Aquarium Diving

[ohmdiver]

Thanks Walter.

 

[Divrdug]

Any time a person dives, they have the opportunity to improve their skills. Lots of improvement comes while diving in shallow swimming pools. Buoyancy control is much more difficult when you are shallow than when you are deep. OTOH, there's a big difference psycologically between open and confined water. If you showed me a log with 50 open water dives and 200 aquarium dives, I would expect your skills to be slightly better than the typical diver with 50 dives, but you still have 50 dives and only 50 dives. FWIW, I would expect a diver with 50 dives to be quite skilled. I don't believe 50 dives is anything to be sneezed at, 50 dives is quite a few dives. he biggest changes that happen with a diver between 50 and 1000 dives have more to do with his mind than his actual dive skills. Typically, at 50 dives, a diver should be pretty damned good, but shouldn't really believe it yet. At 100 dives he's starting to believe it and maybe starting to get a little cocky which can start leading to stupid mistakes. At 500 dives, he's God's gift to diving and extremely confident which can kill the diver because he's more prone to taking short cuts. By 1000 dives, he's either killed himself, or come close and learned his lesson and realizes he's good, but he no longer cuts corners. He listens to suggestions and evaluates them, knowing there are still things to learn even from new divers. He's confident, knows his limits, but in relation to actual skills, he's not all that much better than he was at 50 dives and he knows it. His biggest advantage is he's seen lots of things go wrong and is better prepared for Murphy.

If you showed me a log with 50 open water dives and 200 aquarium dives, I would count you as having 50 dives and only 50 dives.



I would answer it there like I answered it here.

This is very well Put and I think that it is dead nuts on but I also believe that anytime a person has to rely his S.C.U.B.A equipment while under water it is a dive. (i.e. working at a depth of 5 ft for 2 hours scrubbing a boat hull or cleaning the bottom of a pool).

Just my 2 cents...

 

[irishsquid]

I log all my dives and I'm what I consider a newb. Even pool dives go in my book, though it doesn't get numbered and add to my total count/dive time.
If I was in a position to inspect someones log for experience, ie; 50 OW dives , 200 Aquarium dives, I would infer the following: You are experienced enough to dive in my aquarium, would be OK on reef, quarry, lake, etc., depending on the environment related to the dive/log. You aren't going in my cave, on my deep wreck dive with deco obligations, etc. Aquarium skills are the same as pool skills if the pool skills are practiced with honesty. IMHO

 

[Noboundaries]

Fun thread; got me thinking if I could come up with a comparison people could relate to. In the aviation community you fly aircraft and practice flying in simulators. You log both in your flight log but in different sections. Flying is flying and there's no question that it counts for experience. Simulators though, as real as they make them nowadays, is still flying in an artificial environment to practice or enhance all the skills you use when flying. Simulator time is recognized, but weighted significantly less than actual flying. No professional aviator ever mentions simulator time when asked about flight experience, even if he/she has thousands of hours in a simulator.

There's no doubt about the benefit of simulator flying. Modern astronauts spend thousands of hours in simulators prior to spending their first couple hundred hours actually flying in space. Only the actual hours in space count for their astronaut wings.

In the big picture, it seems like there's a parallel here between actual open water diving and diving in an aquarium, a simulated open water environment.

 

[DanBMW]

It's your log to do with as you see fit. Others can evaluate the "book" any way they wish, but your skills in the water, open or in an aquarium are just that, your skills and those are what determine your ability.

I dive weekly in The Florida Aquarium in Tampa and each exhibit requires a different skill. The new shark tank is as exciting as any open water dive and some exhibits, if you are not careful can cause claustrophobia! The 500,000 gallon tank has overhead areas and serious buoyancy skills must be exhibited to keep from breaking something.

Many times we swim without fins and that too can be interesting. There is a reason why you must be Rescue Certified to swim in our tank and why each applicant is evaluated on their skill, not their "book."

 

[irishsquid]

Fun thread; got me thinking if I could come up with a comparison people could relate to. In the aviation community you fly aircraft and practice flying in simulators. You log both in your flight log but in different sections. Flying is flying and there's no question that it counts for experience. Simulators though, as real as they make them nowadays, is still flying in an artificial environment to practice or enhance all the skills you use when flying. Simulator time is recognized, but weighted significantly less than actual flying. No professional aviator ever mentions simulator time when asked about flight experience, even if he/she has thousands of hours in a simulator.

There's no doubt about the benefit of simulator flying. Modern astronauts spend thousands of hours in simulators prior to spending their first couple hundred hours actually flying in space. Only the actual hours in space count for their astronaut wings.

In the big picture, it seems like there's a parallel here between actual open water diving and diving in an aquarium, a simulated open water environment.

There is a difference though. If you fail in the simulator you don't crash, burn, and die. You can drown in a pool or aquarium.

 

[Noboundaries]

There is a difference though. If you fail in the simulator you don't crash, burn, and die. You can drown in a pool or aquarium.

Not true. There have been rare injuries due to fires and hydraulic malfunctions, not to mention just plain clumsiness climbing into the simulator. Let's not forget the three astronauts who died in Apollo 1 during a simulation.

 

[mjh]

My two cents.... At this juncture I have well over 3000 dives, open water. But it has been working at the Aquarium that really refined my buoyancy, trim and ability to turn/pivot.

We dive in a full dry suits, water about 45-50, AGA masks and 25 lbs of lead. The number one thing the biologists look for is buoyancy and position in the water, it must be excellent. Due to the structures and the tight environments you must work in you have to be super conscious of your hand and fin motion. One of our exhibits while only 22ft deep has a surge engine and really moves you up and down. We have a mike system and do a show where we talk to the crowd, so try hovering in surge while you take in lung fulls of air to talk and digging around in a goody bag to feed the fish. When cleaning glass, lights, structure or vacuuming the bottom it can be quite the work out.

While I have not kept a log book in decades the diving I do at the aquarium is much more challenging than any dive I have done in most tropical locations.

 

[irishsquid]

Not true. There have been rare injuries due fires and hydraulic malfunctions, not to mention just plain clumsiness climbing into the simulator. Let's not forget the three astronauts who died in Apollo 1 during a simulation.

Thanks, didn't quite realize that. I should have though, as anything is possible when mixed w/humans.

 

[jjhill]

For myself I do a lot of pool work. I am not an instructor but am good friends with one so I often volunteer to go to the pool sessions with him to help supervise the students, answer questions and help out in any way I can. This allows me the opportunity to often drill scenarios such as OOA scenarios ect. This I believe has made me a better more prepared diver when I do hit the open water.

I do not however count any of these pool dives toward my dive experience or even log them at all. The experience while may not count on paper but it does show through on skill and comfort in the open water.

I believe this would also apply to you. While you may not receive any formal credit for these aquarium dives the skills you learn and fine tune there will carry with you in the open water and make you a better diver where a divemaster and dive buddy would notice your enhanced skills.