Plan Your Dive & Dive Your Plan

[Grateful Diver]

As someone who teaches scuba diving, one of my pet peeves has always been the tendency to tell students what they should do ... while at the same time neglecting to instruct them on how to do it.

"End the dive with 500 psi" is another slogan you'll often get without any clues as to how, exactly, you're supposed to go about it ... and they're related.

"Plan your dive and dive your plan" ...

At a conceptual level it implies that before getting in the water, you should have an idea of where you're going, how long you're going to remain there, and how you're going to get back. It's no different, really, than jumping in your car and going somewhere. You usually don't just jump in the car, drive around, and head back when you feel like it. You have a purpose, and you ... at some level ... plan how you're going to use the car to achieve that purpose.

With diving, "planning your dive" at a minimum should involve determining how deep you want to go, how long you intend to stay, and how much air you will need in your tank when you begin your ascent. "Diving your plan" means, simply, that once you've determined the above ... impose enough self-discipline on yourself to stick to what you had determined to do ... don't go deeper than you'd planned, don't stay longer, and start your ascent when your pressure gauge reaches the minimum level of air that you determined you'd need to end the dive with a safe reserve.

Gas management is one of the most important skills not taught by the major agencies. No one would consider taking a trip across a wilderness ... knowing that there are no gas stations along the way ... without having a pretty fair idea of whether they had enough gas to make it. And yet that's exactly what scuba divers often do when they jump in for a dive without knowing how much air they breathe, on average, and whether or not the air in their tank is sufficient for the depth they plan to go to or the amount of time they intend to stay. After all ... the air in your tank is all that you will have available until you get back to the surface ... wouldn't it be great to be assured that you're not going to run out before you've completed the dive? There are straightforward ways of determining that ... although at first it involves some measuring and some arithmetic. Once you know your consumption rate, though, you can actually plan a dive based on the amount of air you HAVE ... rather than having to perhaps cut it short because you used more than you thought you would.

Many (most?) divers get hung up on depth ... some chasing "personal best" depth records without really understanding either the risks involved or the preparation needed to do the dive safely. I have a rule of thumb for my students ... don't go deeper than the cubic feet of gas your tank will hold. In other words ... if you're diving an AL80, limit your dive to 80 feet. Sure, you CAN go deeper ... but it'll be either a short (bounce) dive or you'll be risking running out of air before you can complete your ascent safely.

Planning your dive also involves considering your own skill and training level, and asking yourself if it's adequate for the dive you want to do. What's your comfort level in the water? Can you hold a safety stop without having to hang onto something? Do you need to fin in order to hover? Are you comfortable in current ... or surge? Make sure you get some information on the type of conditions you're likely to encounter, and ask yourself if you're ready for those conditions ... and be honest with yourself, we all have a tendency to think we're more skilled than we actually are.

Another part of planning ... how am I getting out of the water? Am I diving from a boat or from a shore site? If a boat, will I need to get back to the anchor line or can I just surface anywhere and the boat will pick me up? If from shore, will I need to exit at a particular place? What kind of hazards (e.g. current, waves, boat traffic) might I anticipate on my exit? All of this must be considered in the "plan your dive" phase ... never get into the water without first knowing how you're going to get out.

Planning your dive, really, means thinking about all of those things and having a pretty good idea ... before you ever get in the water ... what type of dive you want to do. It means having considered your skills and equipment and deciding that they are adequate to do that dive with a relative amount of safety and comfort ... diving's all about having fun, after all.

Diving your plan means sticking to the dive you'd planned ... don't go deeper, don't stay longer. There's a great peace of mind that comes from knowing ... because you thought about it in advance ... that you can safely handle the dive you're doing. It helps you relax ... and that helps you enjoy the dive more.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)