Where’s The Boat?
I’ve been on many dives where another diver looked at me and cupped their hands together signing “boat?”. Some of those dives I could just point straight up. Others I would have to take the lead on navigating the diver back to their point of entry. Sometimes we get so involved with what we are seeing that we forget to pay attention to where we are. This is especially true if you are diving through the viewfinder of an underwater camera. Knowing how to get back to where you entered the water is a safety issue. Navigation is a fundamental skill in underwater exploration, even if the site has been explored by others before you. This is why the PADI Underwater Navigator course is so important. No one wants to be stranded at sea and have a low-budget made-for-TV movie created about them.
More to Underwater Navigation than Holding a Compass
Navigating underwater can be fun but it takes a little knowhow to do it correctly. Using a compass is the first thing that usually comes to a diver’s mind when you mention underwater navigation. However, there are many other tools at your disposal to safely navigate your way around a reef. Shadows, bathymetry, kick cycles and time are just a few things a good underwater navigator will use.
Divers Alert Network touches on some the tings you will learn in your Underwater Navigator course in their article Underwater Navigation.
How Your Underwater Navigator Class Works
Your Underwater Navigation class will expound on the compass skills you’ve learned so far. You’ll learn methods of estimating distance underwater and how to fine-tune your observation skills. Then, during three dives, you will use your compass to navigate to a specific object, mark the object and practice how to relocate the object from the surface. Finally, you will work on underwater map making. Because, you know, you can’t have buried treasure without a good map!
Navigation is one of the required dives of your Advanced Open Water course. So, if you're AOW certified you are already a third of the way through to obtaining your Underwater Navigator certification. And, to never having to ask where the boat is again.
