Question Do you take detailed notes on your dives?

[oya]

My response to people who rely on notes (whether they be detailed as hell or simply navigational directions):

What if you drop your wetnotes? Now you're lost in a cave.

What if visibility is compromised? Now you're lost in a cave.

If you can't remember exactly where you are you are too far in the cave.

(No, this obviously does not apply to explorers and the like. Which you are not. Otherwise you would be exploring and not on Scubaboard. Nor does it apply to hasty non-survival-dependent notes one might take for one's personal dive log later, those are cool and demonstrate a thorough spirit.)

 

[Norwegian Cave Diver]

I generally have a map in my wet notes for reference if wanted/needed. I reference time for dropping a stage - say 25 minutes - and dropping a second stage - say 60 minutes - and remember those numbers when exiting. Then when I turn a dive I calculate what time I expect to be at my stage - and then calculate what time I will arrive at my second stage - then my expected time at the exit. I generally like to take more time going in and less time exiting.

 

[DiveLikeAMuppet]

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.

We are not talking complex caves. Most of the caves we dived were fairly short and required no navigation decisions - think continuous cave ending with a dry area at the end of the first sump. Probably the most complex one is Ressel, where you can flip a coin at the first T whether to dive "upper" or "lower" of the two parallel tubes and these merge again at a second (less visible) T and then continue into a very obvious abyss (and the only complication is a jump between the two tubes).

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...

That was my observation and the reason for my question. I was having loads of fun but have been told that I received lesser training as I was not taught to take detailed notes.

Otherwise you would be exploring and not on Scubaboard.

I'm an office muppet drone who was bored on his morning commute . Someone has to keep all the explorers' dive shops afloat .

 

[flymolo]

We are not talking complex caves. Most of the caves we dived were fairly short and required no navigation decisions - think continuous cave ending with a dry area at the end of the first sump. Probably the most complex one is Ressel, where you can flip a coin at the first T whether to dive "upper" or "lower" of the two parallel tubes and these merge again at as second (less visible) T and then continue into a very obvious abyss (and the only complication is a jump between the two tubes).


That was my observation and the reason for my question. I was having loads of fun but have been told that I received lesser training as I was not taught to take detailed notes.


I'm an office muppet drone who was bored on his morning commute . Someone has to keep all the explorers' dive shops afloat .

Loads of fun aside you should be able to hold basic navigational decisions as well as other stats like time and gas in your head. Don’t know what purpose pulling the wetnotes out at every arrow in the caves serves except to maybe decrease overall awareness just like you mentioned

 

[dylanfromwinnipeg]

When I'm in caves where I don't have a line/stick map (or may have an old/inaccurate one), I like to make a note in my wrist slate of every jump I see, and what time I saw it. Something like "JL 15", meaning there was a jump left at 15 mins into the dive.

This way when I return to the cave I know where there are other lines I might want to check out.

 

[Manatee Diver]

For video dives I have detailed dive plans for the shot.
Example of today's shot plan:


But otherwise I have a plan but it isn't written down. IMHO no dive should be so unknown that you need to detailed predive notes. I try not to go so far into the unknown to me that I can't remember it in my head.

After the dive I will take navigation related notes. I have a Rite in the Rain notebook complete with hand drawn maps where helpful.

 

[Rilelen]

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.

This is what we do too - thorough discussion of the plan before the dive, with reference to the map, but nothing written down. I will typically note major points (when we hit a jump for instance), and mentally note the time and my PSI but very rarely (if ever) do I write any of that down in a tourist cave.

Honestly it’s not that hard to remember something like “jump left onto hill 400 then left to the siphon tunnel then right to Double Lines then back-jump down that funky side passage where the bottom has been all beat up.”

 

[lermontov]

do you mean as well as dropping cookies?
if the cave already has a map i just write down on a wrist slate my plan and then the second diver does the same -then one of us reads out the plan and checks
see eg

 

[PEDiver]

This is what we do too - thorough discussion of the plan before the dive, with reference to the map, but nothing written down. I will typically note major points (when we hit a jump for instance), and mentally note the time and my PSI but very rarely (if ever) do I write any of that down in a tourist cave.

Honestly it’s not that hard to remember something like “jump left onto hill 400 then left to the siphon tunnel then right to Double Lines then back-jump down that funky side passage where the bottom has been all beat up.”

Exactly, and funnily enough, that was the same dive I did this past weekend.

 

[inquis]

I typically hold the intended route in my head (thorough pre-dive discussion, usually with a map), although if the route looked like @lermontov's example I'd have to rethink that approach! I try to mark the arrival at jumps with the Tag feature on my Teric to help with future planning. If I'm planning a detour on the way out, I'll memorize that pressure as I pass by.