Normalisation of Deviance

Let me start by putting my biases out there, I have fallen in love with this term. It is so simple but yet so powerful and it has been really interesting furthering my knowledge on the subject. Normalisation of Deviance was a term coined by NASA following investigations into the Challenger explosion. There are a number of YouTube videos on the subject and I would highly recommend watching them.

Let’s first examine the phrase ‘Normalisation of Deviance‘ and what it means.
Normalisation: a process that makes something more normal or regular.
Deviance: diverging from usual or accepted standards

The term fits very well with human nature to look for shortcuts and efficiency savings. As humans we are very good at identifying short cuts and rationalising them. These traits easily transfer into Diving.

In diving, we have a number of set procedures and guidelines we are taught to make diving as safe as possible. Now some of these vary from agency to agency, but there are many generic ones, and even the ones that vary have similar underlying themes and reasoning’s. For this example let’s take the Buddy Check. Agencies teach in different ways with different acronyms but the underlying reason is still the same, where the main diving components are checked. Deviance is when divers move away from these procedures for example only completing a quick short buddy check (skipping bits) or not completing one at all. Divers are deviating away from procedures by taking these short cuts. When divers do this, and there are no incidents during the dive, the justification for the short cut is reinforced, and this shortcut is then taken again and again, then starts to become the norm, ‘Normalisation of the Deviance‘. The key phrases heard are, ‘It’s always been fine’ and ‘Never had a problem’.

The graphic below is a representation of the scope and dangers of a dive. As it advances the chances of incidents illustrated by red stars increases, all the way to the point where an incident is inevitable. Now as divers it is impossible to know where these incidents sit or will appear, all we know is there is a “safe zone” (for this article I am going to refer to it as the safe zone, but it is not completely safe) where incidents are extremely rare and the various agencies have created procedures to help divers stay within this zone. Depth limits are an example of this.

Now take a diver who ignores/skips one or more of these procedures and moves from point A to point B without incident. After a few dives they personally shift their view/perception of the safe zone along and this becomes their new benchmark as everything has been fine so far. Once a shortcut has been taken, it is human nature to look for the next, and this moves the diver to point C and eventually their benchmark is reset again. This happens in incremental stages all the way along until the diver hits an incident (Red X). At this stage and evidenced in many discussion topics on various online forums, the divers justification and root cause analysis is that it was that last small change they made that caused the incident, that extra shortcut from point E. While everyone else looking in from the outside are not surprised as the distance between being in the original Safe Zone and X is huge.

Now this problem is normally compounded due to the fact that human nature makes us followers in short cuts. What you find, groups of divers move through these steps together almost in their own bubble as these shortcuts become the social norm. When others witness this group, they rarely if at all, point out the issues and more often than not, are influenced into taking the same or similar shortcuts. The cycle then repeats itself drawing in more and more divers.

A common example of this outside of diving is driving cars, how many of you reading this break the speed limit and carry on doing so because nothing happened? How many like to but are careful as don’t want to get a ticket, but when someone comes shooting past, you then speed up to follow them thinking they will slow/be first to be pulled over if there is a speed trap or the police? If you look at the statistics your chance of crashing / causing an accident is greatly increased once you go beyond this speed limit. Drivers then also justify driving fast by claiming to being good drivers, but how many have actually done an advanced driving or high speed course? FYI, I am not admitting to anything and take from it as you will, but I will clarify, I myself are human. 🙂

So why do divers do it? There are a number of factors that push / encourage humans to constantly seek out shortcuts. The main one is shortcuts in general are extremely positive, our whole evolution of a species has benefited hugely in the desire to find and take shortcuts and this has led to huge advancements. We are consciously and unconsciously taking shortcuts day in day out. The difference being is the failure of the majority of shortcuts very rarely have any significant impact on us. So as a natural state, it is something extremely difficult to fight and for this reason, it is far easier to fight it as a group then as an individual. The challenge for the group is to fight this urge, otherwise as mention above the group could cause actually swing it the other way. The other 2 big influences are time and cost. We only have a set amount of time to enjoy our diving along with a set amount of cash to fund it. These all play such a huge roll, even when people deny them playing a role in their decision making, they do. How many times have you heard some of the following comments from divers or you have used yourselves?

Now I am not implying these are bad comments to make, as sometimes they are completely reasonable things to say, suggest and do. The point is how the factors above do affect ‘everyone’. I am sure you can also think of a lot more examples.

