Which skills should be practiced regularly?

[MaxBottomtime]

I chose other. The only drill that I didn't have committed to muscle memory was valve drills until I did them several hundred times. I had no problem with mask removal during my Open Water class, but haven't had my mask off in the water for more than 1900 dives. My backup reg is right below my chin, so regulator recovery is a cinch.

 

[CT-Rich]

Most of the stuff listed is pretty basic. I don't practice ditching weight, mostly because it is the last thing you want to do at depth and on the surface you are pretty much ensuring you aren't going down to get it

I do like to practice things that involve lines, like shooting a marker. Lines don't behave the same underwater as they do topside and they can create there own hazard

 

[tkdgodess]

Orally inflate bcd at the surface

 

[scubastingray]

Do people practice donning/doffing BP/W/ BCD underwater often? In a drysuit with wrist mount compass and computers it is quite the task on land. I don't practice it too much underwater (if ever after courses).

 

[Storker]

I don't practice ditching weight, mostly because it is the last thing you want to do at depth and on the surface you are pretty much ensuring you aren't going down to get it

Shore dive, shallow water and a buddy. Then recovery ain't a problem.

Besides, in a drill you don't have to actually drop the weights after releasing them, you know.


---------- Post added April 29th, 2014 at 10:42 AM ----------

DSMB is on my other list.

Good point, forgot that one.

OTOH, I don't "practice" shooting a dSMB. I shoot my dSMB routinely when I'm diving from my own boat, as a service to the boat tender enabling him/her to see where we're going to surface. I guess that's why I didn't think of it as something you'd need to "practice", since I do it almost as often as I do my back roll.

 

[WhiteSands]

I voted air-share and others.

I see no reason to remove my BCD, which is holding my lifeline underwater? Why do it?

I think two rather common failures that can potentially cause serious damage, but is not often practiced for, is unplugging the BCD inflator hose while dumping air, and unplugging the drysuit inflator hose and dumping air.

At least these are the two failures that I'm most worried about.

 

[gopbroek]

I went with other, deploying a SMB.

 

[Kharon]

All of them!!! At least one skill a dive. Gives you something to do at the safety stop.

 

[billt4sf]

Oral inflation ! Not that easy, in my experience. but could be VERY necessary.

 

[fjpatrum]

Hand signal discussions/familiarity. I dive with instabuddies a lot and getting the right hand signal is sometimes less than obvious.

Had a guy thumb a dive and didn't know he was thumbing it because I thought he was asking me if I wanted to thumb the dive due to some ear issues I always have on first dive. He was pretty pissed (rightfully so) after the fact. He didn't want to dive again, despite only about 15 seconds of hesitation/confusion on my part.

More commonly it's signals for how much air is left etc. Instabuddies who are trained with or use different hand signals very rarely remember what I use and I very rarely remember what they use even after discussion pre-dive.

Shooting a bag is something I think should be practiced regularly.