poll: DM everywhere?

[Thalassamania]

...
Here on SB we routinely make comparisons between dive (SCUBA) skills and driving (a vehicle) skills, so here's one that I see as rather parallel. In North America and many other parts of the world people drive on the right hand side of the road with the steering wheel on the left side of the car and the gear shift to their right. I learned to drive under those conditions, and in snow. In half of the countries in which I've lived (three of the six), however, we drive on the left side of the road with the steering wheel on the right side of the car and the gear shift to the left. When I moved from Rio de Janeiro Brazil to London England years and years ago and got a UK driver's license, nobody asked me to retrain for driving on the other side of the road even though it's definitely different. It took some adjustment, especially shifting a manual transmission left handed, but these adjustments were minor in comparison with my understanding of the rules of the road, how to react in the case of an incident, etc. Similarly, no amount of driving in snow and on ice, as stressful as it is, could have prepared me for the chaos that is driving in a big Brazilian city, even on the same side of the road! But still, I was issued a DL and allowed out on the streets, where I carefully and conscientiously acquired the additional skills I needed to be a successful driver there (including growing eyes in the back of my head). ...

My Godfathers's a Brit. I think a lot of my crazier side I learned from him. He was a physician, an RAF Pilot who flew in the Battle of Britain, an ex-racing car driver (GT class at Le Mans amongst others), rode a Vincent Black Lightning and imported my Dunstall Norton Commando for me. All in all a pretty mechanical guy ... but ... I was riding with him in a left hand drive British sports car in San Jose, CA in the late 1960s, we were downtown early one Sunday morning, no traffic to speak of, he stopped to make a left hand turn from the left hand turn lane of a four lane artery and turned into the left hand lane of a similar artery, on the left side of center median. Now had there been traffic coming at us I suspect this would not have occurred, but the lack of that sort of a cue and being relaxed and in conversation, even for one as competent as he was, he screwed up, bad. No damage done, a quick U-turn, no cops around, but he was somewhat embarrassed. It can happen to the best.

I don't ride bikes much anymore, but I do have trouble with the left foot shift / right foot brake, having almost all of my riding experience on 1950s thru 1970s British bikes.

 

[Quero]

:biggrin: I have first-hand experience with that impulse, but I've never ended up on the wrong side of the road like that! The first few days after I arrive between countries with opposing left/right hand driving rules is when I need to be the most vigilant while behind the wheel. Turning into the wrong lane against oncoming traffic is one of the things I am especially careful about, particularly out of a driveway or from a one-way street, even in a car with the steering wheel on the standard (for the country) side of the car. I guess it comes down to reactivating dormant or long-unused neural circuits. Paying close attention and thinking things out ahead of time/rehearsing goes some way in strengthening the synapses, but it can take a while to get them fully active after a long period of disuse--or, in less lofty terms, to shake the rust off. What would the parallel for that be in DM training and professional performance?

 

[Thalassamania]

I've known warm water divers whose first response (often too late) is to try to use their lungs for buoyancy control when dry suit or wet suit compression occurs; and forget it when faced with a dry suit and a BP/w (or BC). Not to say they can't learn, but somehow they tend to almost always be just a tad behind the curve because their instincts betray them. Works the other way too. Last week I had a friend out here from New England, he almost never let go of his inflator.

 

[emilyrose]

I didn't vote at all, cause I really don't think I'm in any position to venture an opinion on this without a heck of a lot more experience, but after reading through this thread, I have a couple questions...

1. Isn't dealing with a free flow a basic skill in open water courses? At least, in PADI courses it's one of the required skills. And considering it's something I learned even before my first open water dive, around the same time I learned to clear my mask in the pool, do people really make it as far as divemaster without learning to do that? That's not to say the broader point isn't still valid just changing the example to maybe something involving drysuits or something, but do people really not know how to deal with a free flow?

2. Isn't part of the point of diving with a divemaster not just that they can help with any problems and such, but also that they know the area and where the best dive sites are, and can take you to cool sites (and get back to the boat again)?

 

[Quero]

I didn't vote at all, cause I really don't think I'm in any position to venture an opinion on this without a heck of a lot more experience, but after reading through this thread, I have a couple questions...

1. Isn't dealing with a free flow a basic skill in open water courses? At least, in PADI courses it's one of the required skills. And considering it's something I learned even before my first open water dive, around the same time I learned to clear my mask in the pool, do people really make it as far as divemaster without learning to do that? That's not to say the broader point isn't still valid just changing the example to maybe something involving drysuits or something, but do people really not know how to deal with a free flow?

Yes, it is a basic skill covered in the Open Water course. All divers should know how to deal with it and that they need to end their dive safely (or switch to a backup tank/reg) if this happens to them. Having said that, I think the point is that a DM who has done all of his/her diving and training from OW all the way through DM in warm water may never experience a free flow, and therefore won't reinforce the neural circuits and synapses to keep the skill sharp. So even though the skill has been taught, it may not actually be a solid part of the diver's repertoire.

2. Isn't part of the point of diving with a divemaster not just that they can help with any problems and such, but also that they know the area and where the best dive sites are, and can take you to cool sites (and get back to the boat again)?

In many places this is indeed part of the DMs job. That's why if I hire a DM, I have to be sure that s/he not only has the skills to deal with things like currents and very deep sites and surge such as we have here, but also knows the dive sites well. A DM trained in Lake Michigan, for example, may not have the necessary skills or any understanding of the dive sites as soon as s/he shows up here on my Indian Ocean island, so this DM will need a certain adjustment period before becoming a fully empowered dive pro here. The same can be said for somebody I train here who wants to go work at Lake Michigan.

 

[Thalassamania]

A freeflow from an inverted regulator is not the same thing as a freeflow from a frozen regulator, the only part that is the same is the symptom of the problem, the response needs to be quite different.

 

[Quero]

A freeflow from an inverted regulator is not the same thing as a freeflow from a frozen regulator, the only part that is the same is the symptom of the problem, the response needs to be quite different.

Very true. However, the required skill for Open Water concerns a free flow from a frozen or otherwise "stuck" reg, not a free flow from an inverted reg. Usually the issue of an inverted reg free flow, which is common in warm-water, will crop up at least once in an OW course, though, so it does get taught, even if somewhat less formally (i.e., it's not a specifically designated part of the curriculum, but it does get covered in the general equipment discussions).

 

[DevonDiver]

Very true. However, the required skill for Open Water concerns a free flow from a frozen or otherwise "stuck" reg, not a free flow from an inverted reg.

As an aside.....Frozen 'stuck'... not frozen 'cold'.

I tried to utilise the standard OW response (sip breathing) when my regs froze due to cold. I nearly lost my front teeth, due to the ice that formed on them. Fast flowing, ice cold air + water + teeth is a bad combination :shocked2:

Next time, I won't hesitate to get on an AAS.

 

[Thalassamania]

When I say frozen I mean ice cold, not mechanically compromised.

 

[emilyrose]

Wait, what does it even mean for a reg to be inverted? Definitely what we covered in my OW course involved the reg being "stuck" (actually, it involved holding down the purge button, but it was meant to simulate it being somehow stuck/broken), and I've never seen a free flow in any context other than intentional practice ones, in cold or warm water...