Scuba rule of thumbs

[Dashrynn]

What are your rule of thumbs?

I never dive more than 2 smaller new gizmos or setups and no more than 1 major gizmo (like a bcd or bp/w)

Also I just learned never to dive with a camera with someone you never dove with before, so you can pay more attention to them.

[LCF]

I use the "three strikes and you're out" rule.

Never dive deeper than the cubic feet in your tank is a good one, too.

[Grateful Diver]

There are a lot of "rules of thumb" in diving ... starting with "never hold your breath". Most are designed to keep you from hurting yourself while you're learning whatever the rule is intended to teach you. In almost every case, once you think about why the rule exists, you will find valid exceptions.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[vbcoachchris]

...

[Bric Martin]

I never add more than 1 new piece of gear or task to any dive.

[Norris]

Always turn your air on BEFORE descending....thats a good one.

[Scuba Scott]

Always pee before each dive even if you think you can hold it. (Dry Divers Rule)

[wallyc72]

Never dive deeper than the cubic feet in your tank is a good one, too.

BIG FAN of this...

This one is not a rule of thumb.... Just be safe!

[Sockmonkey]

Never dive in front of Sounder. Somewhat like dropping the scuba soap.

Fairly easy rule to live by given his 5 total dives in 2009.

-Eric

[dwashbur]

Ditto on the "three strikes" rule, but our most basic one is "any diver can call the dive any time for any reason or no apparent reason and there will be NO griping." We added the last part after a situation that I may have related before. On our first trip to Monterey bay my daughter looked at the surf and decided it was bigger than she wanted to try, so she called the dive. My wife wasn't happy and made no secret of it. I said "You know the rule: any diver, any time, any reason." She said, "Well, yeah, but that doesn't mean I can't complain." I replied, "That's exactly what it means. That's why we say 'no condemnation.'" She brilliantly answered, "Oh. Right." So now we add the last part about griping.

Another one is, we turn at half-tank. No exceptions.

Next?

[Mattleycrue76]

Never take Joe up on his offer to let you smell his thumb

[Dashrynn]

well i meant what are the rule of thumbs YOU made, but defiantly never hold your breath.

[renoun]

well i meant what are the rule of thumbs YOU made, but defiantly never hold your breath.

Never hold your breath is a useful instruction to clueless newbs with no clue about buoyancy. We can all agree that holding ones breath during an uncontrolled ascent has a very high risk of baurotrauma. As with other things we were taught in open water classes a rule was included in the curriculum to mitigate a risk.

Once one is capable of diving without being overwhelmed many of the risk mitigation strategies we were taught can be analyzed and perhaps relaxed or rethought. As a thinking diver I use breath control all the time to regulate my buoyancy. There are times when I am otherwise negatively buoyant or wish to ascend slightly that I either breath at my maximum tidal volume or hold my breath momentarily until I have adjusted my buoyency. I don't blow a steady stream of tiny bubbles when I have a reg out of my mouth, wasn't that a sure path to sudden death?

[Grateful Diver]

well i meant what are the rule of thumbs YOU made, but defiantly never hold your breath.

Never hold your breath is a useful instruction to clueless newbs with no clue about buoyancy. We can all agree that holding ones breath during an uncontrolled ascent has a very high risk of baurotrauma. As with other things we were taught in open water classes a rule was included in the curriculum to mitigate a risk.

It goes a bit deeper than that ... and gets to the heart of why we have rules of thumb in the first place.

We're putting ourselves in an environment we weren't designed for ... and we have a set of hard-wired responses to certain things that our species evolved with to help keep us alive in our natural environment. When we learn to scuba dive we need to "re-wire" some of those, because they simply don't work underwater. Holding one's breath is a natural reaction to a lot of different stimuli, including stress.

"Never hold your breath" certainly applies to new divers ... let's not call them clueless, since we were all there at some point. Hopefully they picked up some clues in their OW class, they just need to learn how to apply them.

But even a not-so-new diver can find themselves in a task-loaded, stressful situation (or face-to-face with a 1200 lb stellar sea lion) and forget to breathe momentarily. Go up a few feet under those circumstances and you can hurt yourself. That's why it's so bloody important to practice skills in situations of controlled stress ... because it helps you with the re-wiring that you'll need when the fit hits the shan and you don't have the bandwidth to think about it ... all the clues in the world won't help if you haven't changed your instinctive responses when that happens.

All of our rules of thumb come with reasons and exceptions ... and we have them to help keep us safe while we work on our skills to reach a point where we don't need them anymore. And as we drop ones we no longer find useful we will pick up new ones that will help us take our skills to the next level ... it doesn't appear to me that the process ever really ends ...

... Bob (Grateful DIver)

[lamont]

rule of thumbs: all your fingers immediately turn into 10 thumbs underwater?

[scottsax]

Some really great things in his post above.

