ORIENTATION in diving: triple count word? : :))

The famous point that tickles the divers from time to time in our formations and / or in our dives: ORIENTATION! Who hasn't already said ”orientation, I don't know how to do it, I get lost systematically, I can't do it, it's not for me! ”… A good number of us certainly: it is not necessarily instinctive to find one's way underwater, there are tracks, entry keys, sesames, which we suggest you teach you: yes, orientation is learned and is too often overlooked during training, but it is also and above all the experience that will lead you there.

Let's take a few points to help us: these are benchmarks to take BEFORE et WHILE diving .

For the game BEFORE diving, it is a matter of being attentive to the briefing, of course, but of taking landmarks from the surface: 

- Where is the sun? Which side is he in relation to me when the boat leaves: behind at the start, to the right, in front ...

- The waves are sailing in which direction? Which way is the wind blowing? The direction of the current?

We have to locate the dive site there in relation to the boat and the sun to have the overall diving orientation.

WHILE the descent keep in mind the general direction of the route we are going to do. If there is an anchorage, let's go down there and take the time once at the bottom of the anchorage to take concrete landmarks: depth where we are: if we are at 12 meters, there is no point looking for the boat in a lesser area on the way back. or higher.

We then go on an exploit: if we are not sure of our orientation, at the beginning we will prefer to take a course and try to keep it: if we zig-zag too much, we risk deviating and losing the overall direction ; it will be time to change our course when we have optimized our dives. Let us take landmarks: rocks with particular shapes, rock masses, seagrass ... so many landmarks that you will have to take the time to look while turning around to see what they will look like on the way back. Seeing them from another angle from the start guarantees us a little more return.

We can add elements: in case of current, start the dive facing the current, so that we do not strain to return to the boat. If the visibility is not good, we should avoid lying down and sailing too far from the boat.

In addition, to start and progress over the dives, we can also do a star-shaped course: I leave the mooring in one direction, I return to the mooring, I set out again in another direction, I return to the mooring and so right now.

The idea is to take full advantage of our dive and not stay focused on orientation; the fact of diving also allows us to empty; do we not fly in this water? So if the fact of being so serene at the bottom forces us to forget where we are, yes, we will get lost again (… and we will take out our parachute), but we will try to follow these few tips given above. There is still more than a billion things to discover, why wait!

Aurélie Chanard ODYSSUB