GUE Fundies For New Diver

[scubamountaingirl]

learning to not take a deep breath , or holding your breath when task loaded or about to donate air is IMHO a learned skill and a most important one. If you are in a real air share situation, you dont want to be , as lynne says 10ft. above your buddy, pulling on the long hose, the goal is to be in eye contact at all times.

once you get the skill in your memory, you can relax and work on your breathing.


ww

 

[DiverLaura]

Actually i think relaxing as you learn the skill will help develop it more naturally. Before even starting any skill, stop, count to 5 or 10 (whatever you need), center yourself, visualize the next 5-10 moves, get stable, LOOK UP/HEAD UP! SLOW DOWN, relax, yes, breath normally, and commence with the skill... Did i mention slow down? Did i mention HEAD UP! Relaxing as much as anything will help you maintain trim and buoyancy. Getting all tense and stuff wreaks havoc on situation. If you practice the skill like theres a fire before you have the anagram in your memory banks, then you're going to perform it like theres a fire and likely miss steps and look sloppy.

I'm not saying go slow cause you can't reach things, i'm saying just make each movement very precise, very clean. flailing and struggling only destabilizes the system which adds to the task loading.

If you need to, practice the skill in steps. Thats where the Basic 5 comes from... break a valve drill down into right post, center, left post. get each segment wired, THEN put right post/center isolator together. once that is wired, put center isolator and left post together. Finally once all the steps are wired, and you are relaxed for each segment, put them together.

Do each skill this way, from fin kicks to ascent drills to failures. Stop, Breath, Think, Act (move)

Slow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast.

 

[rjack321]

How many times have we seen somebody go to donate gas, but they take a HUGE deep breath before they take the regulator out, and the next thing you know, they're ten feet shallower.

This is actually a really big problem. The reflexive holding of the breath during (real) valve shut downs is implicated in 1 death for sure. Another death is highly suspicious as well but blamed on medical causes because none of his group wants to speak ill of the dead. The sooner you can ingrain breathing while doing other complicated or stressful actions the better. They "teach" this in OW but there's no follow through to ensure that new (or even experienced) divers don't slip into reflexive breath holding. Retraining the autotomic nervous system is not fast, simple or easy.

 

[TSandM]

Yes, Laura, that is absolutely spot on advice! And it doesn't just hold for practice -- it holds for anything. Watching the ZG guys in MX, they often look like they're moving through molasses. Every movement is done with almost exaggerated slowness . . . but also with absolute precision, and nothing has to be done twice because it wasn't done right the first time. I aspire to that kind of deliberate calm!

 

[jeckyll]

"Slow is Fast" works for everything from diving, to racing cars and especially motorcycles.

Happy New Year

 

[Toshas79]

I am taking fundamentals, and my bigest problem is Buoyancy. I wish I had good buoyancy, it would made things so much easier.

 

[boulderjohn]

I am taking fundamentals, and my bigest problem is Buoyancy. I wish I had good buoyancy, it would made things so much easier.

Me, too.

 

[TSandM]

Toshas, the good news is that if I can master buoyancy control, anybody can do it! Taking Fundies shows you where the bar is . . . you can reach it, if you practice.

 

[kanonfodr]

I am taking fundamentals, and my bigest problem is Buoyancy. I wish I had good buoyancy, it would made things so much easier.

Be at ease, young padawn: nobody gets this stuff overnight.

Peace,
Greg

 

[Toshas79]

TSandM, you are right, they give us tools to practice, and I am planing this weekend to do so