Rick Osgood:
I will be starting my DM course soon and had a question regarding the watermanship skills portion of the course. For the requirement to swim 400 yards, 800 yards (snorkel) and 100 yards (tired diver), is it typical to do these with fins and mask on? It would seem to be a yes to me as that's what you would normally do in the real world.
Thanks:
You didn't say which agency...
PADI:
400 yd swim - timed, no fins, if you wear a wetsuit you have to add weights
800 yd snorkle - timed, mask, fins, snorkle, if you wear a wetsuit you have to add weights
100 yd tow - timed, full gear on you and 'victim'
15 min tread - last two mins with hands out of the water (having a brain fart and not confident in these times)
My recommendation - whichever skill you feel the most confident, do it first. Remember that for PADI you need 12 out of 20 possible points (up to 5 points each). Do the swim and snorkle in a pool if you can, the push-turns are nice.
Unless you have difficulty treading, it should be a guaranteed 5 points. For the tow, hoepfully you get to choose who you tow. Pick someone small. I had to tow my instructor and I think he added about 50 lbs of lead. Either way, a score of 4 is fairly easy to get. Also, I prefer the push instead of the tow for speed reasons. That is a total of 9 and you need 12. For the 400 and 800, you get a point for finishing no matter how long it takes. Just give some extra effort in either one of those to get a 2 or 3 and coast through the other.
Edit: If you do the swim or snorkle in the pool, figure out a good way to keep track of the laps. It is boring and you will lose count.