Category: Blog

[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] Skills are the foundation of safe and enjoyable diving and the building blocks of all diving certifications. The comment here is not that learning skills is a waste of time, but, learn them from the wrong instructor, and you will have to re-do them completely for them to be of any use.
Until you get into deep trimix or cave diving training, there is little emphasis in diving qualifications on anything other than meeting performance based skill standards. That is you can do a shutdown in 40 seconds whilst keeping perfect buoyancy. You can deploy a long hose without it looking like an advanced knitting technique. Very pretty for the video feedback and easily and calmly done in response to an instructors signal. Frankly however not much use in the real world. Neither by the way is the pseudo wanna be military types with camouflage trousers and a ‘my agency is tougher than yours’ attitude. The ripping masks and fins off at random and messing with kit is just dangerous, and not a learning experience that benefits any student. I did my Mod1 a few years ago with an ex military instructor and he was clearly against that type of BS and states in his course materials that he has no time for it. In cave or trimix, lessons have been hard learnt by the instructor and are passed on to the student who will also have gained considerable experience (if wise) before embarking on this route.
It’s little wonder then that we hear so often, its not the agency or the course, its the instructor. Why? Well if all you do is get someone over a fairly subjectively set line on a skill performance, you can sign them off as passing, frankly that sucks. What does the student get? Well, they might have learnt a new skill that they can trot out in response to the appropriate signal from an instructor, but that’s it. What is the students capability to recognise the how, the when, the where but most importantly the why of the skill. Realistic prompts and cues the student will recognise that should kick them into executing the skills should also be included.
Why then are some instructors more valued, have great reputations and their courses felt to ‘graduate’ better divers. Of course, these great instructors are not happy getting students ‘over the line’ they will demonstrate demand and insist that the student executes much higher standards of skill performance. They will be great teachers. That is they will have an empathy and connection to the student and be able to make things understandable in a way that suits the students preferred learning style. I’d have been up for expanding on this point, but to be fair, Mark Powell’s presentation at Dive 2015 on why training doesn’t work, knocked that one out of the park. Worth reiterating his point on how, without practice skill performance drops dramatically in only a few weeks. This is common in motor learning theory. There are a couple of influencing factors. First how well was the skill mastered at the time? If only just over the line the chances of being able to repeat that skill even one week later is slim. The second is how many different ways and scenarios was the skill practiced. Even if you can execute the movements well, learning skills though is wasted in the first place if you don’t know the context and the triggers for using them. Every CCR diver knows how to bail out, its the when, the why and the ‘on to what’ that’s really important. Not leaving it too long, but also not abandoning a piece of life support equipment in an ill thought out rush.
So what do great instructors do? They get you to learn not just the mechanics of the skill, but also the context and scenarios in which that skill is to be applied. This is far more prevalent in technical training than recreational, probably because it’s harder to become a tech instructor with most agencies, tech instructors have a solid basis from teaching recreational and they have probably been in the contexts or situations for which they are teaching. They carefully control the stress levels to which they expose the student, building the students autonomous responses or reasoned responses to the real life everyday scenarios they might face in their diving.
This is the same when teaching recreational. A recent facebook post showed students still kneeling for skills. Comments were made ‘this might have been their first dive, bit early to expect neutral buoyancy’. I disagree, of course I’m not going to expect perfect buoyancy, but I am going to demonstrate to the student what good looks like and what they will aspire towards. I’ll then work harder on helping them master this early ahead of out of airs etc because once the foundation is in place (buoyancy / trim / propulsion) all other skills can be learnt and mastered “in context”. No-one is going to come to you out of air while both you and they are kneeling in a pool.
Learning is a psychological process and as such, because we are all individuals, we all learn differently. Teaching styles and learning environments must account for these individual differences. In diving we embed motor skills into the learning process but we also would be well advised to develop stress management, thinking skills / decision making, and appropriate autonomous responses. There are some very gifted instructors out there who manage this naturally. For most, they have to think and plan their way to help students get the best out of themselves.
In sports coaching research, there are a couple of interesting concepts that are gaining great buy-in from some of the leading practitioners. These are Authentic Coaching and Holistic Coaching. Firstly authentic coaching, theres a good article by Barnson, (2014), but essentially the coach is true to themselves and to the coachee. Obvious you say, but not in reality I fear. There are many coaches and instructors who behave how they think the student or the agency or worse, behave in ways they think makes them look cool or saleable. Our previous gung ho militaristic type is one of these. Similarly I fear anyone whom actually likes wearing a shirt with Instructor and loads of badges. Sometimes you have to for marketing and/or to represent a centre. Personally I’d rather be recognised for what I do. If you are not being true to yourself and ‘playing a part’ that falseness will come through in your teaching effectiveness.
Holistic coaching, a term brought to the fore by Tanya Cassidy is looking far more at the person as a whole as opposed to just what skills they need to learn. For example, if a person needs to learn a bailout drill, it doesn’t take long to teach the mechanics of the drill. Holistically though we should address that persons abilities around emotional control, decision making, concentration, physical attributes etc. In holistic coaching its thought by taking and developing the whole person, using the coaching situation or context as a tool, you enrich the person inside and outside that coaching interaction. I tend to agree. Im certain that the learning experience is richer, that skills are more deeply embedded, and that context and cues for when and where to apply those skills have been thoroughly covered.
Coaching effectiveness is an often abused term and I’d apply the same to instructor effectiveness. True effectiveness (look up Coté and Gilbert) relies on the coach or instructor having expertise in three critical knowledge types.
Professional knowledge – detailed and applied knowledge about the art, science, skills and tactics of what they are coaching
Interpersonal knowledge – an ability to build and foment relationships
Intrapersonal knowledge – an ability to understand oneself and capacity for self reflection
I don’t think it would be hard for most of us to identify those instructors we believe to be effective and see immediately the correlation between those instructors and the required knowledge above.
It also needs to be measured. To be effective you have to know where your start and finish points are and whether the process of coaching or instructing is what is making the difference in getting people there. For sure there are the very talented who need minimal coaching and conversely those for whom no amount of coaching will ever make a difference. Quite a complicated interaction then, well yes, but so it should be.
How do we get instructors over the line. Well, in developing performance sports coaches we have identified the vital importance of good mentors. They help the instructor reflect, develop and really build the inter and intra personal knowledge. Traditional coaching courses and instructor courses are pretty good at developing the professional knowledge, although again the mentors are invaluable. In my own instructor development I’ve been very privileged to have an outstanding mentor who I still see a couple of times a year, to great value.
Ask yourself before you book on training if its going to give you what you want. Ask the instructor you’re considering how much of your training is scenario based, how much work do they put in setting up decision making opportunities, how do they mimic realities for when you will have to implement the skills. Ask about, good instructors will be delighted to engage with you on this.
Have fun, dive safe.
