Various Comfort Levels

[Thumpers]

My wife and I had just finished our first dive in Bonaire and were sitting at a table filling out our dive logs as we always do after a dive.
We had taken another couple with us as this was their first ocean dive.
The dive operator came and sat at the table with the four of us and asked what all we saw on the dive.
My wife and I went into quite descriptive explanations of the gorgeous coral, the morays, the barracudas etc we saw on that run, our familiarization dive.
The operator turned to the other couple and asked the same question
Their answer, we saw a couple of old sponges.
Now my wife and I looked at each other as we had been on the exact same dive and were never more than 4 feet apart. (They stayed that close).
It is just so amazing how as you become more and more comfortable under water that you can see and appreciate more and more things.
They were so task loaded, worrying about weights, depth, checking their air pressure constantly, monitoring their dive computers non-stop that they never had time to stop and look at the world around them.
It basically brought to the front how wonderful it is to reach that point where you are comfortable with most any weights, you adjust, you are comfortable with any type or size of tank, and you trust your dive plan and your computer.
The more you dive it seems, the more you enjoy it.

 

[Doc]

It gets better.

The slower you go and the more refined your observational skills become- it's hard to imagine what we so easily miss. Camouflage plays a big part in this as well.

 

[TSandM]

There's no question that, as the basic mechanics of diving become second nature, you see more. But I think we also learn to SEE. When I began diving, I had the good fortune of doing a lot of it with a man with incredible "critter eyes". Not only did he find much more than I did, but sometimes when he pointed it out to me, I STILL couldn't see it! Only after the dive would I ask, "What were you trying to show me in that log?" Nowadays, I have that experience commonly with divers visiting Puget Sound, whose "eye" just isn't calibrated for the wildlife we have and how it's camouflaged.

 

[richmanmh]

I've been on the other side of this, having missed several things that others on the boat saw.

As I get more dives and get more confortable, I'm doing much better. Now I feel like most of what I miss is due to being "rushed" by the divemaster trying to see everything in 1 dive.

 

[diver 85]

Wait till you hit a thousand, you'll swear you've made it to heaven(on earth that is) each dive.......

 

[Charlie99]

The other thing that happens as you get more experience is that you stay much more aware of your buddy and other divers in the water around you.

It's not all that different than how we all drive a car now vs. how we drove for the first few months after getting a license. After some experience, less brainpower and attention is required for the low level mechanics of diving or driving.

Put me in an 18-wheeler or into a drysuit, and I'll be working hard again for a while.

 

[HenrikBP]

Seeing something and recognizing it for what it is is also a mental thing. Apparently humans need to be able to "name" what they see in order to actually see and recognize it. So if you don't have a mental "picture with a name on it" to tell you that that tiny, black and white, wavy thing your eyes are seeing is a juvenile drum fish, it's likely that you won't realize you're seeing it.

Hope that made sense

Henrik

 

[--tom--]

In line with all of this, the ability to spot critters is also environment oriented. You get used to the "flow" or pattern of different dive locales, which improves the amount of life you see.

I also dive with a photographer, while he takes pictures, I look for the next photo-op. That gets the eyes used to seeing small things.

 

[scubadobadoo]

Yeah. At the NY Aquarium I counted almost 20 Sea Horses in one tank this weekend. I listened as the next couple came up and complained that they thought it was stupid to only have 2 Sea Horses in such a large display. LOL. And they didn't even have scuba gear on.

 

[ScubaSteve]

I've been on the other side of this, having missed several things that others on the boat saw.

As I get more dives and get more confortable, I'm doing much better. Now I feel like most of what I miss is due to being "rushed" by the divemaster trying to see everything in 1 dive.

I agree with everyone in this post however this message hits home. I am so not a fan of cattle boat dives because the DM wants to make sure everybody gets the most out of the dive, so they rush around finding everything. This is probably great for most divers but I am too relaxed underwater to want to rush (unless it is for an emergency). I want to look at what is in front of me rather than race past it to look at something else. They are doing great for most....just not me. I love shore diving.