Evansville Scuba Club

One of my best friends dad ran a dive shop here locally. He bugged me for years to get certified and I always shrugged him off because I thought it was too expensive a hobby for me. I had always been interested in diving though. As a kid watching all the movies with cool diving scenes, I always thought that would be cool to do.

Finally in 2000, he had convinced me and since I had another close friend who was going to go through the training as well, I signed up. Enjoyed every bit of open water training so I immediately signed up for advanced open water. I finished all the classroom work but didn’t do the checkout dives. Life, as it often does, stepped in and I didn’t get a chance to dive again for many years.

Fast forward to 2006 and my soon to be wife and I are planning a honeymoon in the Bahamas. Needless to say, diving was immediately high on my list of things to do while there. Figured I’d take a refresher course and my wife signed up for training to see if she’d like it. She finished her training and we had some great dives there (thanks to Stuart Cove’s). When we got back we decided to continue our dive training and got active with this club.

While the economy has affected our diving recently, we plan on doing as much as we can. Our long term goal is to move south, near a coast line, buy a boat, and dive, dive, dive!

IMHO, when do you exceed your training/experience? When you feel uncomfortable in what you are doing, or where you are at. It is good to expand your experience, either through a formal class, or with with an experienced dive buddy…keep in mind the comment about your comfort. If it feels bad, it is. When is it dangerous, when someone says that if so and so can do it, I can too. Shouldn’t the ”I can do” be based off of your own experience and not someone else?

My 2 cents
Steve

Steve is right….. I dive my comfortable dive… I dive with Steve a lot and I’m not afraid to call a dive or to push back…. (not so deep). This is what the club is all about. Steve has too many dives beyond me to count, but I’m not afraid to call one short with him…. He may ask me why… and at that point I will discuss it with him. And thats whats it all about…. LEARNING… Im a newbee of sorts and have a lot of questions… some can’t be answered underwater! Thats why the club is here.

Great replies! I’m just trying to get some discussion going here. All points made are very valid. I believe that there must be a little (& I’m talking only a tiny bit) going beyond one’s comfort zone in order to expand your experience. Yes, there must be a limit to how far an individual should go before seeking the instruction of a professional to continue on. Mentoring is also another great avenue, but there should still be limitations of remaining within the comfort zone of both divers. My discussion come from the fact that there are some divers that can feel comfortable going well beyond their training or experience, usually due to ignorance of the consequences of their pursuits. I’ll admit, I’ve done this in the past & have learned well from it. I learned that is was too far beyond my current scope & to seek proper instruction for pursuits of such magnitude, & that instruction has taught me a healthy respect for those forms of diving. keep up the discussion!

I forgot to mention, Larry has invited those who are divers to get their equipment wet that night also, if they’d like.