Not directly. But you should not lose control of buoyancy, body position or depth. If you are honestly telling me your students are doing this without a change in body position I'll hand back my tech 1 card and come and do an open water course with you.
The standards for the dive specify, as you noted in the first sentence, above, that the student should not 'lose
control of buoyancy,
body position or depth' (my formatting, added for emphasis). That is different from what you say in your second sentence, 'your students are doing this without a change in body position'. I can doff and don in mid-water and not 'lose control of buoyancy, body position or depth'. My OW students, before they can be certified, can doff-and don in mid water and not 'lose control of buoyancy, body position or depth'. But, my body position changes, as does theirs. The standards say nothing about
change in body position, rather they emphasize
control of body position.
CharlieRogers:
The idea that you need to be able to do all skills in trim whilst neutrally buoyant before you can do any more courses is wrong in my opinion.
I think I understand your point, above, but want to clarify my interpretation, just to be sure. Certainly, 'the idea' is to be neutrally buoyant while performing these skills - i.e. you do not lose control of buoyancy. I don't know that maintaining horizontal trim is necessary - i.e. you don't lose
control of body position,
but body position may
change. Now, I do think you should have control of body position and buoyancy, before sailing off into other courses - if I assess a student for AOW class, and they do not have control of their buoyancy, nor do they have control of their body position, I may well say that they need additional skill practice before I will allow them to take my AOW course. Having control of body position does not mean that they have achieved good (horizontal) trim. They may be a 45'er, in good control but in bad trim. THAT we can work on in AOW. But, if they have no control of their body position, they will have a hard time getting to the point of good trim.
It also states that weight belt removal should be done on the bottom in the instructor manual.
Yes, it does. 'Remove, replace, adjust and secure all or part of the weight system without losing control of buoyancy, body position and depth. • With weight belt and weight integrated BCD –
on the bottom in water too deep in which to stand.' (My formatting added, again, for emphasis.) I regularly violate this 'standard' during Confined Water training, as I require students to do this mid-water / neutrally buoyant.
The comments about trim at deco stops resonate with me. I readily admit, I am generally not horizontal during the first part of an ascent from depth. I am moving most of the time, the early / deeper stops are pretty short, and I am preparing to move, so often I am a 45'er. Now, that changes at the shallower stops, and I almost always adopt good horizontal trim at the last / longest stop (which is almost always 20 ft for me). That is also where decoing divers tend to stack up, and maintaining a vertical or 45 degree angle position makes life difficult for others. In no current conditions, it isn't an issue, and we normally are off the line, horizontal, and spread in a circle around the line. In current, where we want to maintain contact with the line (and some folks have conveniently forgot to bring a jon line) horizontal trim is simply more efficient, and I prefer it. Oh, yes, I guess I should justify it by saying that horizontal trim allows my entire body to be at roughly the same depth.
Where our opinions
might diverge just a bit is with regard to the value of certain skills, including the ability to maintain horizontal trim. I have doffed and donned my scuba rig mid-water in the ocean (fishing line entanglement), and I have doffed and donned my weight belt mid-water in the ocean (slipping weights, and no weight keepers). In each case, the situation was not an emergency, it was simply the simplest, quickest solution. I do not consider those skills to be a 'party trick' by any means. It is part of the skill precision that I believe all divers should seek as they develop. I don't consider maintaining good horizontal trim to be a 'party trick' by any means. It is part of the skill precision that I believe all divers should seek as they develop. And I no longer find it to be uncomfortable at all. It is efficient, environmentally friendly, and comfortable, at least for me. It is not a matter of safety, so I do not think accident and incident statistics have any relevance to this discussion. Other divers are free to maintain good control of a 45 degree body position and have fun doing it. (Possibly, the ones who probably aren't having quite as much fun are other divers in the area who may have to swim through the clouds of silt they kick up behind them, which they never see.
)