Don't Set a Diving Resolution. Set a Diving Goal
Paul Lenharr Sep 26, 2026
Don't Set a Diving Resolution. Set a Diving Goal
It's January 1.
Which means millions of people are waking up today with resolutions.
Exercise more.
Eat better.
Travel more.
Learn something new.
Save money.
And somewhere, a diver is probably saying:
"This year, I'm going to dive more."
That's a great idea.
It's also not much of a plan.
If you really want 2027 to be a better year underwater, forget the resolution.
Set a diving goal instead.
Because there's an important difference between wanting something to happen and deciding what you're actually going to do about it.
"Dive More" Isn't a Goal Yet
Suppose your resolution is:
I want to dive more this year.
Great.
How much more?
If you made six dives last year, would eight accomplish the goal?
What about 20?
Does a week-long dive vacation count?
Do you want to dive locally?
Travel?
Both?
Without defining what "more" means, December can arrive surprisingly quickly.
Instead, try:
"I'm going to make at least 20 dives in 2027."
Now you have something measurable.
Better yet:
"I'm going to make at least 20 dives this year, including six local dive days."
Now you have the beginnings of a plan.
Your Goal Doesn't Need to Be a Certification
Scuba divers sometimes measure progress primarily through certification cards.
Open Water.
Advanced.
Rescue.
Specialties.
Technical certifications.
Professional training.
Training is valuable when it develops knowledge and skills you'll actually use.
But collecting certification cards doesn't automatically make someone a better diver.
Your 2027 goal could be:
Improve my buoyancy enough that I can hold a stop comfortably without moving my hands.
That's an excellent goal.
So is:
Become proficient with a frog kick.
Or:
Learn to deploy an SMB comfortably from midwater.
Those goals may not produce another card for your wallet.
They can absolutely make you a better diver.
Pick Something You Can Measure
"Become a better diver" sounds good.
But how do you know when you've done it?
Turn the idea into something observable.
Instead of:
Improve my air consumption.
Try:
Track my gas consumption throughout the year and calculate my SAC or RMV regularly so I understand how it changes.
Instead of:
Get better at buoyancy.
Try:
Practice hovering and controlled ascents during the first ten dives of the year.
Instead of:
Get into underwater photography.
Try:
Make ten dives this year where photography is the primary skill I'm practicing.
Measurement creates accountability.
It also lets you see improvement that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Maybe Your Goal Should Simply Be Consistency
You don't necessarily need a dramatic objective.
For many divers, the biggest improvement would come from eliminating long periods out of the water.
A diver who makes 18 reasonably spaced dives throughout the year may develop more comfort than someone who makes 18 dives during one vacation and then doesn't dive again for eleven months.
Repetition matters.
Buoyancy becomes more automatic.
Equipment setup becomes routine.
Gas management becomes familiar.
Situational awareness improves.
Predive preparation becomes faster.
If you repeatedly feel rusty on the first few dives of every trip, your goal might simply be:
Don't go more than eight weeks without diving.
For a diver in Maryland, Washington DC, Virginia, or Delaware, that probably means accepting something important:
Not every dive is going to happen in 82-degree Caribbean water.
Local Diving Is One of the Easiest Ways to Improve
Travel diving is fantastic.
But if you only dive when you travel, your number of opportunities is naturally limited.
Local diving changes that.
It gives you opportunities to practice:
- buoyancy
- trim
- propulsion techniques
- SMB deployment
- navigation
- equipment configuration
- photography
- drysuit skills
- gas planning
- buddy procedures
And local conditions can demand skills that easy tropical diving doesn't always emphasize.
Then when you do get on the plane for the big trip?
You're arriving as an active diver rather than spending the first several dives remembering how to dive.
Pick One Skill You've Been Avoiding
Most experienced divers know where at least one weakness lives.
Maybe your backward kick is mostly theoretical.
Maybe you can deploy an SMB, but you don't particularly enjoy doing it.
Maybe navigation means following whoever looks most confident.
Maybe you struggle with buoyancy while task-loaded.
Maybe removing and replacing equipment is awkward.
Maybe you've been saying you're going to learn drysuit diving for three years.
You don't need to fix everything at once.
Pick one.
Work on it deliberately.
That's a much more useful goal than vaguely trying to "get better."
Consider the Training That Opens the Next Door
Sometimes a certification really is the appropriate goal.
Ask yourself:
What do I want to do that I currently can't—or shouldn't—do without additional training?
Maybe you want to use Nitrox.
Explore deeper recreational sites.
Improve rescue skills.
Dive in a drysuit.
Begin decompression diving.
Move toward technical diving.
Learn a rebreather.
Become a Divemaster.
Become an instructor.
