Is "learning the hard lesson" necessary?

[flots am]

Flots.... there's a hypothetical resolution to any problem posed hypothetically. A diver with experience knows the difference between a hypothetical risk and it's solution...and a real risk/solution. Worth bearing that in mind.

Any problem can be avoided or solved, if it exists only in your imagination.

The people who react worst, when faced by a real issue, are the ones who suffer extra shock because they never anticipated it... or confidently assumed "it would never happen to them".

Turtle rape, a giant storm that the weather service had no clue about, ninja attacks, etc. are all possible, however not probable.

The staggeringly huge proportion things that actually happen to OW divers are the same problems over and over again, not fringe events like turtle rape.

These common events are easy to prevent and/or handle if the divers follow their training and use good judgement.

I've been reading A&I for a very long time and a huge majority of the incidents start out with the OP doing something that was warned against in OW class, or not doing something that was taught as being very important. This means that a huge improvement in safety is available as "low hanging fruit."

This isn't arm-chair quarter-backing. There are specific steps for handling and preventing specific problems and they work very well.

Blackwood was doing a decompression dive, which something that an OW diver should not even be considering and is specifically warned against in OW class, which would make his situation a non-issue for the target audience of this forum (new divers).

flots.

 

[Them]

...
I used to lock my keys in my car once or twice a year....I retrained myself to associate grabbing the keys with getting out of the car. ...

That said, it seems to me that one situation that no training can fully prepare you for is narcosis. (Keep in mind this is coming from someone who hasn't experienced it yet, so please correct me if I'm wrong.)...

I've been thinking about this, trying to figure out why it bothers me. I'm going to try to put it into words...may get it wrong but here goes....

Narcosis is one form of impairment. There are many forms of impairment you are likely to encounter while diving. Lack of sleep (boat leaves at 8AM sharp so you got up at 4AM to get there), exhaustion (you've just carried 100lbs of gear to your car, from your car, over, under, around, up and down), anticipation ("Finally! I get to dive!" ), dehydration (because of the first two you forgot your cooler), high and low temperature exposure (hot day means you chose a thin wetsuit, and then tried to man it out under water), injury (that sunburn you got on the trip out counts), fear (I don't know if I really want to do this deep dive), more distractions (man I gotta pee), having too much to think about (my wives are gonna kill me for spending so much money on diving), and so on. Nitrogen narcosis is in that mix somewhere but all of that adds up.

Obviously some of those go away once everything is old hat. Some of them are constant. Some will vary depending on what else is going on in your life. Some of them become less likely with training. Any one of them could contribute to the start of (or failure to stop) a chain of mistakes that could snowball to lethal scope.

Training, even very good training, can also be an impairment. I read somewhere that (according to the WHO) if surgeons used checklists (like pilots do), post-surgical deaths would go down by about 40% and the medical industry would save around 15 billion dollars a year in costs related to fixing human error. However, as I understand it (and it ain't my field), surgeons are not trained to do so and often feel them to be unnecessary due to their training. Side note: I have been considering creating a printed checklist (like I use when flying) for my scuba gear, one side with my post-assembly checklist, the other with my pre-dive checklist, and attaching it to my harness so it's always there and I can always use it to help reduce human factor errors.

Why do I mention all of that? Why respond to your comment at all? Because fixation can be an impairment in its own right. Fixation gets people all the time... drivers correctly ID a potential threat and watch like hawks in case that threat becomes a real danger and - smack - they drive into the previously nonthreatening car that decided to stop in the middle of the road for no apparent reason, because their attention was fixed on the identified threat. It kinda sounds like you were fixating on narcosis.

 

[Blackwood]

Blackwood was doing a decompression dive, which something that an OW diver should not even be considering and is specifically warned against in OW class, which would make his situation a non-issue for the target audience of this forum (new divers).

flots.

Just to be clear I wasn't arguing your point; I think it has a lot of validity. Just wanted to say that the boat and the diver both being there isn't enough


We finished the deco. With O2 it was only circa 15 minutes. We didn't have the upline though and surfaced much further from the boat than I would have liked in those conditions. Much of what I remember from that night comes from my recounting it soon after, however I remember very vividly holding onto Christian's arm (which per training should have been the other way around, but that's neither here nor there) throughout deco since i had no effective way to communicate, my own arms trembling uncontrollably... and I wasn't cold.

 

[DevonDiver]

The staggeringly huge proportion things that actually happen to OW divers are the same problems over and over again, not fringe events like turtle rape.

These common events are easy to prevent and/or handle if the divers follow their training and use good judgement.

I absolutely agree with you. Prevention is better than cure. My only caveat is that a diver shouldn't trudge through life in the blissful assumption that nothing can ever go wrong. Because sometimes it does... even if all the correct procedures, protocols and practices are followed.

Human error is always a possibility. Anyone can make a mistake.... and sooner or later they will. The same is true for equipment failures, freak weather or water conditions...whatever. Not sure about randy turtles... but there's no such thing as 'never', when it comes to Murphy's Law.

From my experience, the only diver who has not made a silly mistake is one who has not dived enough to yet make a silly mistake.

The point being, there are two issues to be addressed with regards to accidents. Prevention and cure. Procedures, protocols and practices feature in both issues. So does psychology - and the, very real, devils in that are; complacency, hubris and, of course, panic. The first two issues impact upon prevention, the later impacts upon cure.

There are specific steps for handling and preventing specific problems and they work very well.

Again, I agree. I champion this perspective in virtually every post I make here. That said, there is still room for discussion about those rare, but inevitable, occasions when they don't "work very well"...

