He had made a navigational mistake during his Full Cave Course, but this reaction was way over the top. If he had a sword, he would have fallen on it out of embarrassment. “I don’t deserve to do another dive today,” he declared. It took me a while to talk him back into the water.
Interestingly, this is a common issue in technical and cave diver training. There’s some strange need within the student to impress the instructor with their diving skills. And far from judging, I have been guilty of this behaviour myself.
Once upon a time, I enrolled in an Advanced Cave Sidemount Course given by one of my cave diving mentors. There is a specific skill that I was concerned about—breathing directly from the tank valve while ‘feathering’ the valve open and closed. It’s a self-rescue technique to access gas from a cylinder in case of a regulator failure. The idea is that in tight caves, you may not be able to reach your buddy to get a tank from them. This is difficult to do, as I am neither a particularly coordinated nor naturally excellent diver. I just work really hard.
I was convinced I would impress the instructor by doing the best tank valve breathing the world had ever seen, so I practiced the skill myself for hours. I got pretty good at it, but I failed miserably on the day of the course. Something about the instructor watching me gave me such severe performance anxiety that I could not demonstrate a skill I had practiced for hours.
この記事は DIVER Canada の Summer 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は DIVER Canada の Summer 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
Fun With a Smart Phone
Compact digital cameras are fast disappearing in favour of smartphones. How about underwater photography?
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.
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.
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.
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.
THE PERFECT STORM
WORDS AND PHOTOS BY NICOLE WEBSTER
PROTECTING NAYAANO NIBIIMAANG GICHIGAMIIN
The Great Lakes Watershed
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)
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
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.