Matt Jevon is a Technical and Cave Diver and Technical and CCR instructor with TDI, IANTD and PADI and the JJ-CCR instructor and dealer for Ireland. He held accreditations as an interdisciplinary sports scientist, sports psychologist and was a British Olympic Registered Strength and Conditioning Coach.
Matt Jevon

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[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] There’s a good few articles on dive fitness out there, though I’d take issue with the focus of many of them. They focus purely on the physical, and mostly in very general and incorrect ways. Being fit means that you are
“Fit for the task or purpose intended” it’s far more than physical.
In sports science and in sports performance based coaching it’s quite common, although not the only way, to break down preparation for performance into the following factors
Physical
Psychological
Technical
Tactical and
Lifestyle
In a number of previous articles I’ve dealt with some of the psychological issues,
Managing Stress
Keeping Focussed
Peer Pressure
Visualisation for learning and problem solving
Teamwork
And a few others. Let’s look at each of the other elements in turn.
Physical.
Excuse me while I leap up onto my soapbox! You see I am passionate about performance in sport and diving is no different. That’s what led me to write and teach an MSc in strength and conditioning, become an S&C coach for the British Olympic Association and S&C advisor in many pro sports.
Just about all the diving articles I’ve seen focus on aerobic conditioning, a bit of stretching and suggest you need to be strong enough to lift the gear. This is fine for an 18m open warm water diver. Fine, but not ideal. I’m going to layout what the demands are for a fully kitted tech diver and how best to condition for those. If you are any other sort of diver, think where your demands lie between the 18m diver and the tech diver. Adjust your training focus accordingly or ask me in the comments.
Demands are….
High thermal stresses including extremes in one dive
Heavy weight lifting in preparation and dekitting and cleanup.
Very heavy weight lifting in and out of the water
Endurance Capacity to swim for between 1 and 3 hours (yes I and others often go longer but up to 3 hours is typical)
Fast rate of recovery when stressed physically or mentally to bring breathing down.
Ability to hold a good trim position, i.e. strong dynamic core strength.
So, frankly long period steady state endurance training is not going to cut it.
Principles for training should therefore be
Get a doctors clearance, make a will, have a defibrillator on standby….. Seriously if you’ve any risk or concerns with exercising…
1, you shouldn’t be diving, 2, get professional clearance to start a programme including this.
Interval training, use non weight bearing if you wish to reduce joint stress (rowing / bike /. Cross trainer). Work on 20 seconds all out work to 40 seconds recovery at a good pace… Not resting or easy like some advisors might say. Do batches of 5, build up over a few weeks to 4 or 5 batches with a 3 minute lead in and 3 minute lead out. You should feel the lactate build in the legs getting more with each interval. Between each batch of 5 work at a steady but still good pace for 2 minutes only. You will find (if you work hard enough) that every orifice will try and draw in air! What’s important is that as you become accustomed your work pace gets faster, but critically, your recovery time decreases significantly. Three times a week if you’re serious.
Weights. Lift heavy- stop playing around with light weights and pretending it’s for endurance. Except in commercial gyms where they don’t want to be sued for injury, using weights for endurance in a sport is dead in the water. For example cyclists will lift heavy to build strength then for endurance, they’ll get on the bike. Do the same. Get training in good lifting technique and form. Be wary of who you get it from, I’m a huge critic of cross fit technical training for example. Just my opinion. Then lift 5 sets of 5 in these core exercises as heavy as you can manage and only just being able to complete the sets. The odd failure is good. Do them on a round for the 5×5, that is 5 reps of every exercise, one exercise after the other, then go back to first exercise and repeat. It’s not about fatigue, you’re not bodybuilding, you’re training strength. Back squat, bench press, chest fly, single arm row, single arm standing curl to overhead press, seated row, lat pull down or chin-ups. Do it three times a week, no more, no less. Try to move the weight quickly, if you can, lift a heavier weight! You should intend to move it quickly to maximise muscle fibre recruitment, but not be able to because the resistance is too great.
Core. Do planks in a press-up position working up to a least 2 minutes, overhead squats, farmers carrys and or suitcase carries, crunches and back extensions- get trained in good form, Physios are all over dynamic core development at the moment, it’s the latest trend. Ask them if they follow Stuart McGills principles, if so, good to go, if they don’t know who he is, run!
Stretch… Dynamic before exercise, static after. Don’t skip it, don’t spend hours on it either. Just check you are maintaining a good and normal range of movement.
Diet. Look, be clean, be good if you can, no processed foods at all, Inc low fat spreads etc, know what works for you, but this is not a weight loss programme. If you want a diet, see a sports dietitian, not a nutritionist, there’s a huge difference in those qualifications. It’s better to be fit and fat than thin and unfit.
Sleep. Massively underestimated… Quality 6-8 hours are needed by all, you cannot survive on less, even if you think you are used to it, you are just used to operating at a sub optimal level.
Psychological
Read my psychologist skills for diving page. Read a great book called ‘the mental gameplan’ by Bull, Albinson and Shambrook. Practice and train your mental skills. As much time on this as on physical preparation, it will stand to you for diving and for life.
Technical
This is where we focus on the dive skills, for me I break these up for my students and me into
Foundation Skills
Buoyancy – Trim – Propulsion – Planning
Basic Skills
Descents – Ascents – stops
Advanced Skills
Awareness – Communication – Teamwork
Kit Specific Skills
SMB – Lights – CCR etc
Emergency Skills
Shutdowns – Out of Air- lost diver- lost line – diver tows – unconscious diver management (I run a tech rescue course covering this and more)
Technical skills in elite and performance sport get the most attention. Typically over half a players preparation time will focus on these. The rest on tactical and physical prep, living a good lifestyle and mental skills. In diving, once we have finished the courses, many do not spend any time practicing these skills, to their great detriment if they ever needed them. Skill sessions should be planned into your preparation timetable.
Tactical Skills
What’s the relevance of this in diving you say? Well aside from the military definition, being tactical is ‘showing adroit planning, gaining an advantage beyond the immediate action’ (cheers Google!) dives should be planned tactically to achieve an end or mission as it’s often referred to. Knowing the objective and visualising the dive gives clear inside into the issues, risks and opportunities that the dive will bring. Proper preparation can then ensure that all team members are physically, technically and tactically prepared as well as psychologically prepared for the dive. Don’t just plan deco schedules and gas plans although these are critical. Build into runtime the activities you need to do to complete the mission, whiteboard or equivalent all the what if scenarios. Have a plan Bravo and plan Charlie.
Lifestyle
Lifestyle is straightforward. If you choose to devote yourself to becoming a safe and excellent diver, your lifestyle should support this. It’s all about appropriate choices, some like no alcohol before a dive and a 2 beer limit the night before are sensible and obvious, at least to some. I’m afraid I’ve little time for the macho beer drinking hungover diving prevalent in some places. Others such as diet choices to keep bodyfat down are more personal. In any event the lifestyle should support the diving and the training. Think about what in your lifestyle affects your fitness to dive. Travel, sleep disruptions, change in diet, stress from work issues. It’s all about managing those, and perhaps introducing a firebreak between them so you can close one area off and move unencumbered into the dive.
