What should I practice?

I've been reading the posts on this site for a few months now and I found out a few things about myself and my goals in the process.

1. While I consider myself comfortable in the water, I'm still barely one step above OW in terms of experience. I only have 70 dives under my belt and the PADI DM certification is well, just a card and not a true representation of my competence (more like a true representation of the instructor's stringent-ness) and I'm still working on a lot of skills.

2. I have an instinctive desire to push my limits and when it comes to diving, I always have to consciously control the instinct to try and push my limits before I'm ready.

3. I really really really want to dive deeper than 40m, dive wrecks and dive caves. Sadly, it will be a long long time before I can do those things but then again, I'm only 20 a loooooong way to go.

So having realised these things and wanting to improve my skills first before pushing my limits, I've been trying to practice a few skills to become truly comfortable in recreational limits before I try decompression dives, advanced nitrox and whatnot.

1. Maintaining trim throughout the dive. Descending and ascending in trim, swimming around in trim, shooting a bag in trim and trying to maintain trim in midwater at 5m while doing things like mask clearing.

2. Always practising the entire series of checks before, during and after a dive no matter how annoying or repetitive it gets.

Aside from these, what else do you guys think I should try and master before going on to learn about the more technical aspect of diving? Are there a few more skills I can learn and practice now to try and make myself extremely proficient at this stage before moving on to the next?

Thanks in advance!

The GUE fundies course is a good benchmark for the basic/core diving skills. Especially so, as a pre-tech foundation.

Have a look (plenty of threads here to search) about what skills and drills and standards that make up the Fundies...it's a good start for your practice.

Besides the technical exercises, situational awareness is a very good thing to practice.

Before you look at your instrument, try to guess at what time/depth/pressure you are.
Do you know where is your buddy at all times?
Where is the boat/shore?
Can you guess your buddy's air pressure?
Can you describe your environment easily? Or do you have tunnel vision? What about your buddy (did you notice he had a toothbrush out and was starting to brush his teeth underwater?)

etc...

Hi there. I am sure that you will get some good answers. Instead of naming drills to practice, let me suggest that you contact someone local to you:
GUE Instructor résumé | Global Underwater Explorers
GUE Instructor résumé | Global Underwater Explorers
These people are doing the dives you are saying you want to do, and even better, they are where you are. They will have no problem answering your questions and helping you with what to work on.
Good Luck.

EDIT- Oh yeah, one more thing, you are very lucky to have Gideon (a GUE Training director) near you.

2nd EDIT (I can't stop myself) - There is also a UTD instructor where you are:
http://www.unifiedteamdiving.com/profile/ChewPohChang

Talk to some of the instructors, pick one, dive with them, hook up with other GUE/UTD divers near you, and have fun

Get yourself the "Intro to Tech" DVD from 5th D-x it covers all the skills you should practice (it's on Amazon). Beyond that see if you can find some DIR buddies in your area to dive with on a regular basis. And then do post dive debriefs and discuss what went well, and what did not and gradually tweak things in.

But...do not become so focused on skills that you do not go diving.

Mr Carcharodon:

Get yourself the "Intro to Tech" DVD from 5th D-x it covers all the skills you should practice (it's on Amazon). Beyond that see if you can find some DIR buddies in your area to dive with on a regular basis. And then do post dive debriefs and discuss what went well, and what did not and gradually tweak things in.

But...do not become so focused on skills that you do not go diving.

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I will definitely take a look at the videos are try to subconciously practice the skills till I'm good enough to do them without having to do anything more than think it! =)

I've already been working on the helicopter turn and things like that, but its hard to do without messing up the trim. But then again when I'm at 7m with the instructor teaching a fairly proficient class and as the DM all I do for 20 mins is hover in the background, its a good way to pass the time

To Jasonmh : Thanks so much for the contacts, I had no idea UTD even existed. Reading their thread as we speak

I have to ask this though : have you met and dived with gideon? Not trying to offend anyone but from experience, especially when you're on a fixed course with a tight schedule like PADI OW almost all the instructors i have ever dived with try to get away with the bare minimum. They try to teach you nothing more than the basics and some local dive centres in Singapore even forced me to buy a torch, a slate and an SMB saying it was PADI regulations that I own these items for the Advanced course.

