Suggestions for a Buoyancy Clinic Power Point?

[geoff w]

Your post title and what you're asking are two different things. Kicks, trim, fins and the like are one part of the topic, and I agree with everyone who said spend the time in the pool instead of having your students enjoy a slow, agonizing death by PowerPoint. There are some buoyancy related topics that do lend themselves to PowerPoint and would make great handouts. If you figure buoyancy is a function of weighting and air spaces, then there are several topics you could cover with PowerPoint. Buoyancy characteristics of various tanks (aluminum, low and high pressure steel, low vs. high volume tanks, etc) is a biggie. Over the weekend, a friend called me to ask what the buoyancy difference is between a full and empty 80 cu ft tank, and this is coming from someone who has been diving over 30 years. Other topics are buoyancy differences between no, thin, and thick wetsuits, and drysuits with various undergarments. Plus buoyancy differences between backplate/wing setups vs. traditional BCs. And all the places are gets trapped that affects your buoyancy. Then go through how to come up with a starting point for proper weighting in different situations, e.g., diving in Vancouver Island in a drysuit vs. diving on vacation somewhere warm and tropical. Finally, maybe a graphic showing how much air will be in your wing or BC if someone is correctly weighted vs. grossly over or under weighted, and how depth affects air inside a wing. Plus maybe another graphic or a few words explaining why you want to end up with no air in your BC when you're at the end of the dive hovering at 15 ft with 500 psi left in your tank for your safety stop, and how you can use your breathing to easily control your buoyancy at that point in the dive. This would make a nice handout for your students to take away and you can go over all the other things you listed in the pool. If your students can't get properly weighted to being with, or close, they're going to be struggling with kicks and trim the whole time in the pool

 

[The Chairman]

That would only be true if the camband was a fixed pivot point that moved along with the tank. Since the camband neither a pivot point nor fixed

You must be using a different cam band. Mine are pretty solid to both the tank and the BC. The moment of inertia would be the closest cam band to the butt bubble.

 

[Shinythings]

I like how everyone just assumed I am too incompetent to teach this buoyancy clinic.

I have tons of experience presenting and teaching and consider myself quite good at the former.

 

[ajduplessis]

If that is the case, then why ask for help I have some IP you can buy...

 

[Nasser]

I like how everyone just assumed I am too incompetent to teach this buoyancy clinic.

I have tons of experience presenting and teaching and consider myself quite good at the former.

No one is assuming anything... you are simply being presented with options that others find more effective than a power point presentation. Some of this advice is also coming from divers and diving educators with a ton of experience... all of whom where students at some point as well. Rather than becoming defensive, you might actually want to consider some of the advice being offered.

 

[Shinythings]

you might actually want to consider some of the advice being offered.

I definitely am and there are good things to be said, but the general tone of all the comments was a negative one when it could have been much more constructive.

Anyway, I am reminded why I generally observe from afar...

But thanks for everyones input it definitely has helped me decide what is important to teach. Obviously you can't teach kicks without first explaining trim and that is something I feel lends itself well to classroom instruction.

 

[The Chairman]

I haven't been negative. I would like to see it. I said as such in my first post.

 

[Oldbear]

Shinny,

If you are doing a presentation before hitting the pool, I agree the action videos are more effective than a PowerPoint. You might incorporate the 5thD-X videos into your PowerPoint, but keep the slides to a minimum is my suggestion. To go along with your presentation I suggest that you also get your students/audience involved (which is hard with PowerPoint). A great method is to get a table or ottoman foot stool that each audience member can balance on and suspend their legs off working on the kicks. This really helped me with my Back Kick.

I teach the different kicks in my PADI Wreck course and we use a park picnic table at the dive site.

 

[TSandM]

I actually think that a presentation with some cognitive stuff in it is highly useful. For example, most people have never thought about how trim affects their buoyancy. If you can show some slides that illustrate that having your feet pointing down means your kicks push you up, that makes sense to folks. Give them a little information to mull over -- best if that's presented the day before the dives, and even better if it's coordinated with a pool session.

Buoyancy is best LEARNED by doing, but the experimentation phase can be made shorter and more efficient if people have an idea of the direction they should pursue. And some of us REALLY like information, and to chew on images and concepts before trying to put them into practice.

Shinythings, I should have stood up for you earlier.

 

[The Chairman]

Buoyancy is best LEARNED by doing, but the experimentation phase can be made shorter and more efficient if people have an idea of the direction they should pursue.

Lynne, the myth is that it takes at least a hundred dives to master buoyancy. That's just poppycock. If they understand the vector physics and fluid dynamics up front, it only takes a couple of pool sessions to master the techniques and a few more dives to really nail it. I start every one of my OW and Trim/Buoyancy and Propulsion clinics with a quick demo using my fingers and describing how simple it really is. Let's face it, you can't enjoy diving until you are in total control. Trial and error has far more error than it needs and it often results in people simply leaving the sport after they've had enough trials.