Another UTD Essentials Report 10/9-10/11/09

[kathydee]

UTD Essentials was great! Our instructor Don is (SB user: ae3753) was quite skilled & knowledgeable made the class tons of fun!

A bit about Essentials
Essentials is a huge step towards improving pre-dive, dive and buddy skills & situational awareness. We started with dry runs of kicks and spent a pool session focusing on efficient kicks and streamline trim. We learned lots of useful theory (way beyond what I learned through other recreational training), learned to calculate our own deco stops, dive without a computer (if we choose – which believe it or not is easy), practiced safety drills, learned how to integrate into a functioning team and learned how to calculate the minimum required air to assist a partner from maximum depth to the surface, etc, etc..

Video critique was very important. Unlike the pass/fail element of other similar classes, Essentials provided a gentle approach -we reviewed numerous videos from every dive over dinner/lunch/breakfast and laugh hard at bloops and blunders as Don skillfully expanded our awareness and refined our skills. Always the drills had a sense of adventure & fun and did not carry the stress of pass/fail. Rather than achieving perfection with the skills, Essentials was about comprehension, understanding, taking the skills into practice, and increasing team skills.

Now on to the details

Our classmates started as SB acquaintances with a variety of experience: Mike M had about 5 drysuit dives (his profile says he has somewhere between 50-99 logged dives). While I just converted from a warm water diver back in May, then spent the summer diving the tropics, so have only logged about 30 drysuit dives (but over 230 total dives). Mike G had the most drysuit dives (I think a total of 100+ cold water dives).

We met Thursday for a pool session to iron out buoyancy, trim and learn an assortment of kicks. To my surprise, I was soon back kicking ½ was across the pool and was excited about improvements to my frog kick

Most of the dives were spent, trying to hover in one spot, back kicking to maintain position, while waiting my turn to do fun drills (such as SMB deployment, s-drills & air share, valve drill, frog/modified frog/modified flutter/back kick, reg retrieval, etc), while constantly anticipating switching roles and responsibilities for problem solving – all of which lead to greater skill/confidence and much more awareness of the environment.

I have to apologize to my classmates here. My tolerance for disorganized buddies was not very high during the first few days. I saw parts of the teamwork as a major cluster which was incredibly frustrating-- till Don graciously showed me my role in the mess – which he’s so good at revealing . He reminded me that one challenge of the couse is negotiating effective leadership, and another siginificant component is task loading - so one of my very rewarding challenges turned out to be on-going problem solving and staying aware of my partner’s positions.

Now often from my perspective this looked like one partner crashing into the ground, while the other one, struggling with buoyancy was spiraling up towards the surface and I was somewhere in between trying my best to figure who to help out or if I should try to hold my own position. On a few days when vis was extremely poor, 5-7 ft or less, I’d often find myself trying my best to maintain perfect kicks, trim and buoyancy while chasing fins one direction and flashing my light in the other direction at my second partner fading into the gray.

There were lots funny moments where partners butted heads, failed attempts at S drills, tangled SMB line, hoses, a writing circle with thoughts and feelings shared upon wetnotes, trying to see Don's signals through the grainy 3-5’ vis, and somebody kelp hugging upon ascent.

Then, miraculously, by the second and third day -- frog kicks started improving, back kicks were getting better, trim flattening out, divers were holding their stops and partner skills significantly improved for the entire team, moments of exceptional communication, resolution of problems rather than reaction, eyes smiling in masks when the first SMB’s shot up. My first successful valve drill .

I loved watching teammates improvements. I loved seeing Don work his magic on my form & skills in the video reviews. Thanks Mike & Mike & Chris you all made it a great class !

I absolutely love this amazing dive system and really look forward to nailing these skills & moving on to the next class in February ;-)!

Don a special thanks to you for everything you’ve taught me and your ongoing support. I highly recommend Don and Essentials to anyone wanting to improve their recreation dive skills!! Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.


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left to right: Don, Kathy, Chris (master of O), Mike Mills, Mike G.

[Gombessa]

A great and candid report, Kathy! I'm glad your team enjoyed Essentials, and I'm sure that many dives from now, you'll still find yourself constantly coming back to the basic lessons taught in this class.

[*dave*]

Thanks for the report, it brought back some memories of my Essentials course in 2006.

[ScubaSam]

Hi, Kathy. Great report on your Essentials class, Don sounds like a great instructor.

Your report was vivid and detailed enough to make me feel like I was there.

Thanks for sharing with us.

[ligersandtions]

Great report, Kathy! It sounds like you guys got a lot out of the class....just wait until you've done a few post-class dives -- it seems like everything just kind of comes together and you're more relaxed, confident, and communication just works. It's a great feeling and I can't wait to hear about it

[mikemill]

So Kathy when are we gonna meet up to write the great american novel on wetnotes?

[Anti-Hero]

Congrats Kathy, Mike & Mike! Well done!

[TSandM]

Now often from my perspective this looked like one partner crashing into the ground, while the other one, challenged with buoyancy was spiraling up towards the surface and I was somewhere in between trying my best to figure who to help out or if I should try to hold my own position.

OMG -- TOTAL flashback to Fundies. There is no good answer to this "question", except to grab the buddy on the floor by the back of the neck and drag him up to the buddy on the surface (something those of us at the Essentials/Fundies level are rarely, if ever, prepared to do).

It'll get better. You had the same team experience I did, and I turned out okay

[kathydee]

OMG -- TOTAL flashback to Fundies. There is no good answer to this "question", except to grab the buddy on the floor by the back of the neck and drag him up to the buddy on the surface (something those of us at the Essentials/Fundies level are rarely, if ever, prepared to do).

It'll get better. You had the same team experience I did, and I turned out okay

Thanks Lynne, will keep that tip in mind for fundies
It's deffinately encouraging that you turned out better than ok!!!

[kathydee]

A great and candid report, Kathy! I'm glad your team enjoyed Essentials, and I'm sure that many dives from now, you'll still find yourself constantly coming back to the basic lessons taught in this class.

Thanks Kenn,

I'm sure you are right! Some of the biggest lessons were outside the text & caught me totally by surprise.