Where is your "bar"?

[TSandM]

When I took GUE Fundamentals, they told me they would show me the bar, but it was up to me to reach it. They did; they showed me a level of control and precision in diving I didn't know existed.

Since then, I've had the wonderful fortune to get to dive with more and more skilled and experienced divers. Each time I wonder at how someone can be so "whatever" (stable, slippery, graceful, calm, patient, etc.) my personal bar goes higher.

Currently, my role model is Fred Devos. Fred teaches cave in Mexico. In a cave, and in open water, he looks completely relaxed and utterly stable. He moves like he's suspended in molasses, but his slow and deliberate actions never need to be repeated. His calm demeanor calms those around him, and his patient kindness inspires his students.

Where's your bar? Does somebody epitomize it?

 

[orm]

I honestly don't approach scuba in that way.

I think if anything, it's one of the only sports that is free from pressure.

I don't partake in technical diving, so perhaps if I did, there would be more of a standard for me to measure.

Comparing other people's diving styles is a bit like wishing I walked like someone else.

Some of the 'worst' divers I have come across, with regard to buoyancy control and general awareness of those around them, actually think they're the best!

 

[shark girl]

Great question! My next bar is to get my rescue cert, which I want to achieve next Kiwi summer. Beyond that... I watch more experienced divers who never seem to have a single issue with their buoyancy, whose trim is always perfect and who are so in tune with their buddy that they almost seem to share a single brain. One day, I want to be like them.

 

[aquaregia]

The 5th-D YouTube videos just blow my mind.

 

[oldogre]

There are some skills that I know I can work on and improve e.g. balance and propulsion, other things - such as the timed swim tests for certain courses- that I know I will never pass, so my reasoning is why waste time and effort, concentrate on the achievable. ( I am 77)

 

[Blackwood]

I don't know... don't really have a particular bar, so to speak. I wouldn't mind watching Steve Bogaerts' videos and being able to say "yah, I look like that." But that's a rather insubstantial thing in my mind.

After many dives, we'll have a series of de-brief emails where we comment on certain things and plan to make minor adjustments.

My current focus is slowing down my hand signals. They're very abrupt, and I'd like to clean them up.

 

[TSandM]

Blackwood, that's one of the things I've taken from watching Fred. You can almost not move too slowly underwater. I did a dive the other night, where I literally didn't understand any hand signals given to me by anybody (we were part of a big group, and I was navigational leader, and people kept trying to give me information that I didn't comprehend). Slow . . . s l o w; deliberate and clear means no repeats.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

My bar?

It's this little place on the beach in Jost van Dyke called the Soggy Dollar ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[mdb]

Nice reply ORM. I also do not dive or approach SCUBA with some bar. I just like to dive.

 

[Blackwood]

Blackwood, that's one of the things I've taken from watching Fred. You can almost not move too slowly underwater. I did a dive the other night, where I literally didn't understand any hand signals given to me by anybody (we were part of a big group, and I was navigational leader, and people kept trying to give me information that I didn't comprehend). Slow . . . s l o w; deliberate and clear means no repeats.

Definitely.

The sad thing is that I've been told that before and actually thought it through while signaling, but they were still really fast. It took seeing myself saying 'level up' in Rainer's video to really understand. I'm making it my mission for the next few dives to give really clear well-illuminated (even if it's unnecessary to do so) signals.