A dive supervisor called out my buoyancy on a wreck at 110 feet

I was doing a survey on an old cargo ship off the coast of Wilmington and my supervisor pulled me aside after the dive. He said I was flaring my fins too much and stirring up silt every time I leveled out. I switched to using smaller kick cycles and it made a huge difference for visibility on the next job. Has anyone else had a veteran diver correct a basic habit you thought was fine?

3 comments

3 Comments

rose_reed24d ago

Honestly @piper779 brings up a solid point about the visibility factor, but I think even in decent conditions flaring your fins is one of those small habits that snowballs into bigger issues on deeper wrecks where you're already fighting current and narcosis. Tbh Murray's right that old timers can be harsh, but sometimes the nitpicking saves you from being that diver everyone hates following through a tight passageway.

murray.jana24d ago

Oh come ON, they called you out for "flaring your fins"? That seems a bit dramatic. I mean yeah, silt is annoying but we've ALL kicked up a little cloud at 110 feet at SOME point. Honestly I think some of these old timers just like to nitpick newer divers to feel important. Unless you were totally sandblasting the wreck and couldn't see your hand in front of your face, it probably wasn't that big of a deal. But hey, if smaller kicks work for you then cool, just don't let them make you feel like you committed some diving sin.

piper77924d ago

So what kind of visibility were you actually dealing with down there? Like could you still see the wreck or was it total pea soup? Because that makes a HUGE difference in whether the critique was fair or just old-timer gatekeeping.