Greatest Fear?

[Ber Rabbit]

honestly right now, my biggest fear is being new and getting insta buddied with a vet diver and just not being good enough. I try to know what I am doing and try to do everything right, but getting percieved as a bad diver because I am new. that is the hardest part about diving with someone who is a vet and I am new.

I had a question to that as well. how do you vets handle new people? i mean, I wouldn't want for the world to mess up anyones dive, and want to learn as much as I can especially if I get paired with a good veteran diver. I don't want to ask too many questions or forget a step or procedure. just me being new I guess.

That reminds me of another fear...diving with a new diver who's not honest about their ability

There is no such thing as too many questions. A new diver who is keen to learn is a joy to dive with. A new diver who is trying to improve their skills is not necessarily a bad diver, just inexperienced and we were all there once. Don't pretend to be something you're not, mentoring is fun for many experienced divers.

Regarding your "messing up dives" fear. My general policy at the local dive hole is you can't mess up my dive unless one of us comes back hurt or dead. I've agreed to be your buddy and we are going to go have some fun, we can even work on some skills to improve your diving if you want. The policy changes a little when I'm on a dive trip. I'm going to chat you up about your dive experience. I'm going to use that and your general attitude to decide whether to let you become the third person in my dive team (husband is my buddy) if it's a site I feel comfortable diving with an unknown person. Dive I'm really looking forward to? Probably not going to add an unfamiliar diver to the mix. I don't want you to feel like you ruined a dive for me
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[JoyfulNoise]

My greatest fear is not being aware or doing something that may cause the harm of my dive buddy. It's one thing to be responsible for your own mistakes, but at the cost of another is hopefully a mistake I can avoid!

Carolyn:sharks:

This is my greatest fear too, my dive buddy is my husband. I read everything I can about dive safety and try to listen to others with more experience. I just want to be there for my buddy.

 

[Barracuda2]

Boat propellers, I have an irrational fear of boat propellers. I do not like live boat drops, I want that thing turned off. I'm not afraid of being eaten by anything that swims, I'm at least providing nourishment. Hacked up by a boat prop...no thanks.
Ber :lilbunny:

Hey Ber, You DON'T want to dive the St. Clair River then. "Ka-chunk-a-ta, Ka-chunk-a-ta, Ka-chunk-a-ta" is the sound you will hear as a 1000 footer comes off Lake Huron heading down river. Even though you are some distance from the freighter, it sounds like it's on top of you.:11:

 

[Hoomi]

I think I summed up my greatest fear in a post I wrote on another forum:

Dad, what was on your "someday" list? If you'd known last year how quickly you'd lose the ability to do anything, what might you have put on a bucket list? Would you have taken Mom on that cruise she said you two had always talked about? Would you have come out to Tucson one more time to see that B-36 the Air Museum is restoring? Would you have finally told me more about my grandparents? You always wanted to learn to fly, and while the tumor-related seizures would have prevented that, would you have found a ride in a sailplane as delightful as I did? Was there a mountain somewhere you wanted to someday climb? Did you want to go back east and see the places where our family history runs back several centuries, and maybe visit the Smithsonian, too?

Is it coming to a finish too soon, Dad? Or are you satisfied that you've done everything you wanted to do in this life? Is it okay with you that so many of Mom's dreams are going to die with you, too? I don't think you'll ever be able to tell me now, so I'll just have to answer those questions for myself, lest my children wonder the same things about me sometime down the road.

I learned so much from you, Pop. Watching you, I learned how to be a husband and how to be a Dad. I learned how to be a responsible man who takes care of his family and doesn't expect the world to hand him everything on a platter. Your final lesson to me is this; I can't count on someday. I don't want to wait until the day that I can't even feed myself to start thinking about all the things I wanted to see and do in this life.

I learned also that it's okay to go soaring with eagles or swimming with sharks, because watching you these past few months, Dad, I realized I'd rather fall from the heights or drown in the depths than to waste away in my bed.

I love you Pop, but I hope you understand that this is one area where I don't want to be like you.

My greatest fear is laying there in a bed as my body wastes away, thinking about all the things I could have or should have done in life. When Death comes for me, I don't want him to catch me sedately dying at home. I want him to catch me living, and I want him clutching his chest, out of breath, after running his bony behind off to overtake me.

 

[Blake]

i agree with baracudda2, i dive all the time in the st. clair river, and still not used to the sound of the 1000 ft ships going up and down the river, they are a distance away. but not sure if i'm more afraid of them or the crazy power boaters who go up and down river within 20 ft of the shore.

 

[nessum]

Burning out again...

 

[ArcticDiver]

...

My greatest fear is laying there in a bed as my body wastes away, thinking about all the things I could have or should have done in life. When Death comes for me, I don't want him to catch me sedately dying at home. I want him to catch me living, and I want him clutching his chest, out of breath, after running his bony behind off to overtake me.

The definition of Economics applies here I think: Economics is the study of unlimited desires and the use of limited resources to satisfy those desires.

Conventionally we think of economics as applying to money. But, in a very real way it applies to life. Most of the people I know, especially including me and you, want to do a lot. But, unfortunately, life is limited. The really unfortunate part is that unlike the air in our tanks we don't know what the limits are or how close we are to running out. So, we can't life plan in the same way we would plan a dive.

 

[sigourneya]

My greatest fear is getting lost at night and then not finding the right boat and having the Coast Guard have to get me...Oh, wait that already happened....Panic attack and not being rational enough to calm myself down is my biggest fear.

 

[WarrenZ]

honestly right now, my biggest fear is being new and getting insta buddied with a vet diver and just not being good enough. I try to know what I am doing and try to do everything right, but getting percieved as a bad diver because I am new. that is the hardest part about diving with someone who is a vet and I am new.

I had a question to that as well. how do you vets handle new people? i mean, I wouldn't want for the world to mess up anyones dive, and want to learn as much as I can especially if I get paired with a good veteran diver. I don't want to ask too many questions or forget a step or procedure. just me being new I guess.

The problem I have with some instabuddies is when I am with someone who is all gung-ho on the boat; hits the water yelling hooah, and then when we get down where it is deeeeeeep, dark, and cold they suddenly have a change of attitude and panic. (It does happen I have gone down with people deep enough to scare them.) Later I find out that this was their first dive deeper than 30'. I would have rather have them be upfront about it and we could have had a safer more enjoyable dive in the shallows.

As long as you tell your new friend that you are new to diving and want to cruise along with him/her I don’t think you will get much resistance. I never have a problem with someone saying “hey Warren I’m new lets stay above 140' (or 60' or whatever)” and most of the time Ill be more than happy to go and hang out with them. Just keep in mind some of the more experienced divers on the trip may already have a plan for a dive site when we get on the boat, like going down to 130 for a deep dive on a wreck or penetrate a crevice in the rocks or a wreck penetration which would not be a good dive to join us on. So don’t feel bad if you get passed onto another diver or divers who are doing a less intensive dive.

 

[Jaycen2001]

If anything happened that would stop me diving anymore

dang right, either medical of money. i am always scared of not being able to dive anymore