6 Tips to improve Buoyancy & Trim

[Ayisha]

1% — at the very most — of all divers do GUE.
PADI is 80%(?)

I was replying to your post that I quoted that stated that finning techniques are *not* taught in an OW or AOW course. They in fact are taught in a GUE OW course.

BTW, they are also taught in NAUI OW and perhaps others.
There are many GUE divers that are instructors for other agencies like PADI, NAUI, etc., and incorporate the skills into their O/W courses.

All of the basic skills can and do get taught in basic OW/AOW to some extent, and they're becoming more commonplace.

 

[VikingDives]

In my OW classes, I lecture on frog kick technique and I tell my students that I want them to start practicing as soon as we start to move. Most have a working back kick by day 2 of our pool session.

What most instructors don't understand is that by instilling NB/T, frog kicking, etc right at the beginning makes training easier, not harder.

Once you say, you need to look like this in the water, the students are constantly working on it. All the time they would be kneeling is spent trying to hover. I don't teach hovering as a skill because usually by about hour 3 the students are pretty much doing it on their own.

On the other hand, breaking bad habits (kneeling, going to a kneeling position to clear a mask in the water, being vertical, poor trim etc.) is far more work.

But hey, that's ok. Those instructors send me lots of students who still want to learn how to dive after they've "learned how to dive."

(It's really not OK, but I can't change the world)

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I don't teach hovering as a skill because usually by about hour 3 the students are pretty much doing it on their own.

I don't consider doing nothing as a skill. (please no one be triggered from that).

I call it "just freeze and chill" while you wait your turn to do the next skill. I tell them that while they wait, to be mindful of their body position, how their buoyancy changes with breathing (particularly the delay in movement), so that depth control becomes automatic.

 

[boulderjohn]

What most instructors don't understand is that by instilling NB/T, frog kicking, etc right at the beginning makes training easier, not harder.

It is the most frustrating thing you hear when instructors refuse to even try this approach. "I don't have time to add all that neutral buoyancy stuff to the class" they say, refusing to believe it doesn't add any time all and may even take less time overall.

 

[BlueTrin]

It is the most frustrating thing you hear when instructors refuse to even try this approach. "I don't have time to add all that neutral buoyancy stuff to the class" they say, refusing to believe it doesn't add any time all and may even take less time overall.

i think what they mean to say is “I need to get these 4 guys certed by the end of the weekend and I don’t want to spend too much effort doing it. I’ll just bring them to the platform, make them repeat the skills and call it a day”

They just won’t say it in these words to your face …

 

[boulderjohn]

i think what they mean to say is “I need to get these 4 guys certed by the end of the weekend and I don’t want to spend too much effort doing it. I’ll just bring them to the platform, make them repeat the skills and call it a day”

They just won’t say it in these words to your face …

I think they really believe it has to take longer. The problem is that they see it as adding to the tasks they have to teach. Moreover, they are used to seeing how hard it is for students when they are finally introduced to neutral buoyancy later in the pool sessions. Here are the key realities they can't grasp:

• Their students are learning buoyancy at the same time they are doing other skills, with nothing being added.
• Their students are learning buoyancy while they are waiting their turn to perform a skill--in a traditional class, they are kneeling there accomplishing nothing.
• Many of the skills being taught are easier to do when in a neutral, horizontal position compared to kneeling. A good example is regulator recovery, which can be difficult kneeling but is extremely easy when horizontal.
• When it is time for the buoyancy exercises later in the class, the students have that pretty much down by then and get through them quickly. These are very hard and time consuming exercises for students who have spent all their previous time on their knees.

 

[boulderjohn]

I have told this story before, and I will keep telling it because it illustrates the point do well.

I was diving in Akumal with two friends, and the dives there are a series of 1-tank dives--short hops from the shore to the nearby reef. My friends and I were getting off the boat after diving with a new (to us) DM. The DM said we were the only divers signed up for the next dive, and he wanted to know if we were OK going to a more advanced site, a site more befitting our experience and skills. We enthusiastically agreed.

As we prepared for that next dive, another couple joined us--they had signed up late. When we got to the dive site, their buoyancy skills were so bad the DM spent the first 5 minutes of the dive giving the wife a buoyancy lesson. It only took a few minutes to see that the swim-throughs and canyons the DM had planned for us were not going to happen. We swam over the top of the reef.

Back on shore, the DM apologized. He said the couple did not have the needed skills because they only had about 25 dives--not the vast experience we clearly had. I pointed to my two friends and said, "I finished certifying them on the dives we did yesterday. Today you saw their first two dives as certified divers."

 

[Wibble]

I think they really believe it has to take longer. The problem is that they see it as adding to the tasks they have to teach. Moreover, they are used to seeing how hard it is for students when they are finally introduced to neutral buoyancy later in the pool sessions. Here are the key realities they can't grasp:

• Their students are learning buoyancy at the same time they are doing other skills, with nothing being added.
• Their students are learning buoyancy while they are waiting their turn to perform a skill--in a traditional class, they are kneeling there accomplishing nothing.
• Many of the skills being taught are easier to do when in a neutral, horizontal position compared to kneeling. A good example is regulator recovery, which can be difficult kneeling but is extremely easy when horizontal.
• When it is time for the buoyancy exercises later in the class, the students have that pretty much down by then and get through them quickly. These are very hard and time consuming exercises for students who have spent all their previous time on their knees.

It is truly great to see that your experience -- and several other instructors posting in this thread -- shows that it's perfectly possible for complete novices to learn to be flat, stable and fin efficiently in a short time for the basic OW / AOW courses.

Now the challenge arises: it's obviously not the students, it's the instructors that need to be taken aside and taught the correct teaching techniques so that they too can teach their new students how to dive.

Are those existing trainers going to do that? Will the agencies -- including the biggest one -- going to push that (and loose the related speciality courses -- PPB, etc.)

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Are those existing trainers going to do that? Will the agencies -- including the biggest one -- going to push that (and loose the related speciality courses -- PPB, etc.)

I think their con ed rate would actually go up. Not for PPB, but other courses. If new divers cannot dive with confidence, then why continue? But if they are confident, have fun, they are more enthusiastic to continue and are more likely to seek additional training to do more.

But the training has to be quality. Not boxes being checked off.

 

[ginti]

Are those existing trainers going to do that? Will the agencies -- including the biggest one -- going to push that (and loose the related speciality courses -- PPB, etc.)

As I said before, I see the situation objectively improving.

PADI now suggests teaching while flat and neutrally buoyant, as far as I know (although it is not mandatory), and promotional videos often show divers in perfect buoyancy and trim. It's a significant improvement and a positive one. Besides, although the average level of rec-diving professionals I meet is far from ideal (but how many do I meet?), it is not as bad as in the past and is constantly improving (I feel there is much pressure from the tech realm, but it's just my feeling)