The point is, do you know (personally or have heard of) instructors who are willing to go out of their way to drill the skills into you, who're willing to risk losing potential customers because they have high standards and who will try and help me improve rather than try to pass me with a fancy new plastic card?

What I'm really looking for is a mentor of sorts who takes pride in the students he/she certifies rather than all the instructors i've met so far who try and churn out certified students or hold you back to make a quick buck. I'm in Singapore right now but I'll be moving to UK in Oct 2009 for 4 years to read Engineering.

Do you know any instructors in UK? Or can anyone point me in the right direction as to where to find them?

cheers guys!

You can find most of the 5th D-x skills on youtube also

I find that situational awareness can be developed through some 'on-the-fly' contingency thinking.

I teach my divers to regularly ask themselves like...

"what would I do right now if I was OOA"

This leads to further questions...and provokes a need for awareness....

ie.
"Can I quickly get my buddies attention?"
"How far is it to my buddy?"
"How much air (to share) does my buddy have?"
""Would we have to ascend directly, or could we return to our start point?"

lord.harshil:

The point is, do you know (personally or have heard of) instructors who are willing to go out of their way to drill the skills into you, who're willing to risk losing potential customers because they have high standards and who will try and help me improve rather than try to pass me with a fancy new plastic card?

What I'm really looking for is a mentor of sorts who takes pride in the students he/she certifies rather than all the instructors i've met so far who try and churn out certified students or hold you back to make a quick buck.

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I think, in general, the instructors who have that sort of attitude tend to gravitate towards teaching technical diving...and can thus be hard to attain for recreational courses.

Such people do exist though.... although finding them is a lottery!

lord.harshil:

Do you know any instructors in UK? Or can anyone point me in the right direction as to where to find them?

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Where will you be in the UK? Mark at 'Go-Dive' in Derby is great. Also, the guys/girls at Aquanauts in Plymouth will take great care of you (and Brian is also a GUE instructor).

Heh yeah I found out about the 5th D-X vids on youtube through another thread...on the DIR forum I think?

I'll be in Cambridge. Not sure if I should haul 10kg worth of gear all the way to UK when I fly in. It is VERY tempting though to run off for a weekend to some corner of the country and dive a nice shallow wreck.

I'll read up on those guys before I fly in next month. Aquanauts sounds familiar. I've read about them somewhere. Can't remember what I read though

Do you know them personally? Or did you hear about them from someone who was raving about them? Brian takes pride in his students?

John Kendall, A GUE instructor is based in Cambridge. He was my instructor and he sometimes lurks on Scubaboard.

As for practice, drysuit practice is a good idea in the UK

lord.harshil:

... Not trying to offend anyone but from experience, especially when you're on a fixed course with a tight schedule like PADI OW almost all the instructors i have ever dived with try to get away with the bare minimum. They try to teach you nothing more than the basics...

The point is, do you know (personally or have heard of) instructors who are willing to go out of their way to drill the skills into you, who're willing to risk losing potential customers because they have high standards and who will try and help me improve rather than try to pass me with a fancy new plastic card?

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I recommended those people because based on what you are asking they should be exactly what you are looking for. Do they have high standards? Yes. Will they push you to improve? Yes.
I could go on, but really, try it. You will know very quickly if it is what you are looking for or not. If you want to learn the things you are talking about, don't want an instructor who will let you get by with the bare minimum, and have high standards, then GUE/UTD is as close to a fit for you as anything you are likely to find.

lord.harshil:

Do you know any instructors in UK? Or can anyone point me in the right direction as to where to find them?

cheers guys!

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Yes, check out the GUE instructor list:
GUE Instructors | Global Underwater Explorers
There are atleast 4 in England.

You might want to also check out DIR Diving
There are many people on there from England, you can learn more, and find dive buddies and get instructor recommendations. You could also ask your questions in the DIR forum on this board and see what kind of recommendations you get.