Skills to have polished before going to AOW

[Johanan]

Good luck, Screwball! Regarding your AOWD course, I absolutely agree with NetDoc:

Better to look for an instructor that will mentor and challenge you to dive a lot better.

Indeed, it is a good idea to invest whatever it costs to learn from a really good instructor at some stage. I spent an extravagant amount of money for my sidemount course bringing a renowned instructor from UK to my country and having a private tutorship with him. It happened as an accident because other buddies dropped off the course at the last moment and I had to pay for everything, but I do not regret a single penny. This instructor taught me not only diving in sidemount configuration. He taught me to dive. He overhauled every single skill I thought I mastered during my OW and AOW courses. After that course I realised how clumsy and dangerous diver I was. Therefore I think, if you are serious about diving, somewhere on your way you should learn from a great instructor, from a veritable "guru" - should it be your AOW course or other, better sooner than later, and a private tutorship is highly recommendable, at least once in your career.

 

[Colo Hippie]

I would add to get comfortable diving and get in the habit of assessing the divers with you (not only your buddy), watch those that are obviously experienced good divers, they are easy to spot, they appear to be effortless in the water and you will learn from them just by observing them.

Also get in the habit of a pre-dive buddy check, insist on it with your buddy, this includes reviewing hand signals, equipment check, dive plan, water and surface conditions. I see so many divers that do not complete a buddy check.

 

[The Chairman]

Therefore I think, if you are serious about diving, somewhere on your way you should learn from a great instructor, from a veritable "guru" - should it be your AOW course or other, better sooner than later, and a private tutorship is highly recommendable, at least once in your career.

Don't be coy now: who was it? Great instructors should be outed by their students. Expose them for the gurus that they are and let the world beat a path to their door. It costs you nothing, it encourages them as well as the rest of us aspiring to greatness.

 

[boulderjohn]

As someone who plans on taking AOW once the water becomes a liquid again, I like the timing of this thread, it'll give me something to work on through the winter in the pool. I've noticed something too... every single reply mentions buoyancy control! There must be a reason for that

So my question is, is there a good way to practice this besides just swimming around? I'm thinking of bringing something to act as a reference, just not sure what yet.

You've kind of got it backwards. Trim must come first.

What you see here is a good reason to get with a good instructor sooner rather than later. An instructor who can really show you how to trim out and achieve buoyancy control quickly can save you from many wasted hours trying to do it without that good instruction. As NetDoc indicated later, many instructors do not really know how to do this themselves, so it can make a real difference.

A number of years ago I was diving in Ste. Maarten and saw an instructor working with an AOW student during a dive. She was not doing the normal skills for the dive but was instead working on basic buoyancy skills. I later asked the instructor what was going on, and she told me that the student's buoyancy control was so horrible that there was no point in even trying the AOW skills until the problems got fixed. (I have since then been on two other OW dives in which a DM stopped what he was doing to give one of the divers a basic buoyancy lesson.)

When I flew back from Ste. Maarten, by an incredible coincidence I was seated next to the AOW student, and we talked about it. She said she had been certified by a large chain sporting goods store in the Los Angeles area, and they had put 20 pounds on her 105 pound frame in the swimming pool. She said everyone was weighted like that so that they could kneel comfortably on the bottom of the pool without tipping over. I said I could not believe anyone could do the required buoyancy skills with that much weight, and she said no one in her class could do them. The instructor said buoyancy was really, really hard, so he did not actually require students to do it. He thought it was unrealistic of PADI to make it a requirement. If your original instructor taught you like that, or if you plan to go with an AOW instructor like that, forget it. You need to find someone who can set you straight right away.

 

[The Chairman]

The instructor said buoyancy was really, really hard, so he did not actually require students to do it. He thought it was unrealistic of PADI to make it a requirement.

Comments like this make me cringe and feel bad for everyone in their class. It's only hard/unrealistic to teach if you can't do it yourself. I know of many instructors who have psyched themselves out and later felt like kicking themselves because it is far, far easier to teach once the student is comfortable. The student can only be truly comfortable if they have adequate trim and buoyancy.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

One of the most distressing things I see is instructors who have students do their first descent on scuba straight down vertically onto their knees. It was not fun for me when I did my OW cert. Here you have someone perhaps descending under the water for the first time with an extra 40 lbs of gear strapped to their back. They are already nervous in many cases so now they have to try to keep from flopping over like a drunken turtle, falling sideways because the knees are to close together to form a stable platform, and it's highly likely that this is also how they are doing their first buoyancy check.
In other words raise their stress level even more and expect them to be able to pay attention like they should.
After doing an initial check with mask, snorkel, and fins only I add the scuba unit and recheck. Then we lay flat out on the surface and begin to empty the BC for their very first descent. I call it the snowflake.
For the first one I want them to be flared out a bit to feel/look like a sky diver in that initial descent. But not at 120 MPH. They should just gently float near to the bottom and allow perhaps the fin tips to touch. If they end up flat on their stomach the first time it's no big deal. I just allow them to lay there and breathe.

Then we'll start working on using the inflator to get neutral and move down to the next level. Repeat and move down another level to the deepest one. Then we start swimming around and allowing them to get used to using the inflator and breathing to stay at one depth. Once they get comfy doing that we start to work on skills. Neutral and in trim as much as they are able.

That first time on scuba it is critical for them to not be over weighted or under weighted. So if it takes the 1st 1/2 hour to get that right so be it.

 

[The Chairman]

Two of my students were taking a marine biology class here in Key Largo. They hadn't finished their class and so I was required to accompany them on their first dives where they were taught to assess the health of the reef. The reef health instructor motioned for my students to kneel down, just like all the other students. They gave her that "what the hell you talkin' 'bout?" look and hovered. They had no clue how to kneel since they were completely neutral. After several attempts, the reef instructor gave up. On the surface she remarked, "You can sure tell who has finished their certification!" I laughed and pointed out that the only ones to respect the reef were those two girls. All the others had sat, stood, laid, fondled and otherwise abused the reef. They were the two students who didn't bob to the surface unexpectedly or get any fire coral burns. In her defense, she told me that she had been diving that way for years. Is it any wonder that our reefs are in such sad shape, when the people we expect to defend them kneel all over them? [/rant] Yeah, I should have said that to her, but discretion is the better part of valor. I just shook my head and told my students how proud they had made me.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I'd a said it. Now she is probably going to continue producing reef killers. Pete ya had your chance, dang

 

[The Chairman]

I have absolutely no doubt you would have. Unlike you, I have a filter and I'm not afraid to use it!

 

[Akimbo]

Buoyancy and trim have been beat to death but IMHO that is a minor subset of the vague concept of situational awareness. Don't get so focused on mastering your center of gravity and Archimedes' Principle that you forget the big picture.

You can get so consumed by being laser-focused on any single process that you run out of air or miss the sea lion that wants to play. This isn’t a newbie slam, everyone new to any environment gets overloaded.

You want to be comfortable and confident while taking any advanced course so those lessons actually sink in. It is hard to ask questions or notice useful details when your head is ready to explode. Given this, you are the only one who can say when you are ready to take the next course.