Well, I was out diving in Pulau Tioman (Island off Eastern Coast of Peninsular Malaysia) for those of you who know where it is/have been there and as per the recommendations I received the last time I asked for help on the board about practicing trim and basic skills, here is what I did and what I found out.
Over 6 dives done (2 wrecks in daytime, 1 wreck at night, 3 reef) :
Changes made over previous gear/skills :
1) SMB attached to finger spool rather than the 5m cord wrapped around the SMB itself.
2) Deploying SMB with octo rather than primary
3) Descending, diving, ascending and safety stop successfully accomplished in trim after a few tries
4) Use of OMS light with Goodman handle as opposed to the use of UK mini Q40 held in hand with lanyard around wrist (this is now the backup)
5) Stowing everything in a thigh pocket rather than dangling around like a gadget
christmas tree (just found out about this term and dang is it derogatory!)
6) Attempt to use frogkick, back kick, helicopter turn, etc.
Benefits gained from 6 dives done with this setup :
1) SMB can now be deployed from any depth
2) I didn't die deploying my SMB which I nearly did the last time. I used to unravel the 5m of cord and use my primary to inflate it. This worked fine the first 40 times, and then it finally tangled in my primary reg, nearly snapped it off/yanked me to the surface and tore off my mouthpiece. No such problems this time around. Deploying in trim further reduces chances of tangling and I didn't have to struggle to maintain constant depth this time round.
3) Hands were free to use my new camera with the Goodman handle and just generally a lot easier to manage.
4) No longer a gadget tree (yay!)
5) Avg air consumption (is this the same as SAC term I see around?) dropped from avg of 0.6l/min to 0.42l/min according to the dive computer (not AI btw). I was shocked :shocked2: and maybe since my profiles were deeper this time around this had something to do with it? I haven't read this far on the subject on air consumption yet. (Yes, I know the deeper you go the more air you breathe but I think the figure calculated by the computer was for the consumption rate on the surface not at depth. Not 100% sure if going deeper makes this figure smaller than in a shallower dive though)
6) Back kick is easy. Everything else is ridiculously difficult (maybe cos I can't see what I'm doing and should get a friend to video me). Slow propulsion forward is easy too by sorta shuffling the jetfins from side to side like what I see in a lot of videos, but the proper ankle breaking frog kick is still not in my skills book yet. Moreover I have a dime sized blister on my right foot. I think the blister is from not shoving the fins on correctly or some sand and grit in the booties that snuck in on the last dive since the fins and booties aren't new and no problems yet.
7) The trim helped me hover about a couple of inches over a devil's stinger while I snapped off shots and managed not to get stung (I'm alive, I'm alive!)
So, yup, just thought I'd share my findings. Lots more to learn and lots more to discover =) I'll upload some pictures in a bit.
Over 6 dives done (2 wrecks in daytime, 1 wreck at night, 3 reef) :
Changes made over previous gear/skills :
1) SMB attached to finger spool rather than the 5m cord wrapped around the SMB itself.
2) Deploying SMB with octo rather than primary
3) Descending, diving, ascending and safety stop successfully accomplished in trim after a few tries
4) Use of OMS light with Goodman handle as opposed to the use of UK mini Q40 held in hand with lanyard around wrist (this is now the backup)
5) Stowing everything in a thigh pocket rather than dangling around like a gadget
christmas tree (just found out about this term and dang is it derogatory!)
6) Attempt to use frogkick, back kick, helicopter turn, etc.
Benefits gained from 6 dives done with this setup :
1) SMB can now be deployed from any depth
2) I didn't die deploying my SMB which I nearly did the last time. I used to unravel the 5m of cord and use my primary to inflate it. This worked fine the first 40 times, and then it finally tangled in my primary reg, nearly snapped it off/yanked me to the surface and tore off my mouthpiece. No such problems this time around. Deploying in trim further reduces chances of tangling and I didn't have to struggle to maintain constant depth this time round.
3) Hands were free to use my new camera with the Goodman handle and just generally a lot easier to manage.
4) No longer a gadget tree (yay!)
5) Avg air consumption (is this the same as SAC term I see around?) dropped from avg of 0.6l/min to 0.42l/min according to the dive computer (not AI btw). I was shocked :shocked2: and maybe since my profiles were deeper this time around this had something to do with it? I haven't read this far on the subject on air consumption yet. (Yes, I know the deeper you go the more air you breathe but I think the figure calculated by the computer was for the consumption rate on the surface not at depth. Not 100% sure if going deeper makes this figure smaller than in a shallower dive though)
6) Back kick is easy. Everything else is ridiculously difficult (maybe cos I can't see what I'm doing and should get a friend to video me). Slow propulsion forward is easy too by sorta shuffling the jetfins from side to side like what I see in a lot of videos, but the proper ankle breaking frog kick is still not in my skills book yet. Moreover I have a dime sized blister on my right foot. I think the blister is from not shoving the fins on correctly or some sand and grit in the booties that snuck in on the last dive since the fins and booties aren't new and no problems yet.
7) The trim helped me hover about a couple of inches over a devil's stinger while I snapped off shots and managed not to get stung (I'm alive, I'm alive!)
So, yup, just thought I'd share my findings. Lots more to learn and lots more to discover =) I'll upload some pictures in a bit.
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