Lesson 37

Card 5.2: Pool Deck Protocol and the Launch Checklist

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Format: Team drafting + tabletop rehearsal

Time: 40 min

Prerequisites: Card 5.1

Core Question

Pool minutes are the scarcest resource we have, and the deck is where they evaporate: forgotten fuses, unsealed vents, dead batteries, missing tools. Pilots and surgeons use checklists for exactly this reason. What is ours?

Resource (~10 min)

Why checklists work when memory fails: they are for things experts forget BECAUSE they are experts (too routine to think about). Short excerpts and stories from aviation and surgery checklists.
The MATE deck reality: safety inspection, size and weight checks, tether handling rules, and the launch procedure judges expect to see performed with discipline.

Activity

Teams draft their launch checklist: pre-travel (leaving the studio), pre-dive (on the deck), and recovery (out of the water). Then tabletop-test it: the teacher walks through the list playing saboteur (“the vent plug is missing, which line catches it?”). Every failure the tabletop finds gets a line. The surviving checklist gets printed and laminated.

Clearing This Card

Contribute to your team’s checklist and pass a 90-second oral check: pick any line and explain the failure it exists to prevent, ideally from team history.

If You Miss This Class

Review your team’s checklist, then propose one addition or improvement with its rationale; same check.

Why This Matters

This checklist runs at every pool day, so it gets a full rehearsal monthly before it runs at the regional. Deck discipline is also scored, watched, and remembered by safety judges.