Recently, some friends and I made one of those long, shallow tropical dives that let you relax and explore a lot of the reef. Since we didn’t go much deeper than 10 metres, our air lasted more than an hour and our computers never neared a no stop limit. Although I’d not been there before, my friends had me lead as we wandered wherever our fancy took us. After about 45 minutes and many turns and twists, someone signaled “low air, turn the dive.” Replying “okay,” I turned and guided us straight back to the boat, at a leisurely sight-seeing pace. Back aboard, one of my friends asked, “How’d you know where we were? I had no clue!” He seemed to expect some mystical answer, but there’s no mystique to underwater navigation. The truth is, during the dive I routinely checked my compass and noted the reef, the current and other references that told me where we were the entire time.

Underwater navigation is one of those skills that sometimes confuses new divers. They tend to underestimate its value and overestimate its difficulty. Underwater navigation allows you to enjoy the dive more because you don’t waste air, you go from one place to the next in the most efficient way, and you can relax knowing which way to go at any point during the dive. Even on guided dives, you have more fun and dive more confidently because you know where you are. When you’re an adept underwater navigator, other divers notice.

While underwater navigation isn’t falling-off-a-log easy, it’s not rocket science. Many of my students in the PADI Underwater Navigator course seem amazed that simply by using a compass and counting fin kicks, they can swim a 100 metre/yard square and return to within a couple of kicks of where they started – often on the first try. With some practice and using the Nav Finder, they find they can do the same thing after following a random course with multiple turns and distances over featureless bottom.

If you’re not entirely comfortable with your underwater navigation skills, call your PADI Dive Center or Resort and enroll in the PADI Underwater Navigator course right now. Don’t put it off because chances are that you’ll find diving more overall fun because you eliminate the stress of not being sure where you are. By the end of the third and final course dive, as a certified PADI Underwater Navigator you can know where you are throughout a dive by paying attention to your compass and what the environment’s telling you.

Just remember that knowing and doing are two things. That is, it’s too late to start navigating after you’re lost. Elite divers don’t stand out just because they have great navigation skills. They stand out because they use them from the moment they splash ‘til the moment they’re dry.

Sincerely,

Posted: 2/03/2006