So how do we tackle this issue in our own diving and diving communities?
First I think it is good to try and categorise these deviance’s, and I think most can fit into 1 of 3 categories.

1)      Unintentional Errors (Mistakes, Slip ups)
These deviance’s from procedures/protocols are made by accident, and the diver is normally quick to self-correct themselves initially. However we are very much creatures of habit, and the more the unintentional error repeats itself, the more likely it will happen again and again. We are never 100% perfect, but one way to help this is with notes/check lists. For example making notes from a dive briefing will help cement the information further, or having a setup check list. Aviation/Pilots are a great example for this, even if they have been flying the same plane for years, doing multiple take offs/landings each day, they still work through a check list.

2)      Risky Behaviour (Risk is underestimated or believed to be justified)
This is probably the most difficult ones to tackle or recognise as everyone’s view/estimation of risk is different, also the level of risk is greatly influenced by a divers skill set. These deviance’s are the ones that slowly build up over time, and therefore are the more difficult to tackle. I touched a little bit on this in a previous blog:
https://grahamsavill.wordpress.com/2017/08/05/better-way-to-dive-to-be-a-better-diver/

3)      Reckless (Disregard of Risk or Negligence)
There will be multiple deviance’s away from many if not all protocols, and the diver will have little to no regard to the dangers or consequences of this. Divers who fall into this category will unlikely listen to reason or believe they know everything anyway. The good thing for other divers is, this is very easy to spot, and our human nature is to stay away from risk, so we naturally try to distance ourselves from these divers. Most of the time the only way for these divers to change their view is when they are confronted with an actual incident. As nothing can convince the divers in question, it’s important to highlight the issues to new divers who maybe listening/watching so they are not influenced by bad practice.

Next step is to decide in our own dive groups what our procedures and protocols are. The great part here, is the majority of the hard work has been done for us by the various agencies.  Now as mentioned above, these protocols can differ from agency to agency and it’s up to the group to decide which one they follow.

If we look at the graphic above we have 3 groups of divers A,B and C. The red area indicates the danger zone where incidents turn major, the blue is the safe zone, green represents where an incident could progress to, and the arrows represent protocols. These groups are not definitive, and are based more on a spectrum, so would say these represent the two extremes and the middle of that spectrum.

Group A,  are following the very basic of protocols if any at all, and in an event of an incident, it can progress and escalate in a number of directions, as each diver will have no real indication how the other divers will deal with the situation. You see this regularly on dive holidays where you have a number of divers who may have never dived with each other before, who get a basic dive brief, then follow a guide around a dive site. Here you find only the simplest of protocols have been discussed or addressed.

Group B, have a number of protocols in place but differ slightly. When an incident occurs, majority of the incident is contained by these protocols and there is only a small area in which the incident can evolve outside of their protocols.  This is where the majority of regular divers sit who have regular buddies, they have a good understanding of what each of them will do in an incident and would have the majority of protocols covered. However things will be different from diver to diver which will change their response to an incident such as the equipment they are using (Singles, Sidemount, Twinset, Rebreather, BCD v Wing, Spool v Reel, Different Gas Mixes etc).

Group C, have very strict detailed protocols in place, and when an incident occurs, taking out the human factor, their response will be exactly the same. This means the chance of the incident evolving is limited as much as possible (just to note, this does not mean it is impossible, just less likely). This was very much the DIR (Do It Right) philosophy, where they went with protocols such as matched equipment setup, out of gas, specific gas mixes etc.

Now you have a better understanding of these groups, have a think about some of the following incidents and how the divers in group A could all do something different when the incident occurs and how that could impact the incident by making it worse. Out of Gas(Primary/Secondary Donation), Separation, Dive Time/Depth Overrun, Poor Communication, Entanglement, Loss of Viz, Group Position in the water.

The size of the group plays a large part and I see a lot of debate around how many divers should make up a group, from people claiming diving solo in a group, to others saying buddy pairs, and Tec divers claiming teams of 3.  As the vast majority of divers sit in groups A and B, imagine the possible issues as more divers are added to a group incident each with their own individual protocols. For these groups buddy pairs are certainly the better way to go and is the reason many recreational agencies promote this style of diving. Now let’s take group C, imagine if the additional divers follow the exact same protocols and an incident occurs, having an extra 1 or 2 divers would certainly help and actually become a must have as you pursue more and more challenging dives.  I want to take a quick moment to mention a gripe I have about people who talk about diving solo in a group of divers, overall which group above do you think that group is as it is clear they have different protocols? I also touched on this topic in a couple of my other blogs the one linked above and https://grahamsavill.wordpress.com/2017/10/07/diver-stages-from-reliant-to-contributing/

So to finish off this blog I wanted to leave you and your group with a few questions to consider the ‘Normalisation of Deviance‘ in your diving.

