How do you incorporate focused practice into your diving?

[AfterDark]

I don't have any friends or family that dive so my option for learning will be through certifications at least until I make some new friends. Lol

Consider joining a dive club. It is a different world today; during my 1^st 10 years of diving the club I hooked up with was composed mostly of retired or former Navy and/or commercial divers. The few sport divers like me were in awe of these men (I was 16 years old) even the young adults in their 20’s were “students” to these guys. They had a very rough way of teaching but the lessons stuck.

Never the less there are very skilled and experienced divers in dive clubs today that I’m sure are more than willing to mentor newbies. I’m also sure there are some that can’t be bothered; it’s up to you to sort them out, and build relationships.

 

[Storker]

A good mentor would be able to get help get trim right.

Exactly!

Although I'm PADI certified, with a minor stack of PADI plastic and seriously considering Fundies in the near future, I'm not a big fan of collecting classes. I didn't see the point in taking AOW when my OW card was fairly new, until I was told about ops who limited the type of diving you were allowed to do with just an OW card. However, I don't think I've had a single dive where I didn't consider my style, trim and buoyancy, and I've been working towards improving that on virtually every dive.

When I was a newly minted OW diver, we went out on a benign site to try out our new gear. A guy from the local club was there, too, and we dived together - sort of. While I - and my just as inexperienced buddy - thrashed around on the bottom, silting up the surroundings and yo-yoing up and down, this guy lay prone above us, hands clasped in front of him GUE style, in perfect trim and totally still in the water. I looked up at the bastard and thought "I want to be like that". Since then - my first post-cert dive - I've been working to improve my diving. Now, after about a hundred dives, I feel that I've reached a barrier and I don't really know how to progress further. Thus the thought of taking Fundies. But without more than the run-of-the-mill OW and AOW course, I've reached the point where I can handle a full camera rig, keep decent trim and (usually...) buoyancy within a meter or so, I can do non-silting kicks like frog, modified frog and modified flutter, and I'm working on my back kick which still is kinda flaky. I dive dry in water down to 4C and have no issues with turning feet up or turtle and losing my control. I also shake my head at the 45-degree bicycle-kicking, no-situational-awareness guys I occasionally see around.

So it's possible to reach a half-decent level without much classes, as long as you're willing to learn, willing to work and able use self-study material like books, Youtube and tips form people around you.

 

[RJP]

I don't have any friends or family that dive so my option for learning will be through certifications at least until I make some new friends. Lol

I teach lots of folks without bestowing any plastic upon them... there's plenty of instructors that do the same.

 

[Diving Dubai]

Great advice about finding a club or a group of people who regularly meet.

I remember when I first got back into diving. I had a whole 21 dives to my name and joined a club. I'd got new gear and practiced in a pool to iron out any wrinkles and to clear out the cobwebs (it'd been 4 years since my last dive) My first club dive I was give a lady as a buddy - I was nervous about a back roll off the boat (never done one) and concerned of cutting her dive short with bad consumption etc and perhaps a bit of not wanting to look bad. at the end of the dive I was told my buoyancy and consumption was much better than expected - clearly she had low expectations.

Long story short in the weeks and months that followed I read up on buoyancy and trim and practiced - or should I say concentrated a lot on them. In 3 months I'd move to a wing, shed over half the lead I'd carried on the first dive and my consumption had improved massively. I'd learnt about breathing properly and not with the top half of you lungs I wasn't moving that much and could take a photo or video only using a finger for stablisation. I'd learnt how to shoot a DSMB and could hold the safety stop in blue water with no line nor reference aside my depth gauge.

2 years and 200 dives later I still look for improvements - although the steps are more polishing the technique rather than making big leaps. A recent mishap made me realise this. We'd dropped in at 5:30am for a dawn dive on a pinnacle. There wer 10 of us diving as unguided buddy pairs. 9 were holding on to the rock in a fast flow at 6m watching a whale shark and a devil ray. Yours truly wasn't. My finger spool ad become unclipped on entry - the DSMB was still rolled in my pocket but the spool had headed toward the bottom taking with it 20m of line. I'm not great in the mornings anyway but was truely p*ss*d off at myself especially with the creatures above me. without thinking I dropped down to the lee pulled up the reel and started to wind on the line, which of course floats around you trying to tangle you up. My buddy assisted where they could (helping removing loops of line around my kit and all was good. During this time I'd not moved more than a meter up or down - buoyancy and trim have now become a subconscious act.

