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Preventing and Handling Missed SCUBA Dives ;(
Hey Under Pressure Dive Buddies!
I want you to think back to a time when you were really looking forward to something. Maybe you were looking forward to a specific outcome on a project at work. Maybe it was an upcoming holiday. Maybe it was your next dive trip. What happens when things don't work out as you expected? I was planning to go down to Santa Rosa, NM last weekend and I had to call off the trip.
It was a bummer but it brought to mind all the factors we rely on every time we plan to get into the water.
Today you and I are going to dive into 4 reasons we miss dives and 3 ways we can prevent it!
Thanks for listening!
Contact the Show
skubasteve@updiveblog.com
https://underpressurediveblog.com
TW & IG | @skubasteveupdb
The surface interval's over... get out there and dive!
The Under Pressure Divecast is the SCUBA diving podcast dedicated to making SCUBA fun, entertaining and accessible! Join me SKuba Steve as I go over topics related to recreational SCUBA diving, discuss gear and provide easy tips that make your diving more enjoyable, comfortable, safer or more memorable.
SKuba Steve
Hey, under pressure dive buddies, I want you to think about a time when you were really looking forward to something, something you were really excited about. Maybe you were looking forward to a great outcome for a project at work. Maybe you're looking forward to an upcoming holiday. Or maybe you were looking forward to your next dive trip. What happens when things don't work out quite like you hoped or even remotely like you hoped? I was planning last weekend to go to Santa Rosa, New Mexico. And it turned out I had to cancel that trip kind of at the last minute. It was a really, it was a bummer. But it also brought to mind to me, the things we can consider to minimize the chance that we have to cancel a dive trip, or to get the most out of a trip as it is and not necessarily as we expected it to be. So get your gear on. Because it's time for us to dive into another episode of The underpressure dive cast. I'm your host scuba Steve. I'm a recreational scuba instructor and what I like to call a scuba evangelist. Scuba diving is a fun and exciting adventure sport. And you can be a scuba diver. And to help you get there, the underpressure dive cast is dedicated to promoting and discussing recreational scuba diving. As always, we're going to have some scuba news, a topic of the day. And that's it. So come on, let's make our descent
Scoop it is today. All right. So we're gonna make a couple of differences, a couple changes to the show. Very minor changes to really one we're gonna kind of round back to disappointment. So all this time, and if you'll notice on YouTube, you'll see that the show shows up in 4k. And ironically, my software distributes the show in 4k, my camera can shoot in 4k, but my switcher doesn't talk in 4k. So I've been thinking I was broadcasting in 4k this whole time. And I'm actually not. So I have an updated plan for that. Looking forward to getting that implemented. Minor show thing for those of you who have been watching the video going, this does not look like 4k. It's not your eyes. It's that's real. But in terms of the show format itself, what we're going to be looking at is, I'm going to take out the section on tips in the section that I call the gear junkies garage, I'm not going to eliminate that content. But I'm going to well, you'll probably have noticed that I kind of it almost feels forced. And I that why. Okay, so if I talk about a piece of gear, it'll be in the main topic area. And if I have tips, I will provide them in the main topic area, this is going to provide a more succinct episode, it's going to feel more cohesive. And I think it's going to deliver the content in a way that's more valuable, maybe more digestible to people. And if when I talk about a piece of gear, or I have a tip for you, I will note it in the show notes whether that's in the description on the podcast page, or whether it's a in the show notes like in the timestamps on the YouTube video, which I do a few days after this by easy to try to get it done within a few days after I deliver the show. So that's the show News for the week. We're just trying to keep it simple and deliver it in 4k. We'll do 4k Hopefully next episode. Alright, industry news. There is a movie coming out today October 22 2021, called Becoming Cousteau. It's in theaters only. And it's about obviously the life of Jacques Cousteau. I'm really looking forward to seeing it. I'm not sure I'm ready to go to the movie theater yet, but that's okay. Maybe I'll maybe I'll get the courage squad. Or maybe I'll just wait until it's out on a streaming platform. But it it's interesting and exciting for a lot of us because Jacques Cousteau was the one who introduced us to the underwater world. You know, and, you know, I remember sitting in front of the television, when I was kid, once a week, you know, just for that program. And so I'm really excited to learn more about this guy, somebody who really pioneered diving in, in every sense of the word. So if you're interested in obviously if you're if you're old enough to remember Jacques Cousteau, this will be a trip down memory lane for you. If you're not old enough, it might be still interesting. I think it would be interesting to really see somebody who was really was a pioneer in the scuba industry and and not just not just in the industry itself, but in the preservation of the aquatic environment. And so I I would encourage any buddy who's interested to just take a look at that show, I will put a link to the trailer in the show notes as well. So that's pretty exciting. Alright, and and what I guess drop in the comments what what your favorite show was, whether it's a movie or television show, what is your favorite scuba related television show or movie? Alright, let's get on to the main topic and talk about how we can manage our disappointment when it comes to diving.