• What behaviours and conditions do you accept and dive now, that you previously would not accepted?
• Is all your kit maintained and serviced in line with manufactures recommendations?
• What shortcuts do you find yourself taking?
• Which rules do you change/flex so you can do that dive?
• Do you do in-depth analysis on what could have gone wrong or use Success of a dive to define what is acceptable?
• Do you focus on the incident that happen/nearly happened or what behaviours/protocols that were seen as acceptable before the incident?
• What changes have you made to the procedures you were taught as experience tells you these changes were fine to make?
• How does your group deal with members who raise issues/concerns?

I hope this blog has come across as informative and you have enjoyed my take on the subject. As always, I would love to hear others thoughts on the subject.

G-Sav

 

 

How to Use Less Gas While Diving

Recently I have seen a number of questions posed asking how can people improve their breathing rates aka reduce the amount of gas they use. I find it funny many people suggest options such as breath training devices, taking longer/deeper breaths, concentrating on your breathing, yoga breathing etc. All these work on the premise of addressing the issue of breathing, not the cause of why as a diver you need to breathe. Unless you have difficulty breathing while walking around on land, these are only going to have a small impact on your breathing rate and will take a reasonable time period to show any worthwhile results. What divers need to focus on, is the cause of the breathing, as this will have a greater impact on your breathing rate.

First off, it is good to actually quantify your diving breathing rate, commonly referred to as SAC (Surface Air Consumption) / RMV (Respiratory Minute Volume). I have written a blog on how you can calculate these here:
https://grahamsavill.wordpress.com/2017/07/26/gas-management-and-planning/

As humans on average take around 15 breaths a minute with a lung tidal  volume of about 0.5litre when at rest, which is around 7.5 litres a minute. There is a rough formula of Body Weight In Kilo multiplied by 7mililiters to get a better average for your body type. Again these are averages, but will give you an idea.
The graphic below represents your lungs. The red area represents the your residual volume of your lungs once you have fully breathed out and cannot breath out any further. The Blue area represents your tidal volume, this is how much you breath in and out at rest. The Light Blue area represents your Vital Capacity, this is the total amount of air you can breathe in and out of your lungs. The black line represents the capacity you are using when your breathing pattern at rest then progressing on to when you experience exertion.

Second is a quick recap into why as humans we need to breathe, and in the most simplistic form, we need to breath in Oxygen for our organs to work, and need to breathe out carbon dioxide which is a by-product from our organs. The harder our organs have to work the more oxygen they need and the more carbon dioxide they make and need to get rid of. This equals to an increase in breathing rate and depth of breathing. For example compare your breathing sat doing nothing, walking round the house, to running/lifting something heavy. It is actually the level of Carbon Dioxide in our bodies that cause our reflex to breath. This means when you hold your breath, the urge to breath out and in, is not the lack of oxygen but the level of Carbon Dioxide. Free divers in simple terms learn to fight that reflex by building up a resistance to it.

There are 2 areas that make divers breath more, ‘Physical Exertion’ and ‘Mental Exertion’.  We are going to have a look at what causes both of these in some more detail and how as a diver you can counter these. The simple formula is, Less Exertion = Less Breathing = Less Gas Used.

It is a very reasonable suggestion to suggest people will improve their SAC rates by just getting out there a diving, which is true to an extent as during those dives they will be unconsciously improving on these two areas. However by being aware of these and working to address them in a structured approach will simply increase the speed of improvements and lead to better results.

Now this is not a complete list, and many things will affect your breathing that are outside your control such as visibility, currents/tides, water temperature etc.

Physical Exertion
One of the biggest causes of physical exertion in divers is drag. As humans we can be fairly streamlined in the water, however once you add on all the scuba gear that becomes a different story. There are 3 areas that greatly effect drag, Weighting, Trim and Kit Setup.

Weighting
Be correctly weighted for every kilo of extra weight you add above what is needed is to be neutrally buoyant, you need to add air to your BCD/Drysuit to counter you sinking. This air displaces 1ltr of water, so if you are 3kg over weighted, that’s 3 extra litres of water you need to move as you move. The issue is then multiplied by many BCDs expanding outwards making them less streamlined harder to move through the water by creating drag. If you are not adding this extra gas to your BCD and you are over weighted, then you will be compensating for the negative buoyancy in your kicking which will cover further down.

