xdjio
Contributor
Hye all - so I'm in the middle of Fundies right now with Alan Johnson. I figured I'd write a little interim report since we're resuming on Aug 25 and 26th. This gives me some time to practice in between - something I could sorely use and will be taking advantage of.
Day 1 - We did all the classroom work and swim tests at the shop (IDC for those of you who know Vancouver). It was a really great, informative day. Alan's a nice guy who I've gotten to know a bit through conversation at the shop and his personality and demeanour really shine when instructing. He's a down to earth guy who I think figured out me and my teammate Dennis pretty quickly. The material we covered on day was thorough, informative and very conversational. All in all - great.
We also did the swim tests this day and I was pleased to do well on both - 300m (the pool we used made this a little more practical than 275) in 8m30s and I pulled off about a 17m swim underwater on one breath, on my first try -- that felt good because I had been a little apprehensive about it. We wrapped up an 8 hour day or so, and it was off to an early bedtime for me.
Day 2 - This was a mixed bag but I feel like I learned a ton. We practiced the 5 skills on land, which I got the hang of after about 10 or so repetitions back and forth with Dennis. I'm using a can light and I still find the motion to clear the cable a little bit awkward. More on that later. We tracked down a convenient picnic table and practiced the various propulsion methods - also a good time and I felt relative ease getting the motions down.
Gear up and try those same propulsion techniques on the surface. I was pleased with my performance there too - I had them all reasonably well accomplished and managed to get a decent back kick working straight away - on the surface.
Dive 1 - we laid a square, did a descent (with some challenges staying together as a time, staying out of the line (my big problem today among others)) and watched and performed propulsion techniques. THat went decently well with my discovery on video oh a big posture challenge. Right now, I tend to "bunch up" and instead of staying flat from shoulders to knees I'm sort of arched the exact opposite way -- hips and butt too high. This is a challenge for me right now because I've got it in my head that that "feels" level although it clearly isn't. When I get in the right posture, I feel like my chest is too high. Practice
Neutral buoyancy wasn't too bad on this first dive though.
Dive 2 - uh, maybe the phrase "gong show" is best here. Things fell apart pretty fast when my buddy (captain for this dive) first started doing the 5 skills. He kept rising, and in an effort to help bring him back down, I started rising too. Something I could have managed better quickly had a snowball effect and neither one of us could really fix our location, so we rose from about 8m to about 3m doing those skills, yo-yoing the whole time. Ouch.
When I did the 5, it got worse - the long hose and light rattled me, clipping off my primary rattled me, but it all hit the fan when I went to clear my mask and we went from about 8m to 2m. By then I was already frustrated as hell and the whole rest of the exercise was sloppy. I won't bother getting into detail on that.
Plans and lessons learned:
1) Buoyancy. I need to work on this. Some positive things that have happened so far - Until now I've probably been about 12 lbs overweighted. I think that alone will help things since I'll be less prone to yo-yoing since I won't need quite so much gas at depth. Less gas to deal with, less sensitivity to depth changes in the first place. I really felt like I was on the "knife edge" of buoyancy in dive 2.
2) Teamwork. I think things really started to get out of hang when Dennis (captain on Dive 2) was about 2 feet above me and started rising while doing his skills. I could have stayed neutral and told him to level off - instead of I rose after him, caught him, had to vent gas and them BAM - that started the yo-yo cycle.
3) Mask clearing. Until then, I was feeling "vulnerable" to getting out of control but that really cause the poop to hit the fan. I'm going to be practicing this more. I had an awkward time getting the clear started and that was enough to send my control over the side.
4) Posture. I know what the "right" posture feels like now, I just need to train my brain to realize that this is right and not way off trim.
5) Slow the hell down. On reflection, I realized that we were really rushing through our 5 skills. Almost trying to tackle all 5 as through there were one long exercise. I think we generated a lot of stress for ourselves just by doing that. We decided when we next practice, to practice by us alternating skills at first. Then, starting to string them together - first two skills in a row, then 3, then 4, then finally all 5.
6) Dont worry too much and dive more. At least now I know what to work on, right?
