5/26/2006 - Diving blood
So what is it that makes a great diver? Is it a person's dive skills, or their technique, or their attitude, or their skill level and experience? Or is it their ability to be a good dive buddy and be reliable?
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Having taught a lot of divers in the last few years, I've seen a wide range of abilities come and go from my classes. Some people take to diving and are just meant to be there. The skills are natural extensions of what they can already do, and they're confident and graceful under the water.
Other people have difficulty in adjusting to life under pressure. The water scares them. The scuba gear is challenging with its high pressure components and unknown entities. The depth of the ocean and creatures it hides under its weeds is too intimidating for them to truly relax, who knows what might be lurking behind that rock! And most importantly, to me, they have no (or very little) self-confidence in their own ability.
I've always been a waterbaby. A born Aquarian, my Dad was a firm believer that I was meant for the water. He loves regaling people with tales of throwing me in the deep end (literally) before I could walk, and of me standing on the bottom of the pool staring up at him. I don't actually remember learning how to swim; it was something I could always do, and I couldn't understand why some people had such difficulty putting their heads under the water when to me, it was the best place to be. My favourite game as a child was playing "mermaids" with my friends and trying to stay underwater for as long as possible. Of course, Disney's The Little Mermaid might have had some influence over this pastime!
Diving was a natural extension of a love of the ocean. I've never lived, or been, to an area where I could not see or smell the ocean. When I did my dive course, I was one of those lucky people that sailed through. Underwater was the one place where I felt graceful (being a fairly severe klutz on land means I always knock things over and feel as though I'm in the way, and it's a horribly awkward sensation). Underwater, I felt as though I could fly and sail and glide around without creating a ripple with my presence. I hadn't even finished my OW course when I decided that I had to dive all the time, and it very quickly escalated into a lot more than just a hobby.
I'm not the only waterbaby in existence. I want to tell you about two of my students who, funnily enough, share the same name. For the sake of making it easier for you to tell them apart, I'll call them Fred and Mark.
Mark is one of those annoyingly brilliant people. He's good at everything he does and has a disgustingly huge amount of self-confidence. He's got a lovely personality - fairly loud, quite witty and definitely very loyal - and he's got a lovely arrogance to go with that personality. Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of respect and affection for Mark, but I'm well aware of his flaws! When he did his course with me, he'd already researched diving so thoroughly his level of technical knowledge was terrifying. Thankfully, I'm interested in the technical side of diving physiology and physics, and was able to answer his questions and still teach him something (even though it was well above the OW level of required knowledge).
At the pool, Mark was a fish. In OW water, he was probably one of the smoothest students I'd had in a long time. In fact, Mark was so good and dedicated to do his diving that he did his OW, Advanced AND Rescue course all within the space of one and a half months. Normally, I'd recommend waiting a while rather than hurtling through courses like that, but Mark managed to clock up about 40 odd dives in that time frame, so his experience in terms of dive numbers was a lot more than many people attempting Advanced and Rescue. Needless to say, he flew through both Advanced and Rescue courses too.
Then there's Fred. Fred did his OW course several years previously with another instructor, and as I found out later, was one of those students who was jumpy and flighty and very, very hard to get comfortable underwater. He definitely loved the diving and wanted to keep doing it, but it took him a long time to relax and become confident with his dive skills to the point where he decided to actively pursue his diving. He still speaks very fondly and with a lot of appreciation of two dive masters who put up with him for a long, long time even though he doubtlessly 'ruined' many dives for them by running out of air, gear problems, panic attacks and the like.
I met him while he was doing his Advanced course with another instructor whom I worked with closely for a time. Fred is one of those guys that everyone loves to be around. He has a great personality and is a bucket of laughs a minute. The most important thing though, is his sincerity and desire to help people. If anyone ever needs a hand, Fred is right there to help, even if he's not sure what to do, he'll try his damndest for you and if he can't fix your problem, he won't rest until he finds someone who can. And you can be garunteed that Fred will always be game to give something a go, just to try it and challenge himself.
Since then, I've done both Fred's Rescue and DM rating for him, and watched him gain confidence and experience. He didn't sail through either of the courses - the DM skills challenged him and there were certainly a few hairy moments where he didn't believe he could do it and almost pulled the plug.
Fred's one of those people who likes hiding himself behind jokes and laughter - a brilliant defence mechanism because by turning all your shortcomings and fears into a laugh, you prevent others from laughing at you by laughing with you. It took me a long time to realise that Fred was a lot deeper than the shallow jokes and inferences of a very meaningless lifestyle he so casually threw around.
Why am I telling you all of this?
Mark's dive skills are sharp and his mind is unbelievably quick. He can outthink most people I know, and he is a natural diver in both ability and attitude.
Fred is rough and ready and passionate, but he was never a fish like Mark was. These days I don't think there's anything he wouldn't do underwater, but there was a time when he didn't have any faith in his abilities as a diver.
Out of the two of these men, Fred is my ideal of a great diver. He's worked so incredibly hard to overcome his fears and doubts to be one of the most skilled and competent divers I know. And he doesn't see that. He still sees himself as that insecure man panicking in the pool when he had the reg out and mask off and losing control. There is no arrogance about his diving abilities, though they are smooth and sharp and controlled and definitely very good, and he hasn't lost any of his enthusiasm for helping people and fixing problems through very original ideas which have saved numerous dives in the past!
Both Fred and Mark are very good friends of mine - as I said, diving does that to people - but Fred will always be my preferred buddy because of his attitude towards helping others and looking after his buddy.
Great divers are about the person as well as the the diving. What's the point of having brilliant bouyancy and low air-consumption if your buddy has neither and you don't make any effort to help them? Or you believe you have that brilliant bouyancy and low air-consumption and see no need to take the advice or suggestions of others?
Personality has a lot to do with great divers. Diving is about having a good time and helping others have a good time.
This has been a fairly rambly entry, really, with little thought given to the point I'm actually trying to make. What is the point I'm trying to make? Not entirely sure of that - it's much too late on this side of the globe and I should have been in bed long ago.
But before I go, I'd like to attempt making my point ;)
I think that if you have patience with people who are having problems, you might end up finding someone who's worth that time you spent on them a thousand times over. And, most importantly, that I don't think I appreciate my good buddies as much as I should. I don't often stop and take the time to tell them that I think their dive skills are brilliant and that I like diving with them in preference to others.
If those two DMs hadn't taken the extra time and effort with Fred (which, as I understood, was close to 30 dives) then I probably would not have the friend or dive buddy who I have today.
Not all the great divers start out as fish, and not all the fish are great divers - sometimes all it takes is one great diver to show them the way.
Please, guys, pass on your greatness!
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