The best training goal isn't necessarily the next course in a sequence.
It's the course that moves you toward the diving you actually want to do.
Rescue Training Is a Different Kind of Goal
Some courses primarily expand where or how you can dive.
Rescue training does something different.
It changes how you look at divers.
You begin noticing problems earlier.
You think more about prevention.
You become more aware of stress.
You consider how incidents develop rather than simply how to respond once something has already gone wrong.
For someone asking, "What training would make me a more capable recreational diver?", Rescue is worth serious consideration.
Not because you plan on rescuing someone every weekend.
Hopefully you never need to.
The value is in developing awareness and problem-solving before an incident occurs.
Make a Travel Goal
Your goal doesn't have to be about skills.
Maybe 2027 is the year you finally make the trip you've been talking about.
Pick the destination.
Then turn it into a project.
What does the diving require?
What experience would make you more comfortable there?
Do you need Nitrox?
Are dives deeper than you're accustomed to?
Will there be current?
Is it a liveaboard?
Are there equipment restrictions?
Do you need better SMB skills?
Now the trip itself gives your training and local diving a purpose.
Instead of randomly trying to become "better," you're preparing for something.
Make a Photography Goal
Underwater photographers have endless opportunities for measurable goals.
Maybe this year you want to improve:
- macro photography
- wide-angle composition
- strobe positioning
- backscatter control
- manual exposure
- shooting upward
- animal behavior photography
- video
- post-processing
Don't try to master all of it simultaneously.
Pick something.
Spend dives practicing it.
One of the biggest improvements an underwater photographer can make is going underwater with one specific photographic objective instead of trying to photograph everything that swims past.
Equipment Can Be a Goal Too—But Make It Specific
Maybe your objective is finally building your own complete setup.
That's legitimate.
But instead of:
Buy more dive gear.
Try:
Own the equipment that most improves consistency and comfort for the diving I actually do.
That might mean a computer.
A regulator.
A properly fitted BCD.
Exposure protection.
Or maybe you already own everything you need and your equipment goal should be:
Maintain what I already have better.
Not every goal requires buying something.
Track Your Diving
Your logbook can become more useful than simply recording depth and bottom time.
Track the things related to your goal.
If you're working on gas consumption, record it.
If you're working on weighting, record configuration changes.
If you're dialing in a drysuit, record undergarments and weighting.
If you're improving photography, note what worked and what didn't.
If you're practicing skills, write down what needs more work.
A year of those notes creates something extremely valuable:
Evidence of progress.
Give Your Goal a Deadline
"Someday" is dangerous.
So is "this year."
December 31 feels very far away in January.
Break larger goals into smaller deadlines.
If your goal is 24 dives:
Six dives by March 31.
Twelve by June 30.
Eighteen by September 30.
Twenty-four by December 31.
Now you know whether you're on track.
If June arrives and you've made two dives, there's still time to change the plan.
Tell Your Dive Buddy
Want a remarkably effective accountability system?
Tell another diver.
Better yet, find someone with the same goal.
Want to practice buoyancy?
Do it together.
Want to make 20 local dives?
Schedule them.
Planning Rescue?
Take the class together.
Want to become better underwater photographers?
Compare results.
Diving is already a buddy activity.
There's no reason your goals can't be too.
Don't Turn Diving Into Homework
There's one warning worth adding.
This is supposed to be fun.
Not every dive needs:
- a performance metric
- a training objective
- a skill circuit
- a spreadsheet
- a productivity target
Sometimes the goal of the dive should simply be:
Go diving.
Look at fish.
Take pictures.
Explore the wreck.
Laugh at your buddy.
Enjoy being underwater.
Goals should create more opportunities to enjoy diving.
They shouldn't turn your hobby into another job.
One Good Goal Is Enough
You don't need twelve diving resolutions for twelve months.
Pick one meaningful thing.
Maybe:
Make 20 dives.
Earn Rescue Diver.
Learn to frog kick properly.
Become comfortable deploying an SMB.
Complete my first technical course.
Take my first international dive trip.
Make six local dive weekends.
Improve my underwater photography.
Stop going six months between dives.
Then build a realistic plan around it.
If you accomplish that goal early?
Great.
Pick another.
The Bottom Line
January 1 feels like a fresh start.
But December 31 is what matters.
A year from now, you don't want to say:
"I meant to dive more."
You want to be able to look back at actual dives, skills, trips, photographs, certifications, friendships, and experiences.
So skip the vague resolution.
Decide what you want your diving to look like this year.
Make it measurable.
Put it on the calendar.
Tell your buddy.
Then start.
Because the easiest way to have a better year of diving in 2027 is pretty simple:
Go diving.