pre fundies tips tricks?

[DiverLaura]

slow is smooth, smooth is fast. slow down, and then slow it down some more. things will go a lot better.

don't use your special fin (your hand) at all if possible

Team before trim.

Team before drill.

If your team is not sorted out, you can't even start the drill. If you can't do the drill, it doesn't matter how good your trim is. If you have phenom trim but the second you get task loaded your knees drop, your special fin comes out, and you loose track of your buddy, then you needed to work on basic skills before you worked on trim.

water comfort. buoyancy, buoyancy, buoyancy.

Trim tanks if you are in dubs. Don't go for the cheapest set of 72's you can find. Wait and do the class in a single and then get some time in a good set of doubles that can be trimmed out, even if you need to borrow them. That way you are not handicapped by your tanks.

Get used to floaty feet feel.

don't cut excess length off your webbing until you instructor works with you on trim. Almost everyone I know, myself included, has cut our webbing too short on the first go-round. Then you do class with a waist strap that will hardly reach around your hips.

know that if your instructor is bob, your gear will get sherwooded. Sillyness will get changed/fixed. Don't get annoyed, pissed, defensive, etc... it makes sense if you let him explain the 'why's' behind the methods (even simple stuff like your bolt snap on wrong side of primary light, etc..)

Always bring your analyzer if you are diving nitrox, if you don't have an analyzer, make SURE your tanks are marked for the CORRECT date, and you put them in your trunk. If you get fills, make sure to take off the old analysis sticker, take the time to write a new one. If you forget or your sticker falls off, beg, borrow or steal an analyzer before your instructor notices

Head back, butt tight, knees up, feet flat.

Look INTO your buddies eyes. team is about having a good connection with your buddies. Maintaining eye contact during drills will help you (and your buddy) keep your heads up/back as opposed to looking down which will change your attitude in the water.

have your gear together before class, don't have manky drysuit seals if you are taking it in a drysuit.

Evolution/eclipse style donut wings are easiest to butt dump.

have your eating sorted out. (hard to concentrate if you are hypoglycemic)

have your hydration sorted out (hard to concentrate if you have to pee)

have your exposure suit sorted out (hard to concentrate if you are freezing)

get used to being videoed and seeing yourself on tape.

have fun...


lol.. i could go on and on....

 

[lamont]

for fundies, i'd just say work on trying to stay motionless in the water.

try to make conscious fin motions, and conscious hand motions. try to practice staying perfectly still with finning your hands or your feet at all.

practice diving without touching anything. if you don't have a back kick this may be difficult, but if you need to touch something, do it purposefully and consciously when you push yourself back/sideways (try to minimize the touch as well -- use a single finger).

when you're kicking try to frog kick and try to kick and glide and stay in decent trim.

if you find that when you stop kicking you hit the bottom, you are probably significantly head-up and are not neutrally buoyant.

other than that, i'd fix the obvious gear issues before the course (drysuit seals, etc).

 

[DiverLaura]

LOL! I still do the 'conscious' hand motion stuff to try to ..ahem... camouflage my special fin. You can see it from time to time in videos... Hmm. that was an 'odd' hand motion, it looked like she was going to do -something- but not clear at all what... not a hand signal, but... ah.. nevermind... special fin

for fundies, i'd just say work on trying to stay motionless in the water.

try to make conscious fin motions, and conscious hand motions. try to practice staying perfectly still with finning your hands or your feet at all.

practice diving without touching anything. if you don't have a back kick this may be difficult, but if you need to touch something, do it purposefully and consciously when you push yourself back/sideways (try to minimize the touch as well -- use a single finger).

when you're kicking try to frog kick and try to kick and glide and stay in decent trim.

if you find that when you stop kicking you hit the bottom, you are probably significantly head-up and are not neutrally buoyant.

other than that, i'd fix the obvious gear issues before the course (drysuit seals, etc).