Trim
To be the most streamlined in the water you need to be horizontal as you swim, and more importantly when you are stationary. If you are not horizontal when you are stationary ie find yourself naturally shifting to a vertical position (quickly, a very slow shift is fine), 2 things are happening when you swim. 1 your kicking is not effective, in the sense that some of the energy you have put into your kicks is not actually used to move your forward, but is actually being used to bring you into a horizontal position. 2 As you swim forward the water is actually pushing you into trim, which means your body is causing drag. Once you have your weight perfected, look at how you can spread the weight across your body, so when you stop swimming, you stay horizontal (In Trim).

Streamline kit
This is very much about removing as much drag as possible, less drag means less water resistance therefore less effort needed to move forward. One of the key things divers can change is the accessories they carry. When they kit up on the surface, these hang down the body, but as soon as they are horizontal in the water these hang away from the diver increasing drag. Some simple solutions are attaching items to the rear (around your bum) so they are in the slipstream of the BCD/Tank, putting items in pockets, or using bungee loops to hold the item in place. Other measures such as decreasing the length of hoses and securing them against the body can also help. This can also be done with the BCD inflator hose. Don’t forget your own body position in this as well, a common thing I see with divers is they cross their arms and let them hang down. If you do this now and look down you can see the amount of drag created, to see it in effect, next time you are in the pool push off the wall with this arm position and see how far you go compared to having your arms out in front.  I am not saying this position is wrong, I am just pointing how body position can effect streamlining.

Efficient Kicking
When people learn to scuba dive they normally learn the flutter kick, while this can be a powerful kick, energy is used to push the water up, down and backwards depending on the part of the circle of the kick you look at. This is very much a continuous kick, so the muscles are worked a lot, so requires a higher breathing rate to get the needed oxygen to the muscles. This kick is seen as inefficient due to some of that kicking energy being used to push water down and up rather than all the energy being used to push the water backwards. This issue can also be magnified if you are incorrectly weighted and/or your trim is not horizontal as your kicking will be pushing more water downwards.

A more efficient kicking style is the frog kick. A little harder to master than the flutter kick, but this kick has two benefits over the flutter kick in terms of efficiency. Nearly all the energy in the kick is used to push water backwards, and second, the kick is normally followed by a glide which means you are not constantly kicking. Now I am not suggesting Frog Kick is always the right kick to use and there are other kicks out there and variations. In the context of this blog however, it means you actually use your leg muscles less, therefore needing less oxygen and carbon dioxide is created.

Now with any movement, it fits on a spectrum between Aerobic and Anaerobic activity. For this discussion we will be looking towards the 2 extremes and generalising a little as everyone’s muscle make up is different. At the Aerobic end, is movement that you do with a fair number of breaths, this means oxygen and carbon dioxide levels are managed with each breath, such as going for a light jog. Your heart and breathing increases a little, and when you stop you feel in control of your breathing. At the other end is Anaerobic which is fast movements where you take far fewer breaths. This causes a decrease in oxygen in the system and increase of carbon dioxide. Think of sprinting a short distance. At the end you need to catch your breath and your body works hard to re balance the gases as well as clear out Lactic Acid build up in the muscles. This will lead to the use of more deeper breaths to accomplish this.

So how does this relate diving, basically try to stay more to the Aerobic end of the movement spectrum, slow small movements where possible.  Where possible move as least as possible, such as using small adjustments in your breathing to control buoyancy rather than always using your arm and hand on your BCD inflator. Rotate to on to your side and bend to look around rather than completely turning your body around in the water to then turn back again, or even more efficient simply bend the head down so you are looking back with your head upside down. Be mindful of your activity before entering the water, if you have had to work just to get to the water’s edge, you might be heading into that Anaerobic area, stop ‘catch your breath’ before starting the dive.

Exposure Suit
Basically choose the right one for you, and for the conditions you are diving. If you get too cold or too hot, your body will need to work harder to maintain the correct body heat therefore needing more oxygen.

The best bit about all this, is you can make changes to all the above in a relatively short period of time and see almost an immediate impact in your breathing rate. While it will take time to perfect each of the above, a vast improvement in each of those (minus frog kicking) can be done in a single dive. This is why when anyone raises the question about improving their breathing rate, this is my immediate go to response. I would suggest using a video camera to actually film yourself as it is a great tool, as many divers have never actually seen the way they dive and how they look underwater.