Whew! I may write more after we do some skills dive in a week or so.
Any advice / encouragement / feedback is most welcome
Day 1 - We did all the classroom work and swim tests at the shop (IDC for those of you who know Vancouver). It was a really great, informative day. Alan's a nice guy who I've gotten to know a bit through conversation at the shop and his personality and demeanour really shine when instructing. He's a down to earth guy who I think figured out me and my teammate Dennis pretty quickly. The material we covered on day was thorough, informative and very conversational. All in all - great.
We also did the swim tests this day and I was pleased to do well on both - 300m (the pool we used made this a little more practical than 275) in 8m30s and I pulled off about a 17m swim underwater on one breath, on my first try -- that felt good because I had been a little apprehensive about it. We wrapped up an 8 hour day or so, and it was off to an early bedtime for me.
Day 2 - This was a mixed bag but I feel like I learned a ton. We practiced the 5 skills on land, which I got the hang of after about 10 or so repetitions back and forth with Dennis. I'm using a can light and I still find the motion to clear the cable a little bit awkward. More on that later. We tracked down a convenient picnic table and practiced the various propulsion methods - also a good time and I felt relative ease getting the motions down.
Gear up and try those same propulsion techniques on the surface. I was pleased with my performance there too - I had them all reasonably well accomplished and managed to get a decent back kick working straight away - on the surface.
Dive 1 - we laid a square, did a descent (with some challenges staying together as a time, staying out of the line (my big problem today among others)) and watched and performed propulsion techniques. THat went decently well with my discovery on video oh a big posture challenge. Right now, I tend to "bunch up" and instead of staying flat from shoulders to knees I'm sort of arched the exact opposite way -- hips and butt too high. This is a challenge for me right now because I've got it in my head that that "feels" level although it clearly isn't. When I get in the right posture, I feel like my chest is too high. Practice
Neutral buoyancy wasn't too bad on this first dive though.Dive 2 - uh, maybe the phrase "gong show" is best here. Things fell apart pretty fast when my buddy (captain for this dive) first started doing the 5 skills. He kept rising, and in an effort to help bring him back down, I started rising too. Something I could have managed better quickly had a snowball effect and neither one of us could really fix our location, so we rose from about 8m to about 3m doing those skills, yo-yoing the whole time. Ouch.
When I did the 5, it got worse - the long hose and light rattled me, clipping off my primary rattled me, but it all hit the fan when I went to clear my mask and we went from about 8m to 2m. By then I was already frustrated as hell and the whole rest of the exercise was sloppy. I won't bother getting into detail on that.
Plans and lessons learned:
1) Buoyancy. I need to work on this. Some positive things that have happened so far - Until now I've probably been about 12 lbs overweighted. I think that alone will help things since I'll be less prone to yo-yoing since I won't need quite so much gas at depth. Less gas to deal with, less sensitivity to depth changes in the first place. I really felt like I was on the "knife edge" of buoyancy in dive 2.
2) Teamwork. I think things really started to get out of hang when Dennis (captain on Dive 2) was about 2 feet above me and started rising while doing his skills. I could have stayed neutral and told him to level off - instead of I rose after him, caught him, had to vent gas and them BAM - that started the yo-yo cycle.
3) Mask clearing. Until then, I was feeling "vulnerable" to getting out of control but that really cause the poop to hit the fan. I'm going to be practicing this more. I had an awkward time getting the clear started and that was enough to send my control over the side.
4) Posture. I know what the "right" posture feels like now, I just need to train my brain to realize that this is right and not way off trim.
5) Slow the hell down. On reflection, I realized that we were really rushing through our 5 skills. Almost trying to tackle all 5 as through there were one long exercise. I think we generated a lot of stress for ourselves just by doing that. We decided when we next practice, to practice by us alternating skills at first. Then, starting to string them together - first two skills in a row, then 3, then 4, then finally all 5.
6) Dont worry too much and dive more. At least now I know what to work on, right?
Whew! I may write more after we do some skills dive in a week or so.
Any advice / encouragement / feedback is most welcome
