Most important skills to be refreshed in a pool?

[Austin]

Hi, this weekend my brother (12 years old) and my parents and I are going to the pool. They want to get back in the water before they go diving this summer. They got certified last year and dove again in March of this year, but none of them has over 10 dives. I'm not worried about any of them, I just would like to know what skills they should practice and if you have any pointers, because I'm going to sortof help them out, get them tuned-up.

I guess the important things would obviously be mask clear, fin pivots to work on bouancy, reg recovery, and maybe taking BC off at depth so they feel more capable?

 

[Mark Vlahos]

Hi, this weekend my brother (12 years old) and my parents and I are going to the pool. They want to get back in the water before they go diving this summer. They got certified last year and dove again in March of this year, but none of them has over 10 dives. I'm not worried about any of them, I just would like to know what skills they should practice and if you have any pointers, because I'm going to sortof help them out, get them tuned-up.

I guess the important things would obviously be mask clear, fin pivots to work on bouancy, reg recovery, and maybe taking BC off at depth so they feel more capable?

Hi,

Lets be clear here, we are talking about certified divers with little experience.

I would say that it is most important to practice the skills that either the diver in question dislikes or knows that they don't do very well. I have never liked the feeling of having my mask removed while underwater. To this end I have found that the best way to get comfortable with this skill is to practice it regularly, usually during the safety stop.

If mask skills are your personal demon, then work on those skills. Bouyancy is usually difficult to get a handle on for new divers. Frankly ALL of the skills you were taught in your basic open water class are important. Some, like bouyancy are skills that you will use on every dive, while others like air sharing are skills that you hope you will never actually use in an emergency. Just because any particular skill may be used more or less often does not mean that you do not need to know how to do it.

Fin pivots are good but when in the pool try not to touch the bottom with anything but still stay within one foot of the bottom while staying horizontal (much harder for a new diver than a simple fin pivot). Use your breathing to stay close without either crashing into the bottom or floating up to the surface.

Just being in the water and breathing on SCUBA is always good to practice, if you are comfortable with this most basic skill then other skills will be easier as well.

Mark Vlahos

 

[rje634]

Personally I think one of the hardest skills is taking the mask completely off and breathing from the regulator for a minute or so and then replacing the mask and clearing it. This is a good skill to practice, losing your mask under water is very disorienting. I've had my mask kicked off at 100 feet and being to do that skill saved me from panicing and placing myself in a potentially dangerous situation.

Remember each person has there own hurdle, it is a matter of finding out what that hurdle is and working on it.
I think it's great that your doing some pool time to brush up on skills before hitting the open water.

 

[jimmac]

I'd say you defiently wanna work on some mask clears, snorkle clears, underwater swims and kicks. Just to gain confidence in the water. Breathing off a regulator on the side of the pool to help practice bouyancy control with your breathing. And then i'd throw in some ditch and dawns to really test that comfort lvl in the water.






Visibility is not an issue

 

[Walter]

Fin pivots have limited usefulness in helping nondivers understand the feel of neutral buoyancy. I never use them at all, because there are better alternatives. There's no reason for certified divers to ever do fin pivots. Instead, they should concentrate on swimming around the pool without breaking the surface or touching the bottom. That's a much better indicator of good buoyancy control than fin pivots.

 

[Austin]

Ok, good point about the fin pivots, scratch that. And yes, sorry for being unclear, they are certified, and pretty comfortable in the water, they just want to brush up. Those are all good ideas. I'm a little concerned about my brother, he loves scuba and is like a fish underwater. He's always been comfortable in the water, but he's still 12, and is a little reckless on bikes and other things on land. I mean, he's not dangerous, he just has the reckless attitude of a 12 year old. I want to make sure that he doesn't overstrech his abbilities, but then again, he's done 10 open water dives, so he has a little experience, but you know what i mean.

 

[Walter]

If he's reckless, he shouldn't dive.

 

[Otter]

Neutral buoyancy swim, controlled / slow ascents & descents, mask & replace, reg recovery, alternate air source ascents, hand signals -- make sure all of you use the same signals for indicating remaining air (there seems to be a wide variety out there). Start with the neutral buoyancy swim to re-acclimate yourselves and then do the remainder off of the bottom.

 

[Austin]

Walter, he's not reckless, you know how kids can think they're invincible some of the times, anyway, forget i brought it up. Thanks Otter, i'll start them out with that, good ideas.