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sinking like mob informants
Not sure if this is aimed at me or not, but just to clarify I absolutely do not over-weight students at any point in their training. I think we can all agree that this is a lazy approach.You may wish to broach the subject, by not "over-weighting" novice divers, from the get-go. I have seen class after class of students, in Monterey and Carmel, sinking like mob informants. I had always thought it was scuba or skin diving; not sinking; and that some effort was actually required to descend.
Novices in that all-too common state struggle with both maintaining their buoyancy and ascent rates . . .
One of the things I was taught consistently in OW across two instructors in two completely different parts of the world (referral) when ascending was to ascend vertically with lpi elevated while facing partner. One partner monitors ascent rate through depth gauge, computer, watch and the other looks up and around for hazards, up to safety stop. After safety stop, both partners ascend slowly and vertically while looking up, left arm raising lpi for buoyancy control and right arm raised to protect head. This was also in the the training materials, the video, and demonstrated by the instructors in the pool portion and open water portion of the course.