A Diver who does not want to evolve : a good idea?

Parfois on peut rencontrer un plongeur qui ne veut pas passer de niveaux dans sa formation comme ce fut le cas avec Karl sur la photo prise en Egypte

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A Diver who does not want to evolve: a good idea?

On a recent trip to Egypt, I met a diver who didn’t want to evolve. A diver who does not want to evolve will you question me? I’m not sure.

During this stay, the dive club was relatively deserted due to the strong wind and the slightly cool temperatures. I left in early March with my partner and Dany, another diver friend. As there were not many people available, the manager of the center had asked us if we would take in our team, an additional diver, limited to – 30m.

Of course, we like to meet new people. Also, we welcomed Karl with great pleasure for the first dive.

Karl, the diver who doesn’t want to evolve

As I am very curious, I quickly talk to Karl and ask him his training history. He tells me that he is a certified advanced diver from the PADI organization. He adds that he has been diving for 10 years and that he will do his hundredth dive in a few days.

I am surprised then that he never wanted to go for an additional certification. Therefore, I question him about this fact. Karl tells me he dives once or twice a year. Only on vacation. Only in warm water. And that he would much rather take advantage of his vacation to dive than spend his week working for a new certification.

I’ll certainly do it one day, he assures me. Is he part of diver who does not want to evolve ?

In the meantime, Karl has fun and enjoys every dive. We found him so friendly that he was with us us on almost every dive of the week.

Are very casual divers necessarily poor divers?

The number of dives does not make the quality of a diver obviously. However, we might legitimately think that some 10 dives a year are insufficient to gain a lot of experience. It is impossible to acquire, in such a few immersions, enough ease to evolve in the underwater environment. Yet, with Karl, this is not the case.

Indeed, it must be recognized that here, the surprise comes especially during immersions because Karl is top. Attentive, focused, patient, interested, … A real gold buddy when diving from the shore. But also on spots like Elphinstone or in the fascinating bay of Abbu Dabbab.

Karl dives in a relaxed manner, masters his buoyancy and takes his time to progress. At first sight, you’d think Karl is a diver who doesn’t want to evolve. And we’d be wrong.

Away from the race to certifications, Karl serenely accumulates a beautiful experience, and you can feel it in his way of diving. Therefore, instead of being a poor diver, Karl is quite the opposite.

So finally, being a diver who does not want to evolve: a good idea?

We would be tempted to answer NO if we defined that the evolution is to obtain an additionnal c-card. Also, because evolution is not just a certification, we must recognize that, YES, refusing to evolve by doing as much as possible trainings is perhaps a good idea. Sometimes you just wonder with all these contradictions.

Indeed, by refusing the c-card race, the diver who apparently does not want to evolve can enrich himself by:

experience
Meeting with other people
Multiplication of dive spots
Self-confidence
Happiness (it’s clearly nicer to dive just for fun than with the stress of an exercise to succeed)
Ease in the water
…

Far be it from me to say that we must all refuse to move forward. On the contrary, I think you have to respect your time, your personal way of looking at things. This, without being influenced by others and the sometimes race to c-cards.