Now, are you sure you are fit to dive? Run through the above as a checklist and you can do a good self assessment. If you are not going to do full on tech dives, then choose an appropriate level of fitness, encompassing all of the above elements. Most of all
Have fun, dive safe.
Matt Jevon is a Technical and CCR instructor with TDI, IANTD and PADI and the JJ-CCR instructor and dealer for Ireland. He held accreditations as an interdisciplinary sports scientist, sports psychologist and was a British Olympic Registered Strength and Conditioning Coach.

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[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] I was recently given this picture, signed by the original actor who player Darth Vader, by one of my students, it’s awesome. Why? Well I’m a bit of a Star Wars fan and a lot of a geek anyway, but also there’s a little sub culture in technical diving, especially cave and rebreather diving where we like to refer to ourselves as members of the dark side! It’s kinda cool…. For us anyway and we like the T shirts. There’s a few other sub cultures in tech diving, for example, I was once told I was an ideal candidate for tech as I rode a motorcycle, had tattoos and listened to heavy metal! Guilty as charged.
But let’s look at this seriously for a minute. Why do these things appeal. Why do we like to be recognised and to have a group identity. Well we could fall back on the ‘that’s human nature’ argument and for sure there’s cogent points to be made. We could argue that it’s down to our socialisation, it’s considered the norm to be part of a social group with the same values and aspirations. Of course there are some outliers who will proudly say they wouldn’t want to be part of any group that would have them (thanks Mr Marx!). In effect though most of these people are not true loners, otherwise we’d never know about them, in reality proudly not being in a sub culture is in fact just another sub culture.
Having both our individual and group identity and culture helps normalise our behaviours, it provides expectations of how we will behave in a group and is very, very powerful. This is where the danger lies. Sometimes the group can carry people with it beyond the point of acceptable behaviour, beyond the boundary of calculated risk and far more dangerously, can, in the visibility of their achievements to aspirant members of that group, encourage bad decisions, driven by a desire to present themselves as acceptable potential group members.
I saw this recently by a diver on a Facebook group. In an attempt to promote their own standing a litany of behaviours were self reported, deviant from good technical diving practices, deviant from standards set by respected agencies in the field and exceeding limits of training and experience. When challenged the response was defensive and demeaned the commentators. When offered help it was used as a stick to beat the challengers with, but, ultimately not taken up.
But rather than dismiss out of hand, let’s strive for understanding. We witnessed these behaviours because the person wanted to be accepted into a tech diving community, but their values were at odds with the possible communities they could join. Perhaps they felt they needed to boost their image and made claims about dives done that backfired, instead of gaining respect they gained criticism and were then in a corner with no escape. Perhaps the challenges put to them, mine included, put up perceived barriers they could not see a way past. Or, perhaps they had indeed a poor attitude.
For whatever of these reasons they became motivated to prove themselves to the group by making big claims and assertions. In other more dangerous circumstances, that is in the water rather than online, that same response could have resulted in injury or death.
We always train divers not to succumb to peer pressure. Any diver can thumb the dive at any time without question or reproach. Don’t underestimate the power of the group to demand compliant behaviour, the strength of desire people have to be seen to be a part of that group, if not a leader. Particularly don’t underestimate the ability of the group to make a bad decision which then leads an individual beyond their physical, technical and mental abilities.
Dive safe , oh, and May the Force be with You

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[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] Over the years I’ve had the privilege of being involved in some fantastic teams, sometimes in a leadership role, sometimes a advisor helping form a great team and in others as a team member. These teams have been engaged in pursuing objectives in sport, from International Rugby to Motorcycle racing and rally driving, through to high performing teams in business. Over the last few years I’ve enjoyed being part of dive teams, particularly in technical diving.
People often talk about teamwork as if it’s a given, that is gather a group of people and with a little desire and intent they will form a team. It’s a dangerous assumption. High performing teams have very defined characteristics, they operate in a very distinctive way and they have many different cultures, values and styles, there is not a “one size fits all” way of creating a team.
There is also a significant difference between a team we would consider cohesive and a team that is co-operating. I don’t mention dysfunctional teams as they are pretty easy to identify and frankly are therefore not a team but just a group of people arguing and pulling in different directions. Co-operative teams are interesting to discuss though. Here we have a group who work well, who “get along” often suborning personal beliefs and desires for the team good. What’s wrong with that I hear? Well, this team tends to follow one leader or gets behind the first credible idea without really buying into it, without having really examined alternatives, without having challenged the thinking of the idea creator. In order to avoid intra team conflict they hold back their own ideas and desires and often are not fully committed to the ideas execution. These teams can operate well, but it does create frustrations within the team members, which at some point, will surface and fracture the teams effort and motivation – usually when the soft and smelly hits the round and whirly.
In contrast cohesive teams actively encourage the arguments, discussions and deconstruction of ideas that leads to all feeling they have contributed and therefore are invested in the teams activities. Personal beliefs and desires are never suborned for the benefit of the team as clearly if this has to happen the team composition is wrong and there is no role for the person expected to act and deliver against their desires. Cohesive teams perform consistently at a high level, whereas co-operative teams struggle to reach both high performance levels and certainly are inconsistent.
This week I’ve been diving with some GUE divers on some deep Croatian wrecks. GUE is very focussed on the team ethos and I’ve had to adapt my more independently minded approach to deep tech diving. It’s been a different but pleasurable experience. Just because I’m used to a team approach with different values doesn’t mean I can’t contribute effectively to another team culture, what’s important to allow me to do that is to understand the culture and the expectations the team has of me within it, I need clarity.
This clarity is what, in my opinion, (and in a fair bit of elite sports research) allows us to identify the key elements of a high performing team. These elements can easily be set in a variety of cultures and adapt to a variety of appropriate leadership styles. So what are the elements.
Clarity of Purpose. This is the most important element and the purpose cannot be doing whatever the leader tells them. Each team member must understand what the team want to achieve, must believe in the possibility of success and be motivated and excited to play a role in achieving that success. There should be no doubt in the teams mind what that clarity of purpose is and they should be able to articulate it clearly and succinctly.
Clarity of member and leadership roles. It doesn’t matter what your role is, what is important that both you as leader and team member as well as ALL the other team members and leaders understand that role (s). The role will probably be related to particular skills and/or experience, but should also be related to the more team oriented needs, is your role to challenge through innovation, through analysis or through practicality. For example one board I work with has the Chief Financial Officer challenge everything not just from a numbers perspective but also looks at things not normally within the CFO role but where his analytical thinking can challenge and add value.