So I really believe that every diving opportunity has the opportunity to be a good one. But that doesn't mean we're never disappointed, or that we never miss a dive. So let's talk a little bit about that trip I had scheduled to go to Blue Hole in New Mexico. So this is a place there's there's two places to dive down there, there's blue hole itself, which is a natural spring. And there's perch Lake, which is just a little bit a little bit away from from the main Blue Hole itself. And I love this whole trip. I love the road trip. I love driving through New Mexico, I grew up in New Mexico. So it's, you know, nostalgic for me, I love the countryside, it's a great time to unwind and just sort of relax, when you're on the road in that part of the country. It's not very busy. And there's still traffic. You know, nowadays, you can't really be on an interstate without traffic. But, you know, there are opportunities to just kind of relax, let your mind wander a little bit as long as you're doing it safely. And so I was looking forward to the trip a lot. Before even, you know, before I even got close to having to cancel the trip, I was checking out my gear, and there was a tear of my drysuit I sent it, I put a picture up on Instagram of a tear in the neck seal of my drysuit I like to drive to dive Blue Hole in a dry suit at 6364 degrees Fahrenheit, it's a little chilly. So I like to use a dry suit for that. And, and so that was kind of a disappointment. But I was, you know, it was a week before the trip, I got the dry suit neck seal fixed. Then I got back in the water at the dive shop and my dry suit was leaking quite a bit actually. And I you know, so I was already on the fence of you know, is this a good idea or not? Now I could dive it in a wetsuit and just dive when I could. And, and that would be okay. And that was I was prepared to do that I was prepared to take my dry suit. And if it got, if I leave if it leaked too badly, then I could dive a wetsuit and just do what I could say, Okay, I'm cold, I'm going to skip a dive, go warm up, whatever, and that that would be fine. But then my dog got sick, and my wife was out of town. So it made sense for me to ultimately say, Okay, this is enough things that are going wrong, where I just don't need to go. And so while I was disappointed, obviously, sometimes you have to make choices that are in the best interests of your dog. And, and so bummer, but okay. So what that brought to mind to me, though, is what things you know, sometimes there are things outside of our control. And, you know, there's some internal mental management where we can go okay, how do we deal with with that disappointment when we really can't control anything or can't control the thing that's going to cancel our dive. But what are some things that we can control that maybe we don't pay enough attention to, or that we aren't plant paying specific attention to, in the midst of getting ready for a trip, especially if that trip is not specifically scuba related, if you're going to scuba dive on a trip where your other where you're focused on other things, sometimes these things can get missed. And we do want to get the most out of our time in the water. So I've broken it down into four causes of missed or disappointing dives. And so we're going to talk about each of these four. One is travel issues. Two is gear issues. Three is diving conditions, and four is personal health and fitness. So we'll talk about each of those things. So the first thing is travel issues. Traveling when you're scuba diving means taking a lot of gear. And so there's this there's a risk that equipment can get damaged in in transit, or lost in transit or other travel issues. You know, you can you can have a cancellation maybe your flight gets canceled, maybe your maybe your whole trip gets canceled because your dog gets sick, right. That's okay. That That part's outside of your control. Maybe your operator has applied problem, maybe you get down to the dive location and your dive operators boat is broken. And I had that problem in Florida a couple of years ago, I was
