Which skills during DIR-F?

[BarryNL]

A nice easy question for those who have done GUE-F: what skills would you recommend I practice beforehand to get the most out of the course?

 

[Ben_ca]

I would concentrate on just diving.... It's not usually the tasks that get people frustrated but the ability to stay still. This is step 1, the stage on which you will build your skills in class.

So just dive and concentrate on just staying still, hovering without sculling.

Good luck on the class.... I have found it the best money I have eve spent on diving and I would recommend it to everyone if possible.

 

[Peter Guy]

While I'm not sure if this is a "skill" as requested by the OP, I happen to believe it may well be the most important "thing" to learn/practice/whatever.

Get yourself balanced in the water -- fore and aft -- left and right. Identify where your tank(s) need(s) to be/where your weight(s) need(s) to be. If you aren't "balanced" in your rig you will have a very hard time (at best) of doing the "skills" properly. If you are "balanced" then you will be able to concentrate on the "skills" which is where you should be focused AT THIS TIME.

As far as I can tell, it is really a matter of trial and error to determine what is the right way to set up your gear to get the right balance. And this is something that can be done without a GUE instructor (or with for that matter) -- just go out in your gear, stop and float and find out where you go. Do you fall on your head, do you go feet down -- whatever. Then move your tanks, move your weights, whatever (but one at a time) and see what has changed.

Had I done this, my DIR-F experience would probably have been significantly different (in a positive way).

Good luck and have fun.

 

[Doc Harry]

It is very, very useful to have a proficient backwards kick and helicopter turn before DIR-F. Without these kicks, it becomes difficult to do everything else with your buddy because you can't maintain position. Imagine trying to keep two boats facing each other, bow-to-bow, mainting position, without the ability to reverse thrust to turn the rudder. If all you have is "forward," then everything else becomes quite difficult.

 

[Capt Tom McCarthy]

Valve drills, S-drills, Kicks. All while staying perfectly flat and keeping your knees up.

 

[Rick Inman]

Clipping / unclipping.

 

[TSandM]

Buoyancy, buoyancy, buoyancy.

Peter has it nailed. If you can hover for 30 seconds without moving your fins or your hands, you've pretty much got what you need to get the most out of Fundies. After all, the class is SUPPOSED to teach you the non-silting kicks, the long hose air-share (which I suspect you've long since learned) and the SMB deployment, as well as the Nitrox material and the toxing diver rescue.

You'll be in a great position to maximize your learning if your rig is physically balanced so that you can remain still. Practice the basic 5 (reg remove/replace, reg exchange, mask flood/clear, mask remove/replace and modified S drill) until you can do them quietly and in good trim. That's the basis for the class.

 

[Peter Guy]

It is very, very useful to have a proficient backwards kick and helicopter turn before DIR-F.

Valve drills, S-drills, Kicks. All while staying perfectly flat and keeping your knees up.

Now I don't know the authors of these two quotes well enough to know if they are serious or if they were writing with tongue-in-cheek. IF you know these skills (especially the latter set), why would you take DIR-F?

Is not the point of a class to be taught the skills which are the focus of the class?

I still say don't try to learn "the skills" before the class -- use the class to learn the skills and then, once you've learned to do them properly in the class, you can practice them until you are ready to be evaluated.

 

[base615]

I just took Fundies with a couple of buddies and we were told to just work on buoyancy and trim. Of course we ignored this and practiced skills which turned out to be completely wrong when we were taught the right way on the course

It's difficult to not practice this stuff as it's on the net and you're keen as mustard but valve drills for example could kill you if you do it wrong and your buddy is not on top of things. It's also difficult to get into the habit of clipping of the primary on the basic 5 reg exchange when you've been practicing without.

Buoyancy and trim needs to be right on the money when taskloaded (eg valve drill) and situational awareness is also key so if I was to do it all again, I'd do the following four things;

1. Get buoyancy and trim as dialled in as possible. If you believe it's great already (and I did until it started getting tested) then try to stay still while doing mask clears or mask removal and replacement rather than other skills since you can't really learn the wrong steps with these. If you have access to a pool, use it lots and just try and hover just off the bottom. Remember to keep your head back rather than looking at the floor.

2. If possible, dive with the people you will be doing the course with, learn how they dive and try to improve communication (both with hand signals and with a light if you're going for a tech pass). If you dive together enough, you might learn to anticipate them.

3. Before each dive nominate a leader, positions and responsibilities and keep to it. Rotate these responsibilities so that everyone gets used to being both a chief and an indian.

4. Work on ascents as a team. go from 9m to 6m to 3m to 6m to 9m. Try to ascend for 30 seconds then stop at the required depth for 30 seconds. This wasn't strictly necessary for our course but if you can do this, your buoyancy on the bottom will be much better and your situational awareness has to improve if you are to stay together as a team.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Craig

 

[kidsdream]

I took my class with a group of strangers with varying dive skills and most importantly the were not consistent with positions or action - in or out of the water. They were gung ho types with minimal real diving experience beyond small lakes and quarries.

The biggest issue was one of the young bucks would "evoke" leadership any time there was confusion during a drill.

So if I was to do it again, I would try to take the class with at least one if not two good buddies I enjoy diving with (and trust their skills).

2. If possible, dive with the people you will be doing the course with, learn how they dive and try to improve communication (both with hand signals and with a light if you're going for a tech pass). If you dive together enough, you might learn to anticipate them.

3. Before each dive nominate a leader, positions and responsibilities and keep to it. Rotate these responsibilities so that everyone gets used to being both a chief and an indian.