What skills to practice?

[NAM001]

If my wife was handy she would say that once you start doing these skills all sorts of things seem to happen that you were not prepared for. Like dropping you mask when putting it on and off. Or the buoy getting the best of you and taking you both up in shallower deployments. These incidents in themselves are valuable lessons. You don't overload your self with tasks. You have to have a plan B at all times and be ready to carry it out. Things in videos have 2 things in common: 1. They are never that easy and 2. It never ends as expected the first few times you try it your self. You should have seen her shoot her first 6-8 ft 8" DIA DMB after mastering (SO she thought) THE 4 FT 4" buoy from 20 ft. A lot of learning took place that day. As she put it "They never told us about this in OW. We all know they did ,indirectly, (volumn vs. atm) but she finally connected the dots through the experience. Size does mater in diving. .To this day she would rather i send up the buoy. A vain request of course. Despite her expertise, or lack of, in such skills I would not trade her for another buddy I know what she knows and what she does not know. Thats more than i will ever know about any instabuddy.

 

[sadn3sss]

We are definitely working on proper ascending/descending, buoyancy control, weight checks, navigation, and trim during each dive. These things will take multiple dives to properly dial in and it is getting progressively better.

We just wanted to do quick drills in a controlled environment so that we develop a comfort level when they actually arise. We pick one drill each dive day and practice that. We just need more ideas.

I know valvle drills are a bit more advanced but I'm not too worried. I dive with two buddies, one works the valves, one holds a spare octo, just in case. I google a lot on the proper procedures and inherent risks when doing them.

Some of the drills I had in mine were

share air
share air while ascending with a safety stop
cesa
mask flood and replace
dsmb deployment
valve drill
don/doff at surface, at depth

So far I liked the suggestion of ascending without a mask. Keep the ideas coming. Thanks.

 

[gfaith]

I would practice this one.. It could save your bacon..

I had my single tank valve shut down by a well intended deck hand just before I stepped off the boat and found that I couldn't reach my valve, which sucked. I had to release the waist belt/crotch-strap and pull the valve up and forward to open it.

Just loosen things underwater until you can turn your valve.. The best skills to practice are those you know you are not up to par on.

 

[KevinNM]

Everyone loves practicing the skills that they are expert at. The ones you have a lot of trouble are much more rewarding to practice.

And please keep in mind that is isn't true that "practice makes perfect". What is true is "practice makes permanent". So if you practice something incorrectly it makes you very comfortable in doing it incorrectly. So try to ensure you know how the skill is supposed to be performed before you do it a lot. Ask someone competent to show you again if you are not sure.

 

[beester]

Everyone loves practicing the skills that they are expert at. The ones you have a lot of trouble are much more rewarding to practice.

And please keep in mind that is isn't true that "practice makes perfect". What is true is "practice makes permanent". So if you practice something incorrectly it makes you very comfortable in doing it incorrectly. So try to ensure you know how the skill is supposed to be performed before you do it a lot. Ask someone competent to show you again if you are not sure.

Very true. That's why I would refrain from training anything other than the basics (ie bouyancy, trim, position in the water column, ascends, team/buddy awareness).

My wife is going to do a fundies class in 2 weeks, I'm more established in the GUE curriculum, but I refrain from showing her any of the skills she'll see in fundies, because that's what class is for. Jus making sure the basics are in place is all that matters.

When it comes to practicing what you've already learned, I also tend to stick to the basics. Bouyancy, different kicks, sharing gas, popping an smb. That's about it.

 

[Eric M]

No one mentioned swimming. Can you actually swim without gear? Can you swim comfortably for a mile? How about under water holding your breath? Can you do fifty meters, that's length of Olympic size pool?

I don't mean to insult but you asked. But my "basic" open water training included lotsa swimming and underwater swimming (one breath). We also played underwater rugby, or were required to thread water for 15 minutes with both elbows above water (running helps with that).

