DIR-F Sept 29 - October 2 Dutch Springs, PA

[Frog77]

To borrow a religious term, "I am born again" regarding diving.

I took a fundies class with Bob Sherwood this past weekend at Dutch Springs. Here is a quick report:

There were 3 students in the class, including myself. All with relatively the same experience level, (<70) and aspiration to make the best out of this course. After introducing ourselves we went through our equipment first, change this, improve that.

After we got our equipment ready, we practiced fin kicks, trim, (knees up, butt tight, head up...) we did the kicks in the water and I had a lot of trouble performing them. It was simply terrible! We were then introduced to the pre-dive planning, bubble check, SADDDDD, etc. Down we went to about 30 feet to check our infamous buoyancy. I started with 16 lbs. of lead and ended almost pin down on the platform at 30 feet while trying to get neutral. Evidently I was way overweighed, and that explains why I used to "play" with the BC inflator every 5 minutes. With 6 lb. of lead attached to my tank's cam bands, my buoyancy and trim were a lot better, but still far from ideal.

The next days we kept working on buoyancy, buoyancy, buoyancy, did I mention buoyancy? We worked extensively on team awareness. This was probably the main thing I got from the class. Team communication and buddy awareness were skills that had to be "implanted" in our brains.

I'll tell you, it’s a necessary pain to watch the class video. I could've swore that my knees where up, that my trim was right, but the video didn’t lie. Bob kept hammering away at our buoyancy, trim, buddy awareness, plus valve drills, OOA, hose deployments + ascents and descents with deco stops. We then worked on gas management, and calculations on the fly.

I thought I had a good understanding of what fundies was all about. I've read on this forum various experiences from other people, but the class surely beat my expectations. I came out of this class with a higher degree of respect for cave, deep, wreck divers, no matter what agency. If anything, I am a more humble diver after taking fundies.

I got a provisional; have to work on my skills, which mean lots of diving. However, I am ok with that...

 

[amascuba]

Excellent report. I'm most likely going to be taking my class in January.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

I got a provisional; have to work on my skills, which mean lots of diving. However, I am ok with that...

Thanks for the report. I have a quick question. With a provisional, which I understand most people get the first time through, is the only way to "pass" to take the course again after working on your skills, or do you get back together with your instructor at some point in the future to (hopefully) demonstrate skills at the "passing" level of competence?

 

[limeyx]

Thanks for the report. I have a quick question. With a provisional, which I understand most people get the first time through, is the only way to "pass" to take the course again after working on your skills, or do you get back together with your instructor at some point in the future to (hopefully) demonstrate skills at the "passing" level of competence?

You can do a checkout dive with the instructor (often for free). However, this might depend on how "close" of a provisional you (or someone) got.

In our class, we had 2 people with provisionals from another class attend day 2 of the diving to get signed off, but you can also just go out with the instructor (who should make it very clear what specific improvements they need to see).

In some cases though, I think they might ask you to do more than one dive (at their discretion)

 

[SparticleBrane]

I've read a good amount of fundies reports and I'm always curious as to why buoyancy is practiced in 20-30ft deep water. Practicing buoyancy in 3.5 to 4ft deep water gives you a much better indication of what you're doing. Make one mistake and you're either bouncing off the bottom or your fintips are out of the water (or worse, you're floating on the surface). Doing buoyancy work in 20-30ft of water is relatively easy compared to much shallower water...at least that's IMHO.

 

[amascuba]

I've read a good amount of fundies reports and I'm always curious as to why buoyancy is practiced in 20-30ft deep water. Practicing buoyancy in 3.5 to 4ft deep water gives you a much better indication of what you're doing. Make one mistake and you're either bouncing off the bottom or your fintips are out of the water (or worse, you're floating on the surface). Doing buoyancy work in 20-30ft of water is relatively easy compared to much shallower water...at least that's IMHO.

You have a 5ft margin of error either up or down for buoyancy for a recreational pass of DIR-F and I believe it's a 3ft margin of error for the technical pass.

 

[Frog77]

Thanks for the report. I have a quick question. With a provisional, which I understand most people get the first time through, is the only way to "pass" to take the course again after working on your skills, or do you get back together with your instructor at some point in the future to (hopefully) demonstrate skills at the "passing" level of competence?

In my case, I have to work on my skills -be with the instructor, or a buddy that could give you some feedback - and then be tested again until you have the fundamental skills down.

 

[PerroneFord]

I've read a good amount of fundies reports and I'm always curious as to why buoyancy is practiced in 20-30ft deep water. Practicing buoyancy in 3.5 to 4ft deep water gives you a much better indication of what you're doing. Make one mistake and you're either bouncing off the bottom or your fintips are out of the water (or worse, you're floating on the surface). Doing buoyancy work in 20-30ft of water is relatively easy compared to much shallower water...at least that's IMHO.

Quite frankly, because the GREAT majority of people cannot manage to do the required skills in water that shallow. It took me nearly 6 months after fundies to be able to perform the required skills at 5ft.

Of course, I'd love to film you in the shallow end of our pool doing your basic 5, backfinning and helicopter.

 

[PerroneFord]

To borrow a religious term, "I am born again" regarding diving.


I thought I had a good understanding of what fundies was all about.

I came out of this class with a higher degree of respect for cave, deep, wreck divers, no matter what agency. If anything, I am a more humble diver after taking fundies.

Welcome to the darkside. Cookies enroute!

 

[Frog77]

Quite frankly, because the GREAT majority of people cannot manage to do the required skills in water that shallow. It took me nearly 6 months after fundies to be able to perform the required skills at 5ft.

Of course, I'd love to film you in the shallow end of our pool doing your basic 5, backfinning and helicopter.

We blew a few times our safety stops at 10 feet while doing OOA ascents. It didn't help that two of us were diving single tanks and 7 mm wetsuits while # 3 had a drysuit with double 95s.