10 Minute Water Tread

[Ice9]

How do you tread water with your hands not in the water? I kinda thought that was the whole idea - using your hands to keep yourself above water.

 

[ReefHound]

How do you tread water with your hands not in the water? I kinda thought that was the whole idea - using your hands to keep yourself above water.

Kick like hell!

 

[freediver]

over 25 years ago we learned a tecnique called "drown proofing". We had to do it for 12 minutes in PE. I know that I didn't do it completly right, but I used the techique enough to pass.

Awesome to see that someone else knows or has heard of "drownproofing"! I think this is a much more effective way of determining watermanship than "treading". Treading water doesn't say much about someone's watermanship especially when they are allowed to float. I suppose the theory is that if one can tread for ten minutes they could tread for hours in an open water environment? Nothing could be further from the truth. Show me someone who can drownproof reasonably well and I'll show you someone who is well on their way to water comfort. This message brought to you by the "Bring Back Drownproofing" campaign.

 

[String]

Worst part of the hands out of water for me was (i) arms ached but (ii) talking to someone else also doing it and kept forgetting and in danger of letting arms drop purely due to forgetting what the actual test was.

 

[Brandon Belew]

I didn't have any problems with the 10 minute tread, I did it immediatly after the laps. I am not in the best of shape anymore, but it wasn't difficult. Especially if you just relax and talk to the other people doing the same thing.

 

[plot]

Does SSI really have NO waterskills assessments at all before training a diver ?!

Nothing required, it's completely up to the instructor as to how he wants to find out how comfortable you are in the water. Some make you do the 10 minute tread, some make you swim 10 laps, some make you do laps for X amount of minutes, some let you wear a wetsuit, fins, and snorkel, some don't.

Surface intervals are alot more entertaining now that I can swim and mess around in the water... but outside of that, I havn't noticed any effect on my diving. My BC keeps me afloat, I can kick my legs to move my fins to go where I want in the water... what more do you really need?

Oftentimes people that can't swim arn't comfortable in the water and panic when they don't feel solid ground underneath them, that's the only reason why a water assessment is used. For the people who are perfectly content floating around in a life jacket, tubing down a river, etc... they shouldn't have any problems at all.

 

[lancetre]

Does SSI really have NO waterskills assessments at all before training a diver ?!

I did my OW through SSI and was required to do a swim test (10 laps of the perimiter of the pool) and tread water for 10 mins (not float, but stay upright in the water).

 

[J.R.]

Show me someone who can drownproof reasonably well and I'll show you someone who is well on their way to water comfort. This message brought to you by the "Bring Back Drownproofing" campaign.

I just started reading this thread and wuz' thinking to myself... "Why hasn't somebody mentioned "drownproofing"... then I saw the two posts on it... its a great technique... low energy and effective. Yep... I'll sign on to the campaign... it never should have disappeared in the firstplace...

... but, one of the things that I've found useful (used to swim two to three miles in a pool using low-impact strokes) was to mix up a variety of techniques... when I'd swim long distances I'd use a combination of brest stroke, back stroke and side strokes... rotating each lap.

... for staing in one place you could mix drownproofing (turtle), back float and normal treading proceedures.

What I found useful in this is that different muscle groups get rested with different strokes, reduces fatigue... and, by thinking about and changing to these positons it keeps your mind active and focused on what you're doing... not how long you're doing it...

My two pence...

 

[mulefeathers]

I did mine through SSI and we did a 10 minutes water tread and we had to do six laps in the pool. Over and back was 0ne lap. The treading was done with no wetsuit. The laps were done the mask and snorkel but still no wetsuit.

 

[Harshal]

I am sinker and not very good / strong swimmer either. Wetsuite was total no .......no...........all we were allowed was the swim trunks. If you can even float for 10 mins without threading my instructor was ok... the whole point of the exercise was in cas if a boat has to turn around to come to pick you up, you should be able to stay afloat. I had someone from my LDS taught me how to float and then practice....... and I floated for 10 mins with no prob.