Dive planning

Dive planning is the process of planning an underwater diving operation. The purpose of dive planning is to increase the probability that a dive will be completed safely and the goals achieved. Some form of planning is done for most underwater dives, but the complexity and detail considered may vary enormously.

Professional diving operations are usually formally planned and the plan documented as a legal record that due diligence has been done for health and safety purposes.Recreational dive planning may be less formal, but for complex technical dives, can be as formal, detailed and extensive as most professional dive plans. A professional diving contractor will be constrained by the code of practice, standing orders or regulatory legislation covering a project or specific operations within a project, and is responsible for ensuring that the scope of work to be done is within the scope of the rules relevant to that work. A recreational (including technical) diver or dive group is generally less constrained, but nevertheless is almost always restricted by some legislation, and often also the rules of the organisations to which the divers are affiliated.

The planning of a diving operation may be simple or complex. In some cases the processes may have to be repeated several times before a satisfactory plan is achieved, and even then the plan may have to be modified on site to suit changed circumstances. The final product of the planning process may be formally documented or, in the case of recreational divers, an agreement on how the dive will be conducted. A diving project may consist of a number of related diving operations.

A documented dive plan may contain elements from the following list:

Commercial diving contractors will develop specifications for the operation in cooperation with the client, who will normally provide a specific objective. The client will generally specify what work is to be done, and the diving contractor will deal with the logistics of how to do it.

Other professional divers will usually plan their diving operations around an objective related to their primary occupation.

Recreational divers will generally choose an objective for entertainment value, or for training purposes.

It will generally be necessary to specify the following:

Detailed planning depends on the mode and techniques selected for the dive, and the choice of these depends to a large extent on the physical constraints of the dive, but also to the legal, financial and procedural constraints of the divers. The mode and techniques chosen must also allow the dive to be done at an acceptable level of risk. There is usually more than one mode which is physically feasible, and often a choice between modes which are otherwise acceptable. In some cases detailed planning may show that the initial choice was not appropriate, and the process has to be repeated for an alternative choice.

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