It's very difficult for me to "re-wire" my brain for use without scuba gear. I've been swimming laps lately, and the first thing my brain wants my body to do when I put my face in the water is take a breath. It doesn't work as well as it does with a reg in my mouth!

I adhere to the 3 strikes rule, the never dive deeper than your tank's cubic foot capacity rule, and the any diver, any dive, any reason rule as well.

It's not really a rule of thumb, but I like the pre-dive setup to have a rhythm to it, starting the night before. I check my gear, charge batteries, and pack everything, touching each piece I'm going to need the next day. Then in the morning, I follow the same procedure each time to assemble my kit, I take a moment to look at the site and visualize the dive, and then I go do the dive. I don't like to be rushed, and I don't like when I get distracted out of my routine, because I'm more likely to forget something. The routine helps me stay relaxed, too....

[Grateful Diver]

Some really great things about holding your breath.

It's very difficult for me to "re-wire" my brain for use without scuba gear. I've been swimming laps lately, and the first thing my brain wants my body to do when I put my face in the water is take a breath. It doesn't work as well as it does with a reg in my mouth!

I adhere to the 3 strikes rule, the never dive deeper than your tank's cubic foot capacity rule, and the any diver, any dive, any reason rule as well.

It's not really a rule of thumb, but I like the pre-dive setup to have a rhythm to it, starting the night before. I check my gear, charge batteries, and pack everything, touching each piece I'm going to need the next day. Then in the morning, I follow the same procedure each time to assemble my kit, I take a moment to look at the site and visualize the dive, and then I go do the dive. I don't like to be rushed, and I don't like when I get distracted out of my routine, because I'm more likely to forget something. The routine helps me stay relaxed, too....

Scott ... I'm pretty sure I didn't type the words you quoted me as saying above.

What's up with that? I don't much like it when people claim I said things I didn't say ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[scottsax]

Scott ... I'm pretty sure I didn't type the words you quoted me as saying above.

What's up with that? I don't much like it when people claim I said things I didn't say ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Er... What I meant was, you said some really good stuff, and I didn't want to quote the whole block of text, because it was just above my post, and, er...


...mea culpa?

[Grateful Diver]

Scott ... I'm pretty sure I didn't type the words you quoted me as saying above.

What's up with that? I don't much like it when people claim I said things I didn't say ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Er... What I meant was, you said some really good stuff, and I didn't want to quote the whole block of text, because it was just above my post, and, er...


...mea culpa?

OK ... now I get it ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[scottsax]

Scott ... I'm pretty sure I didn't type the words you quoted me as saying above.

What's up with that? I don't much like it when people claim I said things I didn't say ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Er... What I meant was, you said some really good stuff, and I didn't want to quote the whole block of text, because it was just above my post, and, er...


...mea culpa?

OK ... now I get it ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Sorry, Bob. I amended my post above to be more clear.

[Mongodives]

Not really a rule of thumb but something everyone at all skill levels should be doing, "plan the dive, dive the plan"

[airsix]

My rule of thumb is to use them for guidance, but never let them make my decisions for me.

I'm sorry, but I have to come out and say it. I HATE the 3-strikes rule. Rarely does anything worthwhile ever perfectly and magically fall into place. There are going to be hiccups. You fix them and move on. Or you back up, reassess, inspect, repair, get your head on straight, double check everything, and then you move forward again. But you don't just tally up 3 strikes and go home unless 1) conditions are too dangerous, 2) you/buddy is unfit to dive, or 3) equipment is not dive-worthy. If you can fix it or work around it I see no reason to bail. It's the reason we all carry so many spares.

-Ben

[lamont]

My rule of thumb is to use them for guidance, but never let them make my decisions for me.

I'm sorry, but I have to come out and say it. I HATE the 3-strikes rule. Rarely does anything worthwhile ever perfectly and magically fall into place. There are going to be hiccups. You fix them and move on. Or you back up, reassess, inspect, repair, get your head on straight, double check everything, and then you move forward again. But you don't just tally up 3 strikes and go home unless 1) conditions are too dangerous, 2) you/buddy is unfit to dive, or 3) equipment is not dive-worthy. If you can fix it or work around it I see no reason to bail. It's the reason we all carry so many spares.

-Ben

for me, its really about stressors.

if i'm rolling with it and they're just hiccups, they don't count.

if i'm getting stressed about them, then they count.

mostly its about assessing my own mental health. if three little things go wrong and i'm totally pissed of at all of them, then my head is clearly not in the right place....

[pensacoladiver]

well i meant what are the rule of thumbs YOU made, but defiantly never hold your breath.

There you go again with your "defiant" statements. Do you use your thumbs to type that word?

[Dashrynn]

Only when I hit the space bar do I use my thumbs unless I'm on my blackberry (like I am now) and yes I am very defiant but I never thought myself to be a guy who knew big words so I will stick with "if and or to the also no" big word section.