Growing old in diving

​I’m something of a diving evangelist; I’m happy to help new divers, old divers and lapsed divers, from whatever brand of training they subscribed to.  There are a myriad of reasons why divers fall out of the habit, though I suspect that families and finance are the big ones.  Young families are an enormous drain on time and resources and I’m sure I’m not the only diving parent just ticking the time away until junior can undertake diver training and we can set out on a diving adventure together.  My diving will be massively improved with my guilty conscience at leaving my offspring finally expunged.
But when is it time to hang up your fins?  At what point does diving just not make sense anymore even if you love the sport and have spent years involved in it?  None of us like to admit we are growing older, less capable and more vulnerable….but time keeps moving on and our bodies are programmed to decay.  Accumulated injuries and life’s wear and tear start to take their toll. 
I laughingly joke after a full day of diving and training that this is a young man’s game – it’s not a joke but a heartfelt cry of anguish.  I’m learning to pace myself, something I would never have thought about in my 20’s.  Nitrox is my very best friend even for shallow training sessions.  It takes the edge off the sub-clinical DCI that we all experience, leaving me less tired and capable of keeping going.  But I know that in reality I am just compensating for the effects of getting older.
But at what point does is the compensation not enough?  I’ve had the honour of trying to assist a once excellent and accomplished diver back into the water after a break of over 15 years.  It has been a challenge for both me and the diver.  The equipment and skills have changed and we have worked in the safety of the pool.  But the real changes are the personal ones, physical strength and mental processing.  I’ve changed my approach entirely from one of assisting a fellow instructor to one of just trying to keep this diver and any potential buddies safe. 
I think one of the key factors with someone I have trained from scratch is that they are aware of the dangers and aware of their own limitations.  By contrast, taking someone who, in their day, was one of the foremost divers and instructors in their club is a scary proposition.  Without trying to be harsh, I find myself as Diving Officer mentally registering a huge number of limitations including possible buddies, depths and conditions.  This is taking all my people skills and has reawakened branch politics and disagreement from years before I even started diving!
So what have I learned?  In future I will try not to be over-awed by any diver’s past glories, but instead rely on my own observations regarding ability.  Returning divers rarely take up the offer to attend Ocean or Sports diver lectures, but refreshing theory knowledge is essential especially if the subject matter has moved on.  Mainstream diving has changed.  My offer of Nitrox was met with incredulity. The Devil’s gas?  And you give it to Ocean Divers?! But my motives were entirely about trying to keep my elderly friend safe.  .
And the really big lesson is trying to judge when to give up on diving altogether.  Will I notice when the time has come for me?  Will I be able to look at my physical state and work out that my diving days are behind me? Or will I be the one looking for a sympathetic Diving Officer willing to work out how to achieve my one last dive?  Do I set the limits now?  I will give up diving when I can no longer carry my own cylinder?  (But then we have disabled divers now for whom we carry kit around.)  I will give up diving when the instructors are 40 years younger than me?  I will give up diving when it seems like too much hard work?
The incident reports in the last few years have highlighted a possible increased risk to elderly divers.  Maybe it’s time to bring back a diving medical for specific sections of the diving community, perhaps the over 60’s?  And maybe that defines the end point of my diving too.  When I can no longer pass the rigorous HSE diving medical I will give up diving altogether.  Instead of waiting until I start to endanger myself and others, if I can’t make the medical I need for professional instructing, it will be time to hang up the fins and watch my children continue in the sport I love.  For now I will make the most of the time that our diving overlaps.