Things they don't teach in SCUBA school

[Don Quixote]

After diving for three years now, there are some things we (I and my buddy) learned from experience (or trial and error). Here are some of them that might help others:

Neutral Buoyancy:
- I have little buoyancy problem from start but my buddy struggled early on. After trying to deduce the differences, realize that I will automatically stop and adjust my buoyancy before continuing to fin. However, my buddy will kick (fin) to compensate for the upward or downward tendency. Actually, this amplifies the problem. Kicking will only result in floating or sinking faster. When asked to stop and adjust buoyancy before continuing to fin, my buddy's buoyancy problem disappeared.
- You will know you are over-weighted if you need to add a lot of air to become neutral. 'Stop and adjust' your buoyancy and understand where your proper weighting should be.

Mask Flooding:
- Many of us learned to expel through the nose when swimming. Doing the same thing with a mask results in flooding. So, this habit has to be worked out early on. Be aware and learn to breath only through the mouth.
- We finally permanently fixed the strap position using nylon ties. The straps will shift during diving for unknown reason. Setting it permanently put an end to the constant flooding.

Mask Fogging:
- Mask fogs even with de-fogger. Learned to clean our masks every night after a dive with dishwasher detergent. It appears facial oil is the culprit. Problem disappears after cleaning the oil off.

Shore Entry and Exit:
- Actually, entry is always the easy part. It is exiting that is difficult with the wave knocking you down repeatedly. A tactic that works for us is to remove the fins when about chest deep; either frog-kick or sink to the bottom and crawl to shallow water and stand up. I actually use a fin keeper hook to free my hands. Due to this, adding a kilo (or a couple of pound) more weight will help when shore diving.

Back Roll Entry:
- After experiencing or having dive buddies getting hit by others during rollback entries, we now always make it a point to take notice of the divers sitting both to the left and right. Make sure they are not still fidgeting with their gear or suit. If they are, do not hesitate to interrupt the dive master and stop the countdown. So far, shouting either 'wait' or 'chottomatte' out loud always works.

Solving these nuances have made dive-sightseeing quite enjoyable. ScubaBoard is a good resource for tips and problem solving. Enjoy!

- Don Quixote

 

[ScubaInChicago]

Gear:
You'll never have enough, and the new gear you want will always cost more.

Marriage:
Count on buying 2 sets of gear mentioned above. If you get divorced, plan on not having any when done.

 

[Redshift]

After diving for three years now, there are some things we (I and my buddy) learned from experience (or trial and error). Here are some of them that might help others:

I learned all those during my initial course.

 

[timz]

After diving for three years now, there are some things we (I and my buddy) learned from experience (or trial and error). Here are some of them that might help others:

Neutral Buoyancy:
- I have little buoyancy problem from start but my buddy struggled early on. After trying to deduce the differences, realize that I will automatically stop and adjust my buoyancy before continuing to fin. However, my buddy will kick (fin) to compensate for the upward or downward tendency. Actually, this amplifies the problem. Kicking will only result in floating or sinking faster. When asked to stop and adjust buoyancy before continuing to fin, my buddy's buoyancy problem disappeared.
- You will know you are over-weighted if you need to add a lot of air to become neutral. 'Stop and adjust' your buoyancy and understand where your proper weighting should be.

Mask Flooding:
- Many of us learned to expel through the nose when swimming. Doing the same thing with a mask results in flooding. So, this habit has to be worked out early on. Be aware and learn to breath only through the mouth.
- We finally permanently fixed the strap position using nylon ties. The straps will shift during diving for unknown reason. Setting it permanently put an end to the constant flooding.

Mask Fogging:
- Mask fogs even with de-fogger. Learned to clean our masks every night after a dive with dishwasher detergent. It appears facial oil is the culprit. Problem disappears after cleaning the oil off.

Shore Entry and Exit:
- Actually, entry is always the easy part. It is exiting that is difficult with the wave knocking you down repeatedly. A tactic that works for us is to remove the fins when about chest deep; either frog-kick or sink to the bottom and crawl to shallow water and stand up. I actually use a fin keeper hook to free my hands. Due to this, adding a kilo (or a couple of pound) more weight will help when shore diving.

Back Roll Entry:
- After experiencing or having dive buddies getting hit by others during rollback entries, we now always make it a point to take notice of the divers sitting both to the left and right. Make sure they are not still fidgeting with their gear or suit. If they are, do not hesitate to interrupt the dive master and stop the countdown. So far, shouting either 'wait' or 'chottomatte' out loud always works.

Solving these nuances have made dive-sightseeing quite enjoyable. ScubaBoard is a good resource for tips and problem solving. Enjoy!

- Don Quixote

Some intructors are more details and some are less. Imagine my friend was taught by an instructor whom didn't give him a log book and didn't touch anything about dive table and asked him to buy an dive computer instead.

 

[chrisch]

To be fair some courses and instructors do more than others. It depends on the time available and the expectations based on cost. Buoyancy is often poorly understood and many people still fail to get it right after many years of diving. (Even instructors). Training is available if you look, but a lot of people don't know they are in need to start with. You can still have fun and often even the poor level of skills is enough for half a dozen guided resort dives a year on holiday.

 

[Neilwood]

To be fair some courses and instructors do more than others. It depends on the time available and the expectations based on cost. Buoyancy is often poorly understood and many people still fail to get it right after many years of diving. (Even instructors). Training is available if you look, but a lot of people don't know they are in need to start with. You can still have fun and often even the poor level of skills is enough for half a dozen guided resort dives a year on holiday.

Agreed.

A lot comes down to what the instructor has time to teach you - I did a 4 day intensive course 1 to 1 with an instructor and because of this I am quite sure I am a better diver than I would have been in a group. The instructor could watch my every move (such as buoyancy, finning etc), make comment immediately and we could then practise it so the entire time in the water was skill development time.

Also the class timings etc were set to suit me - example being maintaining a hover in the pool. I was really struggling to get it with my buoyancy varying by a huge degree so he stopped the dive, we broke for lunch with the comment from him "Lets give it an hour to sink in", came back and nailed it. Just needed a break from learning for a while.

Those wouldn't be an option with a group session.

The other thing a lot of new divers don't know after their course is what they don't know. Coming on a forum like this really has expanded my knowledge and raised my own personal aspirations with regards to diving (I am probably more critical of my buoyancy/finning etc than most new divers)

 

[FinnMom]

Washing a mask with [hand] dish washing soap (I'm told the Brits say "washing up fluid") sounds familiar annd fine, but you wrote "dish washer detergent". Surely that's not correct? That stuff is brutal! Or have you actually tried this with OK results?

 

[lowviz]

Put all of your masks on the top shelf of the dishwasher. Use the brutal stuff and Jet-dry. (nothing at all to do with ScubaPro)

Coat lightly with defog and water when you remove them. Don't do this all the time, but now and again as needed.

 

[dmaziuk]

- Many of us learned to expel through the nose when swimming. Doing the same thing with a mask results in flooding. So, this habit has to be worked out early on. Be aware and learn to breath only through the mouth.

Hmm... I must be doing something wrong: I breathe out through the nose all the time (keeps my ears popped) and have no flooding and very rarely: fogging problems.

 

[DBailey]

On the mask fogging...

I have a lot of students with this same issue. Their mask fogs on Day 1 of the check out dive. I ask if they just smeared some toothpaste in the mask or if they actually used some elbow grease. I describe it as trying to push the toothpaste through the lens with your thumb. They have no issues the next day.