What skills can we practice?

[TSandM]

It's great that you are interested in skills practice, and I wouldn't say that anything you practice in the water is silly. Even if the drill or scenario you come up with is unlikely, you will have to combine in-water skills to execute it.

What generally gives people fits? Maintaining buoyancy control while task loaded or distracted. So any drill you set up that does this is a good one. The basic skills Reg listed in his first set are all simple exercises you learned in OW, but you almost certainly weren't required to do them while hovering in one spot, without changing your location over the bottom or your depth or your orientation in the water. Being able to do those things to that standard means that, if you flood your mask, for example, you won't end up 20 feet higher in the water column before you have it cleared, and you won't lose your buddy in the process. You learned before that you had trouble executing an air-sharing ascent, because you both had some yo-yo problems; again, this is a task-loading buoyancy control issue.

Set up some distractions. In addition to practicing air-sharing and mask skills, try playing tic-tac-toe in wetnotes or on a slate, while hovering. This is a great one, because you have to look down and then up again, write, and pass the slate to your buddy and receive it again.

Try finding an object that you can place one finger on, and work on hovering without moving any body part. When you can do this, try putting your nose on the object and maintaining the same stillness.

From shallow depths, try executing mask-off ascents. The sighted diver controls the maskless diver by signaling "up", "down" and "level off" by turning the maskless diver's thumb up, down, or moving the hand back and forth. This is great task-loading for the sighted diver, and a good lesson for the maskless diver in really learning to FEEL the feedback from exposure suit, gear and ears as you rise in the water column.

What you want to accomplish is a state where control of your buoyancy, trim and position are relegated to unconscious competence, and you have essentially your whole conscious mind to enjoy the dive, or to solve problems if they occur.

 

[spectrum]

From shallow depths, try executing mask-off ascents. The sighted diver controls the maskless diver by signaling "up", "down" and "level off" by turning the maskless diver's thumb up, down, or moving the hand back and forth. This is great task-loading for the sighted diver, and a good lesson for the maskless diver in really learning to FEEL the feedback from exposure suit, gear and ears as you rise in the water column.

That's where I was going to go if you want something to focus on. Doing skills in a scripted drill format is one thing. Prolonged functioning sans mask is more of a challenge.

If that gets boring you can always fall back on good old fashioned diver training harrasment drills.

Pete

 

[diveprof]

Being comfortable with the emergency management skills that you learned in OW class is important and I will not waste time repeating what has already been discussed. The more practice you have, the more comfortable and natural the procedures/skills become. This helps the transition from being an "equipment operator" to becoming a confident diver who is able to focus more on the dive experience than the equipment. Rather I will focus on a couple of additional considerations that really help you make the jump from an OW diver to and AOW diver.

1. Weighting. It never ceases to amaze me when I work with AOW students when I find out how much weight they are diving with. Some instructors seem to overweight students for their OW courses. Yes, it helps them descend and keeps them on the bottom for skills and if they are managing several students at the same time I understand the importance of keeping folks together as a group. However, as you become more comfortable with diving, most find that they do not need the weight they used in OW class. Carrying that extra weight has several unpleasant consequences:
a. You have to buy and carry the stuff (weights) to the water or boat.
b. If you are overweighted, the extra weight pulls your lower torso down and the air in your BC rises to the top. This means that you are more upright in the water column and must push more water out of the way to move forward. A properly weighted diving maintains a more horizontal position and there is less swimming resistance. Additionally, proper weighting translates into less need to adjust buoyancy (adding air, dumping air). These considerations means that as you reduce your weighting you will be able to extend your dives as you will be much more efficient in your air consumption/use. Yes, this is all about buoyancy control.

What you really need to know is how much weight do I need to hold 15' with little or no air in my BC with 500 psi in my BC? This is relatively easy to understand/achieve with a helpful dive buddy who is willing to hold/pass weights (in small amounts - works best with 1-3 pound weights; I've never understood why folks buy weights in 5lb + sizes unless they are diving in drysuits).

2.Navigation. OW taught you the basics of compass navigation. In AOW you will learn more about navigation. Having "situational awareness" on the dive reduces anxiety and enhances confidence and allows for a more relaxed dive - improved air consumption efficiency.

3. Taking an AOW course is a great way to learn these new skills under the supervision of an instructor.

4. As your skills/experience builds, consider diving with more experienced divers (and let me add competent, safe divers). This helps further expand and build your diving skills allowing further growth as a diver.

5. Learn from every dive. Process/review each dive.

OK, enough to get you started.

 

[Deefstes]

Thanks everybody, you gave some excellent advice, and if you have more to add I'm all ears.

Perhaps just a comment or two from me, the reason I'm so keen to continue practicing skills is because, as some have said, I believe you should be so familiar with all the various skills that they come as second nature. The reports that I've read of diving incidents that went seriously wrong (Richard Pyle getting bent in Palau, David Shaw getting killed in Boesmangat, Dennis Harding getting killed on a Coelacanth expedition) all had, at their core, a significant amount of task loading with problems piling up.

