Great article! Nice to hear you are still around. Maybe we will meet one of these days after all, since I continue diving, even at 75.

The divers almanac stopped publishing after they agreed to list the 3 generations of divers on the same dive boat as a first. Both the son and granddaughter are still diving although they don’t go often due to other priorities like work and school.

I had 4 great trips to the tropics last year and don’t do much California diving anymore. Common sense says being cold is not fun and diving should remain fun. It has been mostly fun since being trained by the Navy in 1957. But I have seen some dumb stunts along the way, mostly due to failure to use common sense. That axiom about “old divers”, vs not many “old bold divers”, still applies.

Stay the course!

Harry

You are exactly the type of diver that needs fixed rules to govern your diving practice. I’ve been doing this for over 40 years now professionally… all over the world… on vessels of all sizes… and watching other divers closely. I’ve also written a lot of the operations guidelines for informed resorts and liveaboards that recognize that experienced divers are more than capable of making their own decisions and, specifically, having “situational awareness” when it comes to contingencies. When I go into the water, I expect everything go wrong… all at once. That way I’m never surprised at what comes up. And I deal with those situations myself.

If your own skill sets mean you need to be supervised, bob around on the surface when you exit the vessel, and generally have a crew member of divemaster look after you… then you need to strictly follow the rules for the lowest common denominator. You’ll have plenty of company…

In my case, I prefer to deal with my own protocols for diving, either with experienced buddies or when I’m solo.

The point of “how to do it” rules is that they automate some key safety moves that may not matter in many circumstances, but are lifesaving in others. They should be the default. Not something that can never be broken–but the default.

Similarly, the reason to stay at the surface is so that someone can notice if you’re having a problem. Yes, a group of advanced divers in adverse conditions may agree to bomb down to the bottom, or meet on the deco line, knowing their buoyancy and intended descent speed. But do it wrong and you can get a squeeze, blow your ears, get the spins, and be unclear on up and down without anybody up top even knowing there’s a problem, and no buddy near. There’s a reason that it’s an advanced move, and that an “OK” on the surface is the obvious default.