on the pier with my gear, along with a bunch of other divers. And the dive operator had to go find another boat because their boat was broken, and or the boat they were going to use that morning was broken. So that put us out a little bit later than we expected to go. So, you know, you you need to look at what travel issues you might have. And what is your response to that some of those things are not going to be things you can control. It cancellations, delayed flights, those are things you need to respond to not try to prevent or predict. It'd be nice if we could prevent or predict them. You might consider travel insurance, if you're going far away and you have the the the means to fight to insure your trip so that you can if it gets canceled, you can do it another time, I would caution you to look at the fine print on the travel insurance and make sure that the conditions under which it will honor its side of the commitment are conditions that you're comfortable with or find another provider. That's just one thing. Don't assume that your your trip insurance is going to cover your scuba trip unless you specifically looked at it. So travel issues is number one, the number two thing is gear issues. And this comes down to missing gear and broken gear. Right stuff that doesn't work or stuff that doesn't show up. So if you put all of your dive gear in a bag on a plane, and it gets there that fixes problem number one, if it's broken, then then you have problem number two, what do we do about this? Okay, so missing gear, or broken gear can be handled at the local eight, your destination. If your destination is a dive resort, it's likely to have the equipment so that you can dive now is it going to have your exact piece of gear? Probably not. But unless you're doing something very, very specific and can't dive any other way. You know, then, and I would actually let me let me say this. If you're doing something so specific, you're almost going to the point where it's probably outside of recreational scuba diving, because you know, there's equipment like rebreathers activities like cave diving, those require equipment that a lot of dive destinations, a lot of resorts are not going to carry, but they're outside the scope of recreational diving. And so you know, not really part of our discussions here. But I wanted to mention it. But if you're going to do simply, recreational scuba diving, most dive resorts and dive operators will have equipment that you can rent. That's not ideal if you own your own gear and you like it. But it is possible. And it's something to consider it's something to make sure is available or find out. So you call the dive operator and say, Hey, I'm going to be there in April, I was going to do this dive with you guys. And you know, what gear do you have to rent? In case and you can say I'm bringing my own gear, but I'm just curious if something goes wrong? Do you have regulators? Do you have BCDs? Do you have mass fins and snorkel? Do you have you know, do you have dive computers I can read and and just go through the list and find out what they have and what they don't have. So that you can adapt to the situation where gear doesn't get there in time or doesn't get there at all or is broken or doesn't work. And the other thing I would mention about gear is to make sure that you test it. So you get to your dive destination, you're super excited to be there and you don't unpack your dive gear until the morning of the dive. I would really really encourage you to do it the night before or even earlier than that. I mean, depending on your trip schedule, right is get your gear out. As soon as you can, practically speaking in your situation, get your gear out, put it on, or do everything you can to test it go down to the to the to the dive shop or and get a tank, test your regulator. Make sure nothing got damaged on the plane and the bus, in the car, whatever it is. Just make sure that it's working. That gives you more time to recover. If it's not even if you're not diving until the third day. If you get down. You spend a few minutes after dinner the first night you're there, put your gear together and you go oh my regulator is not working or my BCD is free flowing or No, it won't, it's leaking when I fill it up, okay?
