How has Scubaboard affected your diving??

[simbrooks]

I know in the past Uncle Pug started a thread on “the best tip I ever received on scubaboard” http://69.93.91.170/t40757.html, but I wanted to go a little further than that and aim it specifically at diving rather than any tip.

How has Scubaboard affected your diving??

I found this board sometime last October during an extended SI between my OW checkout dives. I started reading (in fact my company should really notice the decline in working hours) about all sorts of stuff that I had questions on about gear, skills, planning, other agencies/courses (I went with and was not happy with a PADI 5 star center here in Orlando), other types of diving, places to go, people in my area (in case my GF is unavailable to dive), links to websites on discount gear or for further tips and techniques videos or written accounts or instruction and now it seems they are adding more sections to this board each week on equipment sales and other such things. I found my new instructor through this board, have met a few good people off here and dove some local areas and picked up many pointers. I have read about, contemplated and in the good conditions (shallow reasonable viz areas with buddy and plenty of air) have tried out some things I had read about on here. I have found out about new types of equipment that I have since purchased that weren’t made known to me during my OW training and there are many more core pieces I am looking at getting in the near future to aid my further diving development.

Whilst I am not advocate instruction over the internet, I did find many pointers to work on and other such aspects to think about which have improved my diving in terms of skill, safety, and enjoyment. The threads on here have opened my eyes to see what is out there and want to do more in terms of diving. I am not saying these things weren’t possible to learn over time, but reading them here, asking, discussing, trying out new things has steepened the learning curve just like some of the training I have started recently.

So what are the major things you have learned, experimented with or found out from exposure to this board that are most important to you and your diving???

 

[jonnythan]

Jon before: http://jonnythan.com/pictures/dutch_springs_8_25_01/dscf0025.html

Jon after: http://jonnythan.com/pictures/dutch_springs_7-6-03/img_4453.html

 

[Rick Inman]

Jon before: http://jonnythan.com/pictures/dutch_springs_8_25_01/dscf0025.html

Jon after: http://jonnythan.com/pictures/dutch_springs_7-6-03/img_4453.html

I noticed the difference right away. New haircut, right?

 

[simbrooks]

I think it was his better side with the sun coming over.

I understand that a lot have found DIR (assuming from Jon's rigging without actually diving with him or reading all his posts) from this board, that is to be expected, i know some also found it through their instructors, right place, right time kind of thing and the essential non-existance of any advertising. But this thread isnt about just DIR.

Who else has got something?

 

[Walter]

He's also two years older. He still looks younger than my son........

Seriously, it's given me some new friends, some of them very dear. They are dive buddies I may never have had if not for this board.

I've picked up a few techniques from Mike Ferrera and have altered my teaching style some as a result.

 

[gfisher4792]

Finding backplates and wings. Also, the importance (and why) of continuing scuba education, with the minimum of completing AOW and Rescue.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

LOL ... I found the Dark Side of DIR. Shortly after signing up I got dumped on in a big way by a few DIR divers for what I thought was a relatively mild observation. After being told to go search about a half-million previous entries before posting again, I discovered I had blundered into something of a sore point with some on the board.

So what did I learn from ScubaBoard? Only that there are some divers who take themselves way too seriously ... but I don't think it's affected my diving all that much ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[jroy017]

Picked up alot of different views on teching and adapted to my own style kind of like having twenty intstructor trainers and pick what you like from each.

 

[simbrooks]

So what did I learn from ScubaBoard? Only that there are some divers who take themselves way too seriously ... but I don't think it's affected my diving all that much ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

I know there are a lot of experienced divers who came on here and found very few things in terms of diving to learn (old dog new tricks, and partly cos they were there during the development of it all), and i appreciate both Bob and Walters comments. The new divers, who werent taught in the more comprehensive courses in the 70/80's, will probably find more stuff to learn in a diving way.

I also see the POV about the many learned divers and instructors who offer advice, mostly well received, and how you can learn "for free" a little more knowledge from each of them!

 

[gerardnealon]

Jon before: http://jonnythan.com/pictures/dutch_springs_8_25_01/dscf0025.html

Jon after: http://jonnythan.com/pictures/dutch_springs_7-6-03/img_4453.html

I see you went diving 1/18/04 @ dutch springs. How did you get in there? I thought they were closed. I was always curious if they opened the doors from time to time to let people dive if there isn't any ice on the surface.