The big list of drills

[alewar]

What kind of drills do you guys practice now and then?
Here are the ones I can think of.

Kicking techniques:
Flutter & mod. flutter kick
Frog & mod. frog kick
Backward kick
Helicopter turns

Positioning:
Trim
Balance
Formation
Rotation on ones axe

Drills:
Basic 5
SMB deployment
Dump air with rear valve
Mask removal and replacement with only one hand
Swim without mask
Deployment of backup mask
Deployment main light
Deployment backup light
Dumping removable weights
Removing air from feet

Out of Gas:
S-Drill
S-Drill with ascent
S-Drill with ascent and SMB

Free Flow:
Valve drill
Removal and replacement dry suit inflation hose
Removal and replacement LP inflation hose
Inflate wing with mouth

Navigation:
Navigation with compass

 

[TSandM]

It's funny -- I read your list of drills, and at least half of them are simply things I do when I dive. Practicing kicks is just part of diving; navigation with a compass is a necessity in Puget Sound. "Formation" is just good buddy skills, and rotating on one's axis and backing up are just things I do to get to look at what I want to see.

Mask skills we probably all ought to do more often than we do (although mask CLEARING is just a dive thing -- masks leak). Air sharing, oral inflation, and removal and replacement of LP hoses are all also things we ought to do more often.

You could add gear removal and replacement at the surface. I've needed to do both of those -- removal quite commonly, when diving off small boats, and donning gear where the boat doesn't have enough room for multiple divers to gear up safely and comfortably.

 

[TONY CHANEY]

What kind of drills do you guys practice now and then?
Here are the ones I can think of.

Kicking techniques:
Flutter & mod. flutter kick
Frog & mod. frog kick
Backward kick
Helicopter turns

Positioning:
Trim
Balance
Formation
Rotation on ones axe

Drills:
Basic 5
SMB deployment
Dump air with rear valve
Mask removal and replacement with only one hand
Swim without mask
Deployment of backup mask
Deployment main light
Deployment backup light
Dumping removable weights
Removing air from feet

Out of Gas:
S-Drill
S-Drill with ascent
S-Drill with ascent and SMB

Free Flow:
Valve drill
Removal and replacement dry suit inflation hose
Removal and replacement LP inflation hose
Inflate wing with mouth

Navigation:
Navigation with compass

I think I can narrow your list down to a lot less. These "drills" to us are not drills but simply how we dive.

Kicking techniques:
Flutter & mod. flutter kick
Frog & mod. frog kick
Backward kick
Helicopter turns

Positioning:
Trim
Balance
Formation
Rotation on ones axe

Dump air with rear valve
Deployment main light
Removing air from feet

Navigation:
Navigation with compass

All the others that you listed we do practice to include:

Removal and replacement of stage / deco tanks
Simulated deco
DPV malfuction
Following a line with eyes closed

Edit: It seems that TSandM were typing at the same time and pretty much saying the same thing. It is just how we dive.

 

[alewar]

That's how you dive *now*. At some point you practiced the drills until you got them right, didn't you?

 

[raftingtigger]

You can stop doing 'drills' on skills that you use with most dives and feel smooth and relaxed doing. Skills that are needed for safety and are not used on a regular basis can be practiced as drills.

 

[scubadada]

Hi alewar,

Relax a touch, you'll be labeled as obsessive-compulsive disorder. Really, less than 50 dives? You have lots to learn and experience.

Good diving, Craig

 

[Kevrumbo]

Valve Feathering/Modulation Technique of breathing in an un-fixable catastrophic reg free-flow contingency.

(Never ever let your gas exhaust & simply expire away if you have the ability & can make the effort to control it. . .)

 

[DaleC]

Depends on the level one is diving at.

Some skills are appropriate for basic diving and some (like feathering a valve) are for more advanced forms of diving. It may seem that there can't be harm mixing the two but there can. The basic safety premise behind OW diving being direct access and egress to the surface. Advanced skills, which are appropriate when the surface cannot be accessed, may actually keep a diver at depth longer than they need to be, and may turn a relatively non event into a crisis. A very poor situation would have a newer diver trying to act advanced by remaining at depth too long trying to solve a problem that could be easily addressed at the surface.

Also, I see the OP plans to practice rotating on ones axe. I would suggest not doing this, though it may in fact prove to be a very good form of birth control.

 

[PfcAJ]

Valve Feathering/Modulation Technique of breathing in an un-fixable catastrophic reg free-flow contingency.

(Never ever let your gas exhaust & simply expire away if you have the ability & can make the effort to control it. . .)

Ugh...

 

[soccerrefjason]

Also, I see the OP plans to practice rotating on ones axe. I would suggest not doing this, though it may in fact prove to be a very good form of birth control.

Hilarious!