If you can't fix it, do you have another option? Well, now you have a few days to deal with that, instead of stepping in fetching on the morning, you're supposed to be on the boat, there's a couple reasons for that. One, you're more relaxed, because you are ready. Even if you're using rental gear, you're ready on the morning of the dive, which means that you're relaxed, your anxiety levels lower, you're going to enjoy that dive more to it's more respectful to the to your dive buddy and the other people on the boat because you're not late to the boat or, or spreading your anxiety around as you get on the boat. And you're all just freaked out because you just got the new BC and you don't know how it works, and you're trying to put it on the tank or whatever. This gives you the chance to do it in advance, make sure you understand the gear, make sure you've had the chance to test it, fit it, make sure it's gonna fit you well, so that you can make the dive. Alright, so that's number two gear issues. Number three is diving conditions, this is something we've largely can't predict, or, or fix. In the case of Blue Hole in New Mexico, the diving conditions are almost always the same at 63 to 64 degrees Fahrenheit. And the visibility is roughly the same most of the time, unless a lot of people have been in there stirring it up. But it's usually you know, at least 30 or 40 feet. So it's pretty good for inland water. And now, and so the but but in the ocean, if you're in the Caribbean, you might be expecting 80 foot visibility. And you could get in the water and you could have 30 foot visibility because of a storm surge or whatever. And that can change the experience you're going to have. And we're not talking about only cancelling dies, we're talking about enjoying the dives that we get. So how do we manage that? And so that, if you're if you're trying to or if you're expecting to dive in a specific situation, and that situation doesn't exist, then you have to understand the situation that does exist, and how can you get the most out of it. So if you're expecting that 80 foot visibility, and it's 20 feet, what are you going to do differently, you know, you're not going to have the grand VISTAs underwater that you might have had otherwise. So you're going to have to get closer to the reef, you're going to have to enjoy experiences that are more macro, you know, and in terms of close up you to use the photography term. And you might dive a specific smaller part of the reef. And just focus on the the smaller creatures that you can see, you know, so the conditions in the water can in terms of visibility and things like that you can accommodate in your dive plant, and you can make changes so that you can still enjoy the dive. Even if it isn't the dive that you were expecting. The Reef condition that's out of our control. On the dive level is out of our control, definitely, there are a lot of things we can do to take care of our reefs, and we should be doing those things. But we're talking about, you know, I'm on the boat ready to dive the condition of the reef is not always is not going to be in our control. So based on the dive briefing, how do we enjoy that dive? Wildlife cooperation, and I say cooperation, but basically, you don't get to predict what wildlife you're going to see on every dive. You know, you might be very lucky and be in a place where there's a routine that you can count on. And if you dive with dive masters in a specific location, they will dive there enough. So they know where the frog fishes they know where the sea horses, they know where the octopus lives. And they know where the mores are, whatever, you know, those those kinds of things that people, you know, like to see and they like to point out, those might, you know, they dive often enough. So if those creatures move the dive masters, a lot of times they'll find they'll know where they move to where they'll find them because they go dive to dive to dive. And they keep track of them. Well.
Yeah, but you still don't get to predict necessarily everything you're going to see and you're going to have to just learn you just have to adapt to that and enjoy what you can. And I think it's important because a lot of times will get in the water with an expectation of I want to see this. And I'm so busy looking for turtles that I don't see cuttlefish or that I don't see some other really cool, really cool piece of coral or really cool formation or, you know, whatever else That's something that that going into the water with an understanding of what we expect to see. But also backing away enough from that expectation that you can enjoy what you have, you know what you do get, instead of spending the entire dive looking for sharks and not see anything, because you weren't looking at what was already there. The other thing that can happen with diving conditions is the top side weather. You know, we don't have control of the top side weather in New Mexico, I would have it the top side weather in the in the summer can be blazing hot on the High Plains out there. And in the winter, it can be snow, I've been in Blue Hole I've been I've been diving in the snow, which is actually it's not too bad. You just don't want to get out of the water even though it's 64 degrees, because it's warmer than the environment that you're going into. So that's part of it, though, understanding the topside weather what to expect. And if that changes, how can you adapt. And so when you're traveling, layering is really good, at least having clothes that you can layer, you know, if you're going to a Caribbean destination or some other warm equatorial climate, that's great, I would still take long pants, and a long sleeve shirt that you can layer over whatever else you're wearing. Because if it's late in the day, or if the weather for whatever reason happens to be cooler, or you're going out on a boat, which people don't always understand that once you're out over the water, a lot of times it will be significantly cooler than it was back on shore, you might get sunburned because of reflection, but you're still going to be cooler than you were on the shore. Because it's just cooler on the boats. Sometimes