What training/experiences make for better scuba divers

[DetectorGuy]

Excellent post! And of course I have an opinion. The best training in the world is to get out there and dive, dive, dive and dive some more. If I may use our 4 man dive team as an example: We keep a training log for our little dive team stating where the training was, what the training topic was, what the water temp was, what the air temp was, notable lessons learned from the training session, ETC...

In 2009 each of our dive team members trained for 171 hours (that is 21.6 eight hour days). We turn these reports in to the County quarterly to let the Sheriff know we were earning our non-existent pay.
1st quarter 2009 we had 75 hours each
2nd quarter 2009 we had 23 hours each
3rd quarter 2009 we had 55 hours each
4th quarter 2009 we had 18 hours each
We were kinda shocked that we had spent that much time in a year training for different scenarios that could happen during most any scuba dive... Until 2010.

1st quarter 2010 we had 60.5 hours each
2nd quarter 2010 we had 91.5 hours each
3rd quarter 2010 we had 83 hours each
4th quarter 2010 we had 65 hours each
This totaled up to 300 hours of training in 2010 (37.5 eight hour days) for each of us.

Keep in mind this is a part time, non-paying gig for us, and each of us have day jobs and busy personal schedules. The range of training was wide from vehicle recovery, unattached diver rescue under ice, thin ice rescue, swift water, swift water ice, underwater re-compression, search pattern, AGA, CPR, AED, O2 provider, underwater crime scene investigation, tow sled, body recovery training (and otherwise), evidence recovery, black water, high angle water rescue, ETC...
With all these different scenarios we trained on, I think the panicked diver rescue was the most memorable, where one would resist and literally fight (like a real drowning scuba diver would do) as we took turns "rescuing" them. Another memorable one was when we would take turns wrapping ourselves up in rope in about 30' water and one of the others would come down and try to deploy one of their 3 cutting devices and cut the diver out of the tangle without cutting the pseudo panicky tangled  "victim". The disconnected diver drill was an eye opener too. Even though it was a planned drill, The "what if it really happened" thing kept running through my head as I was searching for the "lost ice diver".

So when people giggle about taking training to the extremes... I say hogwash! There are some very, very good divers that don't train for these worst case scenarios. Many of these excellent divers are a better diver than I will ever be, but when the sh!t hits my fan, I want muscle memory to kick in when my senses start to fade in the heat of the moment. The main thing is don't ever, ever dive outside of your training. If you do, your final ascent could be in a bag with one of us at your side.