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But doff and don is not the purpose of the skill, as you've cited above. The added stress of exchanging the gear is important to creating "an unusual circumstance."
---------- Post added May 6th, 2015 at 11:05 PM ----------
Do keep in mind that the diver with no reg needs to be "blowing bubbles" the whole time.
The only thing my gear exchange buddy and I discussed prior to the exercise was that the person without the reg chose the next piece of gear and set the pace. The main focus of the person WITH the reg in their mouth is to pay attention to the buddy WITHOUT the reg and be ready to hand it back upon request. And also... don't wait until you're desperate for a breath before requesting it back.
Bubbles: I perhaps should've mentioned it--figured it was obvious to any DMC. That's why I said "without needing a breath" rather than "on one breath" or "while holding a breath".
I think we did about the same as you guys in that the guy without the reg dictated things. We did have a planned order of what to switch, and hoped it would go fine that way, which it did. As it's not to my knowledge a timed exercise (or wasn't for us back then), I'm still unclear on how it is graded 1-5 (as I mentioned I thought back then that it was just pass-fail, or at least I think that's what she said--it was 6 years ago). So what would be the criteria for you as instructor in grading this-- smoothness? amount of relaxed movement vs. any anxiety? It would be tough to grade each person individually when it may be only one of the two that is uncomfortable with the process. Kind of like a duet on American Idol that's out of tune--who loses points?