How do you teach new divers to stay horizontal?

[paulwall]

I was diving with 4 new divers (2-jr ow) and kept trying to get them to stay horizontal, with their fins out of the sand. Inevitably, they turned head up when not swimming to "talk" underwater or just to rest.

How do I break them of this habit? On the debriefing, they said it just felt normal. I've tried to adjust their tank higher on their back, and they were diving weight integrated (too heavy, IMO) rental BC's.

Comments on BP/W are not necessary.

 

[scubajcf]

I was diving with 4 new divers (2-jr ow) and kept trying to get them to stay horizontal, with their fins out of the sand. Inevitably, they turned head up when not swimming to "talk" underwater or just to rest.

How do I break them of this habit? On the debriefing, they said it just felt normal. I've tried to adjust their tank higher on their back, and they were diving weight integrated (too heavy, IMO) rental BC's.

Comments on BP/W are not necessary.

Unfortunately, most new divers are trained overweighted. You have to get them comfortable being correctly weighted.

Some useful tips -

1. Teach them frog kicking and flutter kicking. This tends to keep them more horizontal.
2. Trim out the divers so 1/3rd of their weight is on their shoulders or upper back.
3. Teach them proper breathing techniques. Breath naturally.
4. Teach them a head down signal you can flash at them.
5. No ankle weights
6. Have them dive in an exaggerated head down position; they will naturally trim out.
7. Tank up a little further works well as the weight of the valve will push their shoulders down a bit. But not too much so they can't move their head back a little.
8. Make sure their fins are not too negatively buoyant. This is a minor tip.
9. Limit hand movement.

 

[don Francisco]

Gently hit them on the nose when they're vertical, and give them treats when they're horizontal.

You might suggest that if they really like to be vertical, they should trade in their fins for ankle weights, and walk in the sand. Other than that, if they want to be vertical, what can you do?

 

[spectrum]

The first step is giving them an appreciation of what a diver in correct trim looks like.

The next step is getting their commitment to be in trim

Objective configuartion adjustements.

Practice

Readjust as needed

Do they want to be divers or just dive? If they are kids just wanting to dub around it's hopeless until they grow up. Not everyone that gets certified wants to dive with a spirit of continuous improvement.

Pete

 

[Gombessa]

Whenever anyone goes vertical, I use a special signal to an assistant that means "Sweep the leg, Johnny!" I find most people learn very quickly

 

[rsigmund]

Most of the posts above are on the nose. I have found that most all students are taught with about 1/3 more weight than is needed. if you want them horizontal and they want to become better divers, there is really only one thing that you can do. Practice with them. teach them that they are more aquadynamic in the water and use less air if their bodies are in the correct position and they are weighted correctly. I have found that as you show new divers the benefits of proper dive technique, that they will do it for extended bottom time and a less stressful dive.

 

[sluggo]

did you do pool work with these students? in the pool is the place to resolve buoyancy issues in my
opinion .. in o/w moving weights would seem to be best option then re do buoyancy check .

 

[SteveAD]

Introduce them to the game "how little weight can you dive with". The winner is the person who can subtract the most from the weight they're diving now and still complete a dive.

 

[captndale]

I was diving with 4 new divers (2-jr ow) and kept trying to get them to stay horizontal, with their fins out of the sand. How do I break them of this habit?

Unfortunately, they were probably taught to dive this way during their OW course. When will we instructors learn that habits aquired during entry level training will be extremely difficult to unlearn?

Most of their skills they were taught while kneeling in a vertical position on the bottom. They "learned" buoyancy control by making themselves foot heavy and negative and pivoting on the bottom. They then graduated to "hovering" in a vertical position. They did all this in the pool and then reinforced the lessons by doing it all again in an open water environment. Somehow, this was supposed to prepare them for diving in the real world.

 

[deborahdelamar]

I can tell you the way my instructor did it -- he's a cave diver and a fanatic about this, though I didn't understand it until later... Day one in pool: Sit on bottom for a while getting used to breathing through a reg.; then join the game of Toypedo -- with everyone either prone on the bottom of the pool or dashing in a surface-swim position (horizontally) to catch and release the toy. (We played Toypedo after every class.) Whenever possible, skills were practiced laying parallel to the bottom of the pool. Every diver we were exposed to -- in photos, video or live demonstations -- was horizontal. (Monkey see; monkey do.)

These techniques never gave anyone the thought or chance to adopt the vertical habit. By the time we got to fin pivots, "feeling' neutral bouyancy, and making the open water dives, it was only natural to be stomach down in the water.