Diver Control: Hand Swimming

[Belce]

Ya know, some of you guys would have purple fits if you watched me dive. When I'm underwater, my focus is on enjoying myself. I use my hands, my feet, body position, whatever it takes to do what I want to do. Yes, I have seen divers swimming by holding their hands folded in front of them. Looks kinda silly to me. When I'm swimming, my hands are wherever they are comfortable or where it makes sense, to me, to put them.

Forget this obsession with horizontal. My angle depends on which way I'm heading at any given time. At the surface, I jack knife and head for the bottom head down. After my dive, I ascend with my head toward the surface.

I flutter kick. Period. Tried the frog kick once. Don't like it. It looks and feels ridiculous.

If I want to scull, I scull. If I feel like settling to the bottom, then I settle to the bottom. I am not PC. Don't wanna be and it ain't gonna happen. In fact, I will often go out of my way to avoid being PC.

I jump in the water. I have fun. I come up. I do what I do however I want to do it. I started out snorkeling as kid and once I learned SCUBA, I simply became a snorkeler with a tank on my back.

I think if I could show you a better way in align with your stated goals you would jump in. And that is also the trouble with DIR. GUE, their solutions aren't how can we help, but push yourself through this, show this and you pass.

 

[seacreatures]

He will use more air and be back at the boat and out of the way while everyone else sees all the cool stuff. It up to the instructor to teach what works and what doesn't but I don't believe in SCUBA Cops If your flailing away and having fun, keep diving, one or the other will stop at some point.

 

[Diver0001]

No, I haven't failed anyone for coming to class looking sloppy.

That's good to hear.

Not all bad habits can be trained out of new divers during the short open water courses that are currently the norm. However, if training is supposed to be modular, but achieve the same end, I question the value of advanced and specialty training that doesn't stop hand swimming.

And rightly so. Even at the OW level students are required to hover without skulling, as they are in several other courses requiring hovering, like PPB, drysuit and whatever. Amazingly, it would appear that many instructors do not pay any attention at all to sculling. Likewise many divers would appear to not see it as a priority so some people will certainly get in the habit of doing it. The problem is, once it's an unconscious habit, the job of getting it out again is much more difficult.

While it is true that instructor performance and teaching ability is related to student performance and ability, sometimes a student's abilities and capacity for learning would require a sizable investment in money and times. Also, not every instructor is the best for each student. Sometimes an instructor who is able to coach many students to meet standards during allotted class time simply cannot connect with one student who might learn better from another instructor's methods.

There is no question that you might be able to get through to a student I can't. By the same token, I might be able to get results from a student that you can't seem to bring up to speed. In that sense, we would fail where another would succeed. I have a guy I'm sending to my friend, Bob Sherwood, because I couldn't fix him.

I'm glad to hear you did this instead of just failing him outright. Where I work we do the exact same thing and for the same reasons (except my colleagues are not Bob Sherwood! )

Yet, even though he has very poor skills he went to another instructor to achieve advanced nitrox and deco. He honestly is not safe at that level. He remarked that he was impressed with his instructor for controlling the buoyancy of 4 students during class. The instructor actually had to inflate or deflate wings as needed because the students lacked control, but passed them anyway.

How do you know this?

At what point do we hold a student back? Do we let a kid slip through the public school system without being able to read? Does the kid's college professor let him ride for the football scholarship? In diving, when does an instructor say you need greater control? Rather than focus on the mantra of trim, buoyancy and propulsion because these are not universally agreed upon, I thought I'd start with a universal examination of uncontrolled or crutch use of hands since they may be retarding diver skill, comfort and ability at the most elementary level.

I think the main thing that leads to the things we often complain about is that some instructors are certifying students (evidently quite a few instructors) who don't actually perform to standards. As I said before, students are supposed to be made aware of the issue of sculling with the hands and feet in their very first diving course. That's not to say they should be diving like you or like Bob Sherwood at that level but the awareness should be there.

If they become aware and subsequently don't care about it, fine. But if they never become aware of it and are allowed, as in this case, to go through a whole string of diving courses without any of the instructors saying something until they hit the wall with someone like you then there is clearly a problem.

In my opinion (just based on what I see around me) I think many instructors find it very difficult to give their students bad news and end up approving things that are marginal (or worse) because the time is up, even though the student isn't ready. The fact that none of the main stream agencies has QA to actually check if students have achieved mastery means that the instructor is approving his own work (fox guarding the hen-house) and stuff like this is able to happen.

What makes this whole thing very tricky is that training is performance based but everyone is on a schedule. I've felt for a long time that the AOW as given by most agencies would be better off if PPB were required and the deep dive was taken out. at least then divers would be forced to do at least *some* thinking about trim and buoyancy at a point early on in their diving.

