As a new instructor I've spent the last few years training and working in an indoor pool. Was great, of course, to have the pool right there in the shop and I long considered myself to have been spoiled. Sure, it was only 7' deep... and at 6'2" myself there wasn't much room for many students or an assistant in a pool that is about the size of a modest backyard suburban pool. But it sure was convenient.
Well, today I spent my first day ever in the aquatic and scuba facilities at a local university; a complex which houses two amazing pools that would make any instructor think they died and went to Confined Water Heaven!.
The "Patio Pool" is a large L-shaped pool, comparable in size to what you'd find at your local YMCA. But where the similarity ends is the fact the left side of the pool in the photo below has an adjustable floor - allowing an instructor to dial in any "water shallow enough to stand" depth they might like between 0 and 6ft.
The Olympic Size pool - a standard 50m long by 25m wide one - has a moveable wall to allow for creation of two separate swimming areas. Today's OW class had the entire left side of the pool pictured below. May be hard to see in the picture, but the "deep" end of the pool - 25m x 25m - slopes from 7ft down to 17ft. You can actually demonstrate and evaluate things like controlled descents and ascents in a way that's just not possible in seven feet of water. And no need to worry about how you're going to jam yourself and two or three OW students in the pool at the same time. This pool is big enough to have two or three OW classes in the pool at the same time. For scale purposes, the guy on the deck on the near-right side of the deep section is probably 6' tall. (Hell, I think the pool is large enough to run a Navigation Specialty class!)
Ten feet from the edge of the patio pool is a large scuba equipment room with brand new compressor, a fleet of shiny AL80s, and row-upon-row of brand new BCDs, regs, wetsuits, etc. ("I love the smell of neoprene in the morning...")
Right around the corner is the scuba classroom. And the classroom- as one would imagine on a major university campus - is an honest to goodness classroom. (Rather than a folding table set up in the service department or an empty room in a retail shop.) Need a projector - call the AV department and they'll bring one right over. White board - call facilities. (As I found out today, they'll also bring you a fan if the room is too warm.)
EFR class with a dozen students huddled around two or three old manikins? No way. We had a dozen students today, with each having their own manikin - the fancy kind with multiple flashing LEDs to indicate proper compression depth, compression rate, and whether the airway was properly open. Of course, all 12 students each had their own AED to work with as well.
Now, it's not perfect. They don't have trimix or argon at the fill station... but I started dropping hints today. (Though I think they're gonna draw the line at letting me sink a school bus and a helicopter in the deep end.)
Well, today I spent my first day ever in the aquatic and scuba facilities at a local university; a complex which houses two amazing pools that would make any instructor think they died and went to Confined Water Heaven!.
The "Patio Pool" is a large L-shaped pool, comparable in size to what you'd find at your local YMCA. But where the similarity ends is the fact the left side of the pool in the photo below has an adjustable floor - allowing an instructor to dial in any "water shallow enough to stand" depth they might like between 0 and 6ft.
The Olympic Size pool - a standard 50m long by 25m wide one - has a moveable wall to allow for creation of two separate swimming areas. Today's OW class had the entire left side of the pool pictured below. May be hard to see in the picture, but the "deep" end of the pool - 25m x 25m - slopes from 7ft down to 17ft. You can actually demonstrate and evaluate things like controlled descents and ascents in a way that's just not possible in seven feet of water. And no need to worry about how you're going to jam yourself and two or three OW students in the pool at the same time. This pool is big enough to have two or three OW classes in the pool at the same time. For scale purposes, the guy on the deck on the near-right side of the deep section is probably 6' tall. (Hell, I think the pool is large enough to run a Navigation Specialty class!)
Ten feet from the edge of the patio pool is a large scuba equipment room with brand new compressor, a fleet of shiny AL80s, and row-upon-row of brand new BCDs, regs, wetsuits, etc. ("I love the smell of neoprene in the morning...")
Right around the corner is the scuba classroom. And the classroom- as one would imagine on a major university campus - is an honest to goodness classroom. (Rather than a folding table set up in the service department or an empty room in a retail shop.) Need a projector - call the AV department and they'll bring one right over. White board - call facilities. (As I found out today, they'll also bring you a fan if the room is too warm.)
EFR class with a dozen students huddled around two or three old manikins? No way. We had a dozen students today, with each having their own manikin - the fancy kind with multiple flashing LEDs to indicate proper compression depth, compression rate, and whether the airway was properly open. Of course, all 12 students each had their own AED to work with as well.
Now, it's not perfect. They don't have trimix or argon at the fill station... but I started dropping hints today. (Though I think they're gonna draw the line at letting me sink a school bus and a helicopter in the deep end.)
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