Teaching ascent to new divers

[Scott]

It teaches them how to hover rather than just swim, and the continuous picking up and putting down of the two pound weights while they attempt to build two story houses with them makes the skill second nature for them.

I find this a valuable exercise for students. Of course building a house with soft weights is a bit difficult so we had students hover in a circle of four or five and pass different weights around.

 

[The Chairman]

Of course building a house with soft weights is a bit difficult

It is challenging, and there's lots of laughing as houses collapse. They get so engrossed in getting it right, they forget they are mastering a few skills. FWIW, I call it Underwater Jenga so they see it as a game and not a task. I do admit that I make my class a game whenever and where ever I can. It's supposed to be fun, not dour. That doesn't stop me from signalling OOA when they are most deeply engrossed.

I appeciate the thought, but cavern usually has an AOW prereq.

I certainly don't expect them to start cavern the day after the finish my OW or even AOW. I want their trim and buoyancy to be more than adequate for a cavern class though. When they look good, so do I.

 

[The Chairman]

You might ask: "What's this got to do with ascents?" To put this into perspective: the goal of all diving skills is control. Perfecting control near the bottom playing a silly game of Underwater Jenga results in better control as the student makes a slow ascent after their safety stop. If you can't handle the game, then you're not ready to go to OW since you'll probably cork.

 

[NAM001]

I am not a dive professional but have a few years regarding training and methods. I have no problem teaching the less than correct form of ascent. so long as they know it is not the best way to do it but for their diving purpose it is a functional method for their level of skills. That should be reinforced with THE OW dive limits (OK RECOMMENDATIONS) Then in AOW you hit ithem with the best practices, so to speak ,once they have mastered through experience the survival skills that they learned in basic OW. The OW ascent is nothing to really learn it is the control of the BC that is important at the OW level. That methodology does not change when you go horizontal. You just add the use of the butt vent to their skills and get them flat. Kinda like moving up from walking to running. You don't have to teach them to position themselves vertical. they learned that in prior years in pools. To start, you build and adapt on skills that are there, you insure their survivability in the water, you give them limits to make sure they do not over extend themselves with their limited knowledge, and later in AOW you build on or replace fundamental skills with more precise and functional ones. They also have to understand that OW is not the overall training, It is but a first part or a step in the overall training path.

 

[decompression]

You never exited the Ear at Ginnie, have you?

However, my goal is a bit less ambitious. I want them to be able to take cavern right out of OW. In fact, I encourage them to do that.

Still waiting on an invite to cave country, Pete, lol

 

[EireDiver606]

I have a question for instructors and dive professionals. Why do we not train new divers to dive the way we dive ourselves? For example, when you are ascending after a dive, do you deflate your BCD to get yourself negative and then assume an upright position so that you make kick your way up to the surface while negative? Or do you ascend in horizontal trim using your breathing and then deflate your wing on the way up to manage your ascent? How many dive professionals actually dive this way when they are not training?

People teach ascents like that? Thats criminal.

 

[Chavodel8en]

What type of diving you are doing may also determine your preferred position.

I dive to look at critters. During the dive, Im swimming, so I have to be horizontal. But for ascents, I like to look around me and above me (cavorting seals/ sea lions, dive-bombing cormorants, jellies), so I prefer to be vertical.

As for teaching, as long as they master buoyancy, that's what should matter, and they can be horizontal or vertical, or whatever. Although I do see that if they're vertical, they'll probably just ascend via finning as opposed to buoyancy control.

But if I was a new diver, I hope my instructor wouldn't be so doctrinaire. Maybe teach a horizontal ascent, to ensure ascent via buoyancy, not finning, but recognize that I may want to be vertical, and that's OK.

 

[EireDiver606]

Sure but teaching divers to actually be in control in the water is more important than just finning upwards to ascend.... Ascending in horizontal trim means you have a larger surface area so everything is slower and more stable, makes it easier for the student to be in control and ultimately be safer and have more fun.