new Sidemount diver trying to do drills with us at BHB....Problems beyond belief!

[danvolker]

Just an idea.....We could do some runs around the little wreck in BHB like in the Reverse Kick video, to show the issues faced by a back mount or sidemount diver, when in a silty environment that they have a good reason to be inches away from....
[video=youtube_share;kWrlXJ_EL_k]http://youtu.be/kWrlXJ_EL_k?hd=1[/video]

 

[danvolker]

And we can show some what not to do's for fun as well...as in this video of an unskilled instructor demonstrating a whole host of what divers should never do, in a high silt environment. We can make this lots of fun, by just using the right Overview and commentary....explaining that this is staged for the video, and no one should try this at home
This should start 52 seconds in, but on my browser, the code is not having that effect..
[video=youtube_share;dgdabfvr2B0]http://youtu.be/dgdabfvr2B0?hd=1&t=52s[/video]

 

[Jax]

I found the best solution to that was to swap back to primary in mouth temporarily if it's just for a short piece of cave.

Oh, you can bet I will do that. I notice it only for doing drills and such . . . and the fact that my 2nd is scratched up from the pool floor.

 

[AfterDark]

Well I didn't read this entire thread ( my eyes are hurting, I think my glasses need to be adjusted) but this part about not knowing what tank she's on?

I'm not a SM diver I've only seen vids so I'm just guessing here but, is it not possible to follow the hose from the 2nd stage to the tank to determine which tank one is on?

 

[denisegg]

As far as correct tank positioning on SM, the tanks are horizontal to your body and if you were to touch the floor of the cave(as an experiment), your chest would hit before the tanks would. They should never be below your body.
I use a necklace bungee on the 2nd stage coming from my left tank and I use a 7ft hose coming from my right tank looped around my neck (same setup as DIR) and the 2nd stage clipped to the top right D ring when not in use. The excess hose is stowed neatly between my body and my tank and have done numerous OOA drills single file, lights out, oking the line in a cave without silting. Donating air works the same way as backmounted doubles with one exception. If you are breathing from the right side with the 7ft hose you donate it to the diver in the same fashion and you use the 2nd that is bungeed around your neck with the necklace. If they approach and you are breathing the left, you unclip and pass the right. One trick to the right side being clipped off is to have a small tie wrap on the clip so that if a panicked OOA diver approaches you or they can easily grap the 2nd and break the tie wrap without taking the second or two to unclip it.
Who was that DIR diver that told me looking at your SPG was just to assure you that everything was working fine because of planning you should pretty much know how much gas you have left? It is the same with sidemount. I find that by distance and time I know when to switch and at the end of the dive I amazingly have the same psi in each tank within 300 or less.
I found that going from backmounted doubles to sidemount was more streamlined, less drag and my RMV actually improved by about .3 I also like my valves in front of me for easy reach, the independent redundancy of two separate tanks and not having to lug two tanks on my back walking over rough terrain as is the case most times in cave country.

 

[Jax]

As far as correct tank positioning on SM, the tanks are horizontal to your body and if you were to touch the floor of the cave(as an experiment), your chest would hit before the tanks would.

Well, for those of you that have a chest. . . . :depressed:

 

[CaveMD]

Well, for those of you that have a chest. . . . :depressed:

Lol

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk

 

[Colliam7]

And we can show some what not to do's for fun as well...as in this video of an unskilled instructor demonstrating a whole host of what divers should never do, in a high silt environment.

I don't understand this comment. We always tell our students that we don't want them to learn to do skills on their knees on the bottom. So, having them stand up (on the bottom) is obviously the logical, better, alternative. And, we want them to be prepared for emergencies, and to be able to effectively function as a buddy, so having a (VERY LONG) bright yellow second stage hose floating free along their body line obviously makes it very easy for an OOA buddy to use - they don't have to waste time trying to release the second stage hose from some cumbersome clip, and then bring it over the donor's shoulder, etc. And, since I encourage all my students to watch Sea Hunt episodes in order to enhance their interest in diving, I think it is great that students see, in real life, that the best way to swim underwater is to use your hands, just like Mike Nelson did. Those flipper things are simply not functional for moving through the water (although they do provide a nice stable platform to use when standing on the bottom).

 

[danvolker]

I don't understand this comment. We always tell our students that we don't want them to learn to do skills on their knees on the bottom. So, having them stand up (on the bottom) is obviously the logical, better, alternative. And, we want them to be prepared for emergencies, and to be able to effectively function as a buddy, so having a (VERY LONG) bright yellow second stage hose floating free along their body line obviously makes it very easy for an OOA buddy to use - they don't have to waste time trying to release the second stage hose from some cumbersome clip, and then bring it over the donor's shoulder, etc. And, since I encourage all my students to watch Sea Hunt episodes in order to enhance their interest in diving, I think it is great that students see, in real life, that the best way to swim underwater is to use your hands, just like Mike Nelson did. Those flipper things are simply not functional for moving through the water (although they do provide a nice stable platform to use when standing on the bottom).

Nice gradual build up.. You had me going for the first half

The sad thing is, there are too many dive classes run that way at BHB. We need a "Hall of Shame" for the worst instructors that are seen doing classes like this one the most often.

 

[randytay]

Nice gradual build up.. You had me going for the first half

The sad thing is, there are too many dive classes run that way at BHB. We need a "Hall of Shame" for the worst instructors that are seen doing classes like this one the most often.

Heh, I have already made many "enemies" just by being "different". If I do a"Hall of Shame" for my area, I will literally be Scuba Public Enemy No. 1 LOL!