Keeping Track
|
Register for Updates To make sure you recieve a direct notification of each months topic for SAFETY TALK as well as other information about important BSAC changes, new BSAC services and BSAC benefits please register for the BSAC MAILING LIST |
SAFETY TALK - November 2007
Keeping a Log
|
Nostalgia or a valuable resource? Experience is a wonderful thing. When starting out on a new activity you can be provided with formal training to equip you with a foundation of skills with which to gain ‘experience’, but what is that experience and how do you gain from it?
Well first of all, in receiving training you have already gained from the experiences of your instructor and their own training as a diver and an instructor. Diving in a club offers structured organised diving that will provide you with the opportunities to gain experience, in a controlled and safe way to build on the skills you have been taught. The same is true whatever new skills you learn and can be applied both as a diver, instructor and other related areas.
The problem with experience is that the more you gain the harder it becomes to remember it all in detail. Reading through one of my ‘old’ logbooks the other day the memories of those original wondrous experiences came flooding back - so much so that I then dug out some old Instructor Notes including my Club Instructor Exam report!
 I suddenly realised, now as an Instructor Trainer and National Instructor, just how far I had progressed in that time. I was just so glad I had kept all those records to remind me and provide a benchmark for my development. Andrea Dickens
NDC SDC updates manager |
KEEPING TRACK
One of the key aspects of learning from experience is the ability to analyse past events and also remember your experiences. In the early days of our Diver Training we keep a log as a means of demonstrating our experience dives and whilst many continue to do this others let recording fall by the wayside.
Diving
Instructors take great care to encourage their students to fill out a diving log for the purposes of showing their diving experience to the DO but what should you record? The simple answer is often “whatever you want” and generally divers find the information they want to record for themselves such as Marine life seen or wreck details. So how does safety fit in? Well recording your equipment configuration and weighting details can help you make the correct adjustments when changing set up or after a break. This both saves time and avoids attempting to take a guess at the correct amount. The ability to check back on the type of diving you have done previously may help you make informed decisions about further developing your skills to include nitrox, trimix or rebreather use to match your developing interests. Perhaps most importantly by recording if you have a problem on a dive, even if it was corrected, this can be an important way of learning from those experiences.
Instructing
As an Instructor one of the many reasons I keep a diving log is to encourage my students to do the same. However, keeping an Instructor Log, which records the range of teaching experience carried out, is a very important tool that can be employed in your development as an Instructor. A very simple log, perhaps as a spreadsheet, may give you clues as to whether you are constantly teaching the same small set of skills or teach the whole range of diving skills and so help keep your own skills, and interests, up to date. A more detailed log could include extensive self analysis after a training session to help improve things for future teaching opportunities. This is especially valuable for those aiming to achieve the higher qualifications of National Instructor, Instructor Trainer and Advanced Instructor.
Seamanship
The recording of a Coxswain’s log may evoke connotations of Star Trek or crusty sea captains but can prove a valuable reference when repeating a visit to a particular area. It also meets the requirement for logged experience after the Boathandling Course before applying for the Diver Coxswain Award. Being able to refer to a sensible log is also a good way of reassuring others of your experience.
Think SAFE - Dive SAFE
Any suggestions for further items for inclusion would be welcome and can be made to divesafe@bsac.com
|
Register for Updates To make sure you recieve a direct notification of each months topic for SAFETY TALK as well as other information about important BSAC changes, new BSAC services and BSAC benefits please register for the BSAC MAILING LIST |
Page last modified: 31st Jan 2008 - 14:17:01