You don't know what you don't know

[Mal Bridgeman]

"Mal , you can buddy with Dave" The Divemaster advised as he hurriedly concluded the dive briefing. It was hot and rough and people wanted to get in the water.

If you have already read this tale of my fifth dive on the Pillars of Hercules in Antigua on YD then skip to the second post in the thread to find out why I have reposted it here.

"Oh dear" I thought "Dave's on the other side of the boat at the other end to me . . . How am I going to plan the dive with him?

"Too late!" I concluded as he gently rolled off the side of the boat. I had never done a backwards roll entry before. . . In fact i had never dived off a boat before . . "oh well here goes. . . I'll speak to him before we descend then"

The backwards roll was easy. I surfaced and gave the OK signal to the boat but noticed there was no-one left on the boat. A little surprised, I quickly swam round to meet Dave but when i got there he had gone. I looked down and saw him about 30ft below me and heading down at a rate of knots. I swam round to the front of the boat and starated to descend the anchor line. There was a confusion of people on the line some descending, some stationery whilst they sorted their ears out and some coming up due to equipment failures.

And so started the fifth dive of my career.

It all started the year before when a mate and I decided it would be fun to learn to dive and 6 weeks later we had completed our PADI confined water training then headed off to Malta for a weekend to complete the Open Water section. By today's standards not a very flash trip but it felt flash at the time

A couple of months later and the holiday to Antigua. I arrived and went to see the Dive Centre. I introduced myself and asked whether I could go diving tomorrow.

"Are you an Advanced Diver?" The guy enquired.

"Well not exactly...."

"Have you done more than 30 dives?"

"Well not exactly...."

"Are you comfortable in the water, though?"

"Oh yes!!"

"Good...be here at 7am and we'll sort out your kit".

7am the next day arrived and I went to the dive centre full of anticipation. I was issued with a set of kit....well I say a set of kit when what I actually mean is a 1st stage, a 2nd stage, a contents guage, a BC and the attendant hoses .... no depth guage and no alternate air source.

The trip out to the dive site was fairly uneventful though I did make polite conversation with as many of the others people as I could but being in an unfamiliar environment I just sort of copied what they were doing as regards kit preparation.

The guide briefed the dive, the Pillars of Hercules as being on 3 levels, 60ft, 80 ft and 100ft. "Cripes" I thought.."Better stick to the 60 feet section then...I'll make sure my buddy knows....I wonder who my buddy will be......"

So back to the anchor line.....

I finned as hard as I could to reach my buddy and gave him the ok sign. I was so pleased to have caught up with him and was unsure of how I was going to tell him that I only wanted to go to 60ft. Having got the ok sign from me though he carried on with the dive .... I became aware that my breathing had become unbelievably loud. I did not feel either worried or euphoric in the way that I had expected at such depths (bearing in mind I did not know what depth I was at) but that breathing was LOUD.

The dive was uneventful in itself and soon enough Dave gave me the thumbs up and I agreed. We set off towards the anchor line and started to ascend. He had this box on his arm which he was intently studying and as it made an occasional beeping sound he indicated that we should wait and hold on the line for a bit before carrying on till it beeped again. We repeated this procedure till after a while I noticed how calm and serene everything was. My breathing was almost silent as if I had been on a train with the window open and the train had now stopped. After a while Dave advised we were at the 5m level and should stop for 3 mins.

We surfaced and I thanked him for the dive....

Back on the boat I asked him about the box on his arm. "It's a dive computer," he explained, "It records all the dive parameters and has a warning beep on it if you ascend too quickly" Ahh so that was what it was all about.

I got my log book out and started to write up the dive. Dave came and sat with me and seeing I had written "DIVE 5" he asked about the other sites I had dived on the island. I explained it was my first dive of the hoiday and in answer to his query about why I had written "DIVE 5" it was because it was my Dive 5 .... EVER!!

He looked shocked and went a little pale. By way of excuse for his actions he said I did not look like a diver on the 5th dive of my life and whilst I was flattered to be complemented on my diving skills it did annoy me a little that we had not discussed the dive beforehand. I explained that and said that I had only wanted to go to the 60ft shelf but that I was not able to discern the shelves the divemaster had described and thought it better to stick with him. He got out his computer again and showed me that we had done the dive to 105ft .... this time it was my turn to be shocked and go a little pale.

On the next dive though, and to his eternal credit, he stuck to me like a limpet and showed me so much of the underwater life and in many ways triggered the remaining preference I have for finding the "ickle" things on the dive.

