How you ID your Deco tanks

[Remy B.]

Same thing happened me on my first technical training (with Mark Powell). I was a BSAC instructor and PADI DM with over 300 dives and thought I was a skillful diver.

Mark made me feel like an unskilled idiot... and I was tempted to quit after the first weekend of training. My performance was unexpectedly (by me) terrible.

As a technical instructor, even though I might be extremely demanding and critical, I do have a fundamental and deep respect for my students who put in a lot of effort and have the robust mental strength to overcome the ego-bruising and sheer mental / physical fatigue associated with quality tech training.

The first ego lesson recreational divers learn in tech class is that whilst they may have been a 'big fish' in the recreational pond, they become a 'tiny fish' in the tech pond. And there's always a bigger pond and much bigger fish every time you step up in levels...

Nobody should breeze through technical training... at any level. Even after many years of non-stop focused hard work developing my skills (as a full-time tech diver and instructor) I'd still be disappointed by a tech course / instructor that didn't challenge me and reveal weaknesses in my game. That's what I pay for... the harsh lesson...the real development.

I don't blame recreational divers for not understanding the realities of technical diving training.... nothing in the recreational syllabus or nature of recreational training schemes truly prepares one for taking that big step up.

100% good post.

I still am an unskilled idiot, the only difference I will not think I'm skilled with only 300 dives on me, not even 500, there is where you get the level of "apprentice" in my perspective.

I have seen instructors that lose there buoyancy and get to the surface uncontrolled, they have more dives that I have, and they are instructors, cards, titles don't mean much.

 

[Bennno]

You are getting better, but that is not the full story, please read what you put before and see what you put now, do you see the difference ?

I read the full story. I wouldn't go to 180' on air when I'm breathing heavily and/or feel anxious on decent, especially not without having prior deep air experience... seems like a rushed approach. Just sayin'

 

[DevonDiver]

I still am an unskilled idiot, the only difference I will not think I'm skilled with only...

This is all relevant to the Dunning-Kruger effect.

In respect to technical diving training, the recreational diver - regardless of their internet research, YouTube video watching, self-practice and personal assessment of their own competency - is still very firmly at the start of the graph.

Technical training...if effective...should induce a big drop in confidence and perceived ability.

Also... long-term development in advanced diving isn't defined by a single curve. There's multiple curves along the way... peaks and troughs as the diver steps up in level and challenge.

Sadly, most recreational diving training very rarely provokes this insight. It generally reinforces confidence over multiple courses... and despite grandiose certification names... rarely increases the actual level or standards of the diving conducted.

I've become very well acquainted with Dunning-Kruger over the years. Been there, felt that... many times.

And, of course, there are separate curves for different aspects of diving. I'm (I believe) deservedly confident with open circuit technical diving, with sidemount diving and wreck exploration/penetration diving. However, when it comes to CCR diving, I'm really right at the bottom of the drop... qualified, but I'm critically aware that there's a universe of stuff that I don't know.

Having learned about Dunning-Kruger, I also learned about the polar issue... the so-called 'Imposter syndrome'.

When I first qualified as a technical instructor, I spent a couple of years ONLY assisting other tech instructors. I voluntarily put myself into an extended, informal internship type situation, even though I was fully qualified and, actually, quite capable. It took those few years to put my ability into an accurate context.

That may be a shock to those who think I'm arrogant. Nowadays, I think I've got that accurate understanding of my competency and how that relates to others.

I'm aware of both issues, and try my best to apply accurate context across a myriad of different aspects to my diving. It's taken 25 years and 8000+ dives and I'm still working it out.... to the tune of circa 40-60 hours of arduous, highly self-critical, practice per month

So if I ever appear arrogant to lesser experienced, highly opinionated, divers, please do bare that in mind.

Undeserved sub-confidence is a much safer situation than naive over-confidence. Over assessing one's ability puts the diver in situations they might not survive....and I see that regularly, in real life and in some attitudes expressed on the internet forums.

As a tech instructor, I'm primarily concerned with the immediate 'threat' posed by over-confidence. Technical training has to resolve that.

The tech diver can resolve future under-confidence at their leisure... from the basis of diving conservatively and cautiously - incrementally progressing the challenge of their diving within the bounds of their training level and taking the time to prove themselves as and when they are forced to apply resolutions for the issues that inevitably arise.

One of the hardest challenges for an aspiring advanced/technical diver is accurately assessing themselves... as illustrated by both Dunning-Kruger and the Imposter Syndrome.

