Question Where does complacency begin and end?

[brsnow]

For me I had a very close call, so it reset my approach.

 

[Wibble]

Complacency starts at the end of fear, or at out-of-money,
and it stops at a near-death experience.

I was icediving with a single tank and one first stage only. I felt immortal. Bad choice.
Then I was deco-diving without the funds to do that. As a result, I got stabbed with a dive knife (blunt unfortunately) and finished the dive freediving.

Not sure complacency starts with fear. It starts when you think you're better than following your well-founded checklists and techniques.

It may well end in fear!

 

[Subcooled]

Not sure complacency starts with fear.

end-of-fear, you mean?
Fear is healthy to a certain degree. Lack thereof can be risky.

It starts when you think you're better than following your well-founded checklists and techniques.

True,
although reasons to skip checklists and recommended procedures can be many.
False beliefs, money, lack of time, peer pressure, ...

My point of view is that a healthy dose of fear (or caution) is antidote to many of these mistakes.

It may well end in fear!

Sure!
Been there...

 

[Wibble]

Nothing like owning a rebreather to focus the mind on checklists.

Fifty Shades of Death!

 

[stretchthepenn]

As other posters have noted, there's a difference between complacency and changing gear/routines because you're comfortable. That being said, I'll focus on your written question:

What changes have you made since you were certified?

My diving now is very, very different from my diving as a n00b.

First, let's talk actual dives. Back when I got certified (late 1996) in the Los Angeles area, I started out as most newbies do, doing single-tank dives using air in relatively shallow ocean dives in relatively simple conditions. I dived Casino Point in Catalina a few times and took some local SoCal charter boats, and in the late '90s/early 2000s, took some liveaboards to the Channel Islands and one warm-water trip to the Sea of Cortez. My comfort zone was 20-80', and I was mightily impressed with myself for completing a 40-minute dive and having been to 130' twice.

What gear did I use for that diving? I wore a high-volume mask with side windows, a snorkel on every dive, a 5mm wetsuit with a built-in hood, a wraparound jacket-style BCD, a 20# pre-filled neoprene weight belt, 3mm booties, and JetFins. My one and only regulator was a yoke-style US Divers cheapie connected to a three-item console (SPG, compass, one-button US Divers Matrix Master computer). I didn't own any tanks, so I always rented AL80s. And I had a BFK strapped to my shin and a big-ass King Pelican lantern-style flashlight that packed 8 D-cell batteries dangling from my wrist.

How does that stack up to me today? I've gone the tec route, so I'm diving below 130' and staying underwater for an hour-plus whenever I can, often in cold, dark freshwater quarries with low viz that, as a rookie, would've both chilled me to the bone and freaked me the f--k out.

Today, I'm mostly wearing a drysuit with rockboots and a separate hood, and I'm either using a backplate-and-wing (for all BM, either tec or rec) or a back-inflation BCD (for SM). I'm usually carrying two steel tanks with plain air as my primary sources, and I'm lugging one or two AL80 deco cylinders with varying percentages of O2. I'm distributing far less lead into multiple pockets. I'm also carrying a crapton of redundant gear -- two low-volume masks, liftbags/DSMBs, spools and reels, an LED canister light and a backup, slates, two Perdix AI computers, line cutters...

Regulators? At last count, I have sixteen, mostly DIN. And tanks? My garage is a monument to the fact that, if left alone in the dark, tanks multiply like rabbits. I've got a fleet of 20-odd, both steel and aluminum, in sizes from 3cf to 120cf.

The only thing that's not changed much is my fin choice. I don't have my original JetFins anymore, but I'm using their close relatives: OMS Slipstreams, Hollis F1s, or Dive Rite XTs.

And I ditched the snorkel back around 2000.

 

[Wibble]

What changes have you made since you were certified?

The big change was changing out of the BCD recreational "PADI" stuff into a twinset with backplate and wing. Did this around dive 60 which was driven by the conditions found in typical UK diving where redundancy is a necessity not an option. It was a single big change which required all the other skills to be sorted out as well, so lots of practice with core skills plus all of the shutdowns, etc.

Once moved to a backplate + wing, everything stays the same even if diving with a single tank in benign warm waters.

When progressing through decompression procedures and additional stage cyliders the main kit remains the same. Similarly with helium-assisted deeper diving and multiple stage cylinders; it is a natural progression.

Then came sidemount. It's similar regarding the routing of hoses as per backmount meaning donations are essentially the same (some minor tweaks), but sidemount's different with the bungees and where the cylinders are hung on the harness. Wasn't really a major change at all. OK, there's the famous sidemount faffing around to adjust the kit.

Then came the rebreather. That came with a horrid clip-tastic harness which was quickly switched over for a one-piece a-la backmount (even with H logos!). With two cylinders -- bailout and deco gas -- and the absence of a longhose, it was obvious that the right-hand side of the body should be used for mounting deco stages. To keep that lot under control, they were bungeed back as per sidemount; ahh, streamlining and not snagging on wrecks.

This meant that with the rebreather, the bailout would always be kept on the left-hand side. An out-of-gas donation to another diver would be exactly the same as a bailout to myself: grab the LH regulator and people live. Have always struggled to understand why this is such a bone of contention with people used to donating a longhose: rebreathers are different. There's nothing hard about it.

 

[DogDiver]

I’ll give you the short answer.

Complacency ends with a body bag.

 

[Wibble]

I’ll give you the short answer.

Complacency ends with a body bag.

Or... Complacency ends with learning lessons.

That, of course, assumes one's complacency isn't in ignoring basic safety and redundancy. Complacency doesn't (always) equate to reckless stupidity -- it tends to be some form of overlooking for which one learns lessons.

For me that resulted in a fantastic blue cheese effect on my shoulder as I'd jumped in without plugging in my drysuit inflate and descended to 35m/115ft. I lernd dat I woz a dumkopf -- no way I'm doing that again!

Unfortunately I know of one person who almost certainly jumped in without turning their gas on whilst overweighted; no body bag needed as the corpse wasn't recovered.