SapphireMind
Contributor
OMG, that panicked diver video seriously makes my own chest hurt. The look in her eyes was just....haunting. She was very lucky that she survived. The first video was disappointing too. Last weekend, I did a bunch of dives, mostly shore, and my first boat dive was almost as bad as they looked (maybe worse LOL) and I called the dive after about 8 minutes when it was clear my head was not in the game. I did a long breakdown in a personal post about all the things I did wrong/needed to improve - I would never be sharing it as anything except "omg, please don't do this."
As for training, I agree it is largely on the student as well. I have taken the didactic for 3 certs - nav, night and depth. When I went to do the dives, I first took nav off the list - I got into the water and felt way too task loaded. I was fine with night/low viz, it really didn't give me any vertigo, I always felt I knew which way was up and I had the right equipment. Low viz dive was annoying just because I couldn't see many animals, but that's the extent of it. My depth dive I posted about in the near misses, but essentially, my brain didn't come with me on the dive. I made sure my instructor knew that I was not expecting to have my cert in honestly *anything*, if she didn't feel comfortable with my skills in it. If the weekend ended up just being practice dives with an instructor, so be it, it was great experience and I don't want to pressure anyone to give me a cert I'm not ready for.
As for training, I agree it is largely on the student as well. I have taken the didactic for 3 certs - nav, night and depth. When I went to do the dives, I first took nav off the list - I got into the water and felt way too task loaded. I was fine with night/low viz, it really didn't give me any vertigo, I always felt I knew which way was up and I had the right equipment. Low viz dive was annoying just because I couldn't see many animals, but that's the extent of it. My depth dive I posted about in the near misses, but essentially, my brain didn't come with me on the dive. I made sure my instructor knew that I was not expecting to have my cert in honestly *anything*, if she didn't feel comfortable with my skills in it. If the weekend ended up just being practice dives with an instructor, so be it, it was great experience and I don't want to pressure anyone to give me a cert I'm not ready for.
