Zero to Master Scuba Diver in 10 months

[Neilwood]

Congratulations on your progress.

I am firmly of the belief that a lot comes down to attitude when learning. If you approach every new dive as a true learning experience and be aware of what you are doing and being self critical, then you will progress. If on the other hand you develop the attitude that you know it all, that is probably when fate/Murphy/mother nature will decide to teach you a lesson.

 

[AfterDark]

I have hesitated to post this at all. I don't like sounding like i'm just posting to toot my own horn. My happiness and my desire to share that with the community that can best appreciate it, and has also been instrumental in my development, finally won out.

I also debated where to post this. I finally decided that, with 53 dives logged now and less than 1 year of experience, I still completely qualify as a new diver, so this forum seems like the right place. Maybe (hopefully) at least one person will read this and find a little extra motivation to dive more.

I completed my SDI Open Water certification in November of last year, so just over 10 months ago. Since then, I have spent a lot of time taking more training classes. I have now completed all of these things:

SDI Computer Nitrox
SDI Advanced Buoyancy Control
SDI Drysuit Diver
TDI Nitrox
Nautical Archaeology Society Part 1 certification
BAREG U-boat Diving (which included SDI Wreck and SDI Deep full certifications)
DAN Diving Emergency Management Provider
SDI Rescue Diver

I have a total accumulated dive time of roughly 35 hours (not counting pool time).

I have read Deco for Divers and the Six Skills books, among others.

I am now in the middle of a combined course for TDI Intro to Tech + Advanced Nitrox + Decompression Procedures.

Last week, I completed my 50th dive, which earned me my SDI Master Scuba Diver card. Yaay! :d

Completing all the requirements for MSD feels like a major milestone and a baby step at the same time. In my mind, I liken it to getting my Brown Belt in scuba diving. I have spent a fair bit of time training in martial arts in the past. Getting your black belt means that you have demonstrated basic proficiency in all the fundamentals. Your 1st degree black belt is where the learning/training REALLY starts. That's kind of how I feel. Like, when I complete Deco Procedures, I will have earned my Black Belt - i.e. demonstrated a very BASIC level of proficiency in all the fundamentals. And where I am now has gotten me to a level to be accepted as a black belt candidate (i.e. a brown belt).

Also during that time, I have done a fairly broad range (I think - for my level of experience) of dives. I have done:

6 dives in the Cozumel/Riviera Maya area, with 2 being cenote dives
10 dives off Oahu, with 5 of them being on wrecks, one of which was a night dive on a wreck
9 dives off the Outer Banks of North Carolina, each one to a wreck, with only a couple of repeats so far, and a couple with a lot of sharks on the wreck
2 dives to the WWII German sub, the U-352, sunk in action, May, 1942
8 dives over 100fsw depth
24 dives 60 feet or more depth
Roughly 8 dives in water 40F or colder, with viz in the 3 - 6 feet range (and a number more in that viz, but shallower/warmer)
2 dives on the B29 bomber in the bottom of Lake Mead, crashed during a research mission in 1948
9 regular old reef dives (MX and HI)

I don't FEEL like I've done much diving. But, when I look back over my log book, it looks like a lot to have done in less than a year (and still worked a day job, and gigged regularly with my band).

It's not the stack of C cards I've accumulated that really gives me a sense of satisfaction, though. Nor is it the "stats".

What actually makes me feel the best about where I have gotten to, so far, is being able to see myself progressing. It was a simple thing. I had my first weekend in the water for Tech training just over a week ago. On my third time performing a valve drill, during my first ever dive with double tanks, I completed the drill and monitored my depth as I did it. I stayed pretty much horizontal all the way through. I don't think my legs drooped more than a foot at the most. And my depth readout on my Petrel never changed off the number it was showing (22 feet, IIRC). After my classmates and I all finished, we surfaced to review and my instructor looked at me, kind of chuckled, and said "that was pretty much perfect." All that other stuff that I've experienced over the last year just kind of paled in comparison to that one little thing - that feeling that I could see my own progress and that I got a little confirmation from my instructor that I have indeed been improving. I can see for myself that I still have a long way to go. In spite of seeing how far the road extends in front of me, it's very motivating to also be able to kind of look back and see that I have at least moved a little way forward from where I started.

As I said earlier, I felt like sharing here because I feel like I have learned a lot from ScubaBoard. Sometimes from direct conversations. Sometimes just from reading what people have posted before, in response to others. Some of y'all have been very patient with me and very helpful. I really appreciate that. Thank you! I can't say that without adding a special nod to Lynne Flaherty, TSandM, because, thought I didn't "know" her, she was always very patient and kind with me, both in various threads and by PM, and I especially appreciated her for remaining unflappable in the face of my buttheadedness and continuing to not just try to help me, but be NICE at the same time. She left this plane recently and I know I am just one of MANY that will miss her.

Thanks to ScubaBoard, I still have my first BC (a BP/W), my first wetsuit, my first computer (a wristwatch with *gasp* hoseless Air Integration!), and my first regulators. And, definitely to a significant degree, the skill that I have developed so far (such as it is) I credit to things I have learned from SB members and from information sources that I learned of from SB members.