Mental Exertion
This is very much about the individual as we all react differently, but the aim is to stay calm. Now that is a lot easier said than done. I personally don’t get worried as I have been diving a long time, however I fall for the trap at the other end of the spectrum, of excitement. Excitement has a similar effect as being worried, your heart rate increases, therefore breathing increases.

However there are steps every diver can take around Mental Exertion and these evolve around task loading. As a diver if you can minimise your task loading you will reduce your mental exertion and which will decrease your breathing rate. Keep your kit simple, leave the gizmos at home, the more you have to think about/learn to use just adds to task loading. Keeping it simple also reduces failure points, less failure points, less likely something will go wrong, less to worry about.

Dive skills are also important and play a big part in Mental as well as Physical Exertion. Many skills can be done in a number of different ways/variations, but some are less exerting and more efficient than others. Skills should be practiced and rehearsed regularly. It’s important to remember “Practice Doesn’t Make Perfect! Only Perfect Practice Makes Perfect!”. By working on skills regularly will reduce task loading and exertion and have a positive impact on your breathing. Even skills that have been mastered can weaken over time if not used. If the excuse is the exercise/skill is easy, then simply make it harder for yourself, you will only get better because of it.

Plan your dives within yours and your dive buddy’s comfort zone and skill set, worrying about yourself and/or someone else during your dive will only increase your breathing (I am not saying ignore them or pretend they are not there!). I did touch on this subject a little bit in another blog: https://grahamsavill.wordpress.com/2017/08/05/better-way-to-dive-to-be-a-better-diver/

Last of all remember to breath, sometimes when we really focus on something we forget to breath, the issue here is the body shifting from that Aerobic to Anaerobic process.
A good way to help with Mental Exertion due to your own feelings is to focus on your breathing, now the breathing does not impact your exertion as much as the focusing does. This concentrated focus shuts off other stimuli (such as stress, worry, nerves etc), reducing mental task loading therefore reducing Mental Exertion.

Focusing on removing/addressing the cause of Exertion as listed above, will have the biggest impact on your air consumption.

If you are still not happy/not where you want to be after addressing the points above there are some additional things you can try. These are more dependent on the individual and often have little impact if done before addressing the things above and can take a while for any real progress to show through. First off fitness, the fitter you are, the more efficiently your body will work. If you want to get really picky the type of food and drink you have before you go diving will also play a part as they can increase heart rates, therefore increase breathing. Difficult to digest food, will mean your body is working harder. Yoga breathing exercises can actually help the mental exertion side, especially if you still find you are still suffering from nerves.

Most recreational regulators if serviced correctly should provide you with plenty of air, but if you find your regulator is making you work for your breath, then it might be worth getting the settings adjusted slightly.

As per other opinions out there;
Training devices, in my view have little to no impact to the recreational diver, as they are very much aimed at top athletes and even not all them use these things. As also mentioned above you would be better working on your overall fitness. Like many forms of training, you either have to continue training or actively use the muscles you have built up. So unless you are very active, when you stop using the device your body will slowly revert back to its norm undoing a lot of what was done.

Skip breathing is where you either have an extended pause before inhaling or exhaling, ie take one breath instead of two. The actual savings are either cancelled our or become negligible as carbon dioxide builds up quickly meaning more gas is needed to clear it. This breathing is also not natural, yes you could train yourself but ultimately you are having to think about your breathing, which in turn just adds to mental Exertion and task loading.

Last of all I wanted to touch on breathing patterns, and the suggestion of slower deep breaths. What happens with many divers, is they are normally dealing with a lot of unnecessary exertion due to the reasons above, and their breathing pattern goes to quick and shallow almost like a pant in the extreme circumstances. This is a natural reaction of the body to get oxygen in and carbon dioxide out as quickly as possible. This can also be seen after exercise, with the solution being to resist panting and take deeper breaths.  These bigger deeper breathes work well at shifting large volumes of gas and are more efficient then the panting. This is why many divers believe this is the answer to consuming less gas while diving. What has actually happened is you have improved the efficiency of your breathing for the exertion you are experiencing. It is a solution for the symptom but not the cause, as the exertion is still there, so you will still be using more gas then is necessary for that dive.

To sum it up, focus on the causes of exertion rather than how to breath and you your body will naturally sort out the breathing.

Thanks for reading, please check out my other blogs.

G-SAV