Right now you're thinking, "Of course I am."
You're not alone in that thought, a leading insurance company recently conducted a survey that found that 88 percent of adults consider themselves careful drivers, but only 17 percent consider other motorists equally as cautious. Now we all know from our daily commutes that not everyone is a good driver. The fact that we think we are is reflective of the natural human tendency to overestimate our own abilities in certain situations. This thought process often carries over with SCUBA divers as well; however, diving is one area where over estimation of ones abilities can lead to disaster.
If you have taken an Advanced Open Water or Rescue Diver course with me then you have heard me mention this statistic; Diving accident trends over the past few years show that the majority of accidents happen not to new or inexperienced divers, but more often to seasoned divers with more than a few dives under their belts. This statistic begs the question; how is it that more experienced divers tend to have more accidents? Though there is probably a long list of reasons for this, I'll focus on just one aspect that appears to be a common thread in diving related accidents; some experienced divers fall into the trap of developing a false sense of confidence that comes from "surviving" many dives without having any problems or near-misses. You probably remember hearing your SCUBA Instructor tell you that dive accidents rarely happen because of a single thing that goes wrong, but more often from a series of poor decisions that ultimately kick off a chain of events that end up badly.
Martial Arts Instructors often joke about how "Green Belts" are more likely to go out and get their asses kicked with their new fighting skills because they have just enough confidence in their fighting ability to pick a fight with the wrong person. I think this is a common problem with divers as well. Once you have a few dives logged and have "cheated the Grim Reaper" enough times you feel like you can take him on anytime. Here is a news flash, in the long run the "Grim Reaper” eventually catches up with all of us, no matter how good we think we are.
Here is a little story about a dive adventure I had a couple weekends ago that didn't quite go as planned. To qualify this story, understand that I have been diving for more than 20 years and have logged more than 4,500 dives during that time in every conceivable diving environment from the oceans of the world to lakes, quarries, rivers, ponds, whatever... you get the picture. Some Instructors might find sharing a story of this nature embarrassing, however I think it has a valuable lesson to be learned and reinforces that fact that no matter how much experience you have, you can fall prey to the syndrome I mentioned earlier.
I set out on an early morning beach dive with a long time dive buddy and Divemaster friend of mine who has been diving as long as I have. Having been through some of the hairiest diving experiences of my early diving career with this same buddy, I had the utmost confidence in our abilities to dive just about anywhere, at anytime. Now to set this story up right, also understand that our decision to beach dive was predicated by a cancelled boat trip due to high winds and rough seas... got an idea of where this going yet?
We get down to North Hollywood Park, find the beach virtually deserted, and surveyed the conditions. There was a stiff North East wind producing unorganized surf. For those of you who are not beach divers (or surfers) here is a tip; long "clean" waves that come in predictable sets are always preferred over random "boiling" water near the beach. However, since the waves were not “super” high (4-6ft) and we were both experienced divers (and surfers from the old school, by the way) and had been out in much worse conditions, we figured if anyone can dive this we can. So...with gear in tow, off we went.
The first indication that things aren't going "as planned" comes when, after a steady 10 minutes or so of surface swimming, we have yet to break through the surf zone, which here extends less than 100 yards offshore. If you're new to beach diving, here is another tip; the key to not getting beat up by the waves is to punch through the surf zone near the shore, make your way on the surface to your dive spot then drop down. The more time you spend in the surf zone the more you get beat up. This is were SCUBA gear manufacturers make tidy profits from all the stuff that divers drop in this critical phase of a beach dive.
Now imagine our heroes swimming around inside of a front-loader washing machine and you get the picture of what we are experiencing at this point. In an effort to avoid getting beat up further I suggest we try "Plan B" which entails dropping below the surf and swimming out under the waves. This can be an effective way of punching through under certain conditions and is similar to the surfer's technique of "duck diving." The down side for divers is that it consumes gas that you could otherwise spend on your actual dive site, but difficult times call for difficult decisions. By now you can see the pattern we have set for ourselves, by adopting the "We are diving today, no matter what” mind set we set ourselves on a path that, in hindsight, seems simply silly.
The happy ending to this story comes after watching my Divemaster claw along the bottom for 5 minutes and still not making any forward progress against the crazy tide even with long fins. I finally woke up, yanked his fin and thumbed the dive. When we hit the surface, we couldn't help but laugh with near hysteria at our foolishness. We were struggling against Mother Nature herself, never a fair fight. I’m sure the Lifeguard on duty got a chuckle out of watching our little escapade. When we finally got on shore, several hundred yards south of our entry point; we were worn out, but unharmed. The true punishment was the hike back up the beach into the wind with our dive gear ... which at the time seemed like several miles.
The point of the story is not that we stared death in face and barely escaped with our lives, in reality we were never in much danger, we just went for a rough swim. The lesson learned is that no matter what your experience level, even for dive professionals there are conditions in which you will not be diving, period. Deciding to dig in and keep on plugging because "We are diving today, no matter what” and not thumbing a dive simply because “I’m not going to be the guy to quit” could, in a more unforgiving environment, have ended very differently indeed.
