Pool practice ahead of my first ever PADI Open Water dive?

[boulderjohn]

Confined open water means :

"2. Confined Water Dives

This is what it’s all about – diving. You'll develop basic scuba skills in a pool or in confined water – a body of water with pool-like conditions, such as off a calm beach. "

this is from the PADI website

Here is how it is explained to instructors in the manual:

Confined open water is an open water site that offers swimmingpool-like conditions with respect to clarity, calmness, and depth.

It has both shallow water and water sufficiently deep to allow student divers to meet all skill performance requirements.

 

[mhattenhauer]

Here is how it is explained to instructors in the manual:

Confined open water is an open water site that offers swimmingpool-like conditions with respect to clarity, calmness, and depth.

It has both shallow water and water sufficiently deep to allow student divers to meet all skill performance requirements.

I knew I had read the full description before just don't have my manual at work with me.

 

[boulderjohn]

Getting confined water or confined open water sites can be a real challenge for instructors in many areas. In many resort areas, the pools in the resorts are usually not deep enough for the portions of the class that require water too deep to stand in. The nearby ocean may not have good sites, either. For an OW instructor like me in the heartland of America, it can be extremely difficult. If you are lucky enough to get the person who manages pool time for a recreation center to answer your phone message (very rare), you will find that on those equally rare occasions they will allow it, the rental costs for the space you need will price your course out of reach for your students. In some cases, they are already renting space to a local dive shop already and don't want to add to the time some of the pool is not available to lap swimmers. That shop is able to afford it because they are putting 20 students from a variety of classes in the water at the same time.

 

[Dubious]

Unfortunately he has said he had private pool time but was unable to use the tank (due to pool restrictions) so your suggestions are impossible apart from the freediving one and a limited amount of finning.

All of what I suggested was based on the fact he had no tank.

 

[Neilwood]

All of what I suggested was based on the fact he had no tank.

I am not sure how you can manage some of these without a tank given most people can barely manage 20-30 secs breathhold underwater without serious practise.

Comments in red to your suggestions

Leaving behind the valid concerns of everyone else, the things you can practice in the pool will be limited. Here are some ideas

1. Perform swim buoyancy exercises to see how breathing changes your position in the water. This also helps teach breath control. Impossible without a tank as you cannot breathe below the surface without one - the only thing you could do minus a tank is exhalation after surface inhalation (or breathing from a snorkel). Given the duration of these, it would be hard to gain much knowledge of breath control from them.
2. practice exhaling at the surface (I used to be way overweighted because I failed to fully exhale) Exhaling at the surface prior to ducking below or at the end of an underwater dive? Neither of these will help too much as with the former you will have to immediately return to the surface and with the later you are already at the surface.
   
3. Practice finning in and out of the water. Some new divers tend to bicycle kick instead of flutter (I did this). You can practice all kicks in and out of the water though it helps to have someone coaching you. Finning practise is good but only with 1) a review tool such as video or 2) a competent friend or instructor to comment on what you are doing well or badly. Also some pools will not allow the use of fins during public sessions
   
4. Practice mask clearing while sitting on the bottom and/or at a depth where you are neutral. Mask clearing without a tank will be very difficult given the amount of air most people will inhale during skin/free diving. Getting to the point of sitting or neutral while on one breath takes a fair amount of skill/practise.
   
5. Practice mask removal and putting the mask back on land (with a hood if you will be using one). I had to do this after my check out dives. I originally had trouble making sure the skirt of the mask was not over the hood which made for some horrible diving although it did force me to work on clearing my mask over and over again. Doing this on land will have limited effect on learning/mastering the skill underwater. I would definitely not advise this while skin diving as the first response of a lot of people (particularly beginners) to mask removal as opposed to clearing is often a sharp intake of breath or the feeling that it is needed.
6. Practice the free diving skills you were taught in the confined water training. Agreed

 

[Dubious]

I am not sure how you can manage some of these without a tank given most people can barely manage 20-30 secs breathhold underwater without serious practise.

Comments in red to your suggestions

Wow, you won't let this go. Part of me didn't even want to reply to your original post but I feel this could help those looking to practice without gear. Do they not teach swimming techniques in Scotland? The first 3 are swimming drills. I did a quick youtube search for video demonstration since it seems you don't understand the exercises I suggested. I would argue any of these drills will help anyone considering diving. Based on my limited experience it seems that people who are confident in water before they take open water do much better than those who can barely pass the swim test. I have known a few people since becoming certified myself who took swimming lessons before taking their open watercourse.

1. Swim Buoyancy. I

2. Exhaling practice (sink downs) is taught to swimmers. It should help with the comfort level of any divers.

3. Frog kick and Flutter are taught to all swimmers. Breaststroke requires a frog kick. The technique is the same with or without fins. Of course, water resistance is different with fins. On a side note, I learned how to back kick without fits first and then added fins once I got the correct motion down.



4. Mask clearing and mask removal are easy to do without a scuba tank. I have done it and have taught my kids it as well since they often free dive in our pool or in lakes.


5. I originally suggested practicing above water for the very reason you put in red but once again this can be done without a tank. In fact, it is done by freedivers all the time. See the above video.