Instructors: teaching neutrally buoyant

[Brett Hatch]

You should try it sometime and see.

I'll definitely try it midwater some time while not entangled, it sounds easier than what I did last time, which was hold the rig out in front of me. So thanks for the pointer.

Would you anticipate any entanglement scenarios where flipping over like this wouldn't be the easiest way to do it? That's what I had in mind in the post above, but maybe it's in anticipation of something that isn't very realistic.

 

[TMHeimer]

I like to teach all classes neutrally buoyant. It makes for a much better diver, but a lot of class structures and accepted practices within the industry are not designed to make it work. Some thoughts:

- Never allow students to kneel as it promotes an upright position as the muscle memory "happy place". Lying flat on a non-environmentally sensitive bottom, transitioning to a pivot and then hover works much better.

- Spend some time in adjusting students equipment so that they are naturally flat and neutral. Everything is hard if you are fighting against equipment that tips you forward or back, and getting a stable platform should be achieved before any skills.

- You need to spend much longer on just getting comfortable and achieving horizontal neutral buoyancy. The first couple of hours of confined spent mastering this is not unusual. You can then do all the required skills neutral on later or additional dives.

- This does not work for big classes, or quick classes. The fact that most agencies allow ratios of 1 instructor to 8 students and a class that takes less than 3 days does not make for good divers. Personally, the maximum I allow for any class is 3 students. Classes that have 8 students and are finished in 2.5 days are ****** classes.

Good stuff. The shop here has weekend courses basically full from April- Nov., with some even through the winter. It is the only major shop for a long way. The owner tries to limit courses to 6 total, but many times that doesn't work. Pool time costs money. There are maybe a dozen instructors and same no. of DMs-- often there are 2 courses' pool times squeezed into one day. Sometimes as many as 12 or students in one course with 2 DMs and/or an extra instructor, which costs more. DMs get paid $300 a course too.
I'm sure you know of situations like this. It's nice to financially be able for some instructors to limit courses to 2-3-4 students. I figure either the course fee is way higher or there are courses every other day.
Since there would be no time to just spend the first 2 pool hours working strictly on buoyancy, I figure our shop would benefit students greatly by teaching NB from the start (maybe they do now?). As I suggested, just hovering instead of kneeling for 3-4 hours watching others do skills has to be a big advantage.

 

[boulderjohn]

- This does not work for big classes, or quick classes.

The dive shop where I first started doing this saw how well it worked, and the Director of Instruction required it of all classes of all sizes. It was program policy to add an AI for classes over 5.

I found that this methodology takes no more time than teaching on the knees.

 

[KevinNM]

I wish I’d learned that way. It would avoid the dozens of dives needed to be neutrally buoyant and fix the things that goes with not being neutral, like hand sculling.

that first time you see yourself on video doing all this crazy stuff you had no idea you were doing...

 

[TMHeimer]

I wish I’d learned that way. It would avoid the dozens of dives needed to be neutrally buoyant and fix the things that goes with not being neutral, like hand sculling.

that first time you see yourself on video doing all this crazy stuff you had no idea you were doing...

