Diving procedures

See also: Scuba skills and Surface-supplied diving skills

Diving procedures are standardised methods of doing things that are commonly useful while diving that are known to work effectively and acceptably safely. Due to the inherent risks of the environment and the necessity to operate the equipment correctly, both under normal conditions and during incidents where failure to respond appropriately and quickly can have fatal consequences, a set of standard procedures are used in preparation of the equipment, preparation to dive, during the dive if all goes according to plan, after the dive, and in the event of a reasonably foreseeable contingency. Standard procedures are not necessarily the only courses of action that produce a satisfactory outcome, but they are generally those procedures that experiment and experience show to work well and reliably in response to given circumstances.[1] All formal diver training is based on the learning of standard skills and procedures, and in many cases the over-learning of the skills until the procedures can be performed without hesitation even when distracting circumstances exist. Where reasonably practicable, checklists may be used to ensure that preparatory and maintenance procedures are carried out in the correct sequence and that no steps are inadvertently omitted.[2][3][4]

Some procedures are common to all manned modes of diving, but most are specific to the mode of diving and many are specific to the equipment in use.[5][6][4] Diving procedures are those directly relevant to diving safety and efficiency, but do not include task specific skills. Standard procedures are particularly helpful where communication is by hand or rope signal – the hand and line signals are examples of standard procedures themselves – as the communicating parties have a better idea of what the other is likely to do in response. Where voice communication is available, standardised communications protocol reduces both the time needed to convey necessary information and the error rate in transmission.[7]

Diving procedures generally involve the correct application of the appropriate diving skills in response to the current circumstances, and range from selecting and testing equipment to suit the diver and the dive plan, to the rescue of oneself or another diver in a life-threatening emergency. In many cases, what might be a life-threatening emergency to an untrained or inadequately skilled diver, is a mere annoyance and minor distraction to a skilled diver who applies the correct procedure without hesitation. Professional diving operations tend to adhere more rigidly to standard operating procedures than recreational divers, who are not legally or contractually obliged to follow them, but the prevalence of diving accidents is known to be strongly correlated to human error, which is more common in divers with less training and experience.[2] The Doing It Right philosophy of technical diving is strongly supportive of common standard procedures for all members of a dive team, and prescribe the procedures and equipment configuration that may affect procedures to the members of their organisations.[8]

The terms diving skills and diving procedures are largely interchangeable, but a procedure may require the ordered application of several skills, and is a broader term. A procedure may also conditionally branch or require repeated applications of a skill, depending on circumstances. Diver training is structured around the learning and practice of standard procedures until the diver is assessed as competent to apply them reliably in reasonably foreseeable circumstances, and the certification issued limits the diver to environments and equipment that are compatible with their training and assessed skill levels. The teaching and assessment of diving skills and procedures is often restricted to registered instructors, who have been assessed as competent to teach and assess those skills by the certification or registration agency, who take the responsibility of declaring the diver competent against their assessment criteria. The teaching and assessment of other task oriented skills does not generally require a diving instructor.[4] There is considerable difference in the diving procedures of professional divers, where a diving team with formally appointed members in specific roles and with recognised competence is required by law, and recreational diving, where in most jurisdictions the diver is not constrained by specific laws, and in many cases is not required by law to provide any evidence of competence.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Larn and Whistler 1993 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Ranapurwala et al 2015 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference DAN Checklists was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference ADCI 2016 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Class 4 training standard was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Class II diver training standard was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference P D Handbook 6.2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Jablonski 2006 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).