A fun dive and silty training

I had the oportunity to do a dive with a freind and his nephew yesterday at Gilboa. The nephew has been certufied for some years but has recently started actively diving again and is about half way through his AOW. Since we had never dived together I asked that the two of them do an OOA drill and a few other things before we started the dive. The nephew descended streight to the platfor and landed on his knees. He signaled "ok" and then began the OOA drill. I stoped the excersize and asked him to get neutral and off the bottom. It took several minutes to get something that resembled air sharing done midwater.

It was early in the afternoon and there were still some classes going on and the vis was rotten. We zig-zagged arounf the silt clouds for a while and ended the dive.

After a short debreife and some lunch we headed out again. By this time we almost had the place to ourselves. The vis was fantastic and I was able to show the nephew all the neat thing I wanted to show him on the first dive.

Silt should stay on the bottom and divers should stay off of it. OOA drills on the bottom don't count.

MikeFerrara once bubbled...
The nephew descended streight to the platfor and landed on his knees. He signaled "ok" and then began the OOA drill.

Click to expand...

Give him a break, it is exactly what he was trained to do.

Unfortunately Mike, that is the way many instructors do it.

I agree with you these drills should be done neutrally buoyant, but what do I know? I am just the DiveCon finishing his cert. Thank goodness, our instructors do a great job teaching buoyancy control. Divemasters in the Caribbean watch our divers for all of five minutes (if that) and then leave them alone as they have other divers that NEED to be attended to.

For divers just out of certification, Mike says it best. Please endeavor to leave the silt on the bottom, I leaves the visibility so much better for everyone.

it's hard to belive that for an OW cert you only have to share air on the bottom, not while neutral.

Although I'm yet to take a DIR-f class, when I first started hearing about DIR, right way that aspect made sense, now when we do drills (OOA, mask removal, stage manipulations) it's always while being neutral and horizontal.

We were really lucky, but our OOA during OW was done with the Instructor or AI and included an ascent while sharing air.

seadog once bubbled...
We were really lucky, but our OOA during OW was done with the Instructor or AI and included an ascent while sharing air.

Click to expand...

No you weren't lucky that is a required excersize. What isn't required is to hold attitude and position (off the bottom) while initiating air sharing. The same holds true for skills like replacing a mask, though.

I think I might try this the next time at Haigh.....Towards the end of a dive when we are about to start our ascent...I'll give the OOA sign and start the process. I'll make sure to do a 3 minute safety stop too while sharing air.

Oooo boy, this is gonna be fun.

ut:

Speaking of fun, when will the great Ferrara and I go diving at Haigh?

jepuskar once bubbled...
Speaking of fun, when will <snip> Ferrara and I go diving at Haigh?

Click to expand...

I think I'll be at Gilboa next week. I don't know when I'll be back at Haigh. You're welcome to join us. My son is working over there for the summer (or some part of it) so I need to go there when I can.

I'm still waiting Mr. Ferrara to see that pool training tape wherein your beginning open water students do scuba unit R&R, weights R&R, alternate air source use 30 seconds and Free flow regulator 30 seconds all in the mid-water column!

DiverBuoy once bubbled...
I'm still waiting Mr. Ferrara to see that pool training tape wherein your beginning open water students do scuba unit R&R, weights R&R, alternate air source use 30 seconds and Free flow regulator 30 seconds all in the mid-water column!

Click to expand...

You sound doubtful that this can be done?