it's not always true, but being prepared for that is important. Alright, so that's topside weather, the Number four thing that I think can cause disappointment in and cause dives to not go as well as they might otherwise is personal health and fitness. So what we want to do is make sure that we are staying fit, we're eating right, and we're getting enough sleep, we're staying hydrated, those things are really important to a good dive. And when we're traveling, sometimes any number of those things can be difficult to keep in mind. Now your overall fitness level isn't going to change because of a couple of days, you know of not going to the gym, or not working out in your home or whatever you do. But but we can lose track of our routines where we're not sleeping well, especially for jet lagged or if we're you know, if we're traveling far distance from our homes, or the environmental conditions are significantly different, maybe it's much warmer, where we're going than where we're coming from here in Colorado, it's October, it's cool. If I were to go to the equator, it would be nice and warm, which might be uncomfortable, I might not sleep as well. And so we can lose track of our sleep schedules, we can lose track of our eating and, and, and drinking schedules in terms of drinking water. And, and we can also be eating food we're not familiar with and we can give ourselves stomach problems. I'm not saying by any stretch, not to eat local food, I want you to enjoy your trip in every aspect, everything you wanted to enjoy about the trip I want you to enjoy. But what I also want you to do is remember that, you know, we can't just it I was gonna say you can't just eat whatever's out there. And
what's important is to remember that there are balanced things that help us be at our best, you know, and and having fruits and vegetables and stuff that really fuels our body in addition to whatever might be really exciting about the location that you're in. If it's not fruits and vegetables. That's, you know, we need to remember that so that we can keep our body in as good a shape as we can for diving. Staying hydrated is really important. hydration and keeping a water bottle near you. Whether it's your own water bottle like this one or whether you you just need to remember to refill or reuse a water bottle if you can. To keep yourself hydrated. That's one of the biggest things you can do to enjoy your dives is stay hydrated. Alright, the other thing I wanted to touch on is sometimes you're just not feeling it and you're not you just don't want to dive and that's, that's okay. That it is way better to say you know what, I don't want to dive today. Then to to dive when you don't want to be in the water. Because that puts yourself and you're done. Buddy at risk. So what I would say with that is, you know, I want in 2005, I went to Bonaire. And there were I think I was there for 10 days. And one day, I just didn't want to dive I was and I don't know, if I was just tired. I mean, we had been diving and diving and diving and diving, which is awesome. I don't know if I was just tired, or if I was just needed a break, whatever. But I told my dive buddy, you know, and we were in a fairly large group, so it wasn't going to significant significantly impact my dive buddies experience. But I was like, You know what, I'm not gonna dive Wednesday or whatever. And I'm just gonna walk around and take pictures and hang out, whatever. So I think it's important to understand that you might not even if you're a scuba evangelist, you might not always want to dive. And that's okay. The last thing I want to say about health and fitness is that your buddy is entitled to every single thing that you are entitled to, which means that they might not be sleeping, well. They might not be eating right, they might not be staying hydrated. Whatever those things are, we need to as a good dive buddy, we need to be respecting what they're feeling as well and be prepared to either take the day off with them. If it's a significant other or or a dive buddy that that you really want to spend time with. That's great. Go do something else that day. If it's not, you can go to your group or to the dive operator and say, Hey, I need to be I'm singled up today, I need to find a dive buddy. And most most dive operators will help you find a buddy in those situations. So kind of putting all of that together are those four issues that come up that you can think about our travel issues, gear issues, diving conditions, and personal health and fitness. And keeping on top of those things as you get ready to go on a trip? And what can you look forward in the future? Or what can you look into and say okay, what? How do I reduce the odds that this is going to be a problem? When I get on the ground wherever I'm going? And then how do I respond to it when it becomes a problem? Is it something I want to try and fix? Is it something that you know, maybe you are really really really really tied to diving your own camera, and, or diving with your camera. And if the camera doesn't work, you don't want to dive. That's a really bad example. Because if your camera doesn't work, just go enjoy the die. But just for the sake of the argument here. If you're really tied to a piece of gear for whatever reason, whether it's comfort in the water, may, you know maybe you're just more comfortable in the water with your gear. And you don't want to dive if your gear isn't working, that's okay, just have a plan for what you're going to do if it doesn't work, so that you can still enjoy your trip and get the most out or get as much out of it as you can even if you can't get in the water. Alright, so I promised that we do do three tips to prevent Miss dives. So let's talk about what those things might be. We've kind of covered some of this before. Earlier in this podcast, and I've certainly talked about some of these in past episodes. The first thing is to check your gear. When I was getting ready to go to New Mexico, I got my dry suit out, I hadn't been diving in it quite a while. Put it on, rip neck seal. Okay, I put it on long enough in advance so that I could, you know, corrected if there was a problem.
