Where is your "bar"?

[knowone]

Swim down. Swim around. Swim up again. And again. And again. And again. I pinched the terminology from some somewhere, because it has a better ring to it than, Descend. Robot around looking at stuff you can look at in your house. Ascend again. And again. And again. And again.

 

[gcbryan]

Striving for perfection isn't what drives me. As long as I'm a thinking diver and I'm having fun all is well. If I notice something that needs improvement I do something about it but otherwise diving for me is about the experience itself and about viewing the marine life.

Or another way to put it would be that diving for me isn't about the technique of diving but rather is about the experience of diving.

 

[highdesert]

Or another way to put it would be that diving for me isn't about the technique of diving but rather is about the experience of diving.

Excellent ...

 

[BabyDuck]

yes, a very good point.

for me it's both. i want the skills to be there quietly doing their thing so i can concentrate on what i'm seeing - the skills should be the zen. so there that they aren't there anymore. what is the sound of one fin kicking?

role models - for form, bobby franklin & trace malinowski. for problem solving, larry vrooman.

 

[vladimir]

diving for me isn't about the technique of diving but rather is about the experience of diving.

Well said. I would add that while there is without a doubt room for improvement in my technique, it would come at a high price in terms of time, and yield a small return in terms of improving the experience.

 

[tomboyy]

I set my bar at work... I try to give them their moneys worth and I try to make my patients happy or at the very least ease their minds alittle. As far as diving goes I think highdesert said it pretty good.

Ascend from every dive relaxed, safe, and with a little gas in my tank. Coupla nice pictures helps too ...

 

[waterpirate]

For me there is no bar.
My world is full of it, I am responsible for people, a lot of stress, all performance based. when I dive I want it safe and executed "slow and easy with good technique" nothing else matters. I am commonly reffered to as the divig carp. lol Get the picture?
Eric

 

[wedivebc]

One of the best divers I have ever been in the water with was a student of mine. His name is also Fred. I was co-teaching a rebreather class down in Washington, Fred is from the Island here. Even though he had never been on a rebreather before he was totally in control of his position in the water. Most new RB divers find themselves quite task loaded but whenever I took my eyes off him then needed to find him again he would be there either with his light beam or sometimes just flashed a big OK in front of my mask the second I looked around to find him. He had a valve failure during the course and rather than get excited about it he calmly performed the appropriate drill, then flashed his light to indicate the problem. Fred doesn't dive in cold water very much anymore which is a shame but I guess after 30+ years of cold water he deserves a break.

 

[Mike Boswell]

I love the ocean and all the life forms in it. I'm like a Black Lab underwater - I love to romp around and see all the things there are to see. I really love the big stuff (sharks, grouper, coral heads, sea fans, etc.) and not so much the little things (Nudis! - Yawn). The more ground I cover, the more big stuff I see, and I love the burn in my leg muscles when I'm swimming.

To me the apex of diving, free or scuba, is the solo spear fisherman who combines diving skills with courage, athleticism, endurance, and hunting prowess. But that is a young man's sport and I no longer wish to kill my "friends".

People say if you stop in one spot, you will see more because (a) you can observe more closely and (b) things will come to you. This seems very counter-intuitive to me, but I believe it is true in some cases, and in that sense my "Bar" is to learn to do that.

 

[Diver0001]

If you mean do I have a roll model, then no. I'm sure there are lots of situations where I could learn something new and lots of sloppiness in my diving that could be cleaned up but on the whole I don't spend a lot of time worrying about what other people can do that I can't.

R..

Actually, now that I think about it, there is one guy.... I don't even recall his name off hand but we made a few dives with him in Egypt a few years ago. He was leading dives off of a zodiac at an offshore reef we like to visit. I admire him not so much for his dive skills but for his cool head.

We were swimming along a wall when a big ass barracuda, approaching the 1.5 metres in length overtook me and my buddy. It casually overtook the nameless guy who was hanging vertically just in front of us looking at the reef. It swam up right between his legs, turned around and CHOMP! bit the guy's 2nd stage.

It then moved away slightly, turned around and promptly bit it again!

The guy looked completely unphased by this. The third time the fish came at him he calmly took the reg out of his mouth and gave it a face full of bubbles before it had a chance to get close enough to bite him.

After one more two more shots of bubbles the barracuda took off.

I'll tell you, if that were me, I would have found that to be a pretty big pucker-moment. As it was, after the dive we got back on the Zodiac and all he said was, "you know, I've made about 3000 dives on this reef and I never saw a barracuda do that before."

Pretty darned calm..... AND he's the only dive guide in Egypt with barracuda bite marks on his second stage. I'm sure he'll get a nick name for that one!

So as a role model, yeah. I could do with being that calm.

R..