Drills that should be taught in the OW class

[Walter]

Based on your diving experience or knowledge, what drills should be done in OW class that are not done?

Your question is impossible to answer without more information. Are you talking about the standards of PADI? NAUI (OK, so we know you don't mean NAUI because their entry level is called Scuba Diver, not Open Water)? SEI? SSI? SDI? BSAC? Are you not looking at standards, but at how a particular instructor teaches? Context is important. There are huge differences between different entry level classes from one agency to another and, in some agencies, from one instructor to another.

 

[idocsteve]

Let's try to get this thread back on topic, which is 'Drills that should be required for OW students".

Sit two divers in a classroom and discuss shark attacks and explain that it's usually blood in the water that will bring on an attack. Then walk the two divers over to the deepnend of a pool that contains a predatory species of shark, and a container that contains a million bucks.

Then throw a knife into the pool and wish the two of them the best of luck.

This could be considered "The ethics involved in buddy diving", or something of that nature.

 

[Kingpatzer]

I definitely see that having more value that swimming through hoops. Any reason you don't have them do it using their gauges?

Largely control issues. We encourage them to look at their guages, but key for us is staying near the line. Our training site frequently has visibility in the 5 - 10' range and having students staying in sight of the line makes helps with DM blood pressure

 

[Blackwood]

Our training site frequently has visibility in the 5 - 10' range and having students staying in sight of the line makes helps with DM blood pressure

LOL!

Fair enough.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I think its a shame that there isn't more "stressful" situations in diver training. I understand that students need to get over the fear factor, but at some point in your diving career you'll face an emergency.

At some point in your dive training you will get stressful situations thrown at you ... OW isn't the appropriate place. I want my students focusing on the basics of buoyancy control and external awareness. For most, it takes some time to get used to the feeling of weightlessness, how to control your motions, and the limitations imposed on your vision when you put a dive mask on your face. All those things can be stressful until you get your brain "rewired" to deal with it.

I start throwing in task-loading activities in AOW ... where the students are expected to be completely comfortable with their basic skills. As the student progresses to higher and higher levels of training, the stressors increase ... because as you say, dealing with an emergency can happen. Some of my fellow instructors thought I was nutz having my students doing OOA drills on the deep dive ... as their "narcosis test" ... but yanno what? That's often where they'll space out and suddenly need to do one ... I want them to know what it feels like. I have them do mid-water drills because in the real world they might have to do things in a place where they can't see the bottom ... and knowing how to control their buoyancy while dealing with emergencies takes some getting used to.

The best drills are not contrived to simply stress the student ... they're simulations of things that can actually happen to you. A progression of learning the skills by themselves, then learning them in combinations, THEN performing them in spontaneous situations, provides the most effective learning environment.

Putting stressors on people in OW classes is usually counterproductive ... because they don't yet have the bandwidth to handle it.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

This might sound way too basic and is probably only a problem for OW students in drysuits, but I've seen it almost every time i work with an open water class or a club dive.

How to put on your own freaking fins when in a drysuit and when there is some surf

You get surf in Vancouver ???

... you must dive close to the ferry terminal ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Jim Lapenta]

How about these:
1. All gear in your lap, fall forward into pool, put all gear on during the descent and on the bottom ( or upside down if there is still some air in the BC!)
2. Doff and don- drop all gear including weightbelt, surface, dive down and put all gear back on.
3. No mask air share swim with buddy leaving your bc, in the deep end. return to find inflator unhooked, straps tied in knots, tank strap loose
4. Recover simulated unconscious instructor from bottom of pool
5. With a buddy get control of a panicked diver at the surface
6. Have students do every drill and skill in proper buddy position. If one student moves forward to do a skill the buddy moves with them
7. Buddy breathing
8. Buddy breathing air share swim around the pool
9. Require students know how to assist a buddy who cannot maintain buoyancy at the surface by supporting them there for two minutes.

These all work well in my OW classes.

 

[Kingpatzer]

How about these:
1. All gear in your lap, fall forward into pool, put all gear on during the descent and on the bottom ( or upside down if there is still some air in the BC!)

Out of curiosity, what is the education purpose of exercises like these? Have you recently entered the water without any gear on and needed to don it before striking the reef?

Such exercises had a purpose in military circles where tactical plans called for insertion of divers in ways that involved them entering water without gear and needing to get it in place in order to proceed with combat operations, but it has no practical application for a recreational diver that I can see.

 

[Blackwood]

Out of curiosity, what is the education purpose of exercises like these? Have you recently entered the water without any gear on and needed to don it before striking the reef?

I think it's more about general comfort solving problems than prep for an actual situation.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

They are task loading exercises designed to teach problem solving. They also go a long way to building familiarity with ones equipment, demonstrating that most problems are not life threatening if one takes time to breathe, think, and act.

They also demonstrate an understanding of what is really important when it comes to solving problems. First is the ability to breathe, second is stability-either from the weightbelt and bc or bc if using integrated weigths, everything else is gravy once you have those two items. A diver should not have need to see to know where their releases are, how the bc goes on, etc.

And yes speaking from a purely practical mechanical point of view you may not have to do this. But from the practical side of comfort and familiarity with ones gear, the knowledge and confidence that comes from completing these tasks, which adds to the safety of the diver and those around him/her, and the ability to think through a problem under some degree of stress in an alien environment the value is priceless.

It is not always about a practical skill in the sense that you may have to do this. But once it has been done a minor issue like a backword roll and forgetting your fins (yep I did that!), having your mask come off or get knocked off, or getting the reg ripped out of your mouth by some clod swimming with their hands to who comes up behind you to see the stupid seahorse a DM is pointing at, they are indeed minor issues. Nothing to panic over, no big deal, you handled more stress than this- fix the problem and finish the dive.