Clarity of understanding of the power distribution in the team. As we are not living in a utopian society and most teams have some sort of formal or informal hierarchy we cannot just wish this away. There is a distribution of power and influence in teams, this can be based on organisational position, ability, experience etc. it must be understood exactly what this is by all team members. Only in this way can the ‘less powerful’ understand their ability to challenge even the most powerful so thinking, and the “most powerful” can realise the barriers to challenge and debate their authority creates and then to work to demonstrate that they are open to be challenged and to have their thoughts, actions and desires critiqued by the less powerful. There is no need for one big charismatic leader either. If appropriate in small teams such as we have in diving, it is more useful for different members to take the lead in different areas as befits their style, skills, knowledge and ability.
Clarity of communication. Once roles and power is understood it becomes easier within the team for open and honest communication pathways. Often the biggest difficulty here is not with the message sender, but with the receiver. If emotion or arrogance get in the way of listening “they can’t say that to me”, “don’t they know who /what I am” then problems occur and communication barriers are raised. This is why it’s easier to communicate by voice on contentious issues rather than email etc. the tone of challenge can be heard, the disengagement from listening can be seen and challenged. Anyway, there’s potential for an entire book on communication!
Clarity of culture and values. Culture comes form the Latin ‘to cultivate’ and a shared culture is vital for cohesion. Values are what makes up the team. Often in business I see values talked about in a very trite fashion. For example ‘honesty’ it’s a great value to have but, what does it mean in the context of this team and organisation? How is it applied? Measured? Upheld? If the team cannot use the values as a set of aspirational standards that guides their behaviour and actions them, those values have little true value! Herein lies another book…..
A balance of approaches in terms of thinking. I do like George Pattens quote “if everyone is thinking alike, then someone isn’t thinking” I like to ensure people that make up the teams that I am in can bring different thinking styles. I like someone strong in creative thinking, someone strong in operational thinking and someone strong in analytical or reflective thinking. That way we get information from the analyst from which ideas can be generated by the creative thinker, a practical “how can we make that work” approach from the operational thinker and an ability to refine and challenge the process development from all. No-one is 100% dominant in a style, but high performing people tend to have a dominant style, and a strong secondary, plus often a considerable weakness in a third. It doesn’t matter which one is dominant – there is often an assumption it’s better to be creative but as one myself I can tell you this is not true, we have difficulty sticking to a task if something new comes along.
Congruent motivational styles and directions. We’ve touched on this in a previous article but suffice it to say if you have three people all highly externally ego focussed then trouble lies ahead. Think about whether people are ego or task driven and whether that is internally or externally focussed by them. Imagine what this means they want by way of reward, recognition, feedback and satisfaction.
Interestingly some of the elements that high performing and cohesive teams don’t need are often things inexperienced team builders or leaders try and create.
They don’t need to like each other. They do however need to respect each other’s ability and desire to contribute to the team.
Social compatibility is of little relevance. I know people I get on well with socially that I’d hate to work with and vice versa.
The same motivational reasons for achieving the teams goal are not required. One might be ego motivated another task, what is important is that both can understand and appreciate the direction and intensity of the effort being put in by the team member.
To always be working with other team members. For some people their best contributions are made through individual focused effort. It is their output that the team needs not their companionship on a task or objective.
Lots of meetings… This is a real bugbear of mine. I hate lots of sit downs where information is exchanged, but no decisions made or actions decided upon. All this does is interrupt people. We have so many ways with modern technology of sharing information more efficiently without a meeting. Share the info then only meet if desired to argue out the course of action. A decision is something you have to make if you don’t have enough information! Hewlett Packard have for many years operated some amazingly successful global teams across multiple time zones and cultures.
Team oriented personalities. I am more independently minded than team focussed, but, when I see the reward for success being dependent on me being an effective team member or leader, I will be as valuable a team person as I can be. It’s all in the motivation!
Psychometric testing, Belbin team roles analysis etc. the degree of social compliance in psychometrics for me is unreal and the academic models of roles are often reductionist and trying to either over simplify or put people in boxes! Frankly roles will change based on what the team is focused on at that place on the path to its objective or purpose. Sometimes people will lead, at other times they need great followership skills. Make sure the box you put people in has an open lid!
Well done if as a diver you’ve got this far and wondered… Wtf has this got to do with diving? Well, to me it’s essential for safe and effective diving at both recreational and technical levels. We know problems occur in diving when team member step outside of the plans, but do we really consider why they do this. It’s easier to be annoyed and to berate them than it is to consider why they disconnected from the team. Perhaps they didn’t know in the first place what their role was and why it was so important to achieving the teams objective. Let’s also remember our first objective in diving is always come back alive and well from every dive. Perhaps they felt overwhelmed by more experienced divers who have become sloppy on planning or dive discipline and they didn’t feel they could speak up because they felt less powerful. I know this is a big issue for the “just culture” Gareth Lock is working so hard to establish in diving.
All I can do is encourage you if you dive within a team is to discuss the characteristics of a high performing cohesive team above. Answer for your team the questions that raises. Establish the clarity or purpose, roles and communication. Look at the leadership and followership roles. Get the whiteboard or flip chart out, it will make a huge difference. Perhaps you might identify the need to recruit a new member with desired and currently missing characteristics, perhaps it will make you realise there are issues in your team you want to address or even that your team is not working. These are all good results and will strengthen your dive team and make it safer and more effective. Observe teams you admire and benchmark them against the team elements above.
I’m up for answering questions or even helping teams work through these issues if desired, just pm me.
When all is said and done, have fun, dive safe.

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[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] Thrill Seekers, Explorers or Odds Beaters
A good few years ago now I was a newly minted sports psychologist. I’d done 3 years of supervised experience after my MSc and was looking to get involved as soon as possible applying all that knowledge and theory I’d been studying. One of my first roles was working with a motorcycle racing team, a very interesting setup. I was working with youngsters from 13 and 14 up to senior riders, all of whom were connected through the manufacturer team. The youngsters raced in single make series 125cc and 250cc depending on age, moving into supersport and finally for the talented few, GP.
So, the first meeting with the team I mistakenly went in with a few assumptions, classically making an ass of me if not u….. (Ass-u-me;) one of which was I’d have to deal with issues about the dangers, the speed, the risk. Perhaps having to manage concentration blips caused by mental high jumps (cognitive intrusions in psych parlance), after a moment of control loss, a competitor running them wide etc. Nothing could have been further from reality. The same false assumptions are often made when people find out I cave dive or engage in deep technical diving. I am looked upon as an adrenaline junky or thrill seeker. When I tell them I love diving with sharks, then the person I’m telling shows their idiot meter goes through the roof. At that point although I try to explain, any attempt to show how much care I take to be safe, merely looks like I’m either a fool who doesn’t get the risks the uninitiated clearly know better than me, or I’m a hero in rubber and latex…. Hmm…
Anyway, my experience to date in training with and diving with some of the worlds pre-eminent cave and technical divers has shown me huge parallels with the motorcycle and rally drivers with whom I worked. None of them are thrill seekers, in fact the opposite. This does not mean they ignore or blank out the risks either. They coldly and calmly assess the risk, they formulate strategies and responses to respond to and deal with these risks and, satisfied they have been managed, the conscious and subconscious minds are free to focus on the objective…. Accomplishing a successful dive mission or winning a race. Interestingly rally has a great saying, to finish first, first finish! The same in diving, to have a successful dive, finish alive!
