When do you need con ed?

I did my last class in November of 2009. That was my Cave class in Mexico. Since then, I have dived actively -- I've done a lot of cave diving, some tech diving, and tons of recreational diving in both single and double tank setups. But I haven't been tested, and I haven't done drills all the time, the way I did when I was learning.

I am making a dive trip next week where I hope to do some technical diving. In preparation, because I hadn't done much at home in the last few months, I went out last night and did a dive designed to brush up. What I discovered was that I was rusty -- very rusty on some things. The stuff I actually DO on a regular basis was fine -- bag shoots, gas switches, ascending on a schedule. What didn't go well was valve shutdowns in midwater with no reference, because honestly, I have yet to shut down a valve in anger

I have worried about this sort of thing, and tried to set up a "refresher" day with my cave instructor last June, but it didn't work because of schedule. I am now intent on getting that done in November.

How often do you test your emergency skills, and with whom, and under what conditions?

TsandM asked

How often do you test your emergency skills, and with whom, and under what conditions?

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I'll play:

How often do you test your emergency skills (outside of teaching) -- whenever my wife drags me to the dive site demanding that we "do a skills dive" because someone (a GUE instructor?) might see her diving.


and with whom, -- my primary dive buddy, my wife

and under what conditions? Huh? Well, in the water, cold, dark salty water; generally under protest (can't we just go down and look for an octo or a nudi or a huge cabazon?); and almost always when we are about to go on a trip where she thinks someone (a GUE instructor?) might see her in diving and think she doesn't belong there!

I'm hesitant to post about this topic, (to the point that I wrote, deleted and re-wrote it three times now), because I'm a recently-Fundified diver, (March), and there seems to be a Scubaboard Meme about "DIR Divers that do nothing but drill, drill, drill" and (unfortunately, I guess) myself and my team fit that stereotype, which is one that lots of other GUE/UTD/DIR divers who post here try to counter.

Well, we are and we do. Our local diving sucks. No-viz, crappy lakes with little to no life and muddy, rotting vehicle carcasses or training platforms. The only way we keep the same sites interesting is with working on mastering drills and skills. None of us can afford dive vacations.

Bag shoots, valve drills, S-drills, cascading-failure combinations like multiple air-shares with an ascent drill and one teammate loses a mask with a light-failure on-top, (among others). We often run video for the after-action report, (depends on number of divers). The occasional simulated rescue as well.

Every. Single. Dive.

We also enjoy "plain" dives, but they often start with drills and end with drills, though not every time. Even then, there is constant feedback during the dive from teammates on body and feet position. "Head BACK!" or "Feet UP!" or "Lay over!" or "Head down trim, bring it up!" or "Happy feet! Dorsiflex and lay 'em down!" (We've worked all the hand signals out by this point. Hell, we KNOW when we're outta whack and can usually fix it prior to being told.)

Of course, it's locked us in like never before, both on individual skills and team skills. And it's beyond looking sexy in the water; I'm also working towards an objective. I'm looking to upgrade my Fundies pass to a Tech Pass in October, and next spring/summer, I am hoping I'll be good enough for Tech 1. Striving for "zero-defects" in order to make this happen. I'm lucky in that I am a dive bum, and am in the water 4-7 days a week, either a lake or a pool. Tons of chances to keep the claws sharp, and I can get good feedback from the rest of the team, (since I work with two of them). I'm pretty confident at this point, and I'm sure that after the DS class I'm taking at the same time as the Tech Upgrade, I'll be locked-in, both wet and dry.

Also, (and this is to head off inevitable criticism), this sport is about having FUN, right? Well this is what I find fun. I don't have ocean and actual cool stuff to see and dive here, so I have to do what I can. Pushing myself constantly to improve and become the diver I want to be is what I do. And I'm not even THAT good, at least not compared to what and whom I want to be able to dive like.

Nomex on.

Typically a verification that you can reach your valves is done on every dive. Not a shutdown but a touch to keep muscle memory. The rest is enviroment specific. i.e. do not schedule a trip with drifting deco without a bag shoot refresher. Contrary to the gue/utd norm, I was taught that when shutting down valves "in anger" it does not matter if the russian judge gives you a 1 or not as long as the job gets done, no style points just execution.
Eric

Peter, it's a good thing I didn't read this until I was out of town, or you'd be sleeping on the couch!

I actually thought this was a good topic; apparently not many other people did.

Oh well, *sigh* not all great ideas pan out.

but ever since this post http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ba...later-why-im-still-dir-diver.html#post4826874 you've been tops in my book.

TSandM:

Peter, it's a good thing I didn't read this until I was out of town, or you'd be sleeping on the couch!

I actually thought this was a good topic; apparently not many other people did.

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I dunno which one of you two makes me chuckle the most ... but I do think, as a couple, this should be your logo ...



... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Bob, we try to keep things light! After all, if you can't laugh at yourself, who will?

TSandM:

How often do you test your emergency skills, and with whom, and under what conditions?

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Most of my local dives are solo. All of my solo dives start out with a full run of all emergency procedures, including mask drills, lost reg drills, valve drills, light switching drills, tank switching, and even s-drills (I just have to set my regulator down on a rock or tree stump to simulate someone receiving the regulator). If the drills go smoothly, I proceed to descend and carry on with my solo dive. If the drills are rough, I stay at 25 feet and just do drills.

The remainder of my dives are usually in Mexico or Florida with my GF. We start out our week of diving with a refresher dive that includes a run through mask, valve and air-sharing drills.

I make a point of assisting other tech instructors on courses, wherever and whenever I can. I've learnt a lot of different approaches from doing this, and it certainly helps reinforce and refresh skills.