Practice

Hello Everyone,

I'm looking for some advice on what I can do to practice under the conditions that I have access to.

I have my OW cert, and I am logging dives towards my AOW SSI certifications. I am planning on taking the requisite courses with my SSI instructor in September and October, and I figure I will have my logged dives and training requirements done by then. In the mean time, I have been going to the local quarry with some friends and doing a few basic dives. Whenever I go we do two or three dives, and when we do three I make sure that at least one of them (usually the shortest) is some type of training. I usually doe mask/reg clearing, breathing without a mask on, and bouyancy skills. I'm no expert by far, but I work on it every time I'm in the water.

I also have access to my instructor's 15' pool when the shop is open, and I go to my local YMCA and swim for exercise on a regular basis. I have family members with standard 8" pools as well.

My question to you all is this: What can I do to make the best use of my resouces to train for diving. While at the gym pool what can I work on without my gear? While at the dive shop pool, what kind of drills or tasks can I do underwater to help build my confidence and abilities?

Are there any "games" that I can play or challenges that I can use to enhance my training time??

I would like to eventually do a few NJ wreck dives, so would it be worthwhile to perhaps get a smb and work on being able to deploy that? Even without having taken a wreck class?

Thanks,
-BC

Try practicing being totally still in the water column. No movement from you, yet stay at depth and trim. Feel your equipment. What is it all doing? How does it all feel? Refine your feeling so that you can feel the difference in the tiniest puff of air added or released... or feel what the smallest movement does to you. Slow down your breathing (but do not skip breathe). Notice how the water feels all around you. Now become part of the water...

At first, you will be still, but not part of the water. Then you will have refinement but still not be part of the water. Sorry to sound like Karate Kid, but when you start feeling like part of the water, your diving will probably be pretty good.

You sound like me 2 years ago when I started. You are on the right track. Just the fact that you want to practice puts you miles ahead of most.

Bouyancy is key. Practice as the above said. You may need to add trim weights to get balanced out horizontal. Practicing the smb is good. You should know how to use one. It's important though to practice with someone who knows how to do it so they can watch you and make sure you don't get tangled in it.

Finning techniques are good to practice. Wreck diving means frog kicking. Watch some you tube videos to see what it's about. You can practice this in the pool and film yourself with a go pro.

Just keep practicicing. Think about what you want to be better at then work on it. Don't be too hard on yourself though just keep diving and you will get better in time. Try to see if you can find any mentors that are wreck divers and can dive with you.

Im just over 100dives in now and bouyancy is a lot better but I still need to work on it. Finning is a lot better but my frog kick is still a bit sloppy and now I'm working on back kick. But I'm having a blast and finally getting down to some real wrecks. I took a while and baby stepped up but now when I dive a 100ft wreck I feel really good and am not nervous about dives.

Just take your time and it will come. It is great that you want to practice and this is the first step to being a better diver.

Buoyancy control is the central skill of diving, and as already has been stated, that means control when you are not moving. It's easy to use your fins to make up for being slightly negative or positive, but if you aren't moving, you have to be honest! Of course, not moving does require balancing your weights so that you CAN be still and not end up upside down . . . But that's the place to start.

Once you can be still and stable, then you need to add some stressors to see how solid your control is. Practicing skills like mask clearing or mask removal while trying to remain still is good. Air-sharing adds another dimension to breath control and stability. Shooting a bag is a great skill to learn in general, and is also a good task-loading challenge for that stability you're working on.

The articles on THIS site have a bunch of ideas for exercises to polish skills.

biggest thing is if in a standard 4' lap pool you can kick down, turn 360 to one direction while staying above the cross, backkick the whole back back in a relatively straight line, then turn 360 the other direction with a mask off. If you can do that, you'll be set for damn near anything. If you can hover in 3' of water you can hover anywhere. Practice doing your buoyancy in the pool without using your power inflator at all, only use your oral inflator, and ALWAYS wear gloves when you're in the pool to get used to manipulating gear without the sense of touch.

Once you get the laps down pat above, do the same thing but before you do the 360, remove and replace an 8lb weight belt without touching the surface or the bottom.

If you can do those skills without a mask on, you're pretty much set for most anything.

Like was said:

- Bouyancy control: be able to stay within 1ft of a particular depth. The shallower = the harder = the better for practice.

- Trim: perfectly horizontal without moving, finning, etc. This is hard and requires dialed in weight distribution and body posture. This is great for a pool, especially if you can get a video camera on you to see what right and wrong feel like. Post links to your videos here and we will comment/assist.

- Propulsion: frog kick, back kick, helicopter turn, modified flutter.

- Other skills: make sure you can do them while staying in trim and keeping your bouyancy. If you're moving up or down 5ft while messing with your mask, you need to keep working on it until you stay put.

If you can nail those skills it will make you better than 95% of divers.

+1 on bouyancy control. Since you have a 15' pool maybe even try using different thickness wetsuits. A 7mm and 3mm have very different characteristics. After that I would do as many basic skills as you can to reinforce the skill as well as bouyancy control. You can achieve great bouyancy control with no other tasks but throw in a task and that may be a different story.