The first thing you have to keep in mind: the guide on a dive dive is not your instructor or your mom.

Once you finish the Open Water Diver diving course and become an autonomous diver, although the guide will help you out when you can, and will take you to see the most interesting areas of the dive site, it is not in charge of your security, in charge of your security is you.

If things get complicated, he will try to lend you a hand, but usually he will also have to be aware of another bunch of divers, so if you are not lucky, he may not be around when you need it.

Here are a series of tips to make life easier for the guide, and make your dive dive more fun and safe.

Tell him your life

Or at least, the part of your life that has to do with immersion. If it is your first dive after the Open Water Diver course, if you have not been diving for a long time, if it is difficult for you to compensate, if you consume a lot or little, if you have had a cold recently, if it is the first time you are going to dive in these conditions ... Anything you can think of that you think may affect your performance in the water.

There are many people who seem to be ashamed to admit that they carry few dives behind their backs and try not to notice. This a priori is not a problem (all divers have started being novice divers and we need help at any given time), it can become one and serious if the guide does not know, you do not tell him and he does not realize .

Telling the guide about the possible problems you may have in diving will cause you to be placed in a certain position within the group or to be assigned a partner who can lend you a hand and, above all, will influence the planning of the dive. It will try to lower the first one if you have problems to compensate so that the rest of the group does not have to wait for you, it will avoid passing through narrow places or with abrupt changes of depth if it is difficult for you to control buoyancy, it will put you close to it and be more aware of you If you take few dives in case you have to lend a hand, you will plan a shorter route or in two laps if your consumption is high ...

All these things can be solved if they are known in time, but if you do not notify them they can make you have the group waiting in adverse conditions, have a bad time because you are outside your comfort zone, do a buoy or a climb uncontrolled or that you run out of air away from the boat and have to go swimming on the surface.

Also, make no mistake, if you are a novice diver and you have an experienced guide you will realize. So if you don't let him know, you'll end up thinking that besides being a rookie you are an unconscious.

Ask for help when needed

Whether riding the equipment or trying to empty the mask underwater, if in doubt ask for help.

A bottle that is not properly tied a day of calm water is a minor inconvenience. But if instead of calm waters there is a bit of swell, you may have to get back on the boat to be able to tie the bottle correctly while the rest of the group waits for you withstanding the surface waves. It is not going to turn you into a popular diver.

Making the knot that ties the bottle to the vest well has its technique, but it is easy to check on the surface that it is well tied. If you do not remember, or are not sure that it will hold, ask. The solution is very simple and will save you immersion problems.

The same under water: if you are very cold, if you are tired, if you are overwhelmed by emptying your mask or it does not fit you well, if you have problems with the equipment, if you have lost your partner ...

Do not let a "small" nuisance escalate and become a big problem. Warn, the sooner the better and let yourself help.

Pay attention in the briefing

What will be the maximum depth, what will be approximately the route, what dangers you can find and what you should do in those cases: if there is current, if there is marine life that can be dangerous, if ships pass through the area ...

Find out what the appropriate procedure is if you lose the group, find out how to find the dive exit point and what are the right places to get out of the water without risk - by the end, near the wall because ships pass near, far from the wall because the waves could hit you against the rocks ...

Listen even if you think you already know everything he is going to tell you. Because the guide, in addition to the general indications, will usually also give you the specific indications for that day of diving. You may have heard the briefing of that dive point 1000 times and know perfectly the marine life that you are going to find, but that day also, count in the briefing of the dive that there is a lot of current and what are the necessary steps to avoid it in the possible. If you do not find out, you may drag the current, you have to swim on the surface to return to the boat, arrive tired, increase your consumption and make your dive and that of others shorter.

Notify your consumption

Normally during the briefing the guide will tell you to let him know when you reach half a tank (100 bar) and reserve (50 bar). But depending on the dive (for example, if it is a deep dive), those numbers may vary and ask you to let them know when you reach 120 bar to turn around and 90 bar to start the ascent.

Find out well when you have to notify. If in a dive where you have to start climbing in 90 bar, you warn with 50 bar, you will have a problem and you can run out of air before reaching the surface. You are putting yourself in danger and you are putting the group in danger.

Do not skip any of the notices. If for any reason - you have not seen it at the time, you are a little separated from the group, the guide has not looked at you in a while - you can not notify the guide when you reach the indicated amount, do not give up because it has already passed moment. Notify him the same as soon as you can.

Indicate your consumption at the time of the warning, even if it does not match the consumption in which you should notify. If you had to notify with 100 bar and you already have 70 bar, warn that you have 70 bar. Even if everyone else is warning that they have 100 or 150 and you think you have to improve your consumption. Do not be ashamed. When your bottle runs out the one that you run out of air is you, not the others.

Make sure before you start descending that you remember the signs to indicate your consumption. And if at any given time you have doubts or do not remember how the amount of air you have is signaled, show the pressure gauge and check it so there are no doubts. Don't make up signs on the go. If you make the 50 sign when you actually have 100, it will send you to the surface ahead of time. And if you do it the other way around, you will not realize that you are running out of air!

Don't abandon him, he wouldn't do it

Probably before the dive you can choose whether you are going with the guide or not. If you have no intention of following it, make it clear from the beginning. If you are going to go with him, he will be watching you.

Never anticipate the dive dive guide. In the most unexpected moment (that he knows what it is, but you don't) he can turn around, that you do not know and get lost or you are dragged by a current.

And never ever, disappear without warning. If the guide knows that he has a group of 6 behind him, he will try to get the 6 back to the starting point. If suddenly only 4 follow you, you may think that the missing divers have been lost and look for them again or reduce the duration of the dive to be able to search from the surface (the other divers will hate you if this happens). And when a diver is lost, it may be because he has problems.