So want does drive technical and cave divers to set and pursue their goals. Well for some it’s clearly the challenge of exploring their personal limits. In any field of human endeavour, this is a great driver and motivator. I see these guys as students, working their way up through the levels until they hit the outer edges of certification programmes, but then after a couple of years or less, they drop out, or fall back… Job done, goal achieved.
For others it’s about the love of what they get to be, the element of uniqueness and individuality involved in being in that level of the sport, the passion to be an individual, to be excellent, in a society that these days seems to pander to the average or worse, the lowest common denominator… Thanks McDonalds, we know the coffee is hot, if it wasn’t I’d ask for a refund, but because one moron burnt a lip, every cup carries a warning! I can empathise with this driver, it is a boost to the self esteem to be a little bit different, to be unique, to be part of a small and select group.
For many, it’s the Everest story “it’s because it’s there”. That feeling of discovering a new wreck, of exploring a virgin cave and laying new line, cannot be beaten for some. Hardships will be suffered, the edge of acceptable risk will be pushed and sometimes exceeded, but the first human to set foot on a ship since it sank over 100 years ago or to ever see a new cave passage or rock formation, will be the reward that pays back again and again.
It’s not a question of whether this rewards or satisfies the ego, for some it’s all about the task and the process. Both ego and task work well as positive drivers. A person who is both highly ego driven and highly task driven is the most likely to succeed, in fact it’s a key predictor of talent in sport and business and indeed in diving.
There is also a huge satisfaction to be gained in simply beating the odds. For some this is exultation, for others relief. Depends on whether part of your motivational make up is linked to a need to achieve or a fear of failure. For me, when I played rugby, winning was a relief first and foremost. A vindication of the training, the preparation and the hard work. After that was the celebration. I feel the same coming out of a deep dive or cave. A relieved satisfaction at having managed the odds, then I can enjoy the ‘success’ of the dive.
Conversely the things that cause the greatest stresses are dealing with sponsors, the travel and strange hotel rooms, the legal and insurance issues. Family and friends. That’s where the real work as a psychologist is done, making sure none of that interferes with concentrating on the task in hand.
Whatever reason you dive for, whether because it’s there, or because you like to be individual, or because you like to coldly and calculatedly beat the odds. Good on you, dive safe. Stay away from the thrill seekers. Oh, and those of you said they dive to get some peace and quiet from the spouse, I can only assume the spouse doesn’t read your Facebook feed, else the odds would have been well and truly beaten by now.
Stay safe, stay focussed.

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[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] Last week I was working on the day job. 3 days in Heathrow working with a group of very talented executives who run a successful multinational company. My role was to enhance conversations, guide and challenge on strategy development and to get the board working as a cohesive team on issues that challenge both themselves and the company.
One particular issue in the company recently has occupied the attention of the executive. Interestingly it impacted heavily on the strategy discussions, introducing a bias in the importance on one particular element. As a result we set up a short team exercise, a simple task in appearance, but actually difficult in practice and challenged the team to solve it. Off they went. Now this team has a good balance of thinking styles and approaches. 10 minutes of discussion and experimentation ought to have revealed the answer, and in fact did exactly that later on. However, immediately on being challenged with the task, the team fell into a common trap that catches many divers and dive teams as well. Task Fixation.
Because the answer appeared simple, they failed to plan and failed to communicate, so the first attempt failed. This brought in a realisation that there was a more significant challenge here. Communication improved dramatically, but the team was co-operating now, but still not being cohesive. A couple of team members came up with a couple of ideas, good ideas and the team went for them, without challenge! This is not the way a high performance team operates. It uses the skills and approaches of each member to challenge and deconstruct ideas so that by the time the implementation is due, the expertise of the group has ensured that the most likely solution is achieved.
In diving we need to think carefully about the composition and the skills of our dive team. A future article here for sure. Once we have a cohesive team then that team needs to plan for every conceivable eventuality. Rehearse the plans, practice the skills and communications then if the pre-conceived incident occurs, roll out the response. This relies upon recognition of the cues that reveal a situation is emerging, easily missed if we over fixate on a task. This is not too complex to solve though, just a question of developing some scanning techniques. Where task fixation becomes really problematic is when we don’t recognise the need to adjust and change on the fly. The critical cues that warn us our broader attention is needed can be missed. For example, cell readings start to adjust at different rates to depth changes. Bubbles start moving sideways signalling a current pick up. We miss a backup computer failure.
I was reading some of Bernie Chowdurys accounts of dives on the Andrea Doria. The times he and other very experienced wreck divers had incidents were all down to narrowing of the focus, usually on collection of artefacts. Pushing penetrations to find the 1st class crockery. One incident on recovering plates resulted in an exit being lost due to silt stirred up by bagging the China. Easy as we sit here now to realise of course this would have happened. Very different when at 60m plus in a small locker inside the wreck when the plates are piled high.
Now, we need to concentrate to do well, so fixing on a task is good to ensure its efficient and timely execution, but this needs us to place trust in teammates. So the team need to take up the scanning, looking for cues as to what the environment will throw at us next. If we don’t have the team, then we need to take personal responsibility for adopting a consistent scanning strategy. This needs to be relevant, so rehearse it. Make a list, pop it in the wet notes, what do we need to check on the dive? Gas, time depth, PO2 for sure. Navigation, current, temperature, guideline integrity, overhead safety – pretty easy. What else though. Awareness of other divers – all good. The simplest and easiest check though is…
How long have I been doing what I’m doing?
Is that part of the plan?
Have I been aware of the passage of time and is that relevant to the depth I’m at?
This is simply the fastest way of checking to see if you are task fixated. When we invest our concentration into a task we can easily fall into the concept of flow, where time ceases to have meaning. For example, how many times have you done something (driven home, finished a project) that you think took a few minutes but all of a sudden its two hours later. Flow, if you’re in a safe environment is awesome. If your executing skills it’s tremendous. But if you’re in a fluid, changing and hazardous environment then flow can be a killer. Never be surprised when you check your computer for runtime.
Next time your teammate pulls on your fin or flashes you a light, don’t forget to thank them for ensuring you stay aware, they’re making sure you stay alive .
Dive smart, dive aware, dive safe.

