Skills

[Suijin]

Just thought I would add my $.02 as I just got certified, in St. Lucia in fact.

I took a "crash course" to get my Open Water certification, doing all of my dives in two days, working one on one with an instructor. The main reason to get my certification was that I'm a liveaboard and want to be able to get tanks refilled wherever I am for safety, repair, and maintenance tasks on my hull.

I could not complete the theory part of the course online as I only had my iPhone with me and the internet connection a the marina I where I was staying was unreliable, so I used the paper manual. Some observations:

1. The book mentions proper kicking technique only in passing, and only with respect to energy conservation and efficiency.
2. While the book goes into depth about buoyancy control and covers it extensively, I don't remember it mentioning trim at all.
3. Buoyancy control is discussed in terms of equipment and the BCD. There is virtually no mention at all about how your breathing plays into it and how to use it to adjust your buoyancy.

I had an excellent, excellent instructor who drilled me until I got things right and was not willing to cut corners. He was outstanding at explaining and demonstrating concepts skills that were only mentioned in passing in the book yet strike me as super important to master. We did the fin pivot to the point of boredom, and I recall being irritated, but later in the open water dives it became clear how effective this simple exercise is and how important it is to master it.

I don't think diving is quite like riding a bike or skiing where it comes back to you almost immediately even after a long hiatus. Rental equipment is different, dive sites are different, and some of the basic skills that pertain to body control are not intuitive or natural. As a result, I can see how occasional divers, or vacation divers would be exhibiting "poor form" that more experienced divers find deplorable.

 

[DBF]

I am one of those divers that only dive about 20 times a year and and believe that my skills compared to most are not good.
But to the dive professionals who want to label me as a poor diver. I would like to point out that most schools around here run 2 open water classes a month and two buoyancy courses a year I have been waiting 4 months to do one so how am I going to improve. Also most dive shops I have been into try to drag every cent they can out of us vacation divers( like trying to sell $1500 can lights when asked about a torch). That it leaves very little left in the budget to improve skills. So when you complain about someone asks yourself first have I contributed to the problem because most have. Time to take some responsibility dive pros


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[Eric Sedletzky]

I just returned from a trip to St. Lucia. This was the first time in a lot of years that I dove with a resort operation. Usually I perfer to dive with independent operations as they meet my needs better.
That said there was probably 10-16 divers/day on the boat. many were certified in the last 2 years, almost all within the last 5 years. I have to say the skills were deplorable. I spoke with several of the divers, asking just general questions about there training.

My questions are to the cerification agencies. Why are they still teaching the flutter kick? Most of the divers that I observed were probably hitting the reef 50% of the time, the rest of the time they were stirring up the bottom. Do they teach streamling? Everyone to a person had either gauges dragging or the octo or both.

I did educate my "insta-buddy", demonstatred how the frog kick was much less damaging, and how everthing should be tucked in. She said that her instructor never went over these things.

Before anyone says "well she had a bad instructor" I repeat, all of the divers I observered dove in the same manner, and had different instructors. Seemes to me, it's what the standards are is what the issue is.

So why aren't the agencies being brought up to the 20th century?

Later,
John

When I did PADI open water there was nothing about proper streamlining or horizontal trim or keeping stuff tucked away. As far as I know there never was as it relates to Requirements.
The core requirements are different, mask clearing, breathing without a mask, air shares, fin pivot, being neutral in the water column, etc. but they never cover what you are talking about as a "requirement". There is no standard for students to stay flat and not silt out the bottom, or break coral with dangling consoles, or use frog kicks.
It's up to the individual diver to find out about that stuff and work on it. Good mentors play a huge role in cleaning up a divers skills that the agencies don't consider a core skill.
If an instructor goes out of his or her way to go above and beyond and cover some of that stuff then consider it a bonus because technically they are not required to.

 

[JBFG]

here is a weird question,
why aren't instructor sporting BP/W??? i bet if they would start teaching with that, new divers would have a visual of what streamline would look like. no?

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

here is a weird question,
why aren't instructor sporting BP/W??? i bet if they would start teaching with that, new divers would have a visual of what streamline would look like. no?

Your getting into another whole can of worms with that one. It has to do with the way conventional gear is marketed and pushed and the associated profit margins involved plus a lot of other factors, all of which have been discussed to death here on scubaboard.

And to answer your question above, not necessarily. A bad diver can murder trim even with a BP/W if they don't know what they're doing or are overweighted, or a number of other things.
It can be easier to get flat with a BP/W, but there are jacket and back inflate divers out there that can get just as flat, not silt out the bottom, and not break stuff.

 

[TMHeimer]

Suijin, I would figure that a one on one course is a very good (though costly) idea. If it's like any other activity/subject, private instruction is immeasurably better than group. Having done both as a music teacher, I would rather take a private lesson from an expert once a week versus five Band classes a week--as far as learning things. No time wasted. Just curious--did you do your OW checkout dives in Chesapeake Bay?

 

[Bob DBF]

With a frog kick I can be just inches off the bottom and not leave a silt trail.

I do the same with a flutter kick, the point being it is not the kick but the kicker.



Bob
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"If you don't like it, go on the internet and complain." Brian Griffin

 

[DepthCharge]

I do the same with a flutter kick, the point being it is not the kick but the kicker.



Bob
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"If you don't like it, go on the internet and complain." Brian Griffin

I have NEVER met anyone who could be inches away from the bottom and not stir it up with a flutter kick. Please shoot a video and post it, I would love to see how it's done.
Later,
John

 

[dumpsterDiver]

You just keep your knees bent and do these little floppy, toe kicks... I NEVER use a frog kick and have spent a lot of time underwater, although i do not dive that often where silting is an issue.

 

[TMHeimer]

I've dived in places where flutter kicks can stir up silt if you're 4 feet above the bottom. Doesn't usually matter if you're alone and don't return on exactly the same route...