Recently Certified Ow's: What Do You Most Wish To Brush Up On Or Learn?

[DiverDownD3]

5-10' may have been an exaggeration, the point I was trying to make is that you don't need to constantly play with your inflator to control your depth

 

[Pete Wallingford]

Looks like you passed through the gauntlet! How many in your class feel like you? If you had taken an intermediate buoyancy development class as Part B of the OW, you would have learned the next level of the 'safest tricks' without risking your health (avoiding Barotrauma). Trial and error experimenting underwater is often the wrong mindset although the way many certification courses are designed, most are forced into it. Was a buoyancy course available? If so, what prevented you from taking it?

 

[glassbottom]

Looks like you passed through the gauntlet! How many in your class feel like you? If you had taken an intermediate buoyancy development class as Part B of the OW, you would have learned the next level of the 'safest tricks' without risking your health (avoiding Barotrauma). Trial and error experimenting underwater is often the wrong mindset although the way many certification courses are designed, most are forced into it. Was a buoyancy course available? If so, what prevented you from taking it?

There isn't a buoyancy course per-se in my area that I'm aware of. I know NetDoc does something similar but I'm pretty sure he is down in the south of Florida. Unfortunately for me, others in my class sometimes struggled with other skills so buoyancy while mentioned wasn't really a focus during any of our checkout dives or pool sessions, though some of us that had the other skills done quickly often spent time in the pool just watching others and working on staying neutral. After some of the pool sessions my instructor would stay in with me and use the what was left in our cylinders working on buoyancy but usually the rest of the class was cleaning up and hauling @ss out of there. After one or two saw this they stayed as well and joined in in later pool days.

Later after I was certified my instructor would let me tag along when he did other classes checkout dives to serve as a buddy for a guy he was training to be a DM. Since I had my own gear and cylinders and did my own refills it wasn't a burden to him and I got to sit hang and watch other OW students do skills while I just spent time doing working on weight and buoyancy watching with the DM guy (and doing some demonstrations like buddy breathing). This did help and hes invited me along again to help this year as the DM is now in the phase of teaching classes while my instructor and me will be more the passive watchers.

 

[glassbottom]

5-10' may have been an exaggeration, the point I was trying to make is that you don't need to constantly play with your inflator to control your depth

makes good sense.

 

[WrmBluH2O]

Looks like you passed through the gauntlet!

Hi Pete,

Thanks! Thank you too for making the time to reply here. Welcome to the Board! I'm not certain if your post was directed at me, someone else, or all of us "newly-certifieds". But I suspect your questions were meant for all.

Love the March 2nd Facebook entry and the corresponding diagram! (The link is in Pete's profile.) "...That's like getting a driver's license without proving you can stop at a stop sign!!..." Man, I felt nothing but a pit in my stomach when I read that in the context of the 3/2 Facebook entry. Great article!

How many in your class feel like you?

In my case, I was the only student in my class. Had done eLearning here in Dallas; the pool work and open water dives in Grand Turk.

If you had taken an intermediate buoyancy development class as Part B of the OW, you would have learned the next level of the 'safest tricks' without risking your health (avoiding Barotrauma).

Could not agree more.

Trial and error experimenting underwater is often the wrong mindset although the way many certification courses are designed, most are forced into it. Was a buoyancy course available? If so, what prevented you from taking it?

A buoyancy course was available. Nothing prevented me from taking it. I felt there was too great a mismatch between the instructor's teaching style and my learning style for me to choose to take an additional course with him. I do believe there is a ton one can learn from an instructor despite there not being a good "fit", and I am grateful for his efforts on my behalf.

Thank you again very much for having posted here, Pete. And, thanks to everyone else who is contributing.

 

[DiverDownD3]

It was directed at me. Like I said I vastly exaggerated the 5-10' drop in descent. This was more of a fine tune 1 maybe 2' drop. I did a terrible job of articulating what I was trying to say. It was wrong of me to completely stop breathing. What I meant was you can change the patterns of your breathing, maybe even a slight pause in your breathing can help, if you are using it to help with a minor ascent make sure to have an open glottis.

This is a thread I found that is more of the point I was trying to get to.

Pause breathing to control buoyancy

To answer your question I'm not a card seeker, but performance buoyancy is a class I plan to take this spring.

 

[Pete Wallingford]

It was directed at me. Like I said I vastly exaggerated the 5-10' drop in descent. This was more of a fine tune 1 maybe 2' drop. I did a terrible job of articulating what I was trying to say. It was wrong of me to completely stop breathing. What I meant was you can change the patterns of your breathing, maybe even a slight pause in your breathing can help, if you are using it to help with a minor ascent make sure to have an open glottis.

This is a thread I found that is more of the point I was trying to get to.

Pause breathing to control buoyancy

To answer your question I'm not a card seeker, but performance buoyancy is a class I plan to take this spring.

Excellent; Counterglotticulation™ ! The underlying skill for demonstrating mastery of the Horizontal Hover-Stall Maneuver™ :>}

 

[george_austin]

Correct weighting/buoyancy number one. Assemble by second nature tank straps and weight belt buckles.

 

[Painter]

Like just about everybody else, proper buoyancy and trim are my next goals. My most recent dives, just this past week, I began to feel as if I was getting a handle on air consumption, but could still use work there. I also want to get more comfortable with retrieving a lost regulator. For some reason I nearly spat mine out a couple of times while clearing my mask.

 

[Diving Dubai]

I've followed this thread with interest and very good it is too.

I will point you all at a website (previously recommended to me) DiveDIR.com Head to the blog section and you will find quite a few posts in the theory and the Skills section about buoyancy weighting etc. Ignor the fact that it's written by a GUE instructor the fundamentals are the same and very well written and easy to read. By aware that it's an English site so the humour may not always translate.

There are some great hits and tips, and even the explanation of the basics (certainly for me at least) made me thing and I then applied some of the tips to my diving with some success (and still do)

As an experienced diver I still wish I'd been forced on my OW to get comfortable with Mask removal and clear. I was okay at the start of the course, had a bad clear in the pool with a DMT and that put me back and played on my mind. After passing I would wait until my mask was almost opaque before reluctantly clearing it. It took me close to 100 dives before I got help from an instructor to get me past my mental block. I'm okay now with it - I don't like it but can do it without a faff. So in my opinion if you have something you're not comfortable with it is worth seeking assistance and working you way through it in a relaxed no pressure environment