New diver wanting tips for things to focus on improving over summer

[TSandM]

Ron Frank has a good point -- there is no need to dedicate dives to practice, because a lot of things you are going to practice while you are diving. (I mastered my back kick, for example, by practicing it whenever my buddy stopped to take pictures ). And you can make a few minutes at the beginning or end of your dives to practice some stuff like safety procedures. What else is a safety stop for?

Most important is to remember that diving is a joyful activity, and it's really important not to lose the joy of it in the desire to become perfect.

 

[bburville]

Good question and some v.good answers to date - for what it's worth (26yrs diving and instructing) - I'd go with enjoying the dives, keeping shallow to start with and avoiding dive buddies who think it makes them "more manly" if they go deeper.

Keep to happy long safe diving ...

1. Enjoy the dives and relish being calm and at ease in "another world"
2. Use regular dives to help train and keep your skills
3. Buoyancy, buoyancy +
4. Get comfy with your kit over the next 6 mths ... really comfy .. so you know and can get to every bit in the dark, in your sleep. upside down.
5. Mask clear so it's easy at any time any place and anywhere eg..
[video=youtube;zgfmvXFWsTs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgfmvXFWsTs[/video]

At your stage now ... get a good buddy - someone who you trust and will help you develop.
Take care and enjoy - any questions feel free.
Safe diving,
Ben "Seal diver"
Twitter > @Sealdiver
www.youtube.com/bburville

 

[mmcdanie]

Great thread with good points and a great video. I was just telling my buddy that we should practice our safety stops. We have been diving with max depths no greater than 45ft, it's easy to let stops get out of practice. Diving around seals is another good reason to leave the snorkel in the dive bag.

 

[nickscott18]

I would forget drills and just dive. You will end up doing everything that you need to practice which at your level is EVERYTHING!

So to review, plan you dive, equipment check, buddy check, entry, ok signal, down signal, descend under control and horz, stop at agreed depth, maintain buoyancy & trim, hover motionless, stay horizontal, keep arms still, kick to push forward, hover again and repeat kick/hover at will, always keep an eye on your buddy, follow the plan, after x minutes ascend at 30 feet per minute minimum, stop at 10-15 feet and do a safety stop for 3 minutes, maintain depth, after SS surface under control, do a high five! I don't expect all that will happen for a while, but it's something to shoot for. You can add more skills as you get better.

Above all else dive safe and Have fun! :cool2:

That's a good point, just incorporate it in with the rest of diving (and having fun while I'm at ). Thanks for all the replies, there's been some good food for thought in this thread.

 

[nickscott18]

Most important is to remember that diving is a joyful activity, and it's really important not to lose the joy of it in the desire to become perfect.

Its more of a improving while I have lots of opportunities to go diving (2 weeks, right by the sea, dive compressor on site (and someone who can use it), and a really good boat to dive off), and will have quite a few times when diving further out is not an option (due to needing a boat to get to some locations), so have decided I may as well improve as well when I have such a good opportunity. There will also be lots of diving just to enjoy it (there's about 5 spots I am going to make a point of diving, as I have been told by my inlaws that they are very cool places to dive).
And bburville,loved that video, and already have a dive buddy lined up that I trust, who I will be doing my diving with up there, he won't be my regular buddy due to us living so far apart, so still looking for one in my home town.
Nick

 

[Colliam7]

I willl echo and expand on several suggestions already made.

1) Buoyancy control. I know you asked for suggestions 'apart from buoyancy control'. But, I would add to the 'front end' of buoyancy control - proper weighting, which is critical to good buoyancy control. Use those dives to determine the proper weight, FOR YOU, in salt water, using whatever exposure suit you will regularly dive.

I would then add to the 'back end' of buoyancy control - work to be able to control your depth with your breathing alone. Certainly, you may use you BCD with major depth changes. But, work to develop the ability to control your movement in a 5-10 ft vertical plane using only your breathing. You can do it if you are properly weighted.

