during a dive, writing it down helps a lot to remember the plan.

During the dive I try to remember as much reference points as possible. Such as: there is a set of arrows on the line x minutes from the entrance at a certain depth. Same for Ts. And when the general direction of the cave changes significantly I adjust my compass but that is about as far as I go with tracking direction.

 

[VikingDives]

Do you or did you take detailed notes such as direction within 5 degree precision on every cave change, gas, distance, arrow/jump/side passage locations on your intro to cave level or early full cave dives in touristy (known, well dived, well lined) caves?

I recently had a chance to dive with someone trained by a famous Mexican sidemount shop who attempted to essentially survey each cave we dived. claiming that’s mandatory for survival … in the first 300 meters of Ressel (1T two straight tubes no navigation), within the first 20 cave dives of both of us, to the point of losing situational awareness and silting out the passage, never mind the accuracy of 5 degree precision on a tiny compass. Meanwhile I checked the map before the dive and then just looked at pretty rocks…

Just wondering if someone teaches that and if I missed something and have too much of a YOLO approach.

Having trained with one of the "famous Mexican sidemount shops" (UTJ), I can say that wasn't in their curriculum. I take notes on time/direction/gas for reference points I haven't visited before, but what you're describing sounds like a touch of overkill.

 

[macado]

It depends. if it's a completely new cave to me then I like to write down timings and when I get to specific areas, distances or jumps so I can reference it later. If I am OC then I will write down where and approximate distance I hit turn pressure.

I like to have a plan in my head if i am planning a specific circuit I will write down the directions. None of this takes very long. I usually just jot down time and maybe marked arrows or features I can reference later.

It sounds like what you experienced was a little overboard. I dont "survey" tourist or very popular caves

 

[flymolo]

It sounds like that person needs better training

 

[Lorenzoid]

"During the dive" we have hopefully memorized the pre-dive plan and mental map of our route and do not need to refer to written wetnotes. I'm glad I was taught to do it that way, because if I felt free to whip out my notes, I suspect--knowing my OCD-ish self--that I would spend half the dive scribbling in my notes.

 

[PfcAJ]

Yolo.

 

[InWay2Deep]

Hell no, you'd never see anything. Since going CCR Cave I have started taking notes on time to navigation changes so that on the way out I know my BO radius and can investigate side passages if I want.

 

[GF99/99]

Hell no, you'd never see anything. Since going CCR Cave I have started taking notes on time to navigation changes so that on the way out I know my BO radius and can investigate side passages if I want.

Agree.

This is all you really need.

Do you or did you take detailed notes such as direction within 5 degree precision on every cave change, gas, distance, arrow/jump/side passage locations on your intro to cave level or early full cave dives in touristy (known, well dived, well lined) caves?

I recently had a chance to dive with someone trained by a famous Mexican sidemount shop who attempted to essentially survey each cave we dived. claiming that’s mandatory for survival … in the first 300 meters of Ressel (1T two straight tubes no navigation), within the first 20 cave dives of both of us, to the point of losing situational awareness and silting out the passage, never mind the accuracy of 5 degree precision on a tiny compass. Meanwhile I checked the map before the dive and then just looked at pretty rocks…

Just wondering if someone teaches that and if I missed something and have too much of a YOLO approach.

Not to sound rude but if someone needs to take that many notes they probably should not be diving such complex dives. Start out small and work you way up.
My personal opinion is you should pretty much be able to memorize all your navigation choices and times (yeah its nice to write them down) if you can't remember them then you should not be that far in a cave. At any given point in the dive you should be able to recall the time and navigation choices to exit.

 

[PEDiver]

Before each dive, we have a thorough team briefing (referencing a map, if available) detailing the dive plan (who's leading, what jumps we're doing, where we want to drop stages, where we're staging our deco bottles, what areas we want to film if we're doing photo/video, etc.). Rarely is this plan written down for reference during the dive...and we're never "surveying" the cave especially if we're following existing lines. If you're constantly jotting down notes and trying to draw crude maps of the cave, you're never going to actually see the cave and you're probably not going to have much fun...

This person probably needs to go take a refresher class with another instructor...