I did it twice, once with a DM that was finishing up as I was starting then again with another DM that started when I did. It's a great skill. I won't give you any hints but one... Puff Puff Give 
Scott
Scott
Equipment swap
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DaFireMedic
Contributor
DBailey:
I realize this, but I got the impression that ALL of your gear comes off at the same time, including weight, then you put on the others person's gear. This would mean holding the weight belt/BC to keep yourself down while holding onto anything positively buoyant to keep it with you (which shouldn't be much, if anything). It'd be easier to put something negative on them to hold it down, just my thought. Like I said, It'd be fun to try.
DaFireMedic:
Nope. The goal is to come out of the water with your buddy's gear on. *How* you do it is up to you and your buddy.
There's nothing stopping you from organizing the tasks like a chain of events and ping them off one at a time.
R..
DaFireMedic
Contributor
Diver0001:
Ah, I see, thats cool. The post that I initially quoted from "countryboy" stated that his was a complete gear removal with no swapping of individual pieces at a time. Thats what my initial question was addressing.
We had to completely remove all gear before we could start donning.. So yes, if it is bouyant, need to hold on.. if it is negative, need to drop and keep an eye on it..
Part of the challenge... Maybe my instructor made it harder?
Part of the challenge... Maybe my instructor made it harder?
countryboy:
Welll.... *how* you do it isn't described in the standards. Teh point of the excercise is to "demonstrate the ability to solve unanticipated problems underwater by exchanging all scuba equipment (except exposure suits and weights) with a buddy while buddy breathing." That's straight out of the standards.
In other words discovering the "How" is the whole point of the excercise. One could argue that by telling you "how" your instructor was making it arbitrarily hard in one sense but at the same time taking the "unanticipated" element out of the excercise and therefore doing too much of your thinking for you. (That's not a reflection on what kind of DM you are, just an observation about the way you were asked to do this particular excercise).
R..
For what it's worth, I practiced for this exercise by removing all of my gear on a number of shore dives before planning the exercise. This was similar to the exercise from my OW Class, except that there you are only taking off one piece of gear at a time. When I was doing this, I'd anchor my flag reel on a wide, sandy spot, then lay my gear out in a nice, orderly row, holding my weight belt. After a minute or two, I'd put everything back on.
Another tip is to use a weight belt, not integrated weights - it's safer and easier to control your bouyancy when you take off your scuba unit. I might recommend that you use a pocket-style belt with soft weights in the same units - a beltload of 3 lb bags, for instance, to make exchanging weight easier.
Finally, during my last few pool sessions before the exercise, I practiced the "doff and don" exercises mentioned above. Throw all of your gear in the deep end of the pool, with your tank turned off, then swim down and put everything on in a reasonable order.
A lightweight wetsuit is helpful, as positive bouyancy can be an issue.
Likewise, be careful to secure your scuba unit before putting on the weight belt. Even though we're divers, we still can't breathe water, and accidents happen.
All that being said, I found it a fun, though challenging exercise. I hope your experience is similar.
Best of luck! Please post a note to let us know how it goes.
-Grier
Another tip is to use a weight belt, not integrated weights - it's safer and easier to control your bouyancy when you take off your scuba unit. I might recommend that you use a pocket-style belt with soft weights in the same units - a beltload of 3 lb bags, for instance, to make exchanging weight easier.
Finally, during my last few pool sessions before the exercise, I practiced the "doff and don" exercises mentioned above. Throw all of your gear in the deep end of the pool, with your tank turned off, then swim down and put everything on in a reasonable order.
A lightweight wetsuit is helpful, as positive bouyancy can be an issue.
Likewise, be careful to secure your scuba unit before putting on the weight belt. Even though we're divers, we still can't breathe water, and accidents happen.
All that being said, I found it a fun, though challenging exercise. I hope your experience is similar.
Best of luck! Please post a note to let us know how it goes.
-Grier
Man, I had a blast with mine.... I found it was much easier to take each others gear off instead of taking off our own. Note to self.... hopefully you at least like the person you'll be swapping gear with. With us, it was pretty much a no holds barred situation. We just wanted to get it done. My feet always tend to go up so if you can just imagine the position that left me in with my DM buddy.. Thankfully he was a good sport about it all.. I wont go into detail what exactly it was that caused me to start laughing down there, but I'll warn you now..... dont laugh, it really sucks when you have limited air.
I had one goal, get-ir-done no matter what (within reason of course). When we finished up (first time around ,I might add) our Instructor said he thought for sure that we were going to be in trouble when he saw me go feet up and Fred with his feet still down. We did better when we started unhooking each others gear. Nice and smoothe until "the Laugh".... oh man did that ever suck. I ended up sucking down some water and really needed to cough, only problem, it wasn't my turn to breathe. Fred knew by my look that something wasn't exactly right and forced the reg in my mouth and held it there until I recovered (I needed a few extra breaths) and then went back to the every 2 breath swapping thing.
I'm very greatful that our Instructor didn't rush our classes. We had a total of 5+ months of nothing but diving with him and his students, busting our butts (2 months of classroom stuff). We were learning even when I thought we were just his slaves.
Definetly let us know how it all works out for you... good luck (Take your TIME)
I had one goal, get-ir-done no matter what (within reason of course). When we finished up (first time around ,I might add) our Instructor said he thought for sure that we were going to be in trouble when he saw me go feet up and Fred with his feet still down. We did better when we started unhooking each others gear. Nice and smoothe until "the Laugh".... oh man did that ever suck. I ended up sucking down some water and really needed to cough, only problem, it wasn't my turn to breathe. Fred knew by my look that something wasn't exactly right and forced the reg in my mouth and held it there until I recovered (I needed a few extra breaths) and then went back to the every 2 breath swapping thing.
I'm very greatful that our Instructor didn't rush our classes. We had a total of 5+ months of nothing but diving with him and his students, busting our butts (2 months of classroom stuff). We were learning even when I thought we were just his slaves.
Definetly let us know how it all works out for you...
good luck (Take your TIME)
No, we were specifically told to remove ALL gear before we started to re-don the equipment.... Last was the mask.. stinks when you are the one to put the mask on but can't clear it until your buddy gives the reg back... after that it was easier...
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