2) Trim control. Are you truly horizontal in the water? Or, like many divers, do you swim at a 30-45 degree head-up angle, and not even realize it? If 'cleanliness is next to godliness', then trim control is next to buoyancy control.

3) Finning techniques. Can you perform a frog kick, efficiently, effectively, and effortlessly? If not, work on the frog kick during Christmas. If you already have a good frog kick, watch the YouTube videos and work on a back kick. And, once you can do that, start working on helicopter turns, performed WITHOUT YOUR HANDS (see #4).

4) Danglies. One of the most common, and needless, 'danglies' are the diver's hands. Most of us don't realize that we use them as much as we do. So, work on executing an entire dive with your hands clasped lightly and comfortably in front of you, and DO NOT use them except for a) adding air to your BCD during the descent, b) purging air from your BCD during the ascent, and c) clearing you ears (and, then, only if you pinch your nose to do so).

5) If 'a picture is worth a thousand words', then a moving picture (aka video) is worth even more. Find someone to watch you lead a dive, as suggested, and make comments on your technique. But, even better, find someone to do that AND take video footage of you in the water while you dive, so you can see what you really look like. Most of us are surprised by what we see.

None of this requires 'devoting' a dive to raining - although frankly I don't think that is a bad idea, anyway. But, you can use those dives you are doing to set dive-specific goals - on this dive I will not use my hands, on this dive I will ONLY frog kick, etc. By the end of the Christmas break you will be able to put a lot of good techniques together.

 

[nickscott18]

I willl echo and expand on several suggestions already made.

1) Buoyancy control. I know you asked for suggestions 'apart from buoyancy control'. But, I would add to the 'front end' of buoyancy control - proper weighting, which is critical to good buoyancy control. Determine the proper weight, FOR YOU, in salt water, using whatever exposure suit you will regularly dive. I would then add to the 'back end' of buoyancy control - work to be able to control your depth with your breathing alone. Certainly, you may use you BCD with major depth chanes. But, work to develop the ability to control your movement in a 5-10 ft vertical plane using only your breathing. You can do it if you are properly weighted.
2) Trim control. Are you truly horizontal in the water? Or, like many divers, do you swim at a 30-45 degree head-up angle? If 'cleanliness is next to godliness', then trim control is next to buoyancy control.
3) Finning techniques. Can you perform a frog kick, efficinely, effectively, and effortlessly? If not, work on the frog kick during Christmas. If you have a good frog kick, watch the YouTube videos and work on a back kick. And, once you can do that, start working on helicopter turns, performed WITHOUT YOUR HANDS (see #4).
4) Danglies. One of the more common and needless 'danglies' are hands. Most of us don't realize wthat we use them as much as we do. So, work on executing an entire dive withyour hands clasped lightly and comfortably in front of you, and DO NOT use them except for a) adding air to your BCD during the descent, b) purging air from your BCD during the ascent, and c) clearing you ears (and, then, only if you pinch your nose to do so).
5) If 'a picture is worth a thousand words', then a moving picture (aka video) is worth even more. Find someone to watch you lead a dive, as suggested, and make comments. Even better, find someone to do that AND take video footage of you in the water while you dive, so you can see what you really look like. Most of us are surprised by what we see.

Hi
I should have added at the start, the reason behind the comment "apart from buoyancy control" is it was already at the top of my list of things to work on, as I'm aware its currently a massive weak point for me. I will be taking those comments into account.
2, trim at the moment, I'm in the head up angle. Apart from positioning your weight belt correctly, and ensuring your BCD is correctly fitting, how else can trim be adjusted
3,4, haven't focused on fining techniques at all, so at the moment the answer to that is no, so I will be working on that, with the hands,they are definetly used more than that at the moment, so will keep that in mind.
5, Hadn't thought of videoing it, due to not having a waterproof camera, that will not be happening this trip, but will get it done when I get one.
Thanks for the tips, its really useful.
NIck

 

[DivemasterDennis]

