What type of swimming ability do believe an OW diver should have?

What type of swimming ability do believe an OW diver should have?

I think the benefit of being a good swimmer is that it gives you confidence about being able to dive.

I don't think that someone who can't swim would have the confidence to jump into deep water.

I think that being a comfortable swimmer is required from a safty stantpoint. Sure you don't need to know how to swim in order to dive, but things come up unexpectedly and one should be able to move around the water without fins.

Good swimmers are the most frequent users of their hands and inefficient kicks underwater.

Watch sometime on a cattle boat - you can tell who is a "good swimmer" without even trying. They try to "swim" while diving.....

I would say - enough to do a few pool laps and just out of curiosity - what are the lifeguard standards???

khel

I think this is where the older divers part ways with the present generation, they were much hardier as swimmers in general, imho it's a little mad to plunge into the ocean without good swimming skills Z

I think Genisis is right (Oh my god did I just say that, heh). I am a swimmer and it took me a long time to not use my hands for minor corrections. I still catch myself sometimes.
That being said, on the surface is when most people have problems I think. Yeah, you have problems under, but it's at the surface that you see the people freaking out...caught in kelp, big wves, can't get back to the boat, etc. I think someone that that is comfortable swimming would have the presence of mind to just shrug it off and deal with it. I know I've been caught on the sruface with a long swim back to the boat. Yeah it sucks, but I "know" that as long as I can see it, I can swim to it...in fact if I can see it, I know I can pull you to it.
I guess it comes down to the question: Would you jump off the boat here or could you get to the bouy WITHOUT your gear? No, then stay on the couch. The less you can rely on your gear, the better and the better I'll feel about diving with you in case I need you to get me back.

I don't know if I'm in the majority or minority but from personal experience I have to disagree with Genesis.

I was a competitive swimmer from the time I was 10 years old up through high school. I was also certified as a life guard. I didn't have any problems not using my hands when I first started diving and I think that the fact that I already knew a variety of kicks (something besides the flutter) made it a lot easier for me to incorporate different kicks while diving. Diving and swimming don't feel the same...so I don't feel tempted to use my hands.

I think divers definitely need swimming skills, but they don't have to be competitive swimmers. I agree with norcaldiver....it's more about the person's comfortability (is that a word? <grin>) in open water (ie not a swimming pool). So, I guess from the choices above....I'd chose that they need to be able to do a couple laps....but truthfully, I know of folks who couldn't do a couple laps who are very comfortable in open water and folks who can do a couple laps but are very uncomfortable in open water....so, as with most things...it's just not so black and white as we'd like.

Peace,
Cathie

Genesis makes, I'm an excellent swimmer and I don't use my hands underwater...neither do the other excellent swimmers I've dived with.

The non-swimmers I've dived with were the majority of the handsy types...

zeN|| once bubbled...
I think this is where the older divers part ways with the present generation, they were much hardier as swimmers in general, imho it's a little mad to plunge into the ocean without good swimming skills Z

Click to expand...

So this begs the question....
How good a swimmer do you believe one needs to be to dive?