And then you get it corrected and then hopefully get back in the pool after it's corrected, which I did. And that's when I discovered my drysuit was leaking. And so, you know, sometimes it's an iterative process because if I had gotten in the water with a torn neck seal, I wouldn't have known it leaked from the zipper or the valve because the next hole would have been leaking too much. So you have to check your gear in advance enough to get it replaced or repaired prior to your trip. And I want to re emphasize one thing is putting it on in your living room. We'll find it tore neck seals, putting it on in your living room is not going to find whether or not it leaks or whether or not it's functioning in the water. So that's one of the the things that's really important is that once you get that first level check you get your your gear bag out of your closet or your garage or your basement you do the spider check and then you put it on, find some time in the pool, get down to your local dive shop or whatever pool you can find to get into and test your gear out that that way so that you really know that it's working underwater with a tank attached, ready to go. Alright, so that's tip number one. Always check your gear in advance far enough to get it repaired or replaced. Take care of your own health and wellness. This Making sure you're getting enough sleep, eating well, staying hydrated and staying fit. Easy enough, and then plan for contingencies. So this is not just about go no go decisions, this is about getting the most out of whatever diving conditions that we have. So if we have that low visibility situation where where we're normally 80 degrees, you know, 80 foot visibility. That's the kind of diving we like to do. That's great. What if the visibility is 20? Feet? What are you going to do? Are you going to skip the dive? That's fine. That's the decision you can make? Or are you going to be able to adapt to a 20 foot visibility dive? And that's, you know, that's the question. And it isn't a question of judgment, or a judgment of what any specific diver wants to do, you could be diving with a buddy who is going to be very uncomfortable in 20 foot visibility. And we need to respect that. So that means your dive buddies probably not going to want to dive if that, if that's the condition. What do you do about that? So have a plan to say okay, I'm going to talk to the dive operator, if the visibility is 20 feet, and reconcile yourself to that say, That's okay. I might not be able to dive with my buddy because of whatever condition that might exist. rough water, stuff like that. Getting in and out of a boat, when the when they're six foot swells can be kind of an interesting adventure. And are you up for that? Those kinds of things you need to be ready to adapt to and you know, if you're rough water, and you're like me, and you get seasick, that's kind of a bummer. But how do you deal with that? Are you going to need Dramamine? Are you going to use C bands? Are you going to use a? What's that other one? That doesn't matter? Relief band? And see what you know, what is your what is your recovery plan from that particular condition. The other thing I want to touch on with this with this whole Planning for Contingencies piece is understand your single points of failure. You know, what is if something fails, that will stop you from diving, what is it and is that replaceable at the dive shop at the extra destination, you know, at most resorts, you're going to get recreational gear. But you might not get your dive computer, you might not get your BC or whatever. And this might not seem as big a deal to to you, but you know your mask. That's a pretty that's a very personal piece of equipment and, and a good fitting mask makes big difference in the water. So what are the single points of failure? And how can you minimize them. So in the case of a mask, you can get a box to put the mask in or keep the boss box it came in, and and put it in that box to travel, reduce the chance that it's going to get broken. Things like that can really help. So what tips do you have to save a dive? And put those in the comments? And let's hear them. All right, so I want to hear from you. You can email me or find me on Twitter and Instagram. There'll be links in the description below.
Don't miss out on an episode, you can find the underpressure dive cast on your favorite podcatcher if you found this information. Good. If you found this episode helpful, let me know that you liked it with that by hitting that thumbs up button. If the episode wasn't helpful to you, I would really like to know that too. And help me make this better by contacting me and letting me know what I can do to improve the show to help him make a better resource for the dive community. Thank you for diving in with me today, here on YouTube or on the podcast. On the left over there you'll see a playlist with more episodes of The underpressure dive cast. If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe and hit the button in the middle of the screen over there. Or subscribe on your podcatcher the surface intervals over get out there and dive in.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai