Skills Practice at Point Lobos

[Peter_C]

Heh, you know a surefire way to be the best-looking diver on a team in NorCal? Dive with Team Bunny.

No way! You all look hot!

Team Metro Bunny is the best! They are our hot pink hero's.

Thanks for the video :cool2:

 

[ae3753]

oatmeal-cam rocks!

elissa says, "makes me want bunnies, but our dogs would eat them."

thanks for sharing the training video and making it fun for all of us.

 

[ae3753]

Ken,

Quick question, and I don't know if you can answer it? S-drills when they are in operation on a real OOA situation, will the divers be in that orientation, side to side in trim?

Or is more emphasis placed on getting the regulator in his/her mouth, regardless of trim?

Minor nit - An S-Drill in an actual OOA is just an OOA. It's no longer a safety-drill.

The S-Drill is face-to-face, like in Kenn's video.

As for orientation in an OOA, it depends in the environment. More often than not, you'll want to be face-to-face. Best way to maintain contact and awareness of team and environment.

As you know, being in trim provides the most stable platform. As the result, in an emergency, being in trim enables you to do more. And that's why we practice all S-Drills and Valve Drills in trim and aware of your teammates and the situation.

However, if you need to break trim to take care of the situation, then you break trim. That said, an issue is not an excuse to break trim. In training, you should not be breaking trim.

 

[TSandM]

Mike, the overriding imperative is to provide gas to the dive who needs it.

But think about it -- you're inside a wreck, or deep in a cave, and your buddy needs gas. You lose your trim trying to provide it. Now you have a buddy out of gas, and no viz. You've converted an inconvenience into an ugly situation. That's why we get drilled and drilled to be able to execute all these skills WITHOUT losing trim, WITHOUT losing buoyancy, and WITHOUT losing awareness of your positiion in the water and your team. One problem can usually be dealt with neatly, efficiently and effectively. As things begin to spiral into a mess, even a good team can lose focus and calm.

Allison, Danny wants that emergency signal rapid -- like the way you would shake your hand to get a spider off it. All wrist action, no arm, and no way you can mistake it for your buddy getting really excited because he just found a blind cave fish (true story).

 

[Gombessa]

I love the baby bunny pic too!

After hearing all the reports of rabbit sightings at Lobos, I knew we had to get a picture of one before they disappear for the season

Quick question, and I don't know if you can answer it? S-drills when they are in operation on a real OOA situation, will the divers be in that orientation, side to side in trim?

Or is more emphasis placed on getting the regulator in his/her mouth, regardless of trim?

As I recall the explanation, the emphasis on the drill is to maintain trim and buoyancy while performing the air-share, and to develop familiarity and muscle memory of the steps required to successfully perform the donate/receive in the event of an actual OOG. Before, we actually started farther away and swam to the OOG diver, but were told to just be face to face in close proximity for purposes of the drill.

Focusing on performing the drill this way, rather than going as fast as possible, is designed to make it so that in a real situation, you're much more likely to maintain good buoyancy and trim during the donate. I imagine there are situations where failing to do so may be disastrous (imagine dropping a few feet and silting out a tight, narrow cave or wreck passage upon your buddy going OOG). But if I go OOG, I'm certainly hoping that my buddy's priority is getting his long hose to me expediently, rather than worrying about whether he's looking good for the camera

Edit: Wow, I write something out, and two supremely qualified answers have already beaten me to the punch It does sound like there's consensus though, which relieves me.

 

[kanonfodr]

Oatmeal cam FTW!! BTW, y'all look great in the videos, it's been way too long since I did a skills dive.

Peace,
Greg

 

[mikemill]

Fun video Kenn. When you gonna add scooters?

Mike, the overriding imperative is to provide gas to the dive who needs it.

But think about it -- you're inside a wreck, or deep in a cave, and your buddy needs gas. You lose your trim trying to provide it. Now you have a buddy out of gas, and no viz. You've converted an inconvenience into an ugly situation. That's why we get drilled and drilled to be able to execute all these skills WITHOUT losing trim, WITHOUT losing buoyancy, and WITHOUT losing awareness of your positiion in the water and your team. One problem can usually be dealt with neatly, efficiently and effectively. As things begin to spiral into a mess, even a good team can lose focus and calm.

Allison, Danny wants that emergency signal rapid -- like the way you would shake your hand to get a spider off it. All wrist action, no arm, and no way you can mistake it for your buddy getting really excited because he just found a blind cave fish (true story).

No offense but why do we care what Danny wants? (I for one don't even know who Danny is). If Kenn and crew want to go speed up the waving fine. But saying "soandso" wants it faster is just a BS reason IMO. That is like saying that using condoms is bad because the pope says so.

 

[Gombessa]

Fun video Kenn. When you gonna add scooters?

Scooters are in the indeterminate future for me...probably next year if I cross my fingers and put a tooth under the pillow at night. I take solace in the fact that there's still tons of boat + kick dives we can do until then Plus, I know the addresses and vacation schedules of several local scooter-owners

No offense but why do we care what Danny wants? (I for one don't even know who Danny is).

Danny Riordan is a well-known GUE cave instructor in Mexico. Despite the "company line," there are some minor variations in how different instructors want different skills (for instance, we learned the unofficial "Mexican frog kick/Florida frog kick distinction), and I know speed-of-light-waving for v-drills can also vary. It makes sense that there may be some difference in s-drill light-waiving as well. And it's not out of the question that the team may one day take C1 down in MX, and if so then it'll be with Danny/Chris/Fred, so it can be good to know what the instructors will think. Lastly, as kind of a DIR-groupy (though not on the order of Allison ) I do appreciate the trivia of how preferences can vary, and like all the other difference I know of, it's good to know that this one is pretty minor as well.

I know it might sound a bit unsolicited and random, but Lynne and I are actually on the same page

 

[alwaingold]

Allison, Danny wants that emergency signal rapid -- like the way you would shake your hand to get a spider off it. All wrist action, no arm, and no way you can mistake it for your buddy getting really excited because he just found a blind cave fish (true story).

Well, the bunnies might get this kind of minor feedback in their class (or they might not, since they are taking it with the same instructor that they took Fundies with), but I don't think it matters to their success in the class. It's not the sort of thing that will prevent them from progressing in a class. For that, they should concentrate on their platform, which I think looks great in the video.

I personally don't see the point in re-learning to do something based on second-hand feedback from an instructor they don't know. And as I mentioned, I think the signal in at least the second S-drill was frenetic enough that I would take it seriously. Quite frankly, if you are actually out of gas, you should do whatever you have to do to get my attention, and if that means using your arm in the action and not your wrist, I really don't care.

Good job, guys.

Allison, speaking for no one but myself

 

[TSandM]

It's not a big deal, Allison. But as Kenn says, they might go on to cave, so knowing that the guys down there have a position on signaling might come in useful.

I agree that the important stuff looks great (and I think I said that!). Is Team Bunny ramping up for Tech 1?