Thank you to you all - even the ones of you that think I'm nothing but an argument looking for an ear. You, too, have contributed a lot to my education and I sincerely appreciate it. Sometimes, I am a butthead. Sometimes, I think I am simply taken the wrong way. Regardless, please know that I am thankful to all of you that try to help.

And to any new divers or folks who are thinking about diving who may read this: Welcome! Just do it! You will get out of it what you put in. And even if all you care to "put in" is getting your Open Water certification, so you can do the occasional 30 - 40' reef dive when you're on vacation, it is worth it!

You must have more hours in the water as a student diver then as a non-student diver. Lots of cards. Good luck and safe diving.

 

[stuartv]

You must have more hours in the water as a student diver then as a non-student diver. Lots of cards. Good luck and safe diving.

I think roughly half my dives have been "training". And, as my training dives have been, typically, shorter, where my fun dives have been, usually, to the limit of my gas (early) or my NDL (more recently), I think I have more hours as a non-student. Regardless, thank you! I am trying to be safe.

---------- Post added October 1st, 2015 at 08:42 PM ----------

I guess I was curious as to how much of the motivation for your deco training has been because the stuff you really want to see (wrecks?) is not practical within recreational limits and how much of the motivation was for other reasons, like to satisfy curiosity. If the motivation was so you can now see the wrecks that were previously inaccessible to you, then I would imagine you would be out deco diving as often as possible (with appropriate mentors, instructors, buddies, or whomever). Sounds like you will be.

Actually, I do NOT find it hard to believe that you are cautious, and that the more you learn, the more you realize you don't know. Not at all. That's completely typical. Sure, you charged in with all kinds of probing questions at first, but that's just your style. If one were to read all your threads in chronological order, they could see the evolution in your approach.

If anything, I'm a little envious of your progress. I'm deliberately taking a slower path, and it can be frustrating to see others "advancing" so rapidly. You may actually have more natural talent for this than I do. But to each his own path. Whatever works. In the end, the goal is to have fun, and I am having fun.

Yes, my motivation is (a little) to see wrecks that are deeper than Recreational limits and (much more) to be able to stay longer on the wrecks I am going to see. I don't feel like I have any machismo issues with wanting to do it just to be able to say "I went deeper" or any of that kind of business. My very long term goal is to be able to dive the Monitor. At 240', that is Adv Trimix territory. It will be a few years. There is plenty of cool stuff for me to see in the meantime, and I am perfectly content with that. I just like to have a plan, if you will.

You are having fun. I am having fun. I think I have rubbed you the wrong way on occasion, but I have nonetheless appreciated and enjoyed your input. If you are ever going diving anywhere that I might join you, I would love to meet you in person and have a chance to dive with you.

 

[TMHeimer]

stuartv, I think my ratio of training dives to non ones was about the same at 50 dives. Then not many training dives after that and none since DM in 2010. Good luck when you do Trimix way down the line. I have no more training goals, just diving.

 

[boulderjohn]

I learned to ski as a young adult. I was too poor to afford lessons, so I mostly just went out and got experience as best I could. I learned by watching the other skiers around me and imitating them. I thus achieved a very high ratio of experience ski outings to instructional ski outings. Over the years I got better and better, but I was frustrated that I was not better. As my financial situation improved, I began to take lessons, at which point I learned that the skiers I had been imitating pretty much sucked. I had engrained a mass of really bad habits. Eventually I got enough formal training to overcome most of them, but I was never fully cured. It really came out in the citizen racing I was doing--when things got hairy in the gates, I reverted to the old habits.

My skiing would have been oh so much better over the years if I had gotten a higher instruction to experience ratio. I can relate similar stories related to my tennis and golf skills.

I think there is something to be said for getting good instruction early.

 

[NAM001]

STUARTV

aLL ONE CAN SAY IS GOOD GOING. Most people that I come across I have to say slow down and enjoy the trip. Most Master card holders have no where near the variety of dives you have accumulated in your short time, I wish I had your log book. So yes you have the broad exposure that is presumed to be there when talking about a master card. Don't forget to enjoy the coffee lest you forget the skills that got you this far. Experience is still something you cant rush and that scare, that one mentioned, will get you one day. It has got us all at one time or another. Its how you handle it and others that you can finally fairly measure your self. When that happens enough, you will change your status from newby to experienced and once again find out just how much there is yet to know.

 

[guyharrisonphoto]

Stuart, I am late to the thread, but congratulations on your accomplishment! Personally, I think you have an ideal balance between training and regular diving for a diver starting off. From this point on, the majority will be regular dives but you have a great foundation and variety of experience to draw on going forward. Way to go!

 

[bryanmc57]

Do you "feel" like a master scuba diver?

 

[stuartv]

Do you "feel" like a master scuba diver?

I feel like I know a helluva lot more, now, about what I don't know and how weak my buoyancy control is than I did 10 months ago...

 

[bryanmc57]

That's a very good answer. I'm not picking on you, I just think sometimes the term "master" is misused (and not only in scuba). Some things are only truly achieved with education and experience combined. It tends to weed out those who are just good test takers.