- Messages
- 570
- Reaction score
- 582
- # of dives
- 200 - 499
I'm a supernewbie compared to you guys. I agree with the posts here on the weight belts (#3). I trained in a weight integrated BC and since then the only time I've used one was when I rented from the same shop that trained me. We were shown a weight belt during training and told we would never use one. All of my Caribbean dives where I've rented a BC, it has not been weight integrated. I think a lot of shops don't like to do WI because it's more expensive - those pockets are easily lost and cost a fortune! But I've never felt that the weight belt was uncomfortable or difficult to use. I am physically fit with a waist smaller than my hips and I don't compress too much at depth so I don't have to squeeze it like a girdle at the surface, so that probably helps a lot. But I actually prefer the idea of a belt. As long as you put it on correctly, not under your BC (watch that crotch strap!) and know how to pull something with your right hand, it's really easy to loosen and drop. 7 steps? Maybe if you had your weight distributed throughout your harness straps!
I also agree with Diver0001 on everything else. He beat me to the post.
I think his anti quarter turn idea is flawed. If his reasoning is that somebody could easily close a cylinder and then open it only a quarter turn, couldn't they just as easily close it and forget it? Especially an inexperienced vacation diver may not notice when they gear up, close their formerly open cylinder, take a quick test breath off the reg, don't check their gauge, and roll into the deep blue. Just always make sure your cylinder is open before you gear up. I won't stop turning back a bit because old plumbing habits never die.
I hate snorkels, I never dive with one unless I'm doing a training (I'm the trainee, not the trainer). But I don't think they should be banished to the dustbin of scuba history. They do have their use. Back inflate BCs tend to push you forward at the surface if you aren't experienced enough to get that worked out.
I mostly agree with #1 - perfect buoyancy should not wait until after you've destroyed a thousand years of coral in your first 5 dives in the Caribbean, but you have to consider task loading for new students. A lot of students will take to scuba so naturally it will make instructors jealous, but some need a little slower pace. If you start of with one important skill - don't hold your breath - and then add one more at a time, allowing the new student to be overweighted and kneeling on the bottom of the pool, they can focus better on each thing individually. Developing buoyancy control should come faster than it does in most classes, though.
I really hoped #6 - No Student Left Behind - would mean the opposite: "Don't be afraid to fail a student." There were two students in my OW checkout class that were there for the second time and neither could calm down enough to focus and do things correctly and safely. But the instructors kept working with them and offered to do it again and again until they passed. They finally did a skill correctly one time, the exasperated instructors shrugged, gave them a check, and they became OW divers. I would hate to buddy with somebody like that. I would love for everybody who wants to dive to do it, but at some point you have to tell a student no.
I also agree with Diver0001 on everything else. He beat me to the post.
I think his anti quarter turn idea is flawed. If his reasoning is that somebody could easily close a cylinder and then open it only a quarter turn, couldn't they just as easily close it and forget it? Especially an inexperienced vacation diver may not notice when they gear up, close their formerly open cylinder, take a quick test breath off the reg, don't check their gauge, and roll into the deep blue. Just always make sure your cylinder is open before you gear up. I won't stop turning back a bit because old plumbing habits never die.
I hate snorkels, I never dive with one unless I'm doing a training (I'm the trainee, not the trainer). But I don't think they should be banished to the dustbin of scuba history. They do have their use. Back inflate BCs tend to push you forward at the surface if you aren't experienced enough to get that worked out.
I mostly agree with #1 - perfect buoyancy should not wait until after you've destroyed a thousand years of coral in your first 5 dives in the Caribbean, but you have to consider task loading for new students. A lot of students will take to scuba so naturally it will make instructors jealous, but some need a little slower pace. If you start of with one important skill - don't hold your breath - and then add one more at a time, allowing the new student to be overweighted and kneeling on the bottom of the pool, they can focus better on each thing individually. Developing buoyancy control should come faster than it does in most classes, though.
I really hoped #6 - No Student Left Behind - would mean the opposite: "Don't be afraid to fail a student." There were two students in my OW checkout class that were there for the second time and neither could calm down enough to focus and do things correctly and safely. But the instructors kept working with them and offered to do it again and again until they passed. They finally did a skill correctly one time, the exasperated instructors shrugged, gave them a check, and they became OW divers. I would hate to buddy with somebody like that. I would love for everybody who wants to dive to do it, but at some point you have to tell a student no.