SB is allowing me to see how many participants believe hand swimming is a bad habit (or not) in divers and pros and whether the desire to eliminate it is strong or not really something divers might support.

I think at the level of courses you're teaching, that students flapping around are (a) not showing sufficient control. If you have doubts about their buoyancy and trim then how can you be confident in their ability to hold stops? In a nitrox course you might make them aware and practice with it a bit, but in advanced nitrox, they need to be able to hold stops... and (b) it's a bad calling card when people see your students diving.

R..

 

[stakanak]

After a mere 23 dives I have this to say on the subject. Sculling is lazy.
Today I thought about and accomplished the frog kick, reversal, and quick turns just by concentrating on and working on these techniques. It took ten minutes out of my dive to work on things that are going to help me for the rest of my diving life.
Sculling is OK in three instances...not touching the reef-nor the bottom-or not squishing something alive...
Get Wet Peeps!

 

[Jaeger45]

From a slightly different perspective:

Speaking as a current TDI Intro to Tech student, my first introduction to the back kick was in this course. I'm still working on mastery, and it will likely take longer than the next 4-5 dives. Without teaching the back kick, it's difficult if not impossible to back out of closed-in positions in horizontal trim without sculling.

I think eliminating sculling in most circumstances is a laudable goal. However, given the way open water has been taught (at least in my PADI experience), failing an open water student for sculling without teaching a skill to replace it seems overtly hostile.

 

[Walter]

how do you certify someone with out legs?

I normally require students to master the giant stride entry. That's obviously not going to happen when the student doesn't have legs. I think you're off topic.

I'd love to eliminate hand sculling, but how is this accomplished without a back kick?

Tell them not to do it. Have a signal to remind them when they are underwater. If necessary, have them dive with their hands together.

Typically a student needs a pass rate of 80% (exam & water skills).

100% on all in water skills.

If you can't get them in good equipment, and you can't help them balance themselves, you can't ask them to stop using their hands.

I get them in good equipment.

 

[seaducer]

I think the main thing that leads to the things we often complain about is that some instructors are certifying students (evidently quite a few instructors) who don't actually perform to standards. As I said before, students are supposed to be made aware of the issue of sculling with the hands and feet in their very first diving course. That's not to say they should be diving like you or like Bob Sherwood at that level but the awareness should be there.

I am not sure the blame can be always applied to the instructor, at least at the OW level. Some divers will be taught how to dive without using their hands, but once class is over they do whatever they feel like doing. For many divers they don't ever need to be in proper trim and under control, and as long as they never get in trouble they have no real incentive to change what feels good to them.

I liken it to driving. All students are required to drive with 2 hands, in proper position and follow the rules of the road. Once they get their license they start fiddling with the radio with one hand sort of on the wheel while speeding.

Some people have the vision to realize the potential of their activity, and some people do not.

Some people are Type A and need to be the best at things, and others are just content to be.

I am fine with whatever you choose as long as it does not affect me. But in class, you need to be able to show how to do things properly, or you do not pass. We need to get back to a world where you pay for education, not certificates. The latter implies the only requirement for the document is payment.

 

[Diver0001]

That's very true, Drew.

I certainly think that it's the instructor's responsibility to make them "aware" of what good diving looks like, however, and I do have my doubts as to whether or not this always happens.

But you're right. If the student is made aware and subsequently decides not to follow up on it, then that's clearly not the instructor's fault.

R..

 

[Paladin]

He will use more air and be back at the boat and out of the way while everyone else sees all the cool stuff. It up to the instructor to teach what works and what doesn't but I don't believe in SCUBA Cops If your flailing away and having fun, keep diving, one or the other will stop at some point.

If you are talking about me, I never said that I "flail." I am just not overly concerned about where I hold my hands or if I use them when convenient.

"If your flailing away and having fun, keep diving, one or the other will stop at some point."

Nah! I've been diving with my particular style since 1965.

By the way, I have a SAC rate of about .5 or so, so I have enough bottom time. Especially with my double 72s. So, I think I'll hang around down there (happily breathing from my 1959 USD DA Aqua-Master double hose regulator, my steel 72 with its J valve, no BC, no SPG and NO COMPUTER) for quite a while just to pester you!

 

[Aeropl]

My instructor was very strict about no hands. I thought he was too strict at the time but I'm glad he was in hindsight. I think there is always room for improvement in individual diving skills so why not learn to control yourself without using your hands. There are lots of reasons for wanting your hands completely free, whether it be for streamlining, photography, spearfishing, etc.