Hello my name is Nael, I am a SSI dive guide and a PADI rescue diver
while we are all stuck at home during this pandemic why not
learn a new skill: the dive briefing.
You do not need to be a professional diver
to have to do a dive briefing
if you are
just diving with your friend that can be a perfect skill to have.
The dive briefing is mainly used to introduce yourself
the dive sites and to go over some safety measures that hopefully you're
not gonna have to use
I am going to break down chapter by chapter
the basis of dive briefing and give you a version of how i do my dive briefing
If you prefer to read there is a blog
post with all the information in the description
Obviously every diver
has their own way of doing their their drive briefing
so i encourage you to look at how other scuba divers do their
dive briefing and maybe pick up what you like
and incorporate it into your own dive briefing
The first point is your Introduction
This is especially important if you work with a new group
of divers they don't know you and you don't know them
So they need to know they can trust you so make sure that
everybody is listening and you can see all of them
Usually I have them placed in circle in front of me
And I do that before they start to get equipped because if they're already in their
suits and they can they can get quite hot and very
uncomfortable and they are not going to listen to you
If you have non-native speaker on your group you must be especially attentive to them
People may be too shy to ask questions or
interrupt you so be careful to their expression if you see their eyes starts
getting somewhere else or they fronwn
that may be a sign that they
are not following you they don't understand you.
So here is an example of what i do:
Hello my name is Nael, i'm your guide for today
I speak fluently french and english and i speak a little bit of spanish
I'll start the dive briefing feel free to ask me to repeat anything
if i go too quickly
The second thing you're gonna
talk about is the dive site
obviously this part is going to be different to
every dive site
it's going to be easier to do every time
you dive there
the major point to cover are the name
the entry and exit point the depth what they're gonna see the
water temperature and such
I find it very helpful to give
localization clues to what the diver are gonna
see during the dive
so that they don't spend the entire dive
looking for something that's gonna happen at the end of the dive
so here an example of what I do:
we are going to follow the cliff on our right
shoulder and at some point you'll see an opening
with a lot of wildlife so have your camera ready
I tend to speak
a lot with my hand i find it helpful to communicate things
for example if they did not understand the world "shoulder"
the fact that I point it, put my hand on it
the end this section
by telling how long the dive is going to be approximately
and that makes the perfect transition to the hand signals
you want people to tell you when they are half tank.
Even if they are basic hand signal it's very important to cover all of them.
Ask your divers if they use any specific hand signals
for example i met someone who gave level of coldness
hand signals so for example they will say i'm cold level one
two three three meaning i need to go up right now
that is also a very good way to keep your diver
engaged with you during the dive briefing
um because they can add some of their experience in that
and participating and made it make it easier
I know in france the dive signals are not the same that in PADI and SSI
if you have foreign divers this is a very important thing to remember
for example in france we do the 50 bars left
right there and i think in PADI and SSI you mainly do it there
so if you end up in this situation with a diver
who starts saying that and you don't understand
that's that might be a bit confusing and dangerous
Going on on the safety measures
remind them to stay safe to their body
especially if this visibility is quite low
lost divers scenario and other safety measures depends on the dive site and condition
and at this point you can also introduce
an environmental recommendation
they're also very specific to your dive site
but you can also tell them
that you carry a bag for trash
maybe have a contest and offer a beer to
someone who brings the most trash something like that
if you feel comfortable doing that
End with question if they have any
that's the perfect moment to tell them to ask questions
and tell them
you are available at any time if you do have questions
remind them this is the moment to go pee
a lot of divers pee in their wetsuit and we as a dive professional have to clean
that and that's good so you can remember to pee
before uh your dive and after the dive briefing that's great
so here is the dive briefing that i will do
If i was diving in Malta for example
Hello my name is Nael and i will be your guide for today
the dive site that we are going to is called Hondoqq
it's a very shallow dive with a maximum depth of 20 meters
and a nice warm temperature of 20-25 degrees celsius
after this briefing we are going to get equipped and head toward the beach
over there with our fins on our hand and once we're in the water remember to
inflate your jacket
we'll be able to put the fins on.
We are going to start with the cliff on our right shoulder keep an
eye on the sand where you'll see some flying fish with
nice blue wings
We are going along the pipeline for most
of the dive
You can also try to check underneath it
we have a lot of wildlife trying to hide in there
after 30 minutes or when someone hits the hundred bar marks
we are going slowly to take a left and exit on the pier right over there
please please please make sure that you stay under the 10 meter depth
as we go there because the boats come and go
during the dive I am going to ask you if you're okay
please respond to me with a okay sign
or i am not okay and point me to where something is wrong
i cannot read your mind yet
when I ask how much air have you got left um
show me your fingers or the half bottle mark
and does anyone has a psi gauge
yes yes so um reminder you'll get the
thousand on the arm
today we should have a nice
clear water as always in Malta
but the sand is easy to kick so stay
next to your buddy
who's with whom okay great
um on the unlikely event to an empty bottle
give me that sign i'll give you my second regulator that's gonna
hang right there and the entire group will come up
uh if we are still on the beach uh if we're next to the pier we're gonna go
back to the wall first and then exit on the
multiple ladders over there
There is also a lot
of jellyfish around here so keep an eye on top of you
especially when you surface
In case you get stung
I have vinegar on the car
if you lose your buddy or the group
look around you for one minute and surface
even if you see bubbles do not go down again
there's a lot of diver there today so might not be our group
and we will be waiting for you at the car
If you can if you find trash
down there because there is a lot of swimmers and boats it's possible that we
find some you can pick it up be careful with your hands
I have a bag with me so you can just make a sign
and i'll make sure we discard it properly
on the surface
right does anyone have any question
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If you do your dive briefing differently please let me know in the comment section
maybe i can learn from you as well and i hope to see you next time
bye