We might stop diving

[vladimir]

In three weeks in Bali I actually saw two accidents happen. I once thought I would drive anywhere - Indonesia - forgetaboutit. Driving is a contact sport there.

I used to routinely drive in Bali, until the police stopped me to extort a (modest) bribe. I rented a car in Jakarta once—that was an adventure. And I recommend renting a car in Phuket. It's more convenient than the alternatives. I would not drive in Bangkok, though—too much aggravation.

 

[Lorenzoid]

This talk about oral BC inflation has me thinking: Has anyone put together a sort of self-refresher course to encourage divers to practice basic skills they might have lost familiarity with? Basic skills get listed piecemeal here, but does anyone have a list of things that one might want to practice from time to time? I'm not even talking about supposedly more advanced skills like shooting an SMB but rather basic stuff that many of us have not attempted since OW class and may have forgotten was even considered a "skill."

 

[vladimir]

I do a ditch-and-don before each dive. I throw all my gear off the stern, free dive in after it, and retrieve and don it as it sinks. It can be quite challenging in a current, or on a deep wall.

My (ex-) wife ran out of air on one of her first dives after certification. She was buddied with the divemaster, who told me she'd much rather have to do an air-share with a freshly certified diver, since most experienced divers haven't practiced it since they were certified anyway.

 

[flots am]

. . .

 

[boulderjohn]

As for CW#3, I just can't recall orally inflating my bc at depth but must have done.

Not necessarily.

I was recently talking with another instructor, someone who teaches a lot of students each year, and we came to this topic. He said with full confidence that when you do this exercise (formerly called the fin pivot), you had a choice as to whether you had the students do it with the inflator or orally. He always used the inflator. I showed him the standard, which requires both, and he was quite surprised. In our discussion, we also talked about several other skills that he did differently from what the standards said (but he was certain he was doing them according to standards).

When I was certified, I did what the instructor told me to do in the full two hours in which I was in the pool that was only 5 feet deep at the maximum. It was not until years later, when I was becoming a DM and having to do all sorts of skills I didn't remember, that I looked back in my original logbook and saw that the instructor had signed off for all sorts of skills we had never done.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Whoa John! In any event you seem to have made up for the poor start. I remember the fin pivot, we covered that a lot. Doesn't mean we didn't do the at depth oral inflation though, just that I can't recall doing it. My original certification training was over the course of 6 weeks, if I recall that part correctly. After all it was close to two decades ago.

 

[boulderjohn]

Whoa John! In any event you seem to have made up for the poor start. I remember the fin pivot, we covered that a lot. Doesn't mean we didn't do the at depth oral inflation though, just that I can't recall doing it. My original certification training was over the course of 6 weeks, if I recall that part correctly. After all it was close to two decades ago.

At my age, I have trouble remembering last week.

 

[flots am]

When I was certified, I did what the instructor told me to do in the full two hours in which I was in the pool that was only 5 feet deep at the maximum.

That always surprised me about the certifications done on cruise ships. AFAIK, there isn't a pool on any of the ships that's too deep to stand up in.

flots

 

[Diver0001]

What was I about to say?

Oh yeah.

It's amazing how many students I've had over the years who came for scuba reviews and literally couldn't remember learning some of the skills. The most common one people seem to forget is breathing from a free-flowing regulator. That one gets mentioned so often that I'm pretty sure that it just doesn't make much of an impression on people.

There are some that come in, though, and it's clear that it's not just something they forgot. Last year I had a student for a scuba review who claimed that they literally didn't do any skills on the surface, only the under water skills. I ran through all of the surface skills with him and even after that there wasn't even a glimmer of recollection, so I'm pretty sure his instructor must not have done them. Under water he recognized most of the skills but said he hadn't done the CESA either. Stuff like this does happen but I don't think it's very common.

As for forgetting last week.... My OW course was a long time ago and while I have a general impression that it was done well, the only skills I can distinctly remember were a lot of swimming, OOA protocols, throwing the gear in the water and then diving to the bottom of the pool and putting on all the gear on the bottom, hovering and doing giant strides from a 2m diving board. We must have done fin pivots because I'm convinced that our OW instructor would have done everything that we prescribed, but I can't for the life of me remember it.

R..

 

[boulderjohn]

That always surprised me about the certifications done on cruise ships. AFAIK, there isn't a pool on any of the ships that's too deep to stand up in.

Not just cruise ships. There are lots of locations in resort areas where no pools are deeper than a few feet.

---------- Post added October 21st, 2013 at 10:20 AM ----------

It's amazing how many students I've had over the years who came for scuba reviews and literally couldn't remember learning some of the skills.

I recently did an OW class for a husband and wife. The CW instruction was as described above, with them being required to use oral inflation 4 times. When we did the OW dives, before OW #3, I told them they would have to come to neutral buoyancy on the bottom using oral inflation. The wife got apprehensive. What was I talking about? I described it. She said we had never learned that. He husband, on the other hand, remembered every time we had done it and reminded her. I watched as he described the process to her. She asked, "So do I blow in or suck out?" He explained it to her patiently.

When I was a DM, a former student responding to a PADI survey said that the instructor did not use an ascent line when doing the CESA. I was there. He used a line about 1/2 inch thick culminating in a large float at the top--hard to miss.

A lot of people have a hard time remembering what happened during their instruction.