Just how important is Navigation to the Recreational Diver

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For those who stated "critical", why do so many recreational divers just play follow the leader?

because they are either lazy or did not take their diving seriously enough to learn..Navigation helps you to be a safer,more aware diver.Helps you to be able to avoid any long swims and makes you more effective in the water. I view anyone surfacing more than 100' from a boat as a diver with very little situational awareness.
 
because they are either lazy or did not take their diving seriously enough to learn..Navigation helps you to be a safer,more aware diver.Helps you to be able to avoid any long swims and makes you more effective in the water. I view anyone surfacing more than 100' from a boat as a diver with very little situational awareness.

Well good luck trying to surface 30m from a boat where I dive if slack is over...

People commenting should really keep in mind that diving conditions around the world vary wildly and what holds in one place won't work elsewhere.
 
I view anyone surfacing more than 100' from a boat as a diver with very little situational awareness.

You're making a rather sweeping generalization there.

I think it all depends on whether or not the boat in question is the one they dove from.
 
I can follow headings, count kicks, run times and do triangles and squares and get real close to my starting point.

Unfortunately that's not the way I dive, I'm like a bumble bee going from interesting spot to interesting spot, every once in awhile I check my heading. I get back to the general area of the boat, do a stop and then pop up and get a bearing to the boat, submerge and head back.

I'm usually diving from an unattended boat, so I don't want to come up down current. Sometimes the currents change direction during the dive. I ended up buying a Desert Star Sport

Desert Star Systems, LLC - DiveTracker Sport for Diver Navigation

How importand is navigation?

I spent $500 on a back up system.
 
For those who stated "critical", why do so many recreational divers just play follow the leader?

That's easy . . . the same reason so many tourists play follow the leader when they tour foreign countries . . . afraid to strike out on their own.

Is navigation a skill to learn or an innate ability? Having trained a few Army leaders-to-be, I found it amazing to see how many could not navigate if they varied one step from their learned sequence of steps.
 
I'm usually diving from an unattended boat

Captain...that is a violation of the Prime Directive!

Never leave the transporter room unmanned!

gw105-prime_directive.jpg
 
Is navigation a skill to learn or an innate ability?

It's a skill which comes easier to some people than others (got iron in yer blood?).
 
Do a night dive, or even a drift dive, and you will see how important navigation really is. One of my favorite dive spots is easy to learn navigation because north takes you out, south takes you back, west takes you to one bridge, east takes you to another, and a little further east takes you to the pipeline that you can follow back south to the shore.

At night when doing this same dive, and the current is ripping through because of a full moon, and a storm, it is very helpful to know this.
 
Isn't it nice to drive your car around town, or to an unfamiliar destination, but have a general feeling of comfort knowing you have a pretty good idea where you are, and where you're going, and how you're going to get there?

Same thing when you're working your way around a reef.

Call it "situational awareness" if you like. I just like to be in control of my surroundings as much as possible. You never know. Plus it's really hard to stop and ask for directions at 60 feet.
 
I view anyone surfacing more than 100' from a boat as a diver with very little situational awareness.

You ever done a 15 min deco with a lift bag in 20 knot winds? There are exceptions to every situation so don't be so quick to generalize.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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