Are we diving or swimming?

[Akimbo]

... But you know I disagree that "Diving is swimming". Years ago I was on HS swim team...

I always figured that propelling yourself through open water qualified as swimming. Using the dog paddle, treading water (swimming up), or using fins all qualify. I agree that divers don’t need to swim at competitive levels, but do need endurance in order to be confident — especially when equipment malfunctions or currents make getting back to the beach more than they have air for.

---------- Post added February 3rd, 2015 at 01:00 PM ----------

I do believe divers need to be able to swim, but let's be accurate.The RSTC standards call for a 200 yard swim with no equipment or a 300 yard swim with mask, fins, and snorkel. Some instructors never do the 300 yard swim with gear. Others always do the 300 yard swim with gear because it is a teaching exercise, an opportunity for divers unused to snorkels to get used to them, an opportunity to work on kicking technique...

As mentioned, I see a significant downside to the swim with equipment, but have also spoken with divers that never took any swim test at all. They happened to have PADI cards but the blame is with the dive shop and instructors more than the agency.

 

[TMHeimer]

Akimbo, I believe I have to eat my words and pretty much agree with you. In googling "swimming" and "swim" I found a whole bunch of varied info., but much more of it is in line with what you say than what I say. I guess I like to beat a dead horse on this. I always related swimming to the sport, which uses no aids other than a bathing suit and definitely involves arm use in some manner (unlike scuba--except in odd situations or for the disabled). Semantics perhaps, but you are correct.

 

[boulderjohn]

As mentioned, I see a significant downside to the swim with equipment, but have also spoken with divers that never took any swim test at all. They happened to have PADI cards but the blame is with the dive shop and instructors more than the agency.

I am one of them.

I was never asked to do either the swim or the float. Those were two of the many standards that were skipped in the training I got in the resort at which I was certified. That was not recent, though. That was back in the last millenium. Dive shops in areas like that have been skipping standards for decades in order to get people certified in a short period of time.

 

[Akimbo]

... I always related swimming to the sport, which uses no aids other than a bathing suit and definitely involves arm use in some manner (unlike scuba--except in odd situations or for the disabled)...

I’m glad you brought it up and we clarified the definitions we were using. I suspected we were fundamentally on the same page. Think how confusing it must be for readers that aren’t native English-speakers and close cultural neighbors.

 

[Locus]

My perspective on the issue: yesterday I did a 300m surface swim against current in cold water gear to reach the descent point to a seldom-visited wreck. It was a new dive, a new experience; a new challenge. I didn't start diving because somebody told me it was easy. If you love doing something, why choose to be less capable at it than you can be?

 

[DaleC]

As an aside Locus, I want to guess the VT-100.

 

[boulderjohn]

If you love doing something, why choose to be less capable at it than you can be?

How many people who pursue any activity in the world are as good at it as they can be? Should the people playing weekend pickup basketball games at the Rec center quit because they are not putting in 4-5 hours of practice a day in order to reach their full potential?

Whether you are talking about bowling, golf, tennis, skiing, chess, bridge, checkers, or whatever activity you want to name, at least 99% of the participants are happy as clams performing at less than their best possible capability.

 

[Locus]

How many people who pursue any activity in the world are as good at it as they can be? Should the people playing weekend pickup basketball games at the Rec center quit because they are not putting in 4-5 hours of practice a day in order to reach their full potential?

Whether you are talking about bowling, golf, tennis, skiing, chess, bridge, checkers, or whatever activity you want to name, at least 99% of the participants are happy as clams performing at less than their best possible capability.

It's a sliding scale, I guess. I'm not advocating scuba-asceticism (nor claiming to practice it), just pointing out that you only get out what you put in.

Everyone has a different maximum effort they'll apply to their leisure activities, but the consequences of unpreparedness when diving can be more severe than those while playing basketball, and I think that should factor into the decision. I don't go totally crazy with it, but at the least I try to be marginally improving all the time.

As an aside Locus, I want to guess the VT-100.

The Nakaya. Next time I'm walking up the railway tracks and going in off the rockslide. I don't love swimming THAT much...

 

[Octopusprime]

And a diving course is supposed to prepare divers for a wide variety of conditions, not just floating beside a boat. What happens when you hit current or a situation calls for you to surface away from the exit point. Consider that doing away with the skill of swimming makes a diver completely dependent upon equipment.

i agree that the swim especially for open water students is to make sure they are comfortable in the water, however a snorkel would be a better skill. When I dive I always have atleast a 7ml suit on. I don't care how far from the boat you are you can not do the breast stroak in a 7ml or dry suit

 

[Nemrod]

I have made beach dives that have involved, in a few cases, one way surface swims greater than a mile. If that is not swimming, then what is?

For competition, swimming is a sport, for SCUBA it is a tool and a confidence builder.

There have been a few times while beach diving that I have considered ditching my gear due to currents I was having difficulty with or were unexpected. I can swim much faster (and longer) without my gear than with (and especially if I keep my fins) and as long as the water is warm, could sustain many hours of effort. Knowing that I can survive without a big adult "floatie" is a confidence booster.

Unless you can walk on water, if you are moving through it, you are swimming. Though it is true that some of what I have seen pass as swimming, well, it was ugly.

More than swimming, learning to stay on top of the water, survival swim/float, should be mandatory even above any distance involved swim skill test.

N