After maybe 5 or 6 dives I THINK my buoyancy was pretty close to what it is now. My OW instructor gave one great piece of advice-- Add or release BCD air with TINY spurts. The only time I sculled was using "breast stroke" (for least water resistance) when I used to get really bad leg cramps. I would assume that had I been taught neutrally buoyant I would not have needed those 5-6 post-OW dives to achieve really good buoyancy.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I'm doing an Intro next weekend as confirmation that the people really want to do the full OW class. What they pay for the intro will get credited to the full class price. The first descent they do on SCUBA will be horizontal and we'll stop a few inches off the bottom. If their fin tips touch I'm ok with that or if they put a hand down. We'll move from the shallow end to the deep end horizontally staying off the bottom other than those fin tips and a finger or hand. They'll never see me kneeling on the bottom and so will have no idea that anything other than staying off the bottom and being horizontal is not normal. If they do like and decide to sign up for the class, proper weighting, neutral buoyancy, and trim will be the first skills we focus on in the class using lung volume with snorkel gear. Then we'll move to SCUBA in the second session and all skills will be based on those foundations. The first time they remove and replace a mask will be underwater swimming without a scuba unit. Then when they can actually breathe with SCUBA it will seem like a piece of cake and they'll do it horizontal off the bottom.
I learned to teach like this when I crossed over to the YMCA program in 2007. Been teaching this way and skills neutral and horizontal for 13 years now. No harder and is actually easier for students. They feel more in control and relaxed than kneeling. As a DM I saw people struggle to stay upright, tilt the head too far, and use the try to mimic the instructor doing the Marcel Marceau on quaaludes demos and flood the mask.
Horizontal and demoing like the old 5th dx video people got it immediately and assumed since it looked easy, it was. As a result, they were less nervous. Like Pete said, "monkey see, monkey do" and it was much faster and IMO safer than kneeling.
I can't seem to find the 5th dx videos any longer but this one is close enough to how to demo a mask clear.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Found it! This is how long it takes to demo the skill so that students don't get intimidated by the skill. Coupled with a good briefing of the skill on the surface.

 

[EFX]

It usually takes me two or three exhales through the nose to clear the mask and I take my time doing it. A little water inside the mask for a short period of time won't hurt me.

 

[TMHeimer]

It usually takes me two or three exhales through the nose to clear the mask and I take my time doing it. A little water inside the mask for a short period of time won't hurt me.

Have you tried one giant blast? If your mask fits well this should work every time--well there may be a trickle left in there.
PADI standards experts correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe a student can pass the mask clearing skill even if it takes 10 exhales, as long as the water gets out. Anyway, I've heard instructors say that. If true, that puzzles me.
I had a student who needed many blows to complete it, but she was also exhaling through her mouth at the same time (saying she was a "mouth breather") until we finally got that fixed.

 

[The Chairman]

transitioning to a pivot

You can only do a pivot if your trim is horrid.

Again, kneeling, lying, or having your fin tips on the bottom is a horrible example. You think that your students will know "when" that will be appropriate, and it really never is.

I was helping an instructor do his first guided night dive. He had 3 students, himself and his SO. There were three classes on that boat and we were at the front. So, the other two classes splashed and I was the first of our group. Imagine my surprise to see everyone in the water at that point STANDING on the bottom. Some were on sand, but others were on coral. The two instructors were waving their arms at the direction each was to go. That was cool, because I could avoid them now.

None of the divers in our group touched the bottom. Why? I was setting the example and if they got too close, I signaled for them to rise a bit. I made the symbol for them to follow me, and we were off on a wonderful dive. By the end of our dive, the ocean was truly dark and all the nocturnals were out or coming out. Of particular interest to me was the number of sea biscuits that had come out of the sand and were now easy to see on the bottom. I picked one up carefully, as they are fragile, and first showed it to our group and then I showed it to the other two groups. Then I put it in the very same spot I had taken it.

On the boat, one of the instructors came up to me and was concerned that I had "fondled" marine life. Rly? You were standing on them at the beginning of the dive, and you're worried about me using one as a teaching tool? I pointed that out as carefully as I could and then answered some questions that some of the other divers had since few had ever seen one. My point was that just because you don't see life on the bottom, doesn't mean it's not there. The sand is alive and should be respected.

Another anecdote. I had taught two high school students to scuba so they could take a reef ecology class during their senior year. I went on their first dive and their instructor was trying to get them to kneel Everyone but my girls were overweighted and had no problem. The girls were confused and so did all of their work horizontal, a few inches above the coral. Man, I was proud. The instructor asked me why it was so challenging for my girls to kneel and I told him that they are taught to never touch the bottom. I then asked him how well they did? His words were "They were surprisingly stable but they should really learn how to kneel". Wow. they're teaching a course on reef ecology and they want them to kneel on it???

So no, what might be obvious to you is not to them, just as what is obvious to me, is not so much to you. Don't set the bar higher... set it a bit more neutral.