Team Bouyancy Control

[TheRedHead]

Here's a rather strange thing I discovered while taking Extended Range is that if you are diving with a team, you tend to follow the team leader without realizing it. I was hovering at 120 feet (which was supposed to be the max depth of this dive) and my instructor was hovering facing me. I thought I was just waiting for an instruction from him, but he surreptitiously sank 5 feet - and so did I - without ever realizing it! I subconsciously breathed my way down at the same rate.

Later we did some excercises where we would hover and make fists. One person would be the leader responsible for the depth of the team. We would extend our arms and touch fist to fist and go up and down the water column by breathing following the thumbs up or thumbs down of the leader without losing contact. This is a fun thing to try with your buddy.

 

[do it easy]

I've seen people looking at fish that were looking at them- I'm not sure who was following whom, but they were both sinking.

We would extend our arms and touch fist to fist and go up and down the water column by breathing following the thumbs up or thumbs down of the leader without losing contact.

Wonder Twin Powers ACTIVATE!

 

[AndyNZ]

Here's a rather strange thing I discovered while taking Extended Range is that if you are diving with a team, you tend to follow the team leader without realizing it. I was hovering at 120 feet (which was supposed to be the max depth of this dive) and my instructor was hovering facing me. I thought I was just waiting for an instruction from him, but he surreptitiously sank 5 feet - and so did I - without ever realizing it! I subconsciously breathed my way down at the same rate.

Fairly common - I've done this before on Nitrox certification dives by dropping below the MOD of the mix the student is diving on, and seeing if they follow. Probably only 50% of students recognise that they are at the MOD, the other 50% seem to just assume that the "instructor knows best"....

 

[TheRedHead]

AndyNZ, this was much more sneaky than that. My instructor didn't move a fin tip and I wasn't even aware of either of us changing depth. We were diving air, BTW. I was responsible for the team deco and it made me more aware of insidious depth changes.

 

[Doc Intrepid]

Sounds like it was a good class - enjoyable as well as informative!

Occasionally you win one, right?

Glad it was worthwhile for you.

 

[AndyNZ]

AndyNZ, this was much more sneaky than that. My instructor didn't move a fin tip and I wasn't even aware of either of us changing depth. We were diving air, BTW. I was responsible for the team deco and it made me more aware of insidious depth changes.

Well, if it was extended range then it should be more sneaky!!

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Fairly common - I've done this before on Nitrox certification dives by dropping below the MOD of the mix the student is diving on, and seeing if they follow. Probably only 50% of students recognise that they are at the MOD, the other 50% seem to just assume that the "instructor knows best"....

?? So you facilitate 50% of your Nitrox students exceeding their MOD during a training dive?

Ever race any to the surface too?

 

[SparticleBrane]

I believe the point he was making to us AND to the students is that they need to think for themselves and NOT do "trust me dives" just because they think that their instructor knows best. I'm sure that during the dive debrief his students probably get a quick talking to about what they did.

Many instructors do this, and I believe it's a good thing. Testing the students to see if they'll do exactly what you told them NOT to do is a good way to see if 1: they listened, and 2: to see if they'll do it after the class as well.

 

[TSandM]

A very good technical diver learned this lesson the hard way by trying to do S-drills with me in the dark . . . As I lost my buoyancy control, he lost his, because he had so thoroughly learned to use his buddy as a visual reference. It annoyed the dickens out of him.

 

[Scuba_Steve]

Many instructors do this, and I believe it's a good thing. Testing the students to see if they'll do exactly what you told them NOT to do is a good way to see if 1: they listened, and 2: to see if they'll do it after the class as well.

Having not done this for decades yet, I can say that I have a 100% success ratio in sucking in the student...damn they just don't listen and follow through with it. You can tell them and have them repeat it...yep, they do it anyway.

regards