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What is your weakest link?

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.

What's holding you back?

  • Inadequate gear

    Votes: 4 4.5%
  • Equalization problems

    Votes: 27 30.3%
  • Oxygen (breath hold)

    Votes: 28 31.5%
  • Fear / Nerves

    Votes: 13 14.6%
  • What's the point? All the fish are at 50 ft.

    Votes: 3 3.4%
  • Other

    Votes: 14 15.7%

  • Total voters
    89

unirdna

tropical wuss
Sep 16, 2002
1,016
220
153
50
Hey all,

Sparked by a conversation with Jon, I would like to know what is holding folks back from going deeper (constant ballast). For both of us, the answer seemed to be equalization problems (and maybe a little fear ;)), since I always have plenty of gas in the tanks when I return to the surface. We both just seem to reach that spot where things get too darn tight....

So please tell me, what's stopping you all from going just a little deeper?

Ted
 
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My weakest link?

My buddy.rofl rofl rofl


Just kidding. Ted's a good guy. I just need to get him to the pool more often to spot me.

Jon
 
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I'm with the Pezmeister, but replace 'quarry' with 'pool' :duh
 
Fear

For me it's the fear!

In Sweden it's really dark when we pass 45m. On a sunny summerday we see the line at 50m but mostly it's hard to see it. The cold (4 degrees Celsius) is also a factor that increases fear I guess.

Maybe it's not more dangerous but it feels scary cause no one can see the diver down there. (Or hear him scream:D )

I'm a conservative diver though..
 
Re: My weakest link?

Originally posted by Jon
My buddy.rofl rofl rofl

Jon

Don't quit your day job there, mr. chuckles.

I had a feeling that 'fear' would be a front-runner. This subject rarely surfaces (no pun intended ;)) in the forum, but we all have been in that spot when we are thinking....."do I have enough to get back up?"

Thanks for the input.

Ted
 
details

My biggest problem has been getting it all together. Last Sun., I did it again. Warmed up, all set and going for 40+ meters but I forgot to start clearing and had to stop at 15 to get caught up. Forgetting to count and stopping to read the guage works too. Maybe I'll try a checklist on my sleeve.
Aloha
Bill
 
Good thread dna! I would say for me that it's opportunity. The opportunities to dive deep are pretty rare for me. Deep water here is a long way off shore and without the transportation and the buddy it just doesn't happen. If I had access to deep water and could dive it enough a lot of other things would take care of themselves such as equalizing (it gets easier for me to clear when I'm diving daily), establishing a routine, etc. Other than that, I'm happy with my gear, haven't really hit the fear point yet, and feel good about the potential to go deeper.

Good post!

-M
 
No buddy! echo...echo...echo...

And my lack of a Riffe #W and Carbon fins and....

Willer:D
 
In order:
Equalizing, buddy only sometimes and probably fear or concern will probably creep into the equation once I learn to equalize properly allowing me to get to depths that border on my breath hold capacity. Can't seem to get my soft palate to remain in the neutral position while the epiglotis is closed :head More practice obviously...(in reference to Eric Fattah's Frenzel document.)

Adrian
 
Goshdarnit! I can't believe I forgot to add "no buddy" to the list :duh.

Adrian: your comments got me thinkin... I think I need to start another thread :).
 
Fear

I had a fear of not getting my tag. I had been successful on each dive i had ever attempted. I had been increasing my competition goals by about 5m each attempt.
However, I sweated breeze blocks before each comp dive.

Only once i missed getting my tag for the first time was i free from this shackle and did i realise what my stress was all about. ( it was the first dive with a mono and the fin cleated between two converging lines at 44m on a 51 m attempt)

Failing to retrieve my tag for the first time was the best thing that could have happened to me. It set me free to dive. From that day on i stopped diving conservatively during practice and started putting on some good depth.

I now know that a dive can be fickle
and a dive is one dive
but one minute in an hour
on but a day in time,
and tomorrow it will be better
or worse
and worse is no reflection on my ability
and if bad,
will not dent my confidence or my resolve
because a moment can be fickle..

Skin
 
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Hmmmm..... good thoughts Skin. I'll have to remember that next time I have a bad pool workout.

Thanks!

-M
 
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No buddy - AAAAAARGH!
SO FRIKKIN FRUSTRATING!!!!!
Any deeper than 20m and i'm always too worried about
the possibility of SWB
(in ko tao thailand by the way if any potential buddy
is reading this!)
 
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Why i dive shallow

Im a marine biologist(in training), and i never dive deep(30metres>). I dont care for the british mentailty of the best dives being the deepest. I asked a diver, when i was working on a dive boat, if they enjoyed their dive. They said it was fantastic, they went down to forty five metres and came straight back up. Okay i thought nice dive. So i asked them what they saw, imagining the fish i should have been revising for my exams. His reply, "nothing mate, was too busy playing with my new dive computer." im sorry but for me a dive computer is a tool, a regulator is a means to an end. Who cares how deep you got most of my dive (100>) have been less than 15 meters deep. Ive seen more animal life than most people who have done twice as many dives as me. So what holds me back. My passion for the sea.

Safe Diving, and ill see you at bar

Alistair Marr
Edinburgh
 
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This once again comes back to your motivation to dive. Scuba divers often dive in order to look around. Freedivers often do not. I am happy diving in bottomless water, diving with my eyes closed in zero vis water. With my eyes closed, who cares what the vis is? It is the zero-gravity sensations and freedom to move in any direction which I love. If I see something down there, so much the better.


Eric Fattah
BC, Canada
 
Eric,

Isn't that like that saying, and I can't remember who coined it:

" A scuba diver dives into the ocean and a freediver dives into himself"

Jon
 
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