Stress tests for OW/AOW?

[-JD-]

Apparently something similar used to be done during scuba classes in the US, I’ve read elsewhere here on SB, but it wasn’t officially sanctioned and apparently someone died as a result at US university.

I have to wonder, how many might be "saved" in the real world if they had been through it.

Frankly, I'd like to be constuctively hazed.

 

[Scott]

The equipment don in the deep end was something I remember doing in my OW in the early eighties. What I can’t remember is if it was required or “you can try this”
I have used it in rescue and DM course as a “try this” for selective students.

The hazing(shutting off gas, ripping out regs, masks) I’ve never utilized in a class. There are a few DM’s and instructors that I used to work with that would play the “game” with each other.

 

[eleniel]

We did this and other similar things in my rescue course, but we knew what would be happening going into it and had already established a dive relationship with the instructor. We didn't know the exact details, but we knew things would be happening. The instructor was more than qualified to teach this way and had been a military diver and a public safety diver trainer, etc.
Plus there were only three students, one of which didn't complete the course for whatever reason - the worst he got was trying to find a mask in the deep end without having a mask on, and having to identify and fix a bunch of instructor induced errors on a buddy underwater (super basic stuff like missing mask, missing fin, disconnected inflator hose, etc). The tiny class size meant the instructor was able to keep track of everything and everyone better than if it'd been a big class. My buddy and I also kept an eye on each other through all of this, just to be safe.

OW we did the 'out of air' when the instructor turns off the tank and a 'take off your gear underwater and put it back on' bit but nothing really intense.

 

[Jcp2]

I’m imagining Inspector Clouseau and Cato underwater.

 

[Joneill]

It sounds like a bad idea, and hasn't been done in the U.S., outside of military hazing perhaps, for years.

Hmmm, in my OW pool sessions in 2015, they did some of that including including distracting us while disconnecting and turning stuff off to see if we caught it during buddy checks. They did not let us splash with those issues. However, while we were doing swimming drills as buddy groups they did undo tank bands and pull octos out of holders so they were not where expected.

 

[doctormike]

Hmmm, in my OW pool sessions in 2015, they did some of that including including distracting us while disconnecting and turning stuff off to see if we caught it during buddy checks. They did not let us splash with those issues. However, while we were doing swimming drills as buddy groups they did undo tank bands and pull octos out of holders so they were not where expected.

This is probably a good way to do that during OW training. I think that you learn things much better this way, and it's good to have some failures for the first time with an instructor right there watching, instead of when you are on your own.

In more advanced training, this is occasionally seen, although controversial. One of my favorite tech/ccr instructors would do things like steal your reel and then ask you to deploy an SMB, to see if you had a backup and could use it. The best lesson that I ever had during rebreather training was when he snuck up and turned off my O2. Working through the process of diagnosing the problem and figuring out how to solve it was extremely helpful, and if I had been told ahead of time that it was going to happen, it would have made the exercise a lot less useful.

 

[Bob DBF]

It sounds like a bad idea, and hasn't been done in the U.S., outside of military hazing perhaps, for years.

There is a difference between the harassment used to stress test during military training and hazing. The problem with the use of this technique in recreational scuba training is that the instructors are not trained to use the technique.

If an instructor is good enough, they can task load a student and give them a better understanding of their limits without using harassment techniques, or putting the student in danger. The big difference is a recreational diver needs to know his limits, and the military needs to know the limits of their diver.

I was not a Navy diver, but some of the training I had was as close to reality as possible and it could ended badly for me If I f’d up big, and was unlucky at the same time.

 

[Panther1880]

I'm pretty uncomfortable with closing the only valve they have on a unsuspecting uncertified divers or fresh certified divers.

I get an image in my head of a commercially trained OW diver that has done 5 dives after certification in an AOW course (which to my mind is not uncommon) and a possibly zero to hero new instructor to perform this training scenario. And I'm glad to understand it's not part of standard training.

Once a diver can safely perform a task under water while keeping position and depth and keep an eye on the buddy all at the same time I think it's a great test.

 

[Bob DBF]

Double post

 

[Bob DBF]

I'm pretty uncomfortable with closing the only valve they have on a unsuspecting uncertified divers or fresh certified divers.

The operative issue is why would anyone do that unless the diver was trained to deal with that situation.

My training was was before SPGs were widely used, and j-valves may not be on the tank you used. OOA may be how one found one they needed to surface. Turning off my tank valve would get a different reaction than one who hadn’t run out of air on their first 20 dives. I was trained to deal with OOA by going OOA, it was different when I got certified, as most had SPGs by then.


Bob