 

[TSandM]

You are NEVER going to eradicate human error. Checklists help, but pilots don't always use their checklists. Even those of us who tend to the very careful will slip, under some circumstances, and complacency is hard to fight.

 

[boulderjohn]

You are NEVER going to eradicate human error. Checklists help, but pilots don't always use their checklists. Even those of us who tend to the very careful will slip, under some circumstances, and complacency is hard to fight.

I think the biggest factor in my experience has been that no matter how carefully we plan, there are many cases in which we get hurried and make a mistake as we rush to be ready in time. Maybe you had a glitch in your setup and are only now scrambling to finish gearing up as people are beginning to splash at the back of the boat. Maybe some other delay means your buddies are waiting for you at (or in) the water's edge. That's when it is easy to make mistakes.

When I am conducting OW dives and a student is rushing to catch up with everyone, I use that occasion to talk about the fact that situations like this happen a lot, and failing to take proper care while being rushed is a primary reason for errors of this kind. Even though I caution them on this, I have been known to make errors myself.

A second factor that was mentioned above in the analogy of the car keys is something that causes you to break your routine. If you have a very comfortable and set way of doing things, something that disrupts that routine can cause problems. I remember being part of a group getting ready to go for a dive. We all used a form of a mental image checklist called the head to toe method to make sure we had what we needed, but there was some chaos involved (probably because of the addition of me to the group) that took us out of the routine. After we had been driving for quite some time to get to the dive site, one member of our group remembered that as a result of that disruption in the routine, she had not packed her dry suit underwear. We got something together to use instead, but she had a cool dive nonetheless.

 

[TMHeimer]

boulderjohn, I know exactly what you mean. Just yesterday on a shore dive my buddy was in the water first, due to the heat (drysuit). I figured I should get moving so he wasn't waiting too long. After putting the watch and computer on my right arm, I actually forgot to put on the left glove, if you can believe that. Would've just left it off if the thermocline to 49F wasn't there. Not serious, but other forgotten things can be. Also, when I was a newbie on a boat I always felt I may hold up the others by carefully gearing up slowly. Seemed to me back then that everything was nice and laid back on the boat going to the site then wham, all the fireworks began and everyone was suited up. Of course I don't notice that now, but it's something to consider if you're assigned buddy is new.

 

[slugdiver]

It's all about confidence in your abilities and comfort in the water. If you possess both at being certified, the odds of not being able to handle a situation that is new to you is greatly diminished. If you are lacking in one or the other work, practice. If you never get comfortable in the water, stay out of the water. Period.
One of the best lessons I was ever taught was to "always keep your brain in gear." This means keep thinking during a situation, do not allow the brain to give up and shut down.
So I vote no, you do not need to have the crap scared out of you to make you a better diver.

 

[paolov]

I don't dive with dangerous buddies.

Shark
I don't look like, act like, or smell like food. So far no problems.

How about eels.. I've been bitten several times.
I don't wiggle my finger in front of holes or feed or annoy them and they just go on doing their "eel stuff"

How about being stung and get an allergic reaction.
Wetsuit.


"Watch out for boats?"

??? Call the local news ???

Dive where you have a reasonable exit even if the water gets rough


The boat is still there and the diver is still there. What's the problem?


You seem to have issues with boats. I'd suggest choosing them more carefully and/or being more careful how you surface.


Irrelevant. Share air if necessary and surface with your buddy.

Line cutter.

Seriously, NOTHING will happen.. just follow the rules and you will be fine...

Pretty much.

flots.

So all of those would be covered in the BASIC SCUBA DIVER COURSE. Equipment, Environment, PROCEDURES.

Did he take up the course and Graduate with flying colors? is he beyond basic already?

 

[DevonDiver]

It's all about confidence in your abilities and comfort in the water.

Confidence in your abilities and comfort in the water keeps you happy... right up to the point where something goes wrong.

That's when you realize whether your confidence was justified and if your comfort extends to emergency management.

If you possess both at being certified,....

Given the state of entry-level scuba training, I'm not sure how a diver would have time or capacity to develop true confidence and comfort for handling an emergency. The training, as it is provided, does not teach emergency or stress management.

Kneeling on the bottom of a pool, with 2" of water above your head, and your instructors hand on your shoulder, whilst doing an "OOA experience", does not prepare you psychologically for a real, sudden and unexpected, OOA situation at depth. Same for air-sharing, CESA etc etc..

The psychological impact of a real incident is critical.... and invariably proves capable of severely degrading effective response. To make the assumption that performance in certification course training drills equates, without further factors, into effective emergency response is a delusion.

It's like a 'Call of Duty' player thinking they'd perform well in a foot patrol ambush in Kandahar...

...the odds of not being able to handle a situation that is new to you is greatly diminished.

I don't understand. Are you saying that students, fresh out of training, are most capable of handling a real-life emergency?

One of the best lessons I was ever taught was to "always keep your brain in gear." This means keep thinking during a situation, do not allow the brain to give up and shut down.
So I vote no, you do not need to have the crap scared out of you to make you a better diver.

Knowing to "always keep your brain in gear" is different to being able to "always keep your brain in gear". It's easy to teach a slogan... near impossible to teach the actual process. If it were, the military, police etc, would be paying a fortune for that magic training method..

As I've said already, imagining yourself successfully respond to a spectrum of emergencies, whilst sat at your keyboard, is not the same as being able to respond to those issues in reality.

We don't dive hypothetically... so we shouldn't plan for emergencies hypothetically either...