You're not alone in that thought, a leading insurance company recently conducted a survey that found that 88 percent of adults consider themselves careful drivers, but only 17 percent consider other motorists equally as cautious. Now we all know from our daily commutes that not everyone is a good driver. The fact that we think we are is reflective of the natural human tendency to overestimate our own abilities in certain situations. This thought process often carries over with SCUBA divers as well; however, diving is one area where over estimation of ones abilities can lead to disaster.
If you have taken an Advanced Open Water or Rescue Diver course with me then you have heard me mention this statistic; Diving accident trends over the past few years show that the majority of accidents happen not to new or inexperienced divers, but more often to seasoned divers with more than a few dives under their belts. This statistic begs the question; how is it that more experienced divers tend to have more accidents? Though there is probably a long list of reasons for this, I'll focus on just one aspect that appears to be a common thread in diving related accidents; some experienced divers fall into the trap of developing a false sense of confidence that comes from "surviving" many dives without having any problems or near-misses. You probably remember hearing your SCUBA Instructor tell you that dive accidents rarely happen because of a single thing that goes wrong, but more often from a series of poor decisions that ultimately kick off a chain of events that end up badly.
Martial Arts Instructors often joke about how "Green Belts" are more likely to go out and get their asses kicked with their new fighting skills because they have just enough confidence in their fighting ability to pick a fight with the wrong person. I think this is a common problem with divers as well. Once you have a few dives logged and have "cheated the Grim Reaper" enough times you feel like you can take him on anytime. Here is a news flash, in the long run the "Grim Reaper” eventually catches up with all of us, no matter how good we think we are.
Here is a little story about a dive adventure I had a couple weekends ago that didn't quite go as planned. To qualify this story, understand that I have been diving for more than 20 years and have logged more than 4,500 dives during that time in every conceivable diving environment from the oceans of the world to lakes, quarries, rivers, ponds, whatever... you get the picture. Some Instructors might find sharing a story of this nature embarrassing, however I think it has a valuable lesson to be learned and reinforces that fact that no matter how much experience you have, you can fall prey to the syndrome I mentioned earlier.
I set out on an early morning beach dive with a long time dive buddy and Divemaster friend of mine who has been diving as long as I have. Having been through some of the hairiest diving experiences of my early diving career with this same buddy, I had the utmost confidence in our abilities to dive just about anywhere, at anytime. Now to set this story up right, also understand that our decision to beach dive was predicated by a cancelled boat trip due to high winds and rough seas... got an idea of where this going yet?
We get down to North Hollywood Park, find the beach virtually deserted, and surveyed the conditions. There was a stiff North East wind producing unorganized surf. For those of you who are not beach divers (or surfers) here is a tip; long "clean" waves that come in predictable sets are always preferred over random "boiling" water near the beach. However, since the waves were not “super” high (4-6ft) and we were both experienced divers (and surfers from the old school, by the way) and had been out in much worse conditions, we figured if anyone can dive this we can. So...with gear in tow, off we went.
The first indication that things aren't going "as planned" comes when, after a steady 10 minutes or so of surface swimming, we have yet to break through the surf zone, which here extends less than 100 yards offshore. If you're new to beach diving, here is another tip; the key to not getting beat up by the waves is to punch through the surf zone near the shore, make your way on the surface to your dive spot then drop down. The more time you spend in the surf zone the more you get beat up. This is were SCUBA gear manufacturers make tidy profits from all the stuff that divers drop in this critical phase of a beach dive.
Now imagine our heroes swimming around inside of a front-loader washing machine and you get the picture of what we are experiencing at this point. In an effort to avoid getting beat up further I suggest we try "Plan B" which entails dropping below the surf and swimming out under the waves. This can be an effective way of punching through under certain conditions and is similar to the surfer's technique of "duck diving." The down side for divers is that it consumes gas that you could otherwise spend on your actual dive site, but difficult times call for difficult decisions. By now you can see the pattern we have set for ourselves, by adopting the "We are diving today, no matter what” mind set we set ourselves on a path that, in hindsight, seems simply silly.
The happy ending to this story comes after watching my Divemaster claw along the bottom for 5 minutes and still not making any forward progress against the crazy tide even with long fins. I finally woke up, yanked his fin and thumbed the dive. When we hit the surface, we couldn't help but laugh with near hysteria at our foolishness. We were struggling against Mother Nature herself, never a fair fight. I’m sure the Lifeguard on duty got a chuckle out of watching our little escapade. When we finally got on shore, several hundred yards south of our entry point; we were worn out, but unharmed. The true punishment was the hike back up the beach into the wind with our dive gear ... which at the time seemed like several miles.
The point of the story is not that we stared death in face and barely escaped with our lives, in reality we were never in much danger, we just went for a rough swim. The lesson learned is that no matter what your experience level, even for dive professionals there are conditions in which you will not be diving, period. Deciding to dig in and keep on plugging because "We are diving today, no matter what” and not thumbing a dive simply because “I’m not going to be the guy to quit” could, in a more unforgiving environment, have ended very differently indeed.
