NAUI underwater swim test question?

[sea_ledford]

The other side of this skill, aside from technique and comfort in the water is physiology. The mammalian diving reflex is pretty helpful with this skill. The longer (ie more number of times, not necessarily the length of time) you breath hold, the longer time you will be able to do it. I ran a skills check out for my budding scientific divers a few months ago and at least 3 of them had been practicing and couldn't make the UW swim. So as a warm up I had them doing surface dives first with mask and fins, then no mask, then no mask or fins. Spent maybe 7 minutes just playing around in the deep end with as much UW time as possible. None of them had a problem and 2 of them made the full 25 M like you did.

Comfort in the water is huge, and spending some stress-free time playing around helps out a lot with the comfort as well as getting you ready to breath hold swim.

Chris

 

[SparkE79]

UPDATE 2:

Went back to the pool tonight. All of my attempts were easily 10m, and I'd say two thirds of my attempts met the 15 meter requirement. My last five consecutive attempts I made the full 25m length of the pool.

I did notice a drastic difference between swimming in the shallow lanes (3.5 -4.5 feet) and the deep lanes (4.5 to 5 feet deep). My local pool used to be a 50 meter pool that sloped from one end to the other, and they divided it into two 25m sections with one side deeper than the other. My five consecutive 25m successes were in the deep side of the pool; on the shallow side the best I managed was about 20m (right at the flags on a 25m olympic pool). Seems an extra foot of water makes a big difference, or maybe it is just psychological?

Anyway, I am feeling much better about this. Now I am just worried "will I be able to do it in class" Thanks again guys.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

UPDATE 2:

Went back to the pool tonight. All of my attempts were easily 10m, and I'd say two thirds of my attempts met the 15 meter requirement. My last five consecutive attempts I made the full 25m length of the pool.

I did notice a drastic difference between swimming in the shallow lanes (3.5 -4.5 feet) and the deep lanes (4.5 to 5 feet deep). My local pool used to be a 50 meter pool that sloped from one end to the other, and they divided it into two 25m sections with one side deeper than the other. My five consecutive 25m successes were in the deep side of the pool; on the shallow side the best I managed was about 20m (right at the flags on a 25m olympic pool). Seems an extra foot of water makes a big difference, or maybe it is just psychological?

Anyway, I am feeling much better about this. Now I am just worried "will I be able to do it in class" Thanks again guys.

Quit worrying ... yeah, I know ... easier said than done. But the objective is to have fun ... and putting pressure on yourself just makes it harder than it has to be.

The hard part is over ... you've proven to yourself that you can do it. Now just go to class ... relax ... relax ... and do what you know you can do ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[SparkE79]

Quit worrying ... yeah, I know ... easier said than done. But the objective is to have fun ... and putting pressure on yourself just makes it harder than it has to be.

Honestly at this point I'm not really all that worried; I'm more interested in going to the pool to see if I can beat what I did yesterday. Heck, might take up free diving at some point

 

[al248005]

I'm NAUI cert'd. When I had to do this I pretty much went on an angle to the bottom. I had a heck of a time trying to do it around 5-7ft deep. However when I went to the bottom (I believe the pool was around 14 or 15 ft deep) I was easily able complete it with no problems. Another thing like Jim mentioned-don't fight the water or over kick. You will burn up a lot more stamina trying to kick and paddle as fast as you can. Just relax and tell yourself you can do it and you will.

 

[Hank49]

Heck, might take up free diving at some point

There are free diving courses. Performance Free Diving and Free Diving Instructors International teach beginner and intermediate courses. If you could take one of those, it would help prepare you for the scuba. You'll definitely learn a lot....many of the same physics apply...and you'll gain comfort in the water. I would go so far as to say that you might amaze yourself.
As to the underwater swim test, it seems a little biased towards more fit people who are less buoyant. I know some people who are overweight and without weights, would have to fight to stay down for the 50 foot swim. But they're really comfortable in the water and accomplished scuba divers non the less. Seems that at last using weights would be a fair adjustment for some. imho.

 

[Jill from Phoenix]

There are free diving courses. Performance Free Diving and Free Diving Instructors International teach beginner and intermediate courses. If you could take one of those, it would help prepare you for the scuba. You'll definitely learn a lot....many of the same physics apply...and you'll gain comfort in the water. I would go so far as to say that you might amaze yourself.
As to the underwater swim test, it seems a little biased towards more fit people who are less buoyant. I know some people who are overweight and without weights, would have to fight to stay down for the 50 foot swim. But they're really comfortable in the water and accomplished scuba divers non the less. Seems that at last using weights would be a fair adjustment for some. imho.

you can use proper weighting to stay submerged.

I took an FII course, other than developing more watermanship, I do not see a parallel between that course and Scuba Diver. 3:00 min breath holds would be a norm...something they think everyone can do with the proper instruction and practice.

 

[Hank49]

Diving to 60 feet, equalizing properly, proper use of fins, steamlining, the concept of proper weighting, all apply to both scuba and free diving. And just gaining confidence in the water for other people who DON'T already have over 2500 scuba dives.

you can use proper weighting to stay submerged.

I took an FII course, other than developing more watermanship, I do not see a parallel between that course and Scuba Diver. 3:00 min breath holds would be a norm...something they think everyone can do with the proper instruction and practice.

 

[Jill from Phoenix]

Diving to 60 feet, equalizing properly, proper use of fins, steamlining, the concept of proper weighting, all apply to both scuba and free diving. And just gaining confidence in the water for other people who DON'T already have over 2500 scuba dives.

Hi Hank, I liked the FII course, it surely developments watermanship. But I'll stick to my guns that it won't necessarily make a student more prepared for NAUI Scuba Diver, just because serious freedivers are so different from scuba divers. The equipment is different, the skills are different, it's a different state of mind. I think it develops more comfort in the water for someone that is already comfortable, but I believe NAUI Skin Diver would be a better place to start for a beginner to develop comfort - like you said there they'll practice weighting and streamlining and finning but with less emphasis on serious freediving. As for Performance Freediving, the FII instructor said that agency is for divers developing skills for competition and less for correct freediving technique....

I guess my opinion is just take NAUI courses.

 

[Hank49]

Hi Jill,
I did the PFI course. Kirk knew he was teaching free dive spearos. He emphasized what you said, that he will focus on performance free diving, but did make concessions knowing that we'd use a bit more weight in most cases. And that we DO look down on descent more than we should etc etc
But, there are differences in students. If you take someone from the midwest with little to no ocean experience, no real swimming experience other than how to not drown, going straight to scuba is a big jump. In this case, Naui, PFI Beginners or just a snorkeling course would help a lot. Just getting used to a mask and snorkel and fins is enough to start them off.
On the other hand, I've taught a few guys that grew up in Hawaii surfing, body surfing....lots of water time and ocean experience and basically had to teach them, "never hold your breath and go up slowly". And they got it right away.
Why the hell are you in Phoenix after diving all over the world? You hook with some cowboy that was on a diving vacation?