Isn't Bouyancy Control and Equalization taught in CW #1 / DSD Pool?

[MauiScubaSteve]

The idea of taking someone on an OW dive after one pool session absolutely terrifies me. Diving is buoyancy control, buoyancy control and more buoyancy control. Without buoyancy control you go up and down with little control and timely equalization gets to be a problem. so...we take people diving before they have learned buoyancy control and we certify them before they learn buoyancy control...and we're going to be surprised when ears get hurt? I mean...come on...a discover scuba diving program consists of confined water dive 1 (no buoyancy control taught there) and OW dive 1. Like I said, lets go diving without learning buoyancy control...to prove what exactly?

Evidently I have been confused. Below is copied from my PADI Digital Instructor Manual, Open Water Diver, Confined Water #1:

7. Swim underwater with scuba equipment while maintaining control of both
direction and depth, properly equalizing the ears and mask to accommodate
depth changes.

On the DSD Flip Chart, right after the Alternate Breathing pictures is a picture of a diver swimming horizontally with fins only. As I understood it, I have been teaching all my students neutral bouyancy in CW #1 / DSD pool, as well as ear equalization and trim.

I have also required additional dive/expense of a couple mountain climbers who could only take completely full breaths on our trek-like Open Water training dives; no breath control, no bouyancy control, no certification. Only after I hurt them in the pocketbook were they finally motivated enough to listen and learn.

I just recently had a NAUI Universal Referal student from NJ who had a problem equalizing his ears. He was all signed off by his pool/book instructor, but after consecutive single dive days resulting in bloody snot, I refused to do any more dives until after he saw a doctor. I do not believe he knew what ear equalization is. He told me the next day he would return to NJ and consider the quarry.

Most of the people I see who suffer ear trauma are the ones who want to do it so bad they lie on the medical release form &/or they lie about getting their ears equalized. After flying hours with a bunch of sick people to a place with millions of flowers, nobody will admit to any congestion. I warn everyone, everyday, that congestion can cause the expanding air to be trapped in the ear during ascent and that we don't want anyone to perforate the eardrum.

If people, parents, kids, lie to me about congestion/equalization they run the risk of hurting their ears. If they can't control their bouyancy swimming around at 6-7 feet deep in our pool (not easy for everybody), they don't get to go on the ocean dive. My average certified refreshers who have never done a shore dive are way worse divers than my average DSD's. I guess I should look out for the dive police, evidently I am not allowed to require diving skills in order to dive.

I am terrified of DSD's after skills done hanging on a rope off the back of a boat, that's just not right!

 

[jbichsel]

Exactly one of my concerns and conflicts I have with my training agency.

During CWD1 the only interaction students are required to have with their BC is to inflate and deflate at the surface.

Then, as you stated, performance requirement 7 states "...Swim underwater with scuba equipment while maintaining control of both direction and depth, properly equalizing the ears and mask to accommodate depth changes."

IF an instructor adheres to the standards and does not put forth the extra effort to teach some method of buoyancy control (and we all know they are out there), it appears to me that a Catch-22 occurs here that would not allow anyone to progress beyond CWD1, IF the definition of "mastery" is adhered to.

I have to assume that allowing students to bump and bounce along the bottom and accepting that the pool is actually controlling the depth is acceptable "mastery".

If you want an excellent read and some great ideas on tasks/games to implement starting during CWD1 Fun and Practice time, I suggest you contact scubaboard.com member James Doyle for a copy of his booklet, "Mastering Buoyancy Control".

With as much mention of buoyancy control as my agency places in their training documents, you would think that buoyancy control would start at the beginning. Yet it is not even addressed by a required "skill" until CWD3 with the fin pivot.

I guess this explains a lot as to why I have witnessed instructors that bicycle kick and crawl along the bottom.

 

[jon m]

hmmm-
how can you fake your way throught the pain of an ear squeeze? (not saying it doesn't happen, just that man, OUCHHHHHH!!) and hey, i get bloody noses (every few dives)

 

[jbd]

Sounds more like the guy had sinus problems as opposed to ear problems. The few people I have known that experienced sinus squeeze or a sinus block would not continue in the direction that caused increasing pain. When I was an AI, I was working with a student diver who was experiencing a sinus squeeze during the final certification dive. The pain was described as intense and like someone was driving a nail into her forehead.

Back to the initial question in the title. Most don't teach buoyancy in the first scuba session. Most of the time is spent working on lots of other skills or doing fewer skills with more students so there isn't much time spent diving. At least that has been my observation.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Evidently I have been confused. Below is copied from my PADI Digital Instructor Manual, Open Water Diver, Confined Water #1:

7. Swim underwater with scuba equipment while maintaining control of both
direction and depth, properly equalizing the ears and mask to accommodate
depth changes.

Yes it says that but you aren't allowed to teach them how to do it until CW 3 when the infamous "fin pivot" is introduced and neutral underwater swimming is required.

I don't know what kind of swimming they're supposed to be doing in CW 1 but if it's neutral it has to be an accident because they aren't supposed to have learned to usde their BC to get neutral yet.