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[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] Coping with Embarrassment – The things tech divers have to do……
Now, most people’s impression of technical divers is adrenaline fuelled, risk taking dive ninjas, dressed in black, talking PO2’s, Equivalent Narcotic Depths and CNS percentages. We even build a bit of an image of being a bit rock and roll, or a bit sci fi… Welcome to the Dark Side etc. We cultivate this imagery because frankly the reality is way too embarrassing. If we actually had to own up to the indignities we suffer in and out of the water, we might not get so many recruits! The whistle though, is about to be blown!
Firstly we usually have at least 6 pharmacies we can visit to buy essential supplies separately. This is because the list in its own right, Baby Powder, KY Jelly, Adult Nappies / Diapers, Catheters, She Wee’s, Hair Depilation Cream and the quantities in which we use them, make it look like we are running a very specialist house of ill repute catering to some pretty weird fetishes.
Outside of the pharmacy the shopping list doesn’t really get any better…. Bungee cord, lines and reels, metal clips, cable ties. It frankly looks as if 50 shades of grey is the book for beginners.
So, as a technical diver what indignities do we suffer and why? What do we actually use all the items on the shopping list for? And, what excuses can we give the shop assistants?
So, firstly, hydration is an important issue in both mental actuity and potentially decompression sickness or DCS. (By the way, DCS doesn’t actually stand for – Deadly Cake Syndrome, as suggested by a recent student of mine while sitting outside Gozo’s best cake shop in Xaghra!). Our longer dive times and the need to be hydrated mean tech divers need a way to urinate during a dive. The two palatable options are a pee valve or an adult nappy. Hence the shopping list. P valves are a nifty bit of technology that allow us to plumb in and wee at our leisure during a dive. This for men means buying catheters or open ended condoms, that unroll down the old chap and are glued at the base. This raises two further issues….
Sizing and pubic hair. Now, no bloke wants to admit he is smaller than the average, but catheters come in at least 5 different sizes and, if it doesn’t fit right you are going to have a wet, briefly warm, then very cold dive and a drive back to base that smells like a cheap nursing home. Account for the cold and potential nerves and most fellas would be better off going down a size. Sadly manufacturers of these devices play a straight(ish) bat and give exact measurements. I suggest they rebrand and start the smallest size with large, going up through extra large, bloody hell and “that will make your eyes water”. Sales will literally rise…….. In the meantime the invention of an incontinent older relative, who is unable to shop for themselves is essential. I suggest carrying a picture of Nigel Farage as no-one will have trouble believing that.
Secondly public hair…. I recently headed out on a trip and not having done a long dive for a few weeks the jungle wasn’t as trimmed as it should have been. I caught some stray hairs in the glue at the start of the dive and was literally crying in my reg and flooding my mask with tears as a result. Taking off the catheter I gave myself a full Hollywood around the base of my best friend and screamed like a 6 year old whose been told Elsa from Frozen was run over by a sled. Hence the need for hair Depilation cream, a good shave, or for the very brave, a trip to the beauty parlour for a waxing. The very dedicated might consider laser treatment. Now, what do you say… Well cream etc is ok, it’s for my wife’s legs….. But be careful, the leg creams are somewhat stronger that the “bikini line” products and a trip to A&E for blistered balls will be even more embarrassing and will likely lead to a psych evaluation. It’s the beauty parlour visit that’s the problem. I suggest claiming that you are going to audition for a porn movie is probably the least mortifying option.
Now, the other option for urination is the adult nappy. It works well, but two pieces of advice.
Firstly, never ask a mate to change you, I guarantee that will be the end of any friendship you may have had, or it will take the friendship places you really didn’t want or expect. Secondly, put it on somewhere no-one can see you, or more importantly, where no one has access to a camera or phone. Whatever you do, buy the adult nappies at a different store to the one you buy the KY jelly at. There is no explanation on earth that won’t have the shop assistants discussing the disgusting pervert that’s just left, very loudly over the lipstick counter while you wait round the corner for your sea sickness pills. I don’t think the Nigel Farage picture will double up for the adult nappies though so I suggest a good image of Ed Milliband, unless larger sizes are needed then Ed Pickles will work well.
Now, as tech divers we do have a fairly well publicised latex and rubber fetish. Latex, Silicone, rubber and neoprene work great on Drysuits, wetsuits etc but need care, maintenance and to get on and off either a wet or dry lubricant such as baby powder and / or KY Jelly. This is why we need a broad source of suppliers. Buying adult nappies, KY Jelly and Baby Powder in the same store will lead to suppressed giggles, outright laughter or disgust, or, worse case scenario, a request for a phone number and cost per hour! Of course it may for some be a way of defraying the costs of meeting our diving kit obsession needs and a few hours in a latex suit for a new reg is for some a small price to pay.
Talking of kit obsession, as Christian Grey himself might have said, one can never have too many cable ties or rolls of duct tape. Whilst our uses as tech divers for these products are more esoteric, running repairs, stage cylinder band retainers, cylinder content marking…. getting knocked down on your way home with one bag of KY jelly, adult nappies and hair depilation cream and another bag full of various thickness bungee cords, 3 rolls of black duct tape and assorted cable ties will have the police photographers pension secured, a double page spread in the Daily Star and the hospital staff in the hazmat anti infection suits double quick.
Add in the selection of dog lead type stainless steel metal clips (we call them bolt snaps and double enders, purely to avoid confusion of course!), cylinder cam bands and jubilee clips, plus the various sizes of reel with bits of cave line or for the exploration cave divers 5mm or 7mm nylon rope, well, any doubts about our perversities will be well and truly removed. Luckily we can buy most of these products in our local dive store or online, only needing to ensure the plain brown bag in which these are to be wrapped is not going to break in public.
It would be nice if perhaps we could carry our diver cards as proof that we are in fact normal well adjusted people who happen to enjoy a sport that has some proclivities that can easily be misjudged. Sadly that’s not the case for two reasons.
The public including the majority of recreational divers really doesn’t understand the challenges and embarrassment we face and secondly….
2. Most tech divers I know are in fact sexual deviants of the worst kind…. You know who you are……
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[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] The Role of Ego in technical (and recreational) diving
I read a blog recently that suggested our egos could be responsible for many of the casualties that technical diving regrettably suffers. Sadly my comments on this blog never made it past the moderator. As a scientist and psychologist I am somewhat protective of terminology used to describe human thought, emotion and behaviour, and the author of this blog fell into a common trap in how they described ego.
Ego simply refers to self and how we feel about ourselves. This results in our thoughts, emotions and behaviour. Where an ego is arrogant, overbearing, misguided or delusional then bad things can and often do happen. However having a big ego isn’t, without a skewed view as above, going to cause any problems, in fact quite the opposite. Let me explain.
