When I was just certified as an open water diver I was always amazed at how well my experienced buddies, most of them having 200 or more dives, knew where to go, to find some special object. Where I was just watching the scenery, my buddies navigated on natural features and compass and showed me the best places of the dive spot. Even more impressive, they found the way back and we surfaced almost at the same spot as where we started. Of course, in the open water course we learned some basic navigation skills (swim straight at one course and straight back), but that is not in the same league as the routes we swam underwater.To get those navigation skills as these buddies of mine have there are a couple of things I did three things:
- Learning
- Practising
- Doing it
Learning to navigate
When I started to get familiar with some of the dive spots, it became easier for me to see where they were going and I knew the way back, but still I didn't know exactly where I was, which was becoming a bit frustrating I must admit.
Doing the advanced open water course with one navigation dive improved the sense of positioning. Learning to measure distances by counting my kicks or by measuring time helped a lot. Getting more comfortable using the compass helped a lot too. And finally, learning to watch for "underwater landmarks" was like seeing the underwater world with a set of new glasses.
Practising and doing it
While I got more familiar with the dive spots we were diving at, first I tried to watch my compass and my depth gauge to find out what our route was. That worked for a bit, but not to my satisfaction... When I was not "in charge" of the navigating, I soon was looking at the scenery and not watching where we were going. So at a point I asked my buddies if I could do the navigating and that they should correct me if we were going the wrong way, or swam past our entry point. I think that this was the best way for me to learn, together with the navigation specialty. I found out that if you get to know the dive spot very well, you hardly need the compass anymore, you can just navigate on the landmarks. In the beginning I was corrected, mostly for swimming too far back, but after a while I found my way back completely. And I must say, knowing where I am and knowing I can find my way back has made me a lot more comfortable underwater.
How to be comfortable navigating underwater
So far I have been talking about my own experiences in divespots I was already familiar with. But how to get comfortable in diving and finding your way at a new spot? In my humble opinion it comes down to two points, skills and preparation. We already discussed the skill part, learn, practice and do it so I'll skip that here.
To prepare for a new divespot you could do the following:
- Check for underwater maps and other info.
- Set a route with your buddy
- Write down the course, depth length
- Divide the tasks
Before I go to a new dive spot I start with a google search to see if there are any underwater maps of the spot we are going to. For (almost) all divespots in The Netherlands I go to a divemap website and check all the maps available. Most of the times I print the most recent map, at least when there is enough detailed. I take this map with me to the dive spot en discuss a route with my buddy. Which parts of the site do we want to see and in what order will we go to them? If your not sure you can remember all the courses and depths and lengths, you can always write it down on your dive slate and check it if you have done that part of the route. Last we agree on who checks the course and who checks the depth and distance of our route.
I hope that this is helpfull for helping you, and otherwise, just follow the traffic signs....
Dive safe and have fun,
