If you like to improve your diving level, you should first learn how to plan your dive because the dive plan you follow is your starting point of exploring the hidden deep life under water. The more skilled in planning your dives you are, the safer and more exciting your dives become.

In general, there are four types of dive planning:

1. A dive plan for a familiar location.
2. A dive plan for a new and unfamiliar location.
3. A dive plan for cold water.
4. A dive plan for exceptional circumstances and unstable weather conditions.

Dive planning is the foundation on which an entire dive is built. It is very easy to be made and it is the key of a successful and enjoyable dive.

Always remember, going to scuba diving without a plan is going to be a fail dive, which will make the diver unsuccessful. You would want to avoid that because the consequences are going to inevitably be reflected on your level of improving other diving skills, such as: buoyancy, concertation, speed of response, knowing the natures of those who are going to accompany you, and many other important skills.
We will summarize and simplify the steps of planning a dive as it does not require a professional diver to make it, and it is not exclusive to diving instructors or trainers.
A beginner diver can begin by learning how to make a dive plan in order to make his/her own plan or to understand the instructor and trainer’s plan.

Prior to your dive, make sure to discuss the following eight points with your buddies:

1. Entry and exit locations.
2. Choose the directions of your dive.
3. Agree on the minimum air supply to terminate the dive.
4. Agree on the maximum depth and maximum bottom time
5. How to stay together.
6. Review hand signals.
7. What to do when you lose your buddy or the group.
8. Emergency procedures.

Always remember

• If you are going to dive with more than three divers, divide them into small groups.
• Be sure to evaluate the status of all divers.
• Design your plan based on your divers’ lowest level.
• Make the diving plan convenient for the beginner divers even if the group consists of professional divers, and make sure to put your and your buddies’ safety first.
• Take into consideration the marine environment, and avoid harming the marine life, including human waste that has become part of that environment. Respect and protect it. Do not be harmful to it and be environmentally friendly.

Your behaviour as a professional diver begins with respecting nature, not harassing creatures, and not putting yourself and your buddies at risk.

Before approving a dive plan, you must consider things like:

Rain – Currents – Waves – Visibility – Wind Strength

– If diving is from a boat, always keep some emergency equipment, oxygen cylinders and some spare parts.

– Before your dives, start planning them and do not make last-minute plans.

– If you decide to go scuba diving in a remote location, make sure to:

1. Have enough supplies for the whole group.
2. Check the weather condition on the radio or by contacting the meteorological authority in your region or by using some smart phone applications.
3. Do not isolate yourself from the world.

– Take a phone with you in order to ask for help in case you needed it for any reason or a satellite communication device to use if there was no terrestrial cell phone network.

Diveholics offers speciality courses to improve dive planning skills (order now)

Your skills of dive planning are going to be constantly improving. Dive planning improvement depends sometimes on your personal skills, most notably those related to your way in convincing your buddies to follow your dive plan.
Do not make your dive plan sounds as if you were giving orders to those who are going scuba diving with you. Make it brief and fun.
We wish you luck, and we would love to hear all your exiting experiences. You can share with us a summary of each interesting dive of yours by filling out our contact form to be published in our newsletters, so that many divers can benefit from your experiences.