Complacency Sneaks Up Quick & Silent

Not a big story but I thought it might interest someone. Well it was a great day for a dive and I met up with one of my favorite dive buddies N2 to get a dive in at the Nest. He has dove the system before and I have many many dives there. The dive plan was to go down stream and turn the dive at 15 minutes. We never dive this system to 1/3's even if we are going up stream. One thing that I always do going into this system is take a compass reading at the debri cone after coming in the chimney. I had never gotten turned around but thought it possible when checking on you buddy above you and getting down to the "T" in the line. This time I was so cocky and self confident that I knew my direction was right I neglected to check the compass. Well of course as soon as I got to the rock UPSTREAM that I drop my last deco bottle on I knew I had gone the wrong way. My buddy was very understanding when I shot myself in the head with my finger he signaled "ok" and to continue the dive upstream. Since N2 has never been to the down stream side I thought this more than considerate of him. The rest of the dive was uneventfull but if neither of us had noticed the error and we were down steam instead of up it could have put more stress on the dive. Complacency will get you and I will now spend the time to review my diving procedures and see if I have let it creep in to other aspects of my planning or execution.