I now have 50+ total dives, which makes me a complete expert...

[Jim Ernst]

I loved the post because it is exactly how I feel; I was a person not all comfortable in the water. The love for my wife and my wife's love of water drove me from my feels in inhibitions to seek at least a remarkably truce with fears and demons.

As a child I always wanted to scuba dive, man how I wanted to be one of those kids in the cartoon Sealab, but my lack of swimming always threw a wrench into that plan and nearly drowning by the hand of my brothers did not instill a love for all things liquid.

Roll forward 40 years more or less, my with our friend conspired against me and decided to put all my bravado to the test. We all enrolled in OW class, they passed I removed myself from the class, I was not afraid of too many things I just could not clear my mask! Well the instructor came over after the class, talked with me for awhile and told me "I have never had anyone fail, they may quit and you can...but I have seen you in the water and you can do this". So that left me with almost a year of practicing clearing my mask, reading scubaboard ŽÍaughing good naturally at myself and basically taking it all in stride. Well, almost a year to the day I finally got OW cert'd and was off and running, AOW and Nitrox came next, same great instructor. My wife has been my dive-buddy and partner through the whole thing and we got my 14 year old son involved he is becoming a good safe diver in his own right with none of my fears, but all of my caution.

Now I dive every chance I get and if I don't get chances, I make them.

My wife wants to know if I can actually have a 5 minute conversation with anyone in the world and not have a scuba tank fall out of my mouth.

Whenever I dive I always have a camera and take an absurd amount of pictures to which I will show anyone my pictures which mostly include at least 25 of my wife fins at any giving direction.

While my wife complains that I waste my air "jetting around trying to get the perfect shot" I tell her, "that's ok, cause you will share? won't you?

I have 80 dives in a little over a year and I too suck, but anytime I want to feel better about my diving skills I can just take a cruise then do a diving shore excursion, after watching people flounder around over weighted and out of control my wife and I just hang to the back of the group and shrug our shoulders at each other, she then lifts her fin up and I take a picture of it.

Things I have learned along the way:

It does not take 34 pounds of lead to make me sink in water! Thank you LDS for selling me that much.

I can convince you that you want to become a diver; I cannot make you a better diver. Only time, practice, skills and good sense of humor can.

I do look uber cool in my dive gear, as long as I do not have to walk in it.

I can do a giant stride?.doesn't mean I like to.

Diving cost money, if you cut costs you're going to cut safety.

Plan for the unexpected

Practice for everything.

Don;t get pissed when your dive partner flips you the bird underwater. (Yes, honey I still love you)

Listen, don't talk

If you ask a question listen to the answer.

The Divemaster has a job to do, get you back on the boat alive, after that everything else is a bonus.

If a woman on the boat falls out of her bathing suit while shimming out of her wetsuit, do not yell BOOBIES!

It's your job to track the guy with the float flag, not his to track you.

I love to dive, if you don't well, there must be something wrong with you.

There may not be anything you need in the dive shop, but there is always something you want.





Joe

Great post Joe!

 

[TSandM]

What a delightful series of posts.

we both are on a quest to be holes in the water,

I had to grin at this one. When I saw my cave instructor diving the first time, I swore he was negative space in the water. He never seemed to move, never seemed to vent anything, and the water just made space for him. It gave me a vivid if rather ambitious image of what I wanted to be able to do. Not there yet, but I'm still trying.

And DevonDiver's post is so true, too -- Every time I come anywhere near feeling as though I've got a handle on this sport, I go hang more gear off me, or take a class where they raise the bar, so I can feel stupid again. It's not fun being stupid, but the practice it takes to get better IS fun because it's DIVING!

Keep at it. With your attitude, it will just keep on getting better.

 

[Sas]

My "Master Diver" card is only good for one thing, and thats impressing my wife. Of course she doesn't dive and even though I told her it doesn't mean anything to real divers, she still thinks I've accomplished something. I echo your feelings Sabbath.

That was funny, my partner is the same. I got a Master Diver card for free with my Rescue course and he wanted to take a picture of me holding it + my Rescue certificate so he could show people (like his parents, friends) but I wouldn't let him

Sabbath, nice post. I am probably going to do my 200th dive tomorrow (hope the weather holds!) and at 60 dives I would have thought I would be very experienced at this point but not really, only touched the surface so far of what there is to learn about diving. And I have hardly any experience when compared to lots of people I know. It is nice (or reassuring I guess) though, that each dive I get a little bit better so one day I hope to look as good as some of the divers I know in the water.

