#$%#$%@# Dive Training!

Ok, so yesterday I go diving with my newly-certified g/f.

And I now have a rant about training. See, this was her first "real" Ow experience after class.

So we drop down to a nice reef at about 70' (her last two training dives were at 57', so this is not much deeper.) Its a little-dove and little-known natural reef around here, with the salient feature of it being that off the ledges the natural bottom surrounding it is MUD - not sand.

So, if you hit the bottom, you make a HUGE silt cloud and destroy the visability.

A good place to learn what happens if your do NOT have decent buoyancy control! We dropped the anchor just off the hard bottom and jumped in.

Needless to say, she smoked it up and good. We're going to go spend some time at the Jetties this coming weekend, or somewhere that a tank will last her an hour (and the depth will permit such an exposure) and do NOTHING OTHER THAN LEARNING TO GET AND STAY NEUTRAL.

This was basically ignored in her class, and its obvious.

I showed her the video I shot of her diving, and she said "oh god" when we got back on the surface. There was another guy down there with a video camera, and he shot some of me. The difference was immediately able to be appreciated

Anyway, its time for a few hours of playing around the 20' mark; thank god I have my own compressor and as such the time and tanks will be cheap.....

Folks, do you think it is reasonable to expect that when someone gets done with OW class they can decend on an anchor line, stop without crashing into the bottom, and hover without having to fin upwards against their negative buoyancy?

Is this not a basic skill?

It was one with my instructor, but apparently was not with hers!

My experience would be limited to my OW class, but I would have to agree with you based on that.

We discussed buoyancy in class.

We did the "fin pivot" in the pool ( I still have yet to figure out what good that is)

We did our OW skills planted on the bottom kneeling in the sand.

My C-card arrived in the mail shortly thereafter

Scott

I find myself agreeing with Genesis.

Be assured that the instructuctors at our shop teach students to be neutrally buoyant as well. Until I got onto this board (OK, I saw a couple of people with problems in Provo as well), I wasn't aware that instructors would actually certify to a lesser standard.

Hopefully, it is a simple issue like learning to tap the inflator button or dropping some weight and breathing out entirely. If it is, it most likely won't take an hour to correct.

Genesis once bubbled...
Folks, do you think it is reasonable to expect that when someone gets done with OW class they can decend on an anchor line, stop without crashing into the bottom, and hover without having to fin upwards against their negative buoyancy?

Click to expand...

If they did that, how would they sell the peak performance bouyancy class?

I'm curious though. I would think that someone who dives as much as you do would know who's on the ball when it comes to local instructors?

I learned all of that in my OW class, but it took me about 30 dives to really perfect my buoyancy skills. I found that it came with learning to really relax and be comfortable underwater. I'm just sayin'.

I try to emphasize buoyancy skills in my classes.

I think one thing for most people is the difficulty making that transition to a horizontal world.

Also, to a new diver, used to gravity that truly neutral feeling seems a little on the edge of out of control. When I brief new divers, I make it a point to point out the bottom conditions and talk to them about making sure to stay off of it. We even go over the effect of wetsuit, etc. This way it is fresh on their mind when they begin their descent.

Also, basic OW training really doesn't provide the amount of time needed to develop that sort of water comfort.

I tell all of my new divers that their goal for their next 15 dives is to master their buoyancy control. From what I have seen, they really get the feel for Neutral buoyancy right around that 15-20 dive mark.

When I teach Advanced OW I usually will take my students on a dive where we tour a shallow wall at the quarry. This gives me a chance to evaluate and correct their buoyancy early in the process. Also, if you tour the wall slowly, you can quickly see the ones that are too heavy since they will be finning just to stay at depth.

When I got certified (2 months ago) the course didn't teach us how to be neutral. We did the fin-pivot and hoover exercises, but they are really easy to do from sitting on the bottom, just taking it slow and float up from the bottom. The hard part is to stay neutral (and in good trim). And this wasn't practiced at all.

To answer your question, yes these skills should be required to get a card.

I just completed my classroom and pool this weekend. I have my open water in 2 weeks. I am not so lucky to have Gulf or ocean diving for my local dive sites. I am stuck with fresh water quarries in the mid-west. My instructor had us practice some bouyancy control but didn't want us to try until it was our turn to work with him. Once we finished we were able to continue to practice while he worked with the other students. I had seven students in my class and usually 5-6 were ahead of me for working with the instructor. I feel I did a better than average job with almost all of the skills except weight removal and replacement. We had 2 people in the class that seemed to struggle with every skill and tended to panic when practicing them with the instructor. Needless to say this is why I would go near the end of the line so I could stay away from them. But my point is we had seven people in the class and some would only get about 5-10 minutes to practice each exercise and other do have a hard time with these exercises that hold up the class. I don't know if this situation might be what your g/f experenced in class or if the instructor just differed that much. I think it would be better if the instructor sees one student really struggling with alot of the skill that they have that person go last each time so that the other students could continue to practice each of the skills.

BTW i thought that SCUBA is awesome and cant wait to get my OW and go with it from there.

cmcarver once bubbled...
I just completed my classroom and pool this weekend. I have my open water in 2 weeks. I am not so lucky to have Gulf or ocean diving for my local dive sites. I am stuck with fresh water quarries in the mid-west. My instructor had us practice some bouyancy control but didn't want us to try until it was our turn to work with him. Once we finished we were able to continue to practice while he worked with the other students. I had seven students in my class and usually 5-6 were ahead of me for working with the instructor. I feel I did a better than average job with almost all of the skills except weight removal and replacement. We had 2 people in the class that seemed to struggle with every skill and tended to panic when practicing them with the instructor. Needless to say this is why I would go near the end of the line so I could stay away from them. But my point is we had seven people in the class and some would only get about 5-10 minutes to practice each exercise and other do have a hard time with these exercises that hold up the class. I don't know if this situation might be what your g/f experenced in class or if the instructor just differed that much. I think it would be better if the instructor sees one student really struggling with alot of the skill that they have that person go last each time so that the other students could continue to practice each of the skills.

BTW i thought that SCUBA is awesome and cant wait to get my OW and go with it from there.

Click to expand...

Where are you at in the midwest?

I am pretty newly certified ... July of last year ... I can say that when I finished my OW and recieved my certification...I had no idea what neutral bouyancy meant from a practical standpoint ... I knew from a theory aspect what it was and what it meant .. but that's it...
It wasn't until I started diving with a friend who owns the dive shop now (phenomenal instructor)...that I figured it all out!

I was appalled that I wasn't taught this in my class.. like you, I would consider it to be a basic, important skill!