Swim test

[JustinW]

I have not taken a DIR class but was reading a post on the saue forum that mentioned something about a breath hold swim. What is the point of the breath hold swim. IMHO, it does not seem like a good idea to even start a muscle memory of moving underwater while holding your breath while on SCUBA. Am I totally off base on this, did I read something wrong? Just trying to understand the whole school of thought a bit better, yet still not convinced nor ready to take a DIR-F class

 

[Reinoud]

I have not taken a DIR class but was reading a post on the saue forum that mentioned something about a breath hold swim. What is the point of the breath hold swim. IMHO, it does not seem like a good idea to even start a muscle memory of moving underwater while holding your breath while on SCUBA. Am I totally off base on this, did I read something wrong? Just trying to understand the whole school of thought a bit better, yet still not convinced nor ready to take a DIR-F class

The purpose of the swim test is to show that you are comfortable in and under water. While you never hold yout breath while on SCUBA, if you are out of air, you might have to swim a few metres to reach your buddy.
If someone panics while doing a few metres underwater in the pool already, chances are that it will be worse during a dive. (and you will be practising out of air a lot during DIR-F).

 

[Sloop John B]

I hear what you're saying, but I don't think a one-time test will contribute to any muscle memory.

 

[GUEdiver]

Also, to be sure there is no confusion, the breath hold test and the distance/time swim are done without scuba gear. They are done more to assess physical fitness, not to see if you can hold your breath while actually diving.

 

[Soggy]

Plus, holding your breath on scuba is only bad if you close the glotis *and* are ascending. That nonsense they teach you in OW 101 leads people to believe that holding their breath will lead to an instant embolism rather than explaining the real physiology behind it.

 

[Diver0001]

Plus, holding your breath on scuba is only bad if you close the glotis *and* are ascending. .

Well that's true.... but .... you still have to teach new divers to make a continuous stream of bubbles so they build up the reflex to not hold their breath.

There's nothing in the standards that says you can't tell the students *why* they are doing this...... It´s unfortunate that some instructors don't fully explain it but it hardly makes it nonsense. Learning to overcome your breath-hold reflex is simply an important survival skill and I'd say the goal justifies the means.

R..

 

[Soggy]

Yeah, you're right. I just get annoyed when people don't understand or explain the reason behind things, which seems to be true in much of the dive industry.

Well that's true.... but .... you still have to teach new divers to make a continuous stream of bubbles so they build up the reflex to not hold their breath.

There's nothing in the standards that says you can't tell the students *why* they are doing this...... It´s unfortunate that some instructors don't fully explain it but it hardly makes it nonsense. Learning to overcome your breath-hold reflex is simply an important survival skill and I'd say the goal justifies the means.

R..

 

[Dan Gibson]

But only if they are ascending or else they will constantly be descending. Usually right into the bottom and stiring up the muck.

Well that's true.... but .... you still have to teach new divers to make a continuous stream of bubbles

R..

 

[JustinW]

Well that's true.... but .... you still have to teach new divers to make a continuous stream of bubbles so they build up the reflex to not hold their breath.

There's nothing in the standards that says you can't tell the students *why* they are doing this...... It´s unfortunate that some instructors don't fully explain it but it hardly makes it nonsense. Learning to overcome your breath-hold reflex is simply an important survival skill and I'd say the goal justifies the means.

R..

Some people here seem to be critical of OW instructors that do not explain physiology in depth. Remember when you were an OW diver, in your first classes. Remember how complex it all seemed, remember how complex even the dive tables seemed. I help out with a local OW class (not helping instruct) and it is amazing to see how some of the students have a hard time getting some of the concepts, and how some of the other new divers get cocky thinking that they can out-think the skills being taught and try to make up their own rules. I can agree with physiology being taught in advanced courses, but for an OW dive student, IMHO it is very appropriate to focus more on getting the students to know the skills than to know the science behind the skills.

Thanks for the input in the swim test. I didn't mean to hijack my own thread

 

[Soggy]

Some people here seem to be critical of OW instructors that do not explain physiology in depth. Remember when you were an OW diver, in your first classes. Remember how complex it all seemed, remember how complex even the dive tables seemed. I help out with a local OW class (not helping instruct) and it is amazing to see how some of the students have a hard time getting some of the concepts, and how some of the other new divers get cocky thinking that they can out-think the skills being taught and try to make up their own rules.

I don't say this to be cocky, but having taken physics in high school, I found the dive physics and physiology incredibly simple and the tables a simple 3 step process. I understand that *some* people just won't get it (and I spent 3 1/2 of the 4 hours of my Nitrox class sitting around while the instructor explained how to do air tables to the other student), but there is certainly room for an attempt to explain the hows and whys behind the skills. Besides, going from explaining Boyle's law and expansion injuries to explaining that expansion injuries only can occur when you are ascending to explaining that there are ways of "holding" your breath that don't close close off the windpipe doesn't seem like too much of a stretch.

Diving is both an intellectual and physical activity and we need to get away from this lowest-common-denominator thinking.