It would seem to me then that the real killer of scuba divers is "task loading" of problems, not any one particular problem. Even someone who hasn't practiced the skill will probably not get killed if his mask is kicked off his face or if his regulator starts to free flow or for that matter most any other hiccup that can occur, as long as only one occur at a time. But when several things happen at once and require your attention, even the greats can get overloaded and die as a result. This is why I loved TSandM's response. I've printed it (and some others) and will present it to my wife this arvie

So what I'm saying is, I'd like to reach a point where, if my mask gets flooded I can solve it without giving it any thought, enabling me to continue unabated with whatever else I was doing. The same goes for any other skill, mask recovery just being one simple example.

 

[scarefaceDM]

I can appreciate your willingness to learn and grow. Taking matters into your own hands sort of speak.

I must caution you however. Take things slow. And avoid rushing things to get things done. Taskloading can lead to an unwanted situation if not dealt with properly and UNDERsupervision . Meaning not you watching your wife or vis versa...but more of a mentor or instructor watching you.

Mask removal or any of the basic OW skill sets are fine. You can practice those with your buddy anytime. Soem good advise are listed in the is thread. Take what you want out of it and be safe. If you can hook up with someone more experienced than you that can demonstrate other skills inwhich you wish to learn and improve.

Another factor you should consider is how your gear is configured. Meaning how streamlined are you in the water. Your position in the water as you swim, hover and generally dive. Where are all your guages, how are your hoses setup, your alternate, your cuting tools etc.

Dangling gear can cause you to have a bad day quick. Dragging alternate air source in the silt can get messed up. And when you have to donate that air source, it may not work right off the get go. There may be some crap that got stuck in the mouth piece and the person you gave your alternate to, sucked back more than just air. makes a bad situation worse.

Think about how your gear is streamlined and avoid dangling hoses and gauges. Keep things close to your body and is easy access.
My other point is, that freaking snorkel. Snorkels are great at the surface but a pain in the arse while diving at depth.

I am just offering you some pointers based on my experience. From what I have learned , screwed up and learned again from.

If you want to learn more about streamlining gear. Have a look at this book.
Dress for success - By Dan Mackay

A thread was posted a while back.
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/tr...nstructor-dan-mackay-dir-equipment-guide.html

As I am not advocating DIR I am however pointing out to you an alternate way of thinking out of the box.

safe dives

Stephen

Thanks everybody, you gave some excellent advice, and if you have more to add I'm all ears.

Perhaps just a comment or two from me, the reason I'm so keen to continue practicing skills is because, as some have said, I believe you should be so familiar with all the various skills that they come as second nature. The reports that I've read of diving incidents that went seriously wrong (Richard Pyle getting bent in Palau, David Shaw getting killed in Boesmangat, Dennis Harding getting killed on a Coelacanth expedition) all had, at their core, a significant amount of task loading with problems piling up.

It would seem to me then that the real killer of scuba divers is "task loading" of problems, not any one particular problem. Even someone who hasn't practiced the skill will probably not get killed if his mask is kicked off his face or if his regulator starts to free flow or for that matter most any other hiccup that can occur, as long as only one occur at a time. But when several things happen at once and require your attention, even the greats can get overloaded and die as a result. This is why I loved TSandM's response. I've printed it (and some others) and will present it to my wife this arvie

So what I'm saying is, I'd like to reach a point where, if my mask gets flooded I can solve it without giving it any thought, enabling me to continue unabated with whatever else I was doing. The same goes for any other skill, mask recovery just being one simple example.

 

[TNdiver6387]

I've never understood why folks buy weights in 5lb + sizes unless they are diving in drysuits).

Maybe because a 7 mil suit needs over 10 pounds in it self, maybe they prefer 2 fives to 5 twos. I know personally i dont like having a large number weights on a belt. I prefer to have the least number of weights I can. That means 5lb+ are a perfectly good option for me.

 

[Deefstes]

My other point is, that freaking snorkel. Snorkels are great at the surface but a pain in the arse while diving at depth.

I think you're using it wrong then. They don't go THERE

No but seriously, thanks for the good advice.

 

[scarefaceDM]

oh my just reread that..to funny...but they are..lolll

 

[Teamcasa]

...It would seem to me then that the real killer of scuba divers is "task loading" of problems, not any one particular problem.

You have been given some excellant advice so far but let me add something based on your statement above.

Task overload generally follows a series of minor problems that happen very close to each other. Panic also follows task overload.

Practice is one thing I endorse but I would focus on preperation and planing first. If your gear is squared away, maintained properly and you have drilled various easy situations you will likely avoid most task overload situations.

Have fun, dive often.

 

[Deefstes]

You have been given some excellant advice so far but let me add something based on your statement above.

Task overload generally follows a series of minor problems that happen very close to each other. Panic also follows task overload.

Practice is one thing I endorse but I would focus on preperation and planing first. If your gear is squared away, maintained properly and you have drilled various easy situations you will likely avoid most task overload situations.

Have fun, dive often.

I understand. I'm not suggesting that we go practice task overloading but rather practice all the individual drills until it become second nature. That way, if more than one of them should go wrong on a real dive, we'd be fixing them almost without thinking, not allowing them to turn into a task overload.