Yesterday, I saw the old year out on a boat with seven other divers. It was a stunning day in Puget Sound, although very cold, with air temperatures in the high 20s and water temperatures in the high 40's. We did two different sites and we had a ball. Now, admittedly, everyone on the boat was VERY experienced -- I think the most novice has several hundred dives -- and had a lot of advanced training. But last night, I got to thinking about what it was that that experience and training gave us that allowed us to have a great, relaxed, stress-free and safe diving experience. Some of it, in the details, is specific to the system of diving I use, but a lot of it is simply basic principles that will help ANYBODY have a great day of diving.
1. Know your equipment. It's important to know your stuff. You should be able to set it up and check it for proper function. It's important to know how to use it when it's working properly, and how to diagnose problems and cope with them. Dealing with a leaking wing or dry suit inflator should not be a big deal, and neither should coping with an out-of-Argon emergency
It's important to know potential failure modes, like exhaust diaphragm problems (which require either trying to inhale through a reg when the gas is off, or breathing in the water, to detect). It helps to know enough to check zipties for mouthpiece security. We all knew not to breathe regs extensive in that very cold air (setup for freeflow). It's an important safety matter, to know where the dump valve/s is/are and how to reach and use them. (This is something I'm always amazed at, when people who own their own BCs have no idea where any way to dump air is, except the inflator hose!)
Standardization makes it very easy for us to do a visual check on one another, and makes it easy to know what needs to be done to sort out any problems, and also makes it easy for folks to trade off spare parts. But the bottom line is that we know our gear and our buddy's gear, and can troubleshoot it.
2. Dive Planning. This starts with asking the right questions. We knew ahead of time what the sites were, and to find out how deep they were if we weren't familiar with them. This made it easy to assess the gas supply needed for the dive, and select the correct tanks. (Selecting tanks isn't always an option, and neither is knowing the sites ahead of time, but in that case, you compare the site information to the tanks you're given, and figure out what the profile is that you want to do. This is "gas management", and basic dive education often doesn't include much information about it.) Experience with difficult dives had taught us all to start gathering data from the moment the boat anchored, to decide the strategy for the dive. (For example, on the second dive, there was quite a bit of current on the surface, which led us to agree on a direction to start the dive, so that we could be sure we wouldn't come up downcurrent from the boat and be unable to regain it.)
Being able to reorganize as things change really IS something that comes with experience. But at least taking the data available from the boat deck and incorporating it into your dive planning is something everybody can learn to do.
Another part of dive planning is agreeing on contingency procedures, like what to do about buddy separation. Again, one of the strengths of a standardized system is that we didn't have to discuss that kind of thing, because we all got taught and follow the same procedures. But if you DON'T have that kind of common background, it's really important to settle the "what ifs" before you're sitting in the water by yourself, wondering what you should do, or what your buddy is going to do.
3. Diving skills. Buoyancy control is key to keeping a buddy team together on descent and ascent. These are critical times, because they are when things are rapidly changing, and a buddy's assistance is most likely to be needed. At the beginning of the dive is when you find out things aren't working, whether that's a faulty inflator or stuffed-up ears. At the end of the dive is where any weighting issues or problems with buoyancy control will become problematic, and where everyone is lowest on gas. It's a good time to keep your assistance and your spare gas close at hand!
Everybody had great skills for positioning themselves precisely in three dimensions. Hovering quietly, without sculling or using their hands, and moving through the dive site without disturbing the structure or the visibility, not only made the dive more fun, but contributed to achieving another necessity of a good dive, which is communication. We were using focused, high-intensity dive lights for passive communication, which is nice when you are moving along a wall and more or less need to be in single file. Keeping your hands and your body quiet is key when using lights in this way. We've all learned the hard way that if hand signals are necessary, they should be made slowly, deliberately, and unambiguously, and a meaningful response should come from one's buddy, so everybody is sure that the message has been understood (and agreed with!)
4. Safety. Although a lot of the things I've already listed contribute to safety, there are some very specific things that are also important. Everybody on that boat has practiced emergency procedures, from doing air-sharing, controlled ascents, to shooting bags, doing oral inflation, disconnecting inflator hoses, and coping with freeflows. This really is one of the differences between basic training and more advanced (technical or cave) training. In basic training you are introduced to all these procedures, but the importance of regular practice may not be stressed. In technical or cave training, it's ALL about having the knowledge and the skills to keep yourself OUT of trouble, but also to GET out of trouble if you're in it. What this really meant to the folks on the boat was that we all trusted one another to be able to achieve a high degree of self-rescue, and also to be able to function as a strong and capable assistant, should a situation exceed someone's own resources.
5. Judgement. Again, some of this comes out of the experience we all had. But knowing when to call it a day (current too strong, surface conditions too rough, diver tired or cold or just not with it) is a big part of ensuring a safe and stress-free day of diving. Knowing when to adjust the dive plan, either on the boat or once in the water, to do something shorter or shallower or otherwise more conservative, keeps people out of trouble. And knowing when it's reasonable to stretch a little, can save a good dive -- IF you have the skills to cope with the conditions you encounter.
