In December 2021 I asked: …is it okay if we talk about what happens when dives go wrong? Is that something you would talk about with your buddies, or instructors? The rest of the newsletter read: Diving Psychology can help scuba divers in all sorts of ways, but there’s only one of me so next year I’m focusing on psychological trauma in diving. That’s stress injuries, or post-traumatic stress … Continue reading Review of 2022
Stress (or more accurately distress) is strangely similar to nitrogen. As divers we protect ourselves from injury because we understand the way that nitrogen build up in the body while breathing compressed gas/air during a dive. Being aware of the way that distress can be stored in the body can help to recover from a bad dive experience. That experience may be anything along a … Continue reading Distress decompression to recover from a bad dive experience
The neutral buoyancy teaching debate focuses on how skills are introduced. Do you start your students off by kneeling on the floor of a pool and gradually work towards neutral skills? Would having them lie prone on the bottom be a better start? Or should we go the other way and start from the surface and work our way down, learning everything without touching the … Continue reading Turning teaching scuba divers inside out
Yesterday I was teaching PADI Psychological Diver, on a Zoom call, with six divers from around the world. The course encourages sharing of experiences, fascinating discussions and inspiration. This course was no different, and one of the ideas hit with such force, it has to be shared. Towards the end of the classroom session we look at diver stress and how panic develops. Experiences of … Continue reading How isn’t there a dive signal for panic?
If you are looking for a way to improve your scuba skills, consider learning effective techniques to mentally rehearse any skills. You can read our brief introduction on the PADI blog below. If you would like to learn this skill more deeply, and be aware of how to avoid the pitfalls, please check out our course. The course guides you through this accessible way to … Continue reading Improve scuba skills from your sofa
When we do something new, we often benefit from rehearsing the skills and getting familiar with the situation. To actually do this, we need to be in the real-life situation. In scuba diving that usually means underwater, with all of our kit and people to dive with. But we don’t have to be! We can also practice skills using mental rehearsal for scuba diving. What … Continue reading Mental Rehearsal for Scuba Diving
Six areas you can change to help use less air when scuba diving Below are six areas that influence what you do, and your experience as a diver. Click on the area to read more about changes you can make to use less air when scuba diving. .. your thinking Thinking about air consumption on a dive? Don’t! It increases stress a little. Heart & breathing increase, so you use a little more air. Accept your air consumption for what it is; it WILL improve. … the situation Consider what can be changed. Dive sites that are shallower? Less affected by strong current? Or change your kit, proper weighting & trim can reduce how much air you use. … … Continue reading How can I use less air when scuba diving?
It is not unusual to be nervous before scuba diving, especially if you are new or just learning. It can also happen if you’ve had a break or are taking on a new challenge. Being excited, nervous or apprehensive about a dive can sometimes feel a bit much, and you just want to calm yourself and get in the right mindset to enjoy the dive, … Continue reading Nervous before scuba diving, what should I do?
There is something I find fundamentally terrifying about teaching this course! Although the course is about theories of human psychology, it connects deeply to people’s real experiences as divers. In writing PADI Psychological Diver, every part has some connection to my own experiences as a diver. The concepts and case studies then link to the students experiences and provide ways to understand situations they may … Continue reading Scuba Divers in North-East England completing PADI Psychological Diver
Divers frequently talk to me about the difficulties they have had with anxieties in scuba diving. Struggling to scuba dive in training is not unusual. Once, I talked to a woman who had not managed to complete her open water training, but had faced some difficult conditions on the course dives. She said: “It was really hard, but I toughed it out and got through … Continue reading Struggling to learn to scuba dive, should I tough it out?