Fortunately the whale shark made another appearance at the dive end . My buddy - the same lady who'd taken me on my first club dive - mocked me, she's allowed too as she's now my wife

 

[danvolker]

Back to the skiing analogy...if every slope you ever skied on was as easy as a bunny slope--it is unlikely you would need much instruction beyond your first few classes---and after some time, most of the skiers like this would think they were good enough--as good as they needed to be.

This is EXACTLY how most divers are....most diving is not that hard. Of course, skiers dont have a run begin as a bunny slope, and then suddenly have it get stormy and turn into a double diamond....But the concept is still valid...if you never get challenged by the normal conditions, you will get "good enough" and be happy with that.

If you plan on diving the wild and woolly spots you read about advanced divers raving about---then more instruction or mentoring will be warranted--because the level of challenge is likely to be very different.

Among the things that could be tried in a still water -non-challenging destination, would be diving sideways to .....or swimming up-current, in a tidal change--get used to the BEST way of dealing with currents--and have a great "drift diver" with you, so you can see how they handle this.
See what happens when you are inches from the bottom in the current, versus 10 feet off the bottom---this is the concept of "skin friction drag", and it changes how effective a diver can be in a strong current.
Have someone video you doing this...and see if you are silting....If the bottom is not silty or sandy, you might want to try this in a place where it is....and get so that working against a big current, does not involves silting badly.

Seeing video of yourself...versus video of a great diver with you--could be life-changing for some divers

 

[boulderjohn]

this guy lay prone above us, hands clasped in front of him GUE style, in perfect trim and totally still in the water.

This is something that bugs me a bit with a lot of ScubaBoard posts. What you saw was the skills exhibited by technical divers. It is required for the decompression stops associated with deep technical diving and with cave diving. GUE did not invent it. All technical diving agencies teach it. Contrary to the impression provided throughout ScubaBoard, you do not have to go to one specific agency to get that instruction.

 

[victorzamora]

See what happens when you are inches from the bottom in the current, versus 10 feet off the bottom---this is the concept of "skin friction drag", and it changes how effective a diver can be in a strong current.

The rest of your point is valid, but that is NOT the concept of "skin friction drag." That's due partially to boundary layer effects plus several other factors.

 

[Storker]

It's just that we rec divers have seen this style mostly in the DIR/GUE videos that litter Youtube, so it seemed like a nice, short, descriptive term to describe the style. If that bugs you, I apologize.

 

[danvolker]

This is something that bugs me a bit with a lot of ScubaBoard posts. What you saw was the skills exhibited by technical divers. It is required for the decompression stops associated with deep technical diving and with cave diving. GUE did not invent it. All technical diving agencies teach it. Contrary to the impression provided throughout ScubaBoard, you do not have to go to one specific agency to get that instruction.

In all fairness....In the mid nineties, MOST of the deep ocean divers EXCEPT the WKPP guys ( evolution of WKPP and GUE) were diving without trim.
We began diving with many "deep divers/tech divers" from Ca, Wa, and the East coast of Florida... many other places....What George and Bill and the WKPP guys were doing, was not at all like what any of the other deep ocean diving groups were doing....it was like what "some" cave diving groups were doing.
Because George Irvine began as a spearfisherman, and loved ocean too--George combined the ideas of ocean and cave...and this became DIR....by the year 2000, many agencies had decided they liked aspects of this DIR ( this compendium from many groups in diving) , and began teaching "aspects" of it...Some did this well with their tech programs...and there were some tech programs that were/are horrifyingly bad. Most today will still be a vast improvement over the skills a recreational diver has. "Most"..not all---there are still some "tech classes" we see where the instructors and students have terrible trim, stage bottles at 45 degree angles instead of slick with the current....andn where "Deep air" is taught as a "skill".
Ultimately, it annoys many when GUE or WKPP gets "some" credit. I think they were instrumental in change...change from very sloppy tech diving, to a much better average for all agencies.
Today, you can get great instruction for tech, without having to go the GUE route....but the GUE's do have a right to be somewhat synonymous with being dialed in with all that is right in a tech or cave dive.

 

[oldschoolto]

Sarcasm hat on.... I have a c-card, I know everything and don't need to practice... LOL

Jim..

---------- Post added June 14th, 2015 at 11:26 AM ----------

Sarcasm hat on.... I have a c-card, I know everything and don't need to practice... LOL

Jim..