Scuba Trick Tips for New Divers to Advanced Divers?

[divezero]

If you could learn 3 skills for scuba diving from someone, what would you pick? Would you choose them according to the most needed when underwater or the more difficult ones?

Here are some examples below:

1. New Diver - Please state which 3 skills that your instructors never really gave you a lot of practice on in your open water class.

2. Advanced Divers - Please state which 3 skills that you may need a refresher on, you may be too busy with photography, etc on your dives, that you havent really practiced your dive skills in awhile.

Also, if you have any, name some tips for fellow divers that you dont learn in open water class.

Examples of skills:

-Mask Flood
-Buoyancy Control
-Weightbelt removal and replacement
-Removing BCD (to swim through small holes)
-Regulator Recovery (also with purge method)
-Regulator Free Flow.
-Plus many more...

 

[Adobo]

-Removing BCD (to swim through small holes)

This is a skill I definitely need a refresher on.

 

[creamofwheat]

With nearly 50 dives under my belt now, and finally handling buoyancy fairly well and consistently, I'd have to say that I should practice:

1. Mask removal. I absolutely hate this, and it still makes me uncomfortable to be underwater without my mask on.

2. OOG drills. Can never be too practiced on these...so keeping up these drills is definitely a good thing.

3. Frog kick and helicopter turns. Can't do these for the life of me, so practicing is a must. Working on and improving my trim would also me good.

 

[Matsya]

If you could learn 3 skills for scuba diving from someone, what would you pick? Would you choose them according to the most needed when underwater or the more difficult ones?................

I don't think there is a difference between the difficult ones and the ones that are most needed underwater!!! If I need to learn them from someone after getting certified most likely I am finding them difficult. So, to me, both mean the same thing.

I would choose the following:

1. Pinpoint accuracy in buoyancy (this would include minimum required weighting, minimum drag)
2. How to reduce air consumption or how to make my air last longer (this would include kicking techniques to improve efficiency)
3. Better navigation techniques (I am totally lost as soon as I descend 1 metre !!)

 

[TSandM]

I don't know which class I belong in, but here's my list of three:

1. Mask off diving, and mask replacement and clearing. I don't like it, and I'm not nearly as good at it as I ought to be. I spent a half hour in our pool the other night practicing, trying not to lose control of my depth while replacing and clearing my mask.

2. On the surface doff and don. I don't do it enough. It's very handy for some kinds of boat diving. I should be smoother and faster at both.

3. Functioning in midwater. I can now do a minimally competent descent with a buddy, and an ascent with some sloppy stops. But Bob's horrible AOW exercise of swimming a nav pattern at 20 feet (without reference to surface or bottom) still strikes terror in my soul.

 

[Silver_Diver]

I'm just about to my 100th dive and I've finally gotten all my gear setup just about how I want it. That being said, sometimes I still have a couple of problems in the water I wish I wouldn't have.

1) I'd say most importantly buoyancy needs to be practiced and paid attention to. Every once in a while I notice that veteran divers tend to disregard bumping into stuff (give me a nod if any of you have noticed too). I still dunder into coral about once a dive while taking a photograph or swimming through a cave. At one point I was doing it a couple of times a dive and it almost felt like it was becoming so common I didn't care about it anymore. I'd just bump, move, and shrug it off. I notice some veterans (not the really good ones) are apathetic toward coral collisions. Not a good policy by any means.

2) Proper smooth ascent. I don't have problems with this because I'm always shore diving but if I had to guess I'd say that in blue water my ascents would be a little unpolished.

3) Rescue skills. Dagnabit, there can never be enough rescue practice. The more you do them the more comfortable you feel in any situation and they give you a ton of confidence. I'd say if you're not yet comfortable diving don't jump into rescue, but once you do it's a must to learn how to help your fellow divers.

 

[Matsya]

I have been reading the posts in this thread and am slightly confused. The OP asked what "SKILLS' we need to learn from others as opposed to what skills we need to "PRACTICE". All the posts I have read so far talk about practising skills that have been learnt.

 

[victor]

I have been reading the posts in this thread and am slightly confused. The OP asked what "SKILLS' we need to learn from others as opposed to what skills we need to "PRACTICE". All the posts I have read so far talk about practising skills that have been learnt.

The fact that we have ben taught what to do does not mean that we can actually do it.

Mine is buoyancy and trim. This should be instinctive and automatic. As I have not been in the water for a while it will be horrible when I first get back in. After a few dives my buoyancy control should come back but trim always seems to be much more difficult to get right.
I need to get both sorted before I can take my new camera into the water.
I will be switching to a wing in the near future so that will be a whole new learning curve.

 

[Trinigordo]

Well I have decent grasp of most open water level skills, but what I have noticed is my bouyancy and trim needs work( I am fairly decent at it, but I want to get great at it).

I have to do some serious work on my nagivational skills, I am not even sure I can still navigate at all as I have been led on every dive since, but I will find out this summer just where I am at with regards to it.

My ascents have been done wrong, I have been using the padi 60fpm rule and 3 minute safety stop at 15 feet, and I will now implement a deep stop a la JeffG method which seems to be the better offgassing system.

My SAC definitely could use some work as well.

 

[joe rock]

For me, no question learning alternate kicking types (frog etc.) and navigation. I have fundamental navigation, but would like to learn much more. With the navigation, maybe I know what I need, but I just need to keep practicing!

JR