Solo Diving: Really? Is that safe?
DIVER Canada|Spring 2023
Tech Diving
Steve Lewis
Solo Diving: Really? Is that safe?

Emma was an instructor candidate with a difference. She was not what the dive community calls a team player... at least, not typical in one very specific way, because she empathically had zero faith in the buddy system. More to the point, she called it a big fat lie written on a Kleenex that “falls apart as soon as it gets wet.”

You’d be correct in thinking she had issues with the whole concept behind the system and had a real problem teaching it to her students without a bunch of added conditions. Not quite com il faux.

Severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) creates a strange rip in the internal fabric of time, the sheet of memories that hangs in the back or the human mind. We all deal with life-altering events differently and the spectrum of reactions to trauma runs from debilitating shellshock to indifference, but for most the result is that memories of the trauma are bent and torn, so that trying to arrange the timeline leading to and from one’s personal ‘come-to-Jesus’ moments is close to impossible. The usual Point A progressing orderly to Point C via Point B scenario doesn’t work at all. And that can make it difficult to process and explain the original event, even to oneself.

So, for most folks living with PTSD, this means the past and the present do not live separately. There is no difference between then and now because the natural flow of yesterday, today, and tomorrow, is in tatters. For those badly affected, all that remains is a mental landscape flooded by dark emotion, making it very hard to compartmentalize The Past from The Now. And that was clearly the case for Emma.

Diving’s tempest

Esta historia es de la edición Spring 2023 de DIVER Canada.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

Esta historia es de la edición Spring 2023 de DIVER Canada.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

MÁS HISTORIAS DE DIVER CANADAVer todo
Fun With a Smart Phone
DIVER Canada

Fun With a Smart Phone

Compact digital cameras are fast disappearing in favour of smartphones. How about underwater photography?

time-read
2 minutos  |
Summer 2023
An Old Encounter
DIVER Canada

An Old Encounter

The mighty St. Lawrence River, in its Quebec section, has swallowed hundreds of wrecks through the centuries, many of them still unvisited.

time-read
2 minutos  |
Summer 2023
Al is Coming to Diving
DIVER Canada

Al is Coming to Diving

You are about to enter another dimension—a scuba dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land of imagination. Next stop…no, not the Twilight Zone…but the AI Zone! Yes, Artificial Intelligence is coming to scuba diving.

time-read
2 minutos  |
Summer 2023
Preventing heat exhaustion
DIVER Canada

Preventing heat exhaustion

Beautiful sunny days have a way of coaxing us outside for adventuring, exploring, and diving. But it’s important to be mindful during your outdoor activities of the risks of heat-related illnesses— especially in the summer.

time-read
2 minutos  |
Summer 2023
You Won't Impress Your Cave Instructor
DIVER Canada

You Won't Impress Your Cave Instructor

I am so sorry for disappointing you!” My student apologized as he tossed his cave diving light into the gear crate and dropped his fins beside my truck.

time-read
5 minutos  |
Summer 2023
THE PERFECT STORM
DIVER Canada

THE PERFECT STORM

WORDS AND PHOTOS BY NICOLE WEBSTER

time-read
9 minutos  |
Summer 2023
PROTECTING NAYAANO NIBIIMAANG GICHIGAMIIN
DIVER Canada

PROTECTING NAYAANO NIBIIMAANG GICHIGAMIIN

The Great Lakes Watershed

time-read
10+ minutos  |
Summer 2023
Phil Nuytten: DIVER
DIVER Canada

Phil Nuytten: DIVER

Industry luninaries remember diving legend Phil Nuytten, OC, OBC, DSc (hon), LLD (hon): magazine publisher, engineer, innovator, artist, businessman, eccentric, raconteur, magician, writer, husband, father... and-first and foremost-diver. (1941-2023)

time-read
10+ minutos  |
Summer 2023
Phil Nuytten - SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION ADDRESS
DIVER Canada

Phil Nuytten - SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION ADDRESS

A final Soundings column from DIVER Publisher and Senior Editor Phil Nuytten, taken from his 1995 address to students in British Columbia

time-read
4 minutos  |
Summer 2023
NEW DEEP CAVE DIVING RECORD SET IN CHINA
DIVER Canada

NEW DEEP CAVE DIVING RECORD SET IN CHINA

Renowned Chinese cave diver Han Ting surfaced after a 12-and-a-half-hour dive to 910.1 feet (77.4m) in Jiudun Cave, a new Asia deep cave diving record. The dive was a part of the Duan’s Juidun Cave Features (DJCF) project.

time-read
2 minutos  |
Summer 2023