I admit, I am not in condition to do anymore that, except for swimming, but than again I was out of diving for 30 years and I'm just getting back into it. That's my goal and I offer you this challenge to consider.

 

[beester]

No one mentioned swimming. Can you actually swim without gear? Can you swim comfortably for a mile? How about under water holding your breath? Can you do fifty meters, that's length of Olympic size pool?

I don't mean to insult but you asked. But my "basic" open water training included lotsa swimming and underwater swimming (one breath). We also played underwater rugby, or were required to thread water for 15 minutes with both elbows above water (running helps with that).

I admit, I am not in condition to do anymore that, except for swimming, but than again I was out of diving for 30 years and I'm just getting back into it. That's my goal and I offer you this challenge to consider.

I'm sorry but I'm an old CMAS guy, and when I started diving in 1990 (14y old) the course consisted of pool training for the better part of a year... starting in september and if you were lucky you would do your first openwater dive in april. Most of the pool training would consist of swimming, apnea (both underwater swimming, static, and while doing "tricks"), breathing from tanks without regulator, sharing a tank and breathing off it with 7 people, etc etc etc. This then forwards to dive training asking to do free diving emergency ascends from 40 m (120ft), emergency rescues from 40m (120ft) not using the BCD (so swimming up), etc. I know, I did all of that.

All under the assumption that you need to be fit (YES), need to have some feeling for being in the water (YES but just a modicum)and that you need to be a navy seal (NO).

Some of the absolute worst divers I have EVER met, come from this school of thought. Yes they are good swimmers, Yes they can hold their breath for 3 minutes straight, and they feel on top of the world. But their gun ho attitude, show no mercy, we need to "attack this dive" kind of EGO driven dribble has caused more underwater incidents than you can imagine. Yes my opinion is quite strong on this one as you can probably sense

SCUBA DIVING IS NOT SWIMMING! Yes your aerobic capacity will increase but you can just as well do long runs, take your bicycle out or do any other strenuous activity to accomplish that.$

In the end what makes you a good diver IMO =
- good basic underwater skills (and these are not so easy as most believe)
- good awareness both above and underwater
- Varied experience (not all your dives in one local area)
- the ability to assess and reassess your own skills and experience, and a keep learning mentality.

 

[Fin Finder]

One skill probably not practised by a lot of people is dive planning. Both you and your buddy should know roughly what direction you will head out in, what time you are planning (both dive duration & direction changes), what your turn pressure & what pressure you need to start your ascent at.

Good advice. Perhaps add this to your planning:
Have a "Lost Buddy" plan.
- Make a promise to stick to it.
- Reconfirm it before every dive, even with your regular buddies.

Sometimes it will save your dive... and your friendships.

 

[TMHeimer]

I can't reach my valve and have tried everything. Skills--just practise them all--you most likely have a list of all the skills done in the pool. Be logical re your dive site--for example, I wouldn't mess with doffing and donning the scuba unit if in current and poor viz, etc. I always advise as well just mimicking them all on land, especially if you won't be diving for a while. Having done a fair bit of assisting in the past, I must admit I don't practise them much while on a dive. I do a CESA from 30' now and then, as I dive solo a lot and may need to someday. And you can almost always practise hovering while looking at something interesting. I guess you should practise those that you had any trouble with. I did a lot of doffing and donning at first as this was by far my worst skill. Mask clearing? --well, you're gunna do that anyway during dives. No mask breathing, reg clearing, reg/snorkel exchange and others-- I found while taking OW that I was questioning why they were even "skills" and never practised them after OW (well, except to perfect them to demonstrate)--but everybody's different. Like anything, the skills will get rusty if ignored.
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[billt4sf]

Whatever you decide to practice, to try work up to being able to do it without losing your buoyancy or trim.

I had learned the basic skills while kneeling on the bottom. I had to re-learn how to do them from a horizontal trim position without losing my buoyancy -- best thing I ever did!

- Bill