6 Tips to improve Buoyancy & Trim

[boulderjohn]

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.

Here is a look at the sequence from the first year or two behind the scenes, starting in the fall of 2010.

1. I submitted the first (very lengthy