The navigation skills necessary for a shore dive are usually more demanding than the navigation skills you need when diving off of a boat. When I dive off a boat, it usually means that I'm diving a site that I'm not familiar with. The easy thing to do there is to simply descend on the anchor chain, take a heading and swim out and explore in one direction for 100 kicks. Then head back to the chain. Take a different heading and explore in a star patter radiating from the anchor chain. This way, it is easy to learn the dive site knowing that you aren't going to get lost.
It gets more interesting when I dive with someone who "knows the way" . In this case I always keep track of the way points and headings because I am responsible for my safety. It's very easy to get turned around swimming through channels in rocks and such. More than once I've had a leader get turned around and head 180 degrees in the wrong direction. Tic tok, we are all burning gas time, and in these cases we communicate. I try to keep navigation as simple as possible, but no simpler than is necessary.
It gets more interesting when I dive with someone who "knows the way" . In this case I always keep track of the way points and headings because I am responsible for my safety. It's very easy to get turned around swimming through channels in rocks and such. More than once I've had a leader get turned around and head 180 degrees in the wrong direction. Tic tok, we are all burning gas time, and in these cases we communicate. I try to keep navigation as simple as possible, but no simpler than is necessary.