Luck is for leprechauns. Divers need Gas, Gear, and a Game Plan

Benjamin Hadfield   Mar 17, 2026

Three Leaves, Three Checks, One Safe Dive 

A St. Patrick’s Day reminder from Benjamin Hadfield, Stuart Scuba Technical Instructor Trainer

St. Patrick’s Day is a fine time for a little luck. Lucky socks. Lucky hat. Lucky shamrock. Lucky parking space at the marina.

But when it comes to diving, let’s be clear: luck is a terrible dive buddy.

You can’t charm an empty cylinder with Irish wit. You can’t sweet-talk a missed gear issue once you’re at depth. And no amount of blarney will improve a dive plan that was never properly discussed in the first place.

So this St. Patrick’s Day, let’s keep it simple and memorable:

Three Leaves. Three Checks. One Safe Dive.

Think of the shamrock as your underwater lucky charm — only this one actually works. Each leaf stands for one thing every diver needs before every dive:

• Gas
   

• Gear
   

• Game Plan
   

Miss one leaf, and your luck may run out quicker than free corned beef at a dock party.

Leaf One: Gas

Or, as we say on the boat: the part where being able to breathe is highly recommended.

Let’s start with the obvious. Before the dive, you check your gas. Not casually. Not with one sleepy glance at the SPG while saying, “Ah sure, it’ll be grand.” Properly.

BEFORE you jump in, taking three quick breaths from your reg while watching your SPG to make sure that it doesn’t move, your gas is fully on and your regulator actually breaths is a great way to ensure your starting on the right foot. 

Also, for ending your dive in recreational diving, a simple baseline rule is this:

At 1,000 PSI, you should already be starting your ascent.

Not thinking about it. Not discussing it. Not finishing one more lap around the wreck. Starting up.

And here’s the next part that matters just as much:

You should be back at the surface with a minimum of 500 PSI.

That’s not extra air for showing off. That’s your reserve. That’s the cushion for delays, slower ascents, minor problems, or the sort of nonsense the ocean occasionally throws your way when you least expect it.

If you surface at the boat with less than 500 PSI, you haven’t had a “great air day.” You’ve had a day where the boat crew may very reasonably decide you’re sitting out dive two.

And honestly? They’d be right.

Because the goal is not to squeeze every last breath from a cylinder like you’re trying to win a prize at the county fair. The goal is to dive with margin, control, and enough gas to solve problems without turning the whole dive into a dramatic retelling later.

Good divers don’t brag about how low they got. They brag about how boringly well-managed the dive was.

So before every dive:

• Confirm starting pressure
   

• Confirm the tank is fully on
   

• Breathe both regulators
   

• Know your turn pressure
   

• Know your ascent pressure
   

• Know your reserve
   

Because “I thought I had more gas” is not the sort of sentence anyone wants to hear from a diver climbing back onto the boat.

Leaf Two: Gear

Or: sort your kit before the sea sorts it for you.

There is a special kind of suffering that comes from realizing your gear is wrong after you’ve descended. Maybe your inflator isn’t connected. Maybe your weights are twisted. Maybe something that was clipped neatly at the dock now resembles a leprechaun’s junk drawer.

All of that is avoidable.

A proper gear check means taking a deliberate look at the full system:

• BCD or wing inflated and holding air
   

• Regulators functioning properly
   

• Weights secure and correct (Not too much, or too little)
   

• Computer on and set correctly, not flashing, and a fresh battery/charge
   

• Mask, fins, and exposure gear ready
   

• SMB where it belongs (and clipped)
   

• Lights checked if needed
   

• Accessories clipped cleanly
   

• Nothing dangling like Christmas ornaments underwater
   

Because once the dive starts, your gear should feel familiar, tidy, and predictable. Diving is not the time for mystery.

As the Irish might say: “There’s no sense in carrying the harp if you’ve forgotten the strings.”

If something is loose, wrong, missing, or improvised with more confidence than wisdom, fix it before the giant stride. The best-prepared diver on the boat is not the one with the most gear. It’s the one whose gear actually works.

Leaf Three: Game Plan

Or: everyone should know the plan before anyone gets wet.

A surprising number of dive problems begin with one diver thinking the plan is “go south on the reef,” while the other thinks the plan is “drop down, head drift with the current, look for turtles, and see what happens.”

That is not a plan. That is an underwater group project.

Before every dive, the team should know:

• Maximum depth
   

• Expected bottom time
   

• Direction of travel
   

• Turn/ascent pressure
   

• Ascent plan
   

• Entry and exit
   

• Current and conditions
   

• Buddy assignments
   

• What to do if separated
   

• What to do if something changes
   

This doesn’t need to be complicated. It needs to be clear.

Because once you descend, it is a terrible time to discover that two people had two very different ideas about what was supposed to happen.

Or as an Irish grandmother might tell you: “If you don’t know where you’re going, don’t be surprised when you end up somewhere else.”

The Truth About “Lucky” Divers

People love calling good divers lucky.

“They always have easy dives.”
“They never seem flustered.”
“They never have issues.”
“They always come up with gas.”
“They’re always calm.”

That’s not luck. That’s discipline.

The calmest divers are usually the ones who did all the simple things before the dive began. They checked the gas. They checked the gear. They reviewed the plan. They built margin into the dive. They respected the fundamentals.

That’s not glamorous, but it is effective.

And in diving, effective beats exciting every single time.

Why This Matters Even More in Technical Diving

Now let’s ramp it up a notch.

In recreational diving, these three leaves are good practice. In technical diving, they are the foundation of everything.

Tech diving adds more gas, more equipment, more complexity, more task loading, and a much smaller tolerance for sloppy habits. You may be managing stage bottles, decompression obligations, tighter ascent requirements, multiple regulators, and more critical decision-making under a higher workload.

That means the basics are not just important. They are sacred.

The diver who learns to respect gas planning in recreational diving is building the mindset needed for technical diving. The diver who keeps gear clean, configured properly, and checked before every dive is building technical habits. The diver who understands that the dive begins with the briefing, not the descent, is already laying the groundwork for becoming a strong team diver.

Technical diving is not where you leave the fundamentals behind.
It is where the fundamentals become everything.

That is why this shamrock check matters so much.

Gas. Gear. Game Plan.

Those three things are not just a holiday slogan. They are the starting point for safe recreational diving and the foundation for all advanced and technical training that follows.

If those habits are weak, everything built on top of them will be shaky too.

If those habits are strong, the diver becomes stronger.

Final Thought Before You Splash

This St. Patrick’s Week, wear a bit of green. Tell a fish story. Laugh. Enjoy the day.

But before you roll in, remember:

Three Leaves. Three Checks. One Safe Dive.

Check your gear like it matters.
Review the plan like your dive depends on it.

At 1,000 PSI, start heading up.
At the surface, you should still have 500 PSI minimum.
 

Because the best divers on the boat are not the luckiest.

They’re the ones who prepared.

By Benjamin Hadfield - Stuart Scuba Technical Instructor Trainer