At any rate, I thought I'd write this up, because if somebody is reading it and thinks, "Wow, I don't think I know that, or could do that," it might be motivation to learn or practice. I can certainly say that having a boat full of divers with these capacities makes for a smooth, relaxed and thoroughly enjoyable day of diving, because that's what we had!
1. Know your equipment. It's important to know your stuff. You should be able to set it up and check it for proper function. It's important to know how to use it when it's working properly, and how to diagnose problems and cope with them. Dealing with a leaking wing or dry suit inflator should not be a big deal, and neither should coping with an out-of-Argon emergency
It's important to know potential failure modes, like exhaust diaphragm problems (which require either trying to inhale through a reg when the gas is off, or breathing in the water, to detect). It helps to know enough to check zipties for mouthpiece security. We all knew not to breathe regs extensive in that very cold air (setup for freeflow). It's an important safety matter, to know where the dump valve/s is/are and how to reach and use them. (This is something I'm always amazed at, when people who own their own BCs have no idea where any way to dump air is, except the inflator hose!)Standardization makes it very easy for us to do a visual check on one another, and makes it easy to know what needs to be done to sort out any problems, and also makes it easy for folks to trade off spare parts. But the bottom line is that we know our gear and our buddy's gear, and can troubleshoot it.
2. Dive Planning. This starts with asking the right questions. We knew ahead of time what the sites were, and to find out how deep they were if we weren't familiar with them. This made it easy to assess the gas supply needed for the dive, and select the correct tanks. (Selecting tanks isn't always an option, and neither is knowing the sites ahead of time, but in that case, you compare the site information to the tanks you're given, and figure out what the profile is that you want to do. This is "gas management", and basic dive education often doesn't include much information about it.) Experience with difficult dives had taught us all to start gathering data from the moment the boat anchored, to decide the strategy for the dive. (For example, on the second dive, there was quite a bit of current on the surface, which led us to agree on a direction to start the dive, so that we could be sure we wouldn't come up downcurrent from the boat and be unable to regain it.)
Being able to reorganize as things change really IS something that comes with experience. But at least taking the data available from the boat deck and incorporating it into your dive planning is something everybody can learn to do.
Another part of dive planning is agreeing on contingency procedures, like what to do about buddy separation. Again, one of the strengths of a standardized system is that we didn't have to discuss that kind of thing, because we all got taught and follow the same procedures. But if you DON'T have that kind of common background, it's really important to settle the "what ifs" before you're sitting in the water by yourself, wondering what you should do, or what your buddy is going to do.
3. Diving skills. Buoyancy control is key to keeping a buddy team together on descent and ascent. These are critical times, because they are when things are rapidly changing, and a buddy's assistance is most likely to be needed. At the beginning of the dive is when you find out things aren't working, whether that's a faulty inflator or stuffed-up ears. At the end of the dive is where any weighting issues or problems with buoyancy control will become problematic, and where everyone is lowest on gas. It's a good time to keep your assistance and your spare gas close at hand!
Everybody had great skills for positioning themselves precisely in three dimensions. Hovering quietly, without sculling or using their hands, and moving through the dive site without disturbing the structure or the visibility, not only made the dive more fun, but contributed to achieving another necessity of a good dive, which is communication. We were using focused, high-intensity dive lights for passive communication, which is nice when you are moving along a wall and more or less need to be in single file. Keeping your hands and your body quiet is key when using lights in this way. We've all learned the hard way that if hand signals are necessary, they should be made slowly, deliberately, and unambiguously, and a meaningful response should come from one's buddy, so everybody is sure that the message has been understood (and agreed with!)
4. Safety. Although a lot of the things I've already listed contribute to safety, there are some very specific things that are also important. Everybody on that boat has practiced emergency procedures, from doing air-sharing, controlled ascents, to shooting bags, doing oral inflation, disconnecting inflator hoses, and coping with freeflows. This really is one of the differences between basic training and more advanced (technical or cave) training. In basic training you are introduced to all these procedures, but the importance of regular practice may not be stressed. In technical or cave training, it's ALL about having the knowledge and the skills to keep yourself OUT of trouble, but also to GET out of trouble if you're in it. What this really meant to the folks on the boat was that we all trusted one another to be able to achieve a high degree of self-rescue, and also to be able to function as a strong and capable assistant, should a situation exceed someone's own resources.
5. Judgement. Again, some of this comes out of the experience we all had. But knowing when to call it a day (current too strong, surface conditions too rough, diver tired or cold or just not with it) is a big part of ensuring a safe and stress-free day of diving. Knowing when to adjust the dive plan, either on the boat or once in the water, to do something shorter or shallower or otherwise more conservative, keeps people out of trouble. And knowing when it's reasonable to stretch a little, can save a good dive -- IF you have the skills to cope with the conditions you encounter.
At any rate, I thought I'd write this up, because if somebody is reading it and thinks, "Wow, I don't think I know that, or could do that," it might be motivation to learn or practice. I can certainly say that having a boat full of divers with these capacities makes for a smooth, relaxed and thoroughly enjoyable day of diving, because that's what we had!