Psychologically, effective self-assessment of competency is fraught with pitfalls.

In recreational diving succumbing to those pitfalls is generally a benign mistake. In technical diving it's liable to be fatal.

THAT'S why good tech instructors are worth their weight in gold.

 

[Remy B.]

I read the full story. I wouldn't go to 180' on air when I'm breathing heavily and/or feel anxious on decent, especially not without having prior deep air experience... seems like a rushed approach. Just sayin'

Yes you are right, but the conditions on doing air in the Caribbean and in Europe are different, and I had no option to do Helium, I really wanted but was not possible, the other option was just to cancel the dive, and it is difficult to find a tec buddy to do so in Curacao, if I have the oportunity to dive it again, I will change some things.

I will not attempt a dive like that in EU conditions.

 

[Remy B.]

Andy, I don't fill your post arrogant, you are very will rounded in your buisness.

But I have the impression , that most think that I considere my self a good diver or a super dupper, completely far from the true, I am a rookey at the best, far from been a descent diver.

Most of my diving I have done is training diving, not as much as rec diving, because I fill I don't learn a Fuc...thing by just diving recreational, and I differ with more you dive better you get, you get more confident that is all, it doesn't mean you are getting better, if I don't push my self to do something different then I don't learn.

How you get to be a better Tec diver, by either finding a buddy that trains drills constantly with you or do Tec dives with different enviroments or more Tec courses.

Finding a Tec buddy is really hard, it has been for me at least, either by my inexperience or because the rest is just rec certified.

Experienced Tec divers will not choose to dive with rookies.

I only get to do courses when money allows it or do Tec dives.

How much rec dives can I do in a year, as many as I want, how many Tec dives you can do in a year, very little.

 

[Bennno]

... and I had no option to do Helium, I really wanted but was not possible, the other option was just to cancel the dive,...

There is another option. Not diving as deep is one option... there also the option to do the dive another day with with a few more deep air dives under the belt. Dive sites usually don't go away so there is the option to do a dive on another trip. If you wanna rush it and do it all in one trip, it's more risky than bulding up to it slowly.

 

[RandomGuy1]

I think you guys missed my point about the gas switch and task loading. A lot of what was mentions was task loading sure, but why would you be looking at your wet notes / deco schedule while doing the actual gas swap. I can see dealing with buoyancy and current as being issues, but from my viewpoint, everything else should be done either before or after the gas switch. I'm not shooting a smb while swaping regs. If you have a free flow, or some other emergency, why not deal with it first, then do the gas swap and extend you stop appropriately? Want to check your deco schedule, why not do that either before or after you have made the actual swap? Dealing with a dsmb shouldn't be that big an issue either. Arrive at your stop depth, clip off the spool or stop the reel and then do the gas swap. Maybe in my inexperience I am missing something here, but most everything that was mentioned was something that could (should?) be handled either before or after the gas switch. Or are you guys running schedules so tightly that a delay of long enough to secure your dsmb/reel or a free flow, ect would throw off your entire schedule?

 

[DevonDiver]

Not missing any point. There's a lot to do and it can stack up on you. If you have zero frame of reference for how that occurs, seek training.

Of course, it's all relative. Ability possessed versus ability needed for a given dive.

With sufficient practice, experience acquisition and good stress management... on a dive within your capacity... you can keep on top of everything: pre-empting, forward planning and prioritising. Individual skills have to be slick, of course... but it's more than just individual skills.

The point being, it sounds easy hypothetically... but in practice it's tough. Mistakes are easily made once you're behind the curve. It's easy to get behind that curve.

If there are approaches and options that can be implemented to help deter a critical error under anticipated severe challenge situations, then it's obviously prudent to apply them.

 

[PfcAJ]

I have to agree. Gas switch time needs to be dedicated to that task.

Switching to the wrong gas is probably the single biggest risk we have in technical diving.

 

[RandomGuy1]

Not missing any point. There's a lot to do and it can stack up on you. If you have zero frame of reference for how that occurs, seek training.

I guess what I am trying to say is wouldn't you deal with all the stuff that has stacked up on you, and then do your gas switch. Why add an additional task that isn't an immediate necessity if you are already task loaded. At my level, I am only doing 1 deco gas and I can breath my back gas at any point in the dive. If I have anything going on, I am not doing my gas switch until I have resolved the issue and am back to a stable platform. That may change once I move deeper into the tech realm, dealing with multiple deco bottles, or hypoxic backgas, but by that point, my skill set should be as such that I would be less task loaded by the other things.