When Familiar Becomes Complacent
The most predictable dives are often the ones that can surprise you the most. After enough weekends at the same quarry or reef, the plan starts to feel automatic. You know the route, the depth, and even where the fish usually hang out. The site feels safe because nothing ever seems to change, right up until something does.
Familiarity builds comfort, but it can hide small risks. When you stop looking closely, you stop seeing how much you are assuming. The line you always follow may have shifted. A platform may be slick with new algae. A regulator might start breathing a little rough, and you tell yourself you’ll check it later. None of it feels like neglect in the moment. It feels like efficiency.
Every diver slips into this at some point. It is simply human nature. Repetition creates a sense of safety. The more often something goes right, the more certain we become that it will keep going right. But diving is indifferent to our confidence. The water does not care how familiar the site feels or how many dives you have logged.
The routine dive becomes the place where you cut corners. Maybe you skip a bubble check because you are eager to get in the water. Maybe you skip reviewing gas plans because you already know your consumption. Those shortcuts build slowly. Nothing goes wrong, so the new normal starts to feel fine. That is how complacency grows, quietly, through comfort.
When you start to notice this pattern, the fix is not to add layers of new procedure. It is to bring back awareness. Small habits matter more than big overhauls. Slow down your setup. Talk through your plan out loud even if your buddy has heard it a hundred times. Check your gauges deliberately. Breathe from your alternate air source during the dive. These are not just safety steps. They keep you present.
Another way to break familiarity is to change something small. Reverse your normal route. Use a different entry point. Take a new diver with you and watch how they react to the site you thought you knew completely. See it through fresh eyes. Even small changes make you pay attention.
What I try to do during familiar dives is make small adjustments that keep me alert. Every once in a while, I switch to my necklace regulator and breathe from it for a few minutes before returning to the long hose. That small change breaks the rhythm and reminds me to stay deliberate. When I am divemastering, I also try to keep curiosity alive. If I see a shadow, a fish, or something unusual under the platform, I go look at it. It may seem like a small thing, but it keeps the dive from becoming mechanical. It also shows newer divers that attention and enjoyment can exist together, that diving well does not mean shutting off curiosity.
In my dive log, I track the basic details, but I also write short notes about how I felt during the dive and what went well or did not. I don't fill those sections every time, but when I do, they help me see patterns later. Sometimes a small frustration, like weighting or trim, repeats itself and tells me what needs work. Other times I notice how certain dives feel easier when I am better rested or more focused. Writing it down helps me stay honest.
Complacency is mostly about memory. The brain files away the familiar as safe and stops running checks it used to. The way to counter that is curiosity. Ask questions again. What do I still not know about this site? What would surprise me here if I was not ready? How do I know my plan still fits the conditions today? Those small questions bring attention back before the water does it for you.
For me, I know that I am most likely to get complacent at my local quarry (Three Oaks). I have done so many dives there that I could swim the route blindfolded. But that comfort is exactly why I need to pay attention. What I am going to do is slow down a bit. I will treat each dive there like it is the first time. I will check my gear deliberately, look for small changes in the site, and keep my focus on being aware, not just comfortable.
Complacency never announces itself. It just settles in quietly and waits. What keeps it away is being deliberate. Every dive, even the familiar one, still deserves your full attention. That is what I am going to do this season. It is also what keeps divers honest.
