Practicing dive navigation on dry land

[J322Y]

The concepts of underwater navigation seem basic enough, but practicing on land seems like a good idea, especially for new divers. Navigation adds to task load, so practicing when you're not diving would make your future dives safer and more fun. I've been practicing natural navigation for a long time, without thinking of it in those terms. I do it in parking lots.

The first thing I do after parking is to estimate the angle from the store entrance to my spot. For example, it might be a 45º angle to the right...

With the right angle established I estimate distance, and then notice landmarks close to my car. These might be as obvious as a row number, or something like a particular type of tree, etc. I rarely get caught searching for my car in a parking lot.

I haven't done it yet, but the parking lot can also be used to practice compass work. Apps for digital compasses are available. Using a compass in the parking lot might advertise what a nerd you are, but in my case that's pretty obvious anyway.

I plan on practicing taking/following bearings, and working on triangulation.

 

[Vicko]

I practiced my AOWD compass skills with a towel over my head, worked well enough untill my instructor started using a magnet to guide me straight into a wall. Point is make sure someone mature is making sure you don't end up hurting yourself.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

I love underwater navigation! I equally enjoy all aspects of it from cave diving, to search & recovery, to compass and reel work. As a kid, I started doing "Navy SEAL" swims with only my compass and depth gauge illuminated in the dark to try to get from Point A to Point B or track through multiple points. I've taught students to swim while holding position at safety or deco stop depths and navigate over hundreds of yards to locate a descent/ascent line.

I enjoy the challenge on land too. There are several state parks where I live with 1 mile compass courses. Most were installed as Eagle Scout projects and a couple are very challenging since legs can be almost 1000 feet through dense woods and trees have fallen near or on the permanent makers that tell you the heading and distance of the next leg.

I've had digital compasses on my Shearwaters not calibrate correctly. Had I done a little parking lot diving, I would have discovered the error out of the water, not underwater with lake freighters overhead and the need to accurately navigate to a wall or shallow water. I always carry a $5 boy scout compass in my pocket rather than a dive compass. The compass I bought at Walmart has lasted a decade. In the same time, I've gone through a handful of expensive dive compasses. I quit using scuba compasses other than the compass features on my Shearwater Perdix and Petrel 2.

 

[TMHeimer]

I haven't practised on land since taking AOW (maybe a bit during the Nav Course, but don't recall it). Good idea, but there are no currents on land. My dives are very simple shore dives. Though I can do all the fancy stuff, I simply face the way I want to go out from shore and see "SSE", etc. and just try to keep the needle pointing that way. I know most of the sites anyway, so exact degrees and use of lubber line is not important. I rarely use the lubber line even if at a rare new site.

 

[Neilwood]

One of the best things I learned with regards to navigation is to take a bearing to a point, try to find something to focus on at or near that and head towards it (not necessarily focusing on the compass). Combines natural nav and compass as it is very easy to drift if you are simply focused on the heading and there is a current pulling you sideways.

 

[TMHeimer]

One of the best things I learned with regards to navigation is to take a bearing to a point, try to find something to focus on at or near that and head towards it (not necessarily focusing on the compass). Combines natural nav and compass as it is very easy to drift if you are simply focused on the heading and there is a current pulling you sideways.

Yeah I've done that on occasion. Think it's called "point to point" navigation. Very practical as long as there is in fact something like a rock to focus on.

 

[Kharon]

Yeah I've done that on occasion. Think it's called "point to point" navigation. Very practical as long as there is in fact something like a rock to focus on.

And enough vis to see the rock. Places I dive in upstate NY don't necessarily have either. The problem is compounded when the bottom is flat with no indication which direction the shore is.

 

[AJ]

Never practisized on land. However, I did understand how to use compasses and wind directions from boating before I started diving. Most important to me is knowing where the North lies and in what direction the entry point lies. All I need to know how to go wher I want to go. If you understand wind directions/degrees you will be a pretty good navigator under water combined with natural navigating (which can not be tought on land). However, practising on land can be very usefull to teach those very basic kills imo.

In my experience however basic knowledge about how a compass works and how to use it for navigating is not very well tought to students. Maybe because even the instructors don't understand themselves?

 

[Sam Miller III]

During WW!1 and Korean War those that flew, the fighter pilots and navigators depended on a drift meter, physical features and an E6B computer (a rotary slide rule) for navigation (ask your grandfathers about them).
Flying and diving navigation are close cousins - but not kissing cousins

To determine drift just grab a hand full of sand, slit or mud hover about 2-3 feet off bottom and release - the prevailing current will indicate direction of drift. This is often done and invaluable when UW counter currents are encountered...(oh The horror of touching the bottom!)

Readily identifiable physical features can and should be used - I am often reminded and relate to my students about the great cathedral at Cologne Germany which was a beacon and often the IP for many allied booming raids in WW11.
In diving a rock or a reef, or a sunken object : a automobile, boat of what ever lies in the diving quarries and mud holes .

A unique feature of diving is marine life which can be used for navigation. Certain marine life is found only at depths others at shallow depths - Such as the ubiquitous san dollar- Live sand dollars always line them selves with the prevailing current and only inhabit the shallow depths.

The E6B computer is to the diver as is the modern dive compass to the diver

The USAF pilot//navigator has extensive "Ground School" prior to jumping in to a airplane and zooming away -
So should it be with the modern well informed and well trained dive instructor ( I suspect many instructors can read upside down and backwards faster that the student can read right side up) who teaches underwater navigation to students who can barely swim and have never had water in their faces and are not yet comfortable in the water - salt or fresh..

So it is extensive ground school (Dry land practice) until top side navigation is mastered--Identify and correction of problems on the surface all bundled up against the cold biting wind in the dryness and comfort of a parking lot, or a cornfield. Much easier for the instructor to explain correct and the student to comprehend and correct, than being wet cold and bopping around with water in their face.

THEN into to the ocean, the quarry or mud hole

(it has been fun!--now off to the beach )

Sam Miller, 111

 

[TMHeimer]

And enough vis to see the rock. Places I dive in upstate NY don't necessarily have either. The problem is compounded when the bottom is flat with no indication which direction the shore is.

Yes. We have quite a few ocean sites here where you get out about 30' and it's just silt. Need the compass, or even surface to get a heading. But you can also get back in from the silt areas by swimming to the side of all the crap you kicked up getting out there (and you are still 5' above the bottom). Another reason I mostly solo dive--nobody behind you to piss off.