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A lesson from an old diver on a cold dock in Seattle
Back in 2008, I was prepping for a simple hull clean on a ferry. This old timer, Gus, saw me fumbling with my comms wire. He just said, 'Kid, your gear is your only voice down there. If you don't treat it right, you're just a ghost.' He showed me how to wrap the cable in a figure-eight around my elbow so it never snags. I still do it that way before every dive. What's the one piece of advice that stuck with you from your early days?
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cameron9631mo ago
Ever think about how the best advice is never about the gear itself but about the fear? My first boss told me "the water doesn't care if you're scared, it only cares if you're slow." Wasn't about moving fast, but about not letting panic make your decisions. That stuck way harder than any trick for checking an o-ring. It turns every problem into a simple choice: freeze or fix it.
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adam_nguyen71mo ago
But what if freezing is the right fix sometimes? My old instructor always said panic makes you rush the one thing that needs patience.
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rileyl981mo ago
The 2012 Ben Ainslie comeback in the Olympics is a perfect example of freezing working, where he sat dead last and just stopped racing for a bit to reset. Doesn't patience just freeze you into a state where the water wins while you stand there?
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