Diving is the best training. Have a great time. As noted above, the skills to work on are buoyancy, body control with minimal movement, and I would add something no one else mentioned: navigation. Carry a compass and as you enjoy your diving, see how well you can track where you are and how to get home. Don't overload your tasks, just have an awareness of these things. Each will improve rapidly as you gain experience. So, as you enjoy your break and double or triple your bottom time, focus on having fun first. Then buoyancy control and trimming (lots of threads on the scubaboard about that), body control with minimal movement (includes hover and fin kick techniques), and navigation, meaning compass skills and landmark use to start. (I have a blog on that one). I wish I was looking forward to a couple of weeks of diving instead of work and shoveling snow!
DivemasterDennis

 

[TSandM]

The absolute center of good trim is posture. If you are diving with your head down, or your hips flexed and legs hanging below you, it will be very difficult to achieve a stable, horizontal position, no matter what you do with your weights.

HERE is one of a whole group of articles on a good website about these issues. Yes, his advice is tailored to people using a backplate system, but the principles are the same for us all.

HERE are some more good articles -- they're all good, but specifically for your question, look at the ones on "Horizontal Trim" and the "Levers" piece.

Have a look at the 5thD-X videos on YouTube. They give you very good examples of correct body posture in the water. Note that how much you need to bend your knees is explained in the "Levers" article -- depending on your particular gear setup, you may want your legs straight out behind you, or somewhat bent. (It is difficult to use alternative kicks with the legs straight, though.)

 

[nickscott18]

Just got back from my break the other day, and had a great time, and enjoyed every dive of the few I went on. Things changed a bit, so didn't do as much diving as planned, but the diving I did, I really enjoyed it. Was diving with a great buddy both dives (two dives with my brother in law, who although I have done other stuff with, had never dive with before, and the other two with a friend of the family, who I had dived with before, who has worked as a diver on the salmon farms, and both were happy to give pointers / encouragement after the dives). The biggest point they gave me, relax and enjoy it, (which also stopped me being quite so much of a vacuum cleaner, and stirring up so much silt, once I was a bit more used to just hanging about, not constantly kicking).
Bouancy control was, in my opinion, improving marginally over all the dives, still trying to sort my weighting a bit better. Currently, I need to swim down (1 kick is all thats needed) at the start of the dive, but at the end of the dive, its a bit tricky to hold the safety stop. I tried with some spare weights I had, but they moved the problem the other way, so am going to look at buying a couple of quite small weights. Also next time I'm up there, going to try some ankle weights (only need it on one ankle, one has, shall we say, installed weights of the very expensive kind). Trim is at the stage where its a good starting point, but I didn't focus too much on that this trip.

Also was fortunate to have the person driving the boat really know what they were doing (dropping us where we wanted to start the dive, to not going "just round the corner" to a good fishing spot while we were down), and having a boat really suited for diving on (a 45' work boat, that had a platform at the back the width of the boat, that stuck out about 3', just above the water, and a gate kind of thing that opened onto the deck). Only problem now, got to wait till I go diving again next (but not too far away this time, early feb depending on the weather).

The absolute center of good trim is posture. If you are diving with your head down, or your hips flexed and legs hanging below you, it will be very difficult to achieve a stable, horizontal position, no matter what you do with your weights.

HERE is one of a whole group of articles on a good website about these issues. Yes, his advice is tailored to people using a backplate system, but the principles are the same for us all.

HERE are some more good articles -- they're all good, but specifically for your question, look at the ones on "Horizontal Trim" and the "Levers" piece.

Have a look at the 5thD-X videos on YouTube. They give you very good examples of correct body posture in the water. Note that how much you need to bend your knees is explained in the "Levers" article -- depending on your particular gear setup, you may want your legs straight out behind you, or somewhat bent. (It is difficult to use alternative kicks with the legs straight, though.)

Missed that before I went, will have a read of that over the weekend.
Thanks for all the advice again.
Nick