There are many different types of training and we usually think of drills, OOA, etc. Those are good, I don't do them enough, but there is another type of training/practice that interests me more. Just for the sake of a name I'll call it Progressive Training. It could be as simple as planning your next dives as preparation for something more demanding in the future.
It's common to do this when progressing to deeper depths as in do a few dives to 100 fsw before going to 130 fsw, etc. It is also a good idea to look at all the possible conditions you could get into in your local area and do dives involving one of those conditions before you do dives involving potentially all of those conditions.
Around here the conditions could be surge, high winds/waves,current, unlimited depth, poor viz, night diving, tough rocky entries/exits, timing slack, different entries from exits. And I'm just thinking about shore dives at the moment since around here boat dives can make some of these conditions easier as well as adding some complications as well. Preplanning for gas/currents goes without saying in some of these situations.
I trained in this manner once for a dive where it really paid off as everything that could go wrong with mother nature did go wrong. It was the toughest dive I've done but other than taking 45 minutes on the surface to get out of there it went as well as it could have given the circumstances. I had no idea I would need for all that training to pay off on this dive but I was certainly glad to have trained in the way I did.
In my case I went diving at well known and mostly protected sites on days when the wind was blowing (into shore) creating moderate waves. Not a problem but better to get used to this for the first time when nothing else is going wrong.
I went to a known site near shore with current and timed slack and got used to the current as slack passsed. It was near shore so as current got to be too much I could swim to shore easily (and quickly). Later, I went to sites with current where the wall was much further out and where getting back in with current was more of a problem but by this time I had better skills at dealing with current.
I did a shore drift dive getting in at one spot and getting out at another. The currents were extreme but all I had to do was drift and learn to keep my buddy at my side. As you and your buddy move it takes a bit of skills to drift at the same rate.
Most of my dives are at night and somewhat deep but if they weren't this would have been another area to practice in. I still don't like to mix depth and current so through practice you learn your own rules/limits.
I went to a shallow site with surf and some bull kelp. I went to other areas where you have to deal with boulders when getting into the water and in places when you are standing on rock but where the water level isn't high enough to take the weight off your back for some distance.
If you simply plan some dives to take you into new (to you) conditions while attempting to limit the new factors to one at a time your skill/confidence/abilities in the water will increase much more than diving in the same locations over and over without ocassionally seeking out these new conditions.
One day when they all come together (unexpectly perhaps) on one dive you will be glad you did.
I'm sure many of you do dive/train this way but hadn't really seen this topic discussed that much so if anyone has something to add, great, that's why I posted this.