The whole incident-that-was-not-an-incident taught me a valuable lesson about having the right equipment so on my return to the UK I went to Collins and Chambers in North London and for the princely sum of £450 I purchased my first dive computer. It was a Monitor 2 which I happily dived on for many years till I discovered it had the most amazingly generous NDL. Only once did I ever get the fast ascent beep to go.....i.e. in excess of 18m/min .... Cripes just what was I doing in Antigua....definitely one of Hercules trials!

Rgrds
Mal

[Mal Bridgeman]

"You don't know what you don't know" - A phrase which often pops up when I chat with Clare (aka Gledders aka CHG) about diving and dive progression. The post above serves as a pretty clear example of a diver who had absolutely no idea about what he did not know. Although the same could be said of this diver a few years down the road...I definitely know a lot more than I did but there are things I still don't know.

I wondered recently whether had I been doing my dive 5 now with the knowledge and awareness that I have of DIR, would it have been the sort of thing that I would have followed?

My reaction to this incident-that-was-not-an-incident at the time though, was somewhat DIR-esque in its philosophy, if not in its practice. I recognised deficiency in kit, knowledge, skill/practice and of course a deficiency of experience....and so set out to buy myself my own high quality kit, got more training from the Top Instructor of the time, practiced in a swimming pool every week ....(the nearest sea you can dive in is a long way from me ) and went Open Water diving as much as I could afford.

The reaction was also somewhat non-DIR-esque. I felt I needed a style of diving which was more self reliant....it has changed and evolved over the years to become the style of diving I now follow....Hogarthian in appearance but, as an Open Water Instructor with a different agency, I don't rely on anyone other than me to get me out of the water.

So to the point of the post and the question in my mind....Have others had similar experiences which led them down the DIR route? What led you to change and why DIR?

Thanks
Mal

[Divingniknaks]

Mal,

Great posts, well here goes with why I converted.

I was PADI trained, OW on Cayman Brac in 1998 (thx Beccy and Reef Divers) then got back to the UK and due to a change of jobs had no time to dive. Went back to the Brac a year later did a little more warm water stuff and got well hooked.

At this point I know nothing other than PADI.

Came back home and having got the bug, visted my Local shop and was persuaded (read mugged) to do AOW. Well sheee*t , lot's of money later I own a drysuit, regs, Custom Divers TBK, all the stuff.

Did AOW and enjoyed it. Did some pleasure diving, some more PADI tickets and then on to Rescue.

At this point I know nothing other than PADI.

But not for long, I found Scubaboard Great, clients can ay me to read about diving. So whats this DIR stuff all about then ?

Plenty of reading later and I start to get thinking that this long hose stuff at least makes sense. More reading, a few chats with people who were kind of into this stuff.

So I switch to a long hose, get a lot of grief about "that'll kill you" "how silly do you look " etc etc. Stuck with it though, becuase to me at least it made sense to be comfortable in an air share.

Then I find YD (Yorkshire divers forum) and some very good people on there who take time time out to help, both in armchairs and in the water.

Meanwhile I have become a director of a PADI based school here in the UK, this gradually gives me more and more sleepless nights if I'm honest. The standards are exceeded and I still worry about the people who now have their Certs and can go throw themselves off a boat in the Channel.

At this point I've aleady commited myself to the Gue way menatally at least, so I have my crisis of concience and part ways. In the process starting up Niknaks beacause I can see that there is an opening for Fair prices for Quality kit.

Thanks to the help of some people from this very board (through YD at the time) I did some "training dives", which just really proved to me how high the bloody bar was and therefore how high I had to climb.

Fundies this year was an eye opener for sure, Rich Walker can fin backwards as fast as I can frog fowards It's that kind of thing that really makes you think.

So after all of this ramble (you lot still here ?), GUE/ DIR is the way forward for me. It just makes soooooo much sense.

When I look at it, it was very gradual for me. A lot of little things that when pulled together just made sooooooo much sense.

I think had I met the likes of Davey Willo earlier I would have got here sooner (thx Dave for all your time and advice).

My journey has only started compared to a lot of you out there, but it's a road that I am firmly committed to follow.

If you want a reason ?

I have two sons, one 3 yrs and one 18 months and I am convinced that GUE / DIR will give them a better chance of Daddy being there when they graduate Uni.

What more reason could a Dad want ?

Thanks for hanging in here this long (if you did), you deserve a shiny !

Cheers

[Alun]

Quote: (Originally Posted by Divingniknaks)

In the process starting up Niknaks beacause I can see that there is an opening for Fair prices for Quality kit.

You just can't help yourself can you Phill??? :D