On the DSD Flip Chart, right after the Alternate Breathing pictures is a picture of a diver swimming horizontally with fins only. As I understood it, I have been teaching all my students neutral bouyancy in CW #1 / DSD pool, as well as ear equalization and trim.

That's fine as far as I'm concerned but moving CW 3 skills up to CW 1 is a standards violation.

I always thought that it was "cute" that they insist that you teach descents in CW 2 when you don't teach buoyancy control until CW 3. That's why so many divers do the butt first plumit. LOL

 

[diveasr]

i thought for padi you could move the standards around, just as lon gas you did threm all in cw and ow

 

[Steve R]

i thought for padi you could move the standards around, just as lon gas you did threm all in cw and ow

Although there are various 'pyramids' that can be used, basically you cannot mix and match requirements. For instance, all objectives must be met in CW1 before proceeding to CW2, so you are not supposed to teach these things out of turn, even if they're illogically presented.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Yes it says that but you aren't allowed to teach them how to do it until CW 3 when the infamous "fin pivot" is introduced and neutral underwater swimming is required.

I don't know what kind of swimming they're supposed to be doing in CW 1 but if it's neutral it has to be an accident because they aren't supposed to have learned to usde their BC to get neutral yet.

That's fine as far as I'm concerned but moving CW 3 skills up to CW 1 is a standards violation.

Has any PADI instructor ever been told it isn't allowed to teach use of BCD in CW #1? I do not teach fin pivot until all previous required skills have been performed, but I teach how to add and release small amounts of air until floating just off the bottom and how to swim around with fins only (head slightly down) in the one ring circus of my 8ft deep resort pool. Without this teaching they would not be able too...

7. Swim underwater with scuba equipment while maintaining control of both
direction and depth, properly equalizing the ears and mask to accommodate
depth changes.

I always thought that it was "cute" that they insist that you teach descents in CW 2 when you don't teach buoyancy control until CW 3. That's why so many divers do the butt first plumit. LOL

After a student completes #7 of CW#1, all an instructor has to do is teach students to let the air out in small amounts until just barely sinking, not all at once, and roll over into a swimming position for the slow descent once they are just barely sinking. This is not hard, even when holding a descent line.

I agree that there are bad apple instructors with every alphabet agency, but most of the working instructors I have seen in Key Largo and Hawaii are not nearly as bad as the picture painted by the SB Authorities. A teacher can do a good job following any instructor manual and not violate standards!

 

[gangrel441]

IF an instructor adheres to the standards and does not put forth the extra effort to teach some method of buoyancy control (and we all know they are out there), it appears to me that a Catch-22 occurs here that would not allow anyone to progress beyond CWD1, IF the definition of "mastery" is adhered to.

Ok....maybe I am splitting hairs here, but I don't think so...where exactly in the quote below from the standards does it say anything about "mastery?"

Then, as you stated, performance requirement 7 states "...Swim underwater with scuba equipment while maintaining control of both direction and depth, properly equalizing the ears and mask to accommodate depth changes."

The swim on the CW1 stays on the shallow end of the pool, maintains a single depth, and is the student's first experience with bouyancy control. You want mastery demonstrated at that point in time? I agree that students should be getting better training than they genearally are these days, but wouldn't you say you are being a bit on the demanding side there? I don't really care how good of an instructor you might be, if you expect mastery of anything after the first confined water dive, your expectations are way too high.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Has any PADI instructor ever been told it isn't allowed to teach use of BCD in CW #1? I do not teach fin pivot until all previous required skills have been performed, but I teach how to add and release small amounts of air until floating just off the bottom and how to swim around with fins only (head slightly down) in the one ring circus of my 8ft deep resort pool. Without this teaching they would not be able too...

7. Swim underwater with scuba equipment while maintaining control of both
direction and depth, properly equalizing the ears and mask to accommodate
depth changes.

Look, I'm not argueing against how you teach it but the neutral buoyant swim is a CW 3 skill. The CW 1 underwater swimming skill says nothing about being neutrally buoyant. That is how the standards are written regardless of how you think or talk your way around it.

After a student completes #7 of CW#1, all an instructor has to do is teach students to let the air out in small amounts until just barely sinking, not all at once, and roll over into a swimming position for the slow descent once they are just barely sinking. This is not hard, even when holding a descent line.

Roll over? Why?

But ok, you get them to let air out of the bc slow until they are neutral or slightly negative. That legit because neutral buoyancy at the surface is taught in CW 2. However, once you begin your descent, you need to start adding air back into the bc to maintain control and now your back into moving up CW 3 skills.

Or...they just do the infamous butt first plumit which is what we see lots of students doing in OW.

I agree that there are bad apple instructors with every alphabet agency, but most of the working instructors I have seen in Key Largo and Hawaii are not nearly as bad as the picture painted by the SB Authorities. A teacher can do a good job following any instructor manual and not violate standards!

I don't know anything about the instructors in Hawaii so I'll take your word for it. We are talking about the way the standards are written and, IMO, they were written by a non-diving goof.