Good Technical Diving Habits Come From Basic Diver Training

By Norman S. Brinsley,
I#526

Most divers engaging in technical diving have years of experience and have taken progressively more demanding training courses. Technical divers have developed skills such as maintaining predetermined descent and ascent rates to comply with specific decompression algorithms. Unfortunately, this wealth of experience in technical divers sometimes causes them to skip the basics. For some, dive planning is committed to memory with brief verbal exchanges made with dive partners only to gain an "OK." So too, at the end of a dive, logging the dive has become something to be done only if new frontiers have been crossed. It may even be done as an afterthought simply to document the trip. For some technical divers logging the dive may no longer be considered PART of the dive.

In technical dive training, dive planning requires considerably more details than for strictly recreational diving. This is not to say that planning a dive to 60 fsw/18 msw for 40 minutes in clear tropical conditions is not important. However, a plan to dive 20 minutes at 240 fsw/72 msw must be sufficiently detailed with contingencies for the "what if" scenarios to be worked out well in advance.

These habits start from Technical dive trainers emphasizing the importance of dive planning to their students. Having the student brief the plan for the coming dive permits an information exchange and feedback between the students as well as the instructor. Even if it is a class of one, the instructor needs to hear the student present what is expected to take place on the upcoming dive. Basing the presentation around four primary points of dive planning, provides an added learning experience for the students. It also demonstrates to the instructor the student's commitment to safe diving through the use of contingency planning. Building in an after action review either at the dive site or back in the classroom gives everyone a chance to compare actual vs. planned diving activity. It permits student and instructor to identify points for subsequent improvement in dive execution and planning.

Recording the dive in a log book needs to be as formal in technical diving as it was in one's entry level water course. Gas consumption and other essential statistics related to the dive must be recorded. Diver performance needs to be noted by the instructor and discussed with the student. Key entries in the log may pertain to necessary gear placement changes, to alter diver trim and swimming efficiency or unexpected variations in gas consumption attributed to visibility or current. Like dive planning, feedback from the instructor on student performance during this documentation session is critical. Students should record objective ratings of their own performance and get the instructor's written commentary and recommendations in the log book prior to it being signed. It serves to build their confidence as well as gives them performance improvement goals to achieve in later dives.

When I look back over my diving activities, the log book serves as a reminder of things seen and done. It also provides reference for subsequent planning when returning to dive a site that may be shrouded with distant recollections of visibility, currents, landmarks and depths. I have even used my log book to establish a self-imposed training objective on a dive. A thoroughly completed log book makes planning a new dive easier and more in line with the diver's equipment and capabilities. I recall asking an instructor of mine one time, "What's the plan for this dive?" The answer was, "To go as far as can and come back." While I agree many things are intuitive, it is nice to have some of the blanks filled in for use as reference during the dive. I'd say Plan it, Dive it, Log it and Evaluate results. Safe diving to you all.