2) I have more training and experience than about 99 percent of the people I have taken my classes with, and am shocked that they consider themselves "advanced" divers.

Yes I find the same with me and it always surprises me when someone with an Master Diver card and <100 or even <50 dives talks about how experienced they are I mean it would not bother me but these are the kind of people that seem to be the worst in the water... Humble divers seem to make much better buddies

 

[Wayfarer2]

Great post and great thread! I wish more people would take the approach to diving that Sabbath and jdavissrusa have. I too feel better about my current level of suckage (boy that could be misconstrued!) but know I still have a lifetime of learning ahead. It can be truly frightening at about 100 dives of experience to realize your insta buddy who has &#8220;tons&#8221; of experience has no clue.

 

[TSandM]

Yeah -- Riding instructors and people who rent horses have long known to be wary of anybody who presents themselves as an "experienced rider". Usually means they've ridden a horse about ten times . . . I think most really experienced divers will simply describe what they do and how recently they've done it

 

[ScubaSam]

Sabbath999 - I loved, loved, loved your posts and agree with every single point.

Thank you for posting. You are on the right track with your attitude, humor and humbleness. Keeping diving and keep learing.

 

[Dr Neil]

For goodness sakes, don't turn yourself into a frustrated golfer in neoprene. Diving should be enjoyable regardless of your ability level. When you refer to the skills you have identified in need of improvement as having a specific level of suckage you may as well put on ugly looking pants and complain that your putter is defective.

Will there always be something to improve upon? Absolutely! But you gear is already in the water so just strap it on and keep at it.

 

[Reg Braithwaite]

Vacation only warm water divers generally suck worse than I do... and that's sad.

It surprises me to hear people lament the lack of skills of vacation-only divers. My conjecture is that vacation-only X-ers generally suck for any value of X. I don't play golf, but I would expect that someone who only places twice a year on vacation would suck at golf. I would expect that someone who only skis twice a year on vacation would suck at skiing. So... I don't expect Scuba to be any different.

Mind you, the vacation golfers and vacation skiers both have a good time, so I would also expect the vacation divers to enjoy themselves. And good for them!

 

[muddiver]

Reg, good point. I am a seasoned diver with well over 300+ dives, but just like anyone else I can look like a complete noob if I have not been in the water for a while. Recently while helping train Scientific Divers I was just that when I dove my new dry suit, off a large vessel in deep water, while carrying a camara. Talk about an over tasked, stressed air bubble. It sucked.

But, a few weeks ago I did three simple dives in the same configuration and I got right back into that "one with the sea" mode.

 

[BioLogic]

It surprises me to hear people lament the lack of skills of vacation-only divers. My conjecture is that vacation-only X-ers generally suck for any value of X. I don't play golf, but I would expect that someone who only places twice a year on vacation would suck at golf. I would expect that someone who only skis twice a year on vacation would suck at skiing. So... I don't expect Scuba to be any different.

Mind you, the vacation golfers and vacation skiers both have a good time, so I would also expect the vacation divers to enjoy themselves. And good for them!

On my very first ocean dive, I saw someone with the sort of skill level people here call 'vacation divers' get herself into air trouble and then have difficulty ascending. The DM with that group had to leave the rest of them and escort her to the surface ... then she had a fit about being too tired to swim the fifty yards back to the boat in a flat calm. It turned out to be just an inconvenience, but I could easily see where she could have been hurt and she was clearly on the edge of panic. This particularly struck me since if Sabbath hadn't been with me, this woman would have been my instabuddy.

I don't think people need to be masters of the art before they start diving. Heck, the ink was hardly dry on my own cert at the time, and it might still smudge if you rubbed it hard today. On the other hand, it's not golf. To do it safely and not cause drama on a boat, you do need to to be actually comfortable in the basics and have some minimal problem resolution skills -- for example, know to watch your air and be able to safely ascend.

Besides, learning and improving are their own joy. I loved diving from my first checkout dive and I've enjoyed every one since -- but I'm also happy to be a little better as I practice. So to acknowledge one's own suckage isn't a statement of joyless petulance at all. I plan to go to the quarry tomorrow, look ridiculous while I work on the backfinning, probably get lost when I try to navigate, and look more like a tornado in the water than a hole in it. And it'll be fun! And I'll get better!