Wall Dives as Part of OW Certification Checkout Dives

[Steve_C]

"just keep breathing, you can solve for most everything else".

Generally true - unless you find yourself dropping too fast without a hard bottom. Better take corrective action quickly. It is possible to drop at a rate where it is very difficult for inflation alone to stop you.

 

[WrmBluH2O]

Yes, thank you, Steve_C.

 

[Neilwood]

Wow, thank you very much for all the responses, recent students and instructors. So much of what has been written here makes sense to me, thank you.

At the time of OW Dive 2, what a friend had told me some time prior came in really handy. He'd said, "just keep breathing, you can solve for most everything else". I simply kept looking at the Instructor in case he asked me to perform a skill while breathing nice and slow...

As Steve C has said it is generally true for almost anything in Scuba.

Only exceptions I can think of (apart from medical emergencies) would be Out of Air and strong vertical currents (as SteveC alludes to).

The second one would be my worry on a wall but hopefully the instructors knew the area to be safe with regards to this. Vertical currents have killed very experienced divers before and can be highly localised.

 

[pdhenry]

Hawkwood, thank you for the quick response and two good pieces of info. I see...so that is why my log book reflects 40, 40, 60, & 60.

See, this concerns me somehow. Are you saying your instructor took you precisely to the depth limit for each of those four dives? Are you saying your instructor told you to enter those depths into your log book (or completed the logs for you)? Do you recall what depth your instruments recorded?

 

[WrmBluH2O]

Are you saying your instructor took you precisely to the depth limit for each of those four dives?

No.

Are you saying your instructor told you to enter those depths into your log book (or completed the logs for you)?

It was the latter. I had already logged them on my digital dive log (MacDive), which I consider my dive log. I apologize for any confusion.

Do you recall what depth your instruments recorded?

Yes, the max depths were recorded on my Atomic Aquatics Cobalt 2. (I'm not yet worthy of my gear, I know.):blush:

 

[casts_by_fly]

Our check out dives were wall drift dives in the maldives. The confined dives were in the lagoon side of the island which was a sand flat to ~8m and a reef dropoff from 12-20m. Doing a walldive so early in our SCUBA process has influenced the type of diving we like to do today. When I look at some of the flat-ish reef dives from south florida I think how boring! With a wall you have the wall/reef on one side and the blue on the other. You can never be quite sure where to be looking.

I agree with some of the posters that a wall isn't the most risk free diving and we did experience variable up/down currents along with the main drift current, but we weren't talking about Cozumel currents and they chose the sites based on the lack of current. We were also 2:1 as we were the only students in the course.

thanks,
rick

 

[James R]

That said... I'd never conduct OW checkout dives at a site without a hard bottom that was within the standards for max depth.

It's not as big of an issue as you think, really. I have done it many times, hundreds of dives in fact. All of them at a quarry, with a wall and a bottom much deeper than the standards. During summer it's no problem, as the thermocline is basically a bottom at 30' that pretty much every student will stay above. It's a bit more challenging in the winter without the sharp thermocline, but there's almost always a lot less students so keeping track of everyone is much easier.

As a side note, I do my best to get their buoyancy completely sorted before allowing them to move on to checkouts so I am usually confident about the dives.

 

[rivers]

Can I ask which op you were diving with? I have an idea, as I dived with most of the ops in Grand Turk, but I'm just curious

 

[WrmBluH2O]

Hi rivers,

Since I inadvertently outed my instructor here on SB for taking me beyond 40/40/60/60, I would prefer to not say. I hope you understand. Thanks.

 

[Colliam7]

This has turned out to be a thought-provoking thread for me as an Instructor, and raises several issues. By way of background: I dove Grand Turk in December, with three others, two of whom I had previously certified as OW divers (one of whom I also previously certified as an AOW Diver, and Deep Diver), and a third diver for whom I conducted OW sidemount training. So, I was familiar with their skills. On one of our two dives (Tunnels), we went out over the edge of the wall and swam along for a while, before noticing that the downcurrent coming over the edge above us seemed to have picked up a bit, after which we swam back up and over the edge to get a more reasonable 'hard bottom' depth beneath us. For the OW diver, who I had just certified in late October, it was (only) her 3rd post-certification dive. She thoroughly enjoyed it, and handled her buoyancy control like an experienced veteran. We all had a blast. I was probably the more anxious of the 4 of us - not for me, as I loved the dive and 'exposure', but for the other three. Yet, I asked them about it afterward, and none of them were bothered by knowing the abyssal depths below them.

My thoughts:

1. I cannot publicly 'condone' a (PADI) instructor breaking depth limits, by even a foot or two. The limits are just that - maximum depths - and they are established for a reason, so that there are specific parameters within which training dives can be conducted safely. But, I suspect it is not altogether uncommon, across agencies, to have such depth limit extrusions occur. I have seen done just what you apparently experienced - the instructor swims along with a student, maintaining a depth limit of 60 feet on his/her computer, only to find out after the dive that a student's computer showed a maximum of 61 or 62 feet, and has the student log, as the maximum, the 60 feet (that appeared on the Instructor's computer, and which is compatible with standards). I am not justifying the practice, just pointing out that it occurs.

I see...so that is why my log book reflects 40, 40, 60, & 60.

Yes. An Instructor would be 'ill-advised' to sign a OW student logbook page that listed a maximum depth that exceeded the standard for that particular training dive.

2. As an Instructor, I would probably take a single student out over the abyssal wall, depending on current conditions, my comfort with their precision of buoyancy control, etc., on Dive 3 or 4. But, I would discuss such a plan with them before the dive. And, I would not do so beyond a 1:1 ratio. Simply not worth the (small) risk. I would plan for the worst - a student has complete loss of buoyancy control and I have to provide buoyancy for both of us - and comfortably anticipate the best.