How often do you "Plan your dive, dive your plan"? Preliminary Survey Results

[BDSC]

Rec divers, like it or not, simply follow the rule of "back on the boat with 500" and watch their gauges (sometimes) to do that. It is, perhaps, a sad state of affairs, but it's the reality at least as far as my experience diving with ~150-200 other people on various boats around the world has shown.

I don't look at it as a sad state of affairs myself. Quite frankly, "be back on the boat with 500 psi" is about as detailed of a "plan" as you need for many rec dives.

 

[AdivingBel]

I don't look at it as a sad state of affairs myself. Quite frankly, "be back on the boat with 500 psi" is about as detailed of a "plan" as you need for many rec dives.

Listen to dive briefing, watch your computer, watch your gas, watch your time, be back on the boat on time (if a time is give in the brief) or with min gas (whichever comes first). That's "tidy bowl" diving as I have experienced it. I agree, not sure why that is a "sad state of affairs." I guess if you choose not to listen to the dive briefing, you're not planning your dive.

I think the discussion diverges along the same lines as many on SB. Everyone assumes everyone else dives like they do. It seems protocols vary greatly (along with conditions) from the NW, NE, CA, Europe (all it's variations, don't mean to pidgeon-hole), SE Asia, Caribb, MX, etc. etc etc.. I don't know the numbers (maybe RJP has them), but I would think warm water rec diving (by the numbers) constitutes the bulk of dives especially for this survey given the way it seemed to be targeted at recreational, non-SB centric diving.

 

[fjpatrum]

I don't look at it as a sad state of affairs myself. Quite frankly, "be back on the boat with 500 psi" is about as detailed of a "plan" as you need for many rec dives.

I don't particularly worry about it myself. I was suggesting that it was a "sad state of affairs" by SB standards, perhaps, but the reality doesn't match up with that.

Personally, I plan my dives for my own educational purposes not because I feel the need to be "more safe" by doing so. I do rec dives at a very safe depth and generally in good conditions. I have no problem with "back on the boat with 500" as a "plan" and I even occasionally do that without much more. Usually I like having a better plan though. When I do deeper dives like the V'burg or something, I have a more specific plan but for things like a reef drift at 60 feet, I don't think there's a great need to stress a rigorous, well thought out plan.

It's another one of those "Scubaboard doesn't reflect reality" situations. I was trying to express that and clearly it didn't come through properly.

 

[Dirty-Dog]

I'm not the least bit surprised by this. Despite what the regular posters on SB profess, most divers are simply vacation divers (like me, to be honest) and we don't do a lot of diving. I checked the "plan mostly" (or whatever it was) box because I'm pretty diligent about at least consulting tables before my dives and figuring out how much running time I have. (Generally way more than my gas will allow.) I am one of the few I've ever witnessed "planning" a dive on a dive boat. Perhaps some of those folks have already planned their dive prior but I'm not sure how as most of the dives have been "Captain's call" determined on the fly.

Rec divers, like it or not, simply follow the rule of "back on the boat with 500" and watch their gauges (sometimes) to do that. It is, perhaps, a sad state of affairs, but it's the reality at least as far as my experience diving with ~150-200 other people on various boats around the world has shown.

So basically your plan for every dive is "Stay within recreational limits, be back on the boat with 500PSI" right? That's still a plan. And a perfectly good one for recreational diving. There's nothing that says you have to have a detailed, minute by minute, turn by turn plan.

 

[fjpatrum]

So basically your plan for every dive is "Stay within recreational limits, be back on the boat with 500PSI" right? That's still a plan. And a perfectly good one for recreational diving. There's nothing that says you have to have a detailed, minute by minute, turn by turn plan.

Yes, that's still a plan, which is what I was saying. It's not detailed or considering lots of bail out options (other than surface in an emergency) nor is it something that requires a lot of discussion/planning/coordination between buddies but it is a plan, of sorts.

I think in most rec diving scenarios it's sufficient. SB, as a general rule, seems to imply it isn't. I plan more in depth for myself just so I can better understand, as a newb, what I'm doing and what I can/should expect.

 

[BDSC]

For the most part in recreational diving, dive computers have replaced dive tables, even to the point I don't think they are even required teaching in some courses anymore. Taking that a step further, from my perspective, they have pretty much replaced the idea of needing to "Plan your dive and dive your plan".

 

[Dhboner]

Even the most benign recreational dive in shallow, clear, current-free water should have some planning beyond "return to the boat with not less than 500 psi". It takes no time, a few minutes before you splash, to go over simple hand signals, lost buddy contingency etc. If I am stuck with an "instabuddy" I like to take a moment to make sure we are on the same page about air sharing and how close I expect my dive buddy to be at all times. In less than the time it takes to gear up you can go over a few simple items that will make the dive safer and more enjoyable for everyone.

 

[BRT]

So, when the DM is finished with the briefing and we're ready to splash, I take my dive computer and use the dive planning function to see whether the SI has been long enough at that point to do 110 feet for 50 minutes. Maybe it tells me I can only do 110 feet for 40 minutes, or whatever. I confer with my dive buddy about it. I consider that "dive planning." At least it's a sanity check against what the DM said and gives me an idea whether I might find myself having to ascend on the early side relative to others.

Sometimes your computer tells you you can do 110 feet for 40 minutes? I want one of those!

---------- Post added September 2nd, 2015 at 12:20 PM ----------

Planning a dive includes anticipating all these variables and others as well. A planned dive is not a mechanistic scripted dive. Modifications are always made as circumstances dictate. Planning for these modifications is an integral part of the dive process for any competent experienced diver.

I'm not smart enough, nor do I have enough waterproof paper to plan for all variables. This is why I use a computer. The computer cannot be backed up with tables so I carry a spare. If someone thinks the computer can be backed up with tables then tell me what to do when my computer croaks and my max depth has been 120 and I'm 50 minutes into the dive?

 

[boulderjohn]

I think in most rec diving scenarios it's sufficient. SB, as a general rule, seems to imply it isn't.

As a number of people have suggested, there are MANY ways to plan a dive. Some ways are far more detailed than others, and for good reason. The opposite is also true.

What happens too often on ScubaBoard is that someone gets taught a specific way to plan a dive that works in a specific situation and then somehow gets the idea that what he or she was taught is the only way a dive can be planned. If a plan does not look like that, then, by golly, it isn't a plan. You most often see that in people who are taught to plan to dive a specific depth for a specific amount of time. When someone gets the notion that doing that is the only way to plan a dive, they will often make a big noise in a thread or two about how nobody is planning their dives because they aren't planning to be at a specific depth for a specific amount of time. They are usually so insistent about it that they overpower all other opinions and make it seem as if it is a ScubaBoard consensus.

 

[Dirty-Dog]

Even the most benign recreational dive in shallow, clear, current-free water should have some planning beyond "return to the boat with not less than 500 psi". It takes no time, a few minutes before you splash, to go over simple hand signals, lost buddy contingency etc. If I am stuck with an "instabuddy" I like to take a moment to make sure we are on the same page about air sharing and how close I expect my dive buddy to be at all times. In less than the time it takes to gear up you can go over a few simple items that will make the dive safer and more enjoyable for everyone.

So now we're talking specifically about instabuddies? That's a very specific case, and not applicable to most divers on most dives.
Sue and I have a bit over 500 dives together. Kim has been with us on a bit over 100 of those. We all know the lost buddy procedures, we are intimately familiar with each others gear configuration, and the hand signals for "go this way", "look at that!", "how much air do you have left?" and "was that you touching my butt?"
Why would we go over them against before every dive? What plan would we need other than "stay within rec limits and be back on the boat with 500 PSI?"