My AN/DP/Helitrox course

[Marie13]

And we’re off!

 

[Marie13]

Went well. I know what I need to work on and we’ll go from there. OOA drill and bottle dropping/picking up were in 4ft of water. Did them neutral and instructor was very happy with those skills.

Stiff neck ring on my Fusion (first generation SiTech ring) may very well need to be replaced with a latex seal. The ring really gets in the way of shoulder movement.

 

[Marie13]

Oh, forgot to mention. Wanted to give a try getting out of the pool with my doubles on. Went up the ladder from the deep end with only a few pulls on the manifold. All the time on the recumbent bike at the gym has really helped build up my quads.

 

[Marie13]

Pool session in a couple of weeks with me in a 3mm with my doubles to see how my shoulder range of motion is without the drysuit neck ring.

 

[formernuke]

Pool session in a couple of weeks with me in a 3mm with my doubles to see how my shoulder range of motion is without the drysuit neck ring.

Hopefully it goes well

 

[Marie13]

Hopefully it goes well

I expect it will confirm I’ll need to get rid of the SiTeck neck ring.

 

[-JD-]

I expect it will confirm I’ll need to get rid of the SiTeck neck ring.

Just a thought ...

Is it the neck ring, the zipper structure, or both that is the limiting factor(s) for range of motion?

It may be my body geometry & suit vs. yours, but the zippers, held against the top, front of my shoulders by the harness seem to be the first point of contact with the shoulder joints. Since I'm diving a L/Xl, largely for chest/shoulder room, there may be significantly more space and flex between the zipper and the neck ring given the differences in suit construction and my shoulder joint spacing.

 

[Marie13]

Neck ring. Narrow shoulders. Ring covers a large part of my shoulder. Mike at DRIS had even mentioned the neck ring could be an issue with valve drills when I bought the suit in 2018.

 

[kensuf]

For classes like intro to tech and AN/DP, the pool is critical IMO *or pool like area*. There's no need to actually go into open water for introduction of the skills with regards to buoyancy/trim/propulsion and bottle handling. You need something like a quarry for at least a day at the end to get the skills validated with depth changes. If you don't do any pool work in those courses I seriously question your judgement as an instructor.....

Repeating for emphasis.

 

[kensuf]

Is there an advantage to taking AN/DP and Helitrox together? On here, I commonly see divers mention the first two usually together but not in combination of the third.

Helitrox is the DP portion of AN/DP but with the use of helium instead of straight nitrox. I teach the same exact course when I teach helitrox.