 

[sk001]

Don't worry too much if you cant yet do the motionless (no sculling) hang. The thing about fundies is it points you in the right direction and tells you how far you need to go. Some of my friends didn't master the true motionless hang until tech 1 or even beyond.

 

[AndyNZ]

I am probably going to go against the flow a bit here..... the biggest thing to practice before doing Fundies?? Having fun and enjoying your diving.

Don't forget that Fundies is intended to teach you the fundamentals - you won't be expected to have anything keyed in before the course, it would rather defeat the point.

Just go diving heaps and remember that it is supposed to be fun.

 

[Mayor]

SLOW DOWN, SLOW DOWN.... Do every skill super SLOW..... You will not be judged on how fast you do things. I still here Bob Sherwood telling me this every time I do a drill.

Along with many other things....lol....

 

[HenrikBP]

Scootergirl mentioned, but it bears repeating. Depending on much experience you have in your drysuit, get used to air in the feet and the feeling of "light feet". Managing that will help you greatly in maintaining trim.

Another tip I read from Lynne is "listen to your ears". If you "listen" your ears will tell you very quickly if you're moving up or down in the water column.

I found that when I had my hands in correct position out in front of me, the squeeze of my dry gloves eased up just slightly = a good indicator of good hand position.

Someone else mentioned a good way to get used to correct leg position in horizontal trim: Stand upright and flex one knee until your lower leg is horizontal/parallel to the floor (a full length mirror is a great help here). Now gently push the foot of the flexed leg back until your hips are completely straight and you feel a light tension in your glutes. Make sure you remain straight/upright during all this. Essentially *that's* what good trim feels like.

I also use a balance ball to get used to a "good trim/horizontal body" position.

Go into Fundies with the mindset that you're there to have fun and learn. Not with the intent of proving yourself.

Henrik

 

[WVMike]

slow is smooth, smooth is fast. slow down, and then slow it down some more. things will go a lot better.

don't use your special fin (your hand) at all if possible

Team before trim.

Team before drill.

If your team is not sorted out, you can't even start the drill. If you can't do the drill, it doesn't matter how good your trim is. If you have phenom trim but the second you get task loaded your knees drop, your special fin comes out, and you loose track of your buddy, then you needed to work on basic skills before you worked on trim.

Burn this stuff in your memory bank, "You will see it again".

Bob told us at the very beginning, Team is #1, Bouyancy is #2, Trim is #3, and the Skills are #4. It took several days for this to sink into my thick skull, I was all intent on bouyancy, trim and the skills that I kinda didn't pay too much attention to team. Once we all gelled as a team all things got much easier.

 

[gsk3]

Burn this stuff in your memory bank, "You will see it again".

Bob told us at the very beginning, Team is #1, Bouyancy is #2, Trim is #3, and the Skills are #4. It took several days for this to sink into my thick skull, I was all intent on bouyancy, trim and the skills that I kinda didn't pay too much attention to team. Once we all gelled as a team all things got much easier.

You were pretty good from the beginning Mike, and great by the end. I did have a bit of a mind shift halfway through and finally sort of figured out what team meant. :shocked2:

 

[ligersandtions]

Don't get so caught up practicing and drilling....before or after fundies. I know a lot of people say that they enjoy drilling and that it's fun for them. But I guarantee none of them started diving so that they could drill....they probably started for some other reason, like looking at the pretty fishies or neat wreck or whatever.

So go out, dive, look at the things you like, and while you're doing that, try to maintain buoyancy, trim, awareness, etc. Understand how you feel when you're underwater and what different "adjustments" (moving your hands further out in front of you, pulling your feet in a bit closer to your butt, putting your head back as far as it can go) do to your trim....try to feel the slightest changes in your buoyancy and make sure you know how to compensate.

Be aware of you and your surroundings....but don't focus on skills only. At some point, it stops being fun....and equally bad, it stops being productive. Gain some experience diving (with a mentor if possible) and eventually the skills and drills will begin to fall into place. Have fun with it