Covediver's Underwater World

Divers have definite and different personalities. The individual personalities within a buddy team can be simultaneously complimentary and destructive. This paradox is insightfully captured in Bernie Chowdhury’s book, The Last Dive, which tells the story of the Rouses, a father and son team that perished while diving on submarine U-869. The book is haunting in detail, revealing how the two personalities interacted with each other within the larger context of the social system that is deep wreck diving. The book gave me nightmares as I read it, a reaction I did not get from reading number of similar titles seemingly spawned by Chowdhury’s seminal work, such as Fatal Depth, Dark Descent, and Deep Descent.

Did you ever wonder what kind of dive buddy that you might be? Are you ready for a non-scientific, potentially tongue-in-cheek self-assessment of your “diver personality?” Can you be honest and not self-delusional when answering a number of questions about dive gear preferences, your reaction in hypothetical situation, and your dive behavior? If so, you may want to check out the Diver Personality profile at www.coralrealm.com and answer the 20 or so questions, hit the submit button and lo and behold your objective diver profile will be provided.

During a recent training session at work, I submitted to take a Myers-Briggs Inventory. The resulting “score” reduces my complexities to a single four letter string of characters. I answered the questions as best I could and the resulting score, when interpreted using a number of tools, was amazingly accurate. It was one of those “Killing Me Softly with His Song” moments with revelations that some people might find does not square with their self-perception.

I felt secure enough in my own diver identity to take the test. I answered the questions to the best of my ability, the forced-choice responses have no real overlap, although I did find myself saying “well, it depends on the situation” as I made my selection. And while essential human personality does not change over time (once it is set, we pretty much play the hand as it is dealt), I do think that my diver personality has changed over time as I have matured. Early in my career I felt cheated if I only made three dives on a four-dive-day boat. Now I definitely take quality over quantity.

My profile revealed that I am a Casual Explorer. The list of profiles explains that “there are three subcategories of the Explorer Diver: the Casual, the Scientific and the Extreme. All three diver personalities have inquiring minds. They tend to be conscientious and discerning. Explorer Diver personalities usually emerge with experience and maturity rather than being innate. Explorer Divers exhibit high levels of curiosity and love spending hours reading and adding to their marine knowledge base. Many are so passionate about their love of anything marine that they may be labeled "evangelistic" by other diver personalities. However, they make good mentors and guides. They love sharing their knowledge and expertise to enhance other divers' understanding of the marine ecosystem. The Casual Explorer is the least obsessive of the three Explorer personalities. They are extremely adaptable and enjoy all types of diving conditions and environments. Casual Divers exhibit an ability to find something interesting and new in every dive situation. They make more general and superficial notes in their dive logs than the Scientific and Extreme Diver personalities.”I believe that description fits me remarkably well. I am remarkably curious about the marine environment, or more accurately, the events and people who define it. While you will find some fish guides on my bookshelf, they are far outnumbered by other titles such as those cited above. I do think I make a good mentor and guide, if the testimony of my former buddies is any indication. And I agree that this type of diver is the least obsessive. As I tell people, diving for me once was an obsession, now it is merely a preoccupation.