Covediver's Underwater World

Every so often, I go back to basics in my diving, you know the drill, mask clears, mask removal and replacement and the like. But my more advanced skills are practiced less frequently. A couple of weeks ago I was trying some new equipment out at the local pool and fell in with youngster, Eric, a recently-certified open water diver. We practiced buddy breathing while swimming back and forth in the pool. I think the last time I really practiced buddy breathing was in March or April of 2000 when I had to demonstrate the skill to recertify as a Department of the Interior diver, a certification that has since lapsed along with the annual requirement for skills demonstration.

Fast forward to 2006. I am gearing up for an underwater Easter egg hunt. My last dive in the ocean was New Year’s Day. I am part of a three-person buddy team. We gear up and head for the water and while I ask my buddy to check that my air valve is open. That is it, the extent of my buddy check. My observance of a ritual that I once considered sacrosanct is now largely neglected.

With five or six dives in the log book for 2005, I have made fewer dives in the last year than at any other time in the last 22 years. It is not that I was away from the water, but it was all done in the swimming pool. I must have swam thousands of yards as I honed my fin swimming skills and stayed in shape for diving, taught snorkeling techniques to people on their way to cruises or vacations outside of Alaska, and practiced rescue skills as a lifeguard. Coupled with endless hours of discussions on line with other divers about techniques and extensive reading of scuba periodicals and books, I seem to be doing everything right except putting what I know into practice.

Take the missing buddy check. I practice self-sufficient diving. I check my gear, check it again, and then check it once more before getting into the water. This is done mostly in silence. In fact, because I have acquired new gear and been diving in an unfamiliar places in the last few years, I have been especially diligent in doing gear checks. The buddy check has fallen into disuse as getting ready to dive has slowly gone from being a shared effort to being a private affair. I can rationalize why this has occurred; I dive with other advanced, self-sufficient divers, the dives are simple or under the supervision of a dive master, or people don’t really want to be bothered checking my gear out and having me reciprocate.

The Easter egg dive went off without a hitch, as have most of my recent dives, which may be reinforcing my complacency at the explicit buddy check. But, given the law of averages, ignoring this check against forgetfulness may soon pay an unwanted and unintended dividend. It is time for me to reinstitute the most basic ritual in diving, pre-dive preparation, captured by the acronym SEABAG. Er…ah…now if I can just remember what the letters stand for!