Psychological research used to place ego and task focus on a continum, generally to describe motivational style. Educational psychologists as late as the last decade, which is when most diving education systems were thought up, ‘proved’ that in educational settings a task focus was more beneficial. Learners were more motivated by task satisfaction and clarity than by internal or external ego boosting rewards (money, status, etc). The flaw in much of this research is that learners were classified as being either task or ego focussed, there was no delineation of people who were high in both task and ego focus, or in fact low in both and not at all motivated.
My own research and practice, backed by some very good recent research, shows that true high performers in any field are highly motivated by both task and ego focus. Not just to learn but to achieve, or to avoid failure and to maximise their potential. I’m quite sure in work and in diving we can easily describe people we see as being highly motivated and equally people who cannot be motivated even by a good old fashioned kick in the ass!
Now, there’s a kicker….. Both task and ego focus can be internally directed or externally directed. External ego driven people like status, recognition and reward and will enjoy and revel in compliments etc. Internal ego driven people often don’t mind these things, but would not seek them out, their own judgement of self being far more important to the influence on their ego. Evidence used by both internal and externally driven people would be wins v losses, feedback or reflection on skills performed, dives achieved etc.
The bigger the ego, internal or external the better, the higher the level of task focus the better. Having both, awesome. So why did the original blogs author get it wrong….. Because they confused ego with arrogance, ego with overconfidence, ego with a lack of honest appraisal on ones own skills and abilities.
I work a lot with elite and consistently high performing sports and business people. All have high levels of ego or task focus. About a third have a high need to achieve, to experience success. The rest, including me are frightened to death of failing, why? Because we have big egos and lots of confidence, well placed as it happens in our ability. Failing would not only not provide the reward our egos need, it would damage our ego and confidence. So, we are detailed and meticulous in ensuring we won’t fail, we work very hard, past the point where others would have given up, in order not to fail. Hardly the approach of arrogant and overconfident divers at high risk of an incident.
So to the blog authors point, which was of massive value. What is it about our attitude as divers that makes us a danger unto ourselves. Simply put its a matter of perception versus reality. The at risk diver perceives or believes they have the skills, training and experience to do dives that are in reality beyond them. This is arrogance not ego. This is overconfidence, not ego. This is pure self delusion or worse peer pressure.
How do we counter this? We get honest feedback or practice honest self appraisal. We seek out multiple sources of evidence to help with this, instructors, team mates, video, benchmark of dive achieved versus dive plan, and so on. We do not get bullshitted by people telling us we are better this we know we are.
Avoiding being distressed and getting into the panic spiral when failures and negative incidents are experienced on a dive relies on a cool and confident head. A strong and big ego, coupled with great task focus will be a huge asset, and will be the most likely thing to keep you alive.
It’s become a bit anti social in some circles to be see as being super confident, to be see to be having a big ego. I think you can be this way without being an asshole, but if not, well, maybe it’s better to be a live asshole over being a dead nice guy with delusions on their abilities.
Dive safe. Dive confident. Dive honest.
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[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] Imagery. Part 1. Skill development.
Long delay on this as likes slowed down 🙁 and Christmas got in the way 🙂.
Please get people to like the page and to share posts.
Ok, firstly lets get rid of this visualisation Versus imagery. Visualisation is where we use one sense, vision, to see ourselves performing a skill or action. It can be internal, that is we see ourselves performing the skill as if we were looking out through our own eyes whilst doing it, or it could be external where we see ourselves as if we were on tv, that is we look from the outside in.
Internal is generally the strongest way of rehearsing, learning and building robustness in a skill. But… We all have a natural preference and to start with, until well practiced and trained, it’s better to go with the more natural ability. To find your preference, close your eyes and have someone draw a clock face on your forehead. Then to draw a time. Your first instinct as to the time will either be as if you were looking in from the outside or from the inside out. If it’s looking outwards, then your preference is internal and vice versa.
To really get a skill embedded and to maximise the rehearsal done, then it’s best to bring in more senses than just vision. In a perfect world, sight, touch, hearing, smell, taste etc would also be involved. Where we use multiple or all senses, this is imagery, a richer more complete approach than just visualisation alone. You can probably do some of this easily, for example, imagine the smell of freshly cut grass, try and sense the feel of warm sun on your back or getting into fine cotton sheets. Close your eyes and listen for the sound of the sea.
In order to develop imagery as a skill it’s best to practice first on something you’re really familiar with, but practice using all the senses. Things that could be really familiar, but that have a lot of stimulus could be sitting on a beach, walking in a well known and favourite place, sitting in an armchair at home. Be familiar with what you see, feel, hear, smell and sense by way of temperature etc. You can probably see by this stage that external imagery is not a natural way of experiencing all the senses compared to internal, however if that’s easier to start with, maybe just imagining one or two extra senses at work, then go that way.
Create an imagery script that has a lot of detail in it and that you can run through regularly to practice. You’re not only learning the imagery script this first time, but also how to actually ‘do’ imagery. It’s worth investing time in developing this now, as it will significantly speed up future skill acquisition as well as the effectiveness, quality and robustness of the skill. Elements of the script should be
What can you feel (temperature, textures, materials, comfortable or not)
Where can you feel it, eg sand between the toes, softness of an armchair under your butt!
What can you smell, ozone in the air from fresh rain, the rich leather in the armchair, salty tang of sea spray etc, how strong is the smell
What can you hear? Wind rustling through trees, birds, the creak of the leather in the chair, chatter of people in the distance
What can you see, colours, near, far away, what’s still, what’s moving?
What tastes are in the air, I can certainly taste salt when I’m near the sea, but try and be very aware.
Make sure your script is as detailed as possible and reads easily.
Ok, it’s easier to practice if you use one of the focussing routines from the previous article to get into a nice relaxed frame of mind before you try this out. Try also to find a place where you won’t be disturbed and won’t have many distractions. Turn off phones, email beeps etc.
Once you develop the skills, you’ll find you can exercise them quickly, without the need to relax and in quite distracting environment. For example, look at the pre kicking routines rugby place kickers or golfers use. They are imaging the kick or the shot, for rugby players that could be in a very noisy or hostile environment. Interestingly many kickers will say that total silence is even more off putting, this is because one of their ‘tells’ that they are in the zone using the imagery is that the crowd noise disappears or diminishes.
This is how you will know if the skill is coming on for you. Time will fly by as you practice this skill, any minor distractions will fade into the background and you will find all the sensations and senses become clearer and heightened. As the skill develops try and switch into the routine without doing the pre focusing and relaxation. Then try and introduce small distractions, maybe some music or traffic noise.
For some people a weeks good practice should really get you a long way down the road, for others 3 or 4 weeks might be needed. Leave some comments on this post as to how your getting on, feel free to share your imagery scripts and as time goes on we’ll start to talk about some specific diving skill examples.
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[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] I highly recommend you read parts 1 and 2 first. Also bear in mind reading this does not give you the psychological skills. Psychological skills are harder in many ways to learn and become expert at than physical skills. They need clarity, they need consistency, and they need a lot of practice and repetition. Just like the physical skills, this needs to be quality practice, with real intent and purpose.
So let’s look at in water.
As we dive there are a great number of stimuli and occurrences that can cause us to have a stress reaction. Some of these are obvious and immediate, free flowing regulator, burst hose, silt out. Others are more insidious, onset of thermal stress, dehydration and often narcosis. Developing appropriate and timely reaction to these is vital. Let’s look at a real life example.
Towards the end of a 65m trimix dive on open circuit, I returned to the shot to see it bouncing across the sand. With my team mate we recovered the shot, causing us to both exceed planned depth and time. It was vital we did this as we we had a second team behind us on the wreck we were responsible for. We began our ascent having resecured the shot. At 48m the shot line started to spool down past us and we just caught the end. I attached a bag and sent the line back up. After adjusted stops we reached 9m and the bag! A second bag was sent up and the reel tied off to the shotline re-establishing a continuous line to the surface for team 2. Deco cleared we headed to the surface to find no boat. 5 mins later it joined us. Team 2 surfaced safely a few moments later.
As each stressor occurred, a decision on a course of action was required. There were a few correct options for each stressor, the trick was having a clear enough head to make the right one, and in the right time frame. Note I didn’t say quickly. Undue haste can often exacerbate stress exponentially. What helped?
First we were on trimix! This negated the compounding stress effect of both narcosis and the physiological stress of undue gas density. A clear and calm head is invaluable. Psychologically knowing this, as well as the actual “real” effects is a massive contribution to high confidence levels. Ensure your gas is right for your dive!
Next, both my team mate and myself were experienced at that depth and although we hadn’t dived together before, we had carefully rehearsed the dive plan and our roles. We knew what to expect from each other. We had confidence in each other skills and abilities. Starting with high confidence levels is a huge advantage. It’s rather like having an airbag, as the stress hits, it cushions the blow.
As we saw the shot bouncing the first reaction from me and my team mate, was a gas and deco time check. As tempting as it might have been for either of us to chase after the shot to what turned out to be 73m, without that sanity check, we could have jeopardised a safe dive exit for both of us. However, we can’t accept that a gas and time check is the most appropriate response to every stressor. What if I’d had a low pressure hose cut on the wreck? All checking gas would do is add to the stress and take the solution (a shutdown) further down the timeline. The same with the stop, breathe, think, act reaction that’s often suggested.
What I prefer is to use the acronym START to ensure that I have prepared responses for all foreseeable issues that can occur on a dive and that I check that these work. STAR in water. T out. Where possible the responses should be similar, but, if we rehearse these responses they do not need to be, and, as we can see from the above, it’s not appropriate that they are all the same. The response should fit into this order.
S elf
T eam
A ction
R eview
T hink
Let’s look at each part.
Self.
Your first recourse in any stressful situation is yourself. Therefore it’s you that needs the first attention, you have to get a grip on yourself and the relationship you have to the stress. The best way of doing this is to use a technique called anchoring. Anchoring brings the psychological and physical attention back onto you in a controlled way. A deep breath is often a good anchoring technique, but for reasons previously discussed I’m not a fan for diving. My preference is to go for another physical reference. At the same time, I use a keyword that I only ever use in a situation where I need to bring attention back to me. Mine is ‘focus matt’ and putting my hands on my valves.
Then it’s about accurately and quickly identifying the stressor source. What do I mean by this? Well on CCR or from your dive computer an alarm is a stressor, but it’s not specific. It could be an ascent rate warning, a cell warning, a low PO2. Other than drawing your attention to the source issue, the alarm is actually no use to you and often is a source of increased stress (I quite often want to take a large rock to someone’s constantly beeping computer!). We need to condition ourselves, through training to respond to alarms with a calm, “right, what’s that!?” as opposed to a fluster of agghh’s and oh sh*ts. Accurate ID of the issue and a good assessment of our ability to cope with it, is of more value. Not once in my training though did I ever have an alarm beep or buzz simulated. I had the issues simulated, high po2 etc. We need to add simulated alarms into training, physical and mental, especially for ccr.
So my reaction to an issue is ideally, centre (hands on valves), self referenced talk to myself, “focus matt”, then identify the issue. This takes about 0.5 of a second to 2 seconds max, depending on the issue ID complexity. If the issue is critical I’m also perfectly placed to respond as anything critical probably involves gas loss! I then decide if action is needed, based on previously trained and well practiced responses, then I implement the response. The better trained I am, the more I have physically practiced the response skills, the more recently I’ve practiced the skill and if I’ve previously used imagery to really embed the response, then the faster I will react.
Team. I need to check how my team has responded to my issue. A well practiced and rehearsed team will be right by me by now, especially if my chosen solution has, as it should, included a clear signal to them. At this point they are checking my issue diagnosis, checking the response I’ve made or am making for correctness, helping out if that’s the way we practice as a team and most importantly checking my head / emotional state is ok.
Action. What next? Abort the dive, check gas and deco penalty and solve the bouncing shot issue as above? Here the team should be involved, either to implement a pre planned action (light failure in cave – exit) or to check recalculated turn pressures or deco requirements. The key here is this is a decided action, based on having averted the immediate crisis and is done in a minimal stress level situation.
Review. At the most appropriate point, the immediate response, the solution and the teams responses and determined action should be reviewed. This should be as soon as possible. Maybe once back at the shot, maybe once on the longer 9 or 6 deco stops. If the soonest most appropriate time is back on the boat or at the dive centre, then that’s when it’s done. Hopefully what your then doing is just affirming all the right steps were done. If not then there’s a training issue. If so, think.
Think. Did the incident occur due to lack of training or practice? Was it a skills failure or a clarity of thought and action failure. How did you feel as the incident unfolded. As it happened above, I was pretty much just having a slightly frustrated swear. If my reaction had been more intense or involved uncertainty or even early signs of undue stress or panic, regardless of having solved the issue, I would have set up and practiced scenarios on a controlled training dive until I was very confident in my solution. Don’t just be pleased with yourself that you “got away with it”. Be self critical. If you don’t know how you got away with it seek advice from an instructor (not the Internet forum or your mates).
There are issues here then for your training. Good dive instructors will expose you to 95% of the potential stressors you will face. They will train you and encourage you to practice the appropriate response and repeat until the techniques become skilful and second nature. In dive planning your instructor will ask you to do a ‘what if’ plan (plus 3m plus 3 mins) plus what if x or y happens. The further into tech or cave you go, the more skills and responses you learn. Try this though. Write down 10 problems that can occur on a dive, not too common. Now write down your response. Was there enough detail in the response to meet the start criteria above? Is there something in there that focuses you and depowers any emotional reaction. Can you close your eyes and using your imagination, see, feel and hear clearly (imagery) the issue and response. If so, great. Experience and great training has developed the right mental approach. If not then purposeful practice is required.
Next time out, we’ll discuss imagery in more detail.
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