We frequently tell newer divers that they need to go out and dive to get experience. They go out, make mistakes learn lessons and gain the experience they need to become better divers. Often times, they go out, and execute their plan over and over without a single problem and gain experience simply by logging well planned and well executed dives.
But what about the experience gained when things go wrong? How many of us, have learned a lifetime of lessons by the experience of a "bad" dive?
We generally consider ourselves to be "scuba educators". We pride ourselves on our ability to impart our wisdom on those that follow in our footsteps. But what is it that we don't share? How many of us, have learned the "hard" lessons, but are too afraid to tell the story for fear of judgment? I say to heck with it, these stories need to be told.
It's been said, that the best dives, are the dives that scared the crap out of you. Those are the dives where the lessons you learned were invaluable. Lessons you couldn't gain from reading a book, or talking to an instructor. These are the dives where you gained REAL experience. They say that which does not kill you makes you stronger. The problem is that few people talk about those dives. They don't want to be judged by the infamous scuba police. They don't want to be judged by other divers or their own instructors so they remain silent, and deny the rest of the community an opportunity to learn.
This is a NJZ. (NO JUDGEMENT ZONE) Tell your story from the perspective of another, or tell it how it was. I don't care. I just want to hear, how a good dive went bad, and what were the lessons learned.
I’ll start. I’ve got at least four such experiences I could share. I’ll share one of the two that are the most significant for me, and perhaps I'll include the others at a later time. I'm sure I'll include the Omar dive.........
I signed up for a boat dive shortly after I completed AOW. I chose to join another pair, and our plan was to go down to around 110’. The site bottomed out at around 92’ and one of our team swam away from the rocks to get deeper. At around 95’ or so, the “leader” of the group decided that he could not find his way back to the rocks and began an ascent to the surface. I had no choice but to follow. The other two members of the team ascended from 95’ at a rate that I was not comfortable with, so I slowed my ascent and quickly separated myself from the team. I was alone, somewhere in the San Juan Islands, mid water, in current, flying by gauge as I had no visual reference. At around 30 ft I was somehow re-united with one of the team members who had lost contact with the other on the ascent. We completed our safety stop and surfaced to find the current had pushed us very far away from the boat.
Lessons learned: I can control my fear. At least I could on this dive. There would be others that tested this theory. Bob Bailey’s mid water navigation class is a valuable skill that basically kept me from freaking out. Even if someone tells you they know the site, refer to your compass regularly throughout the dive and know how to get back to the exit point. Include an ascent strategy in the dive plan or discuss with each other what you will do in case……. Learn to use, and carry an SMB. Confidence. I learned that I can do a mid water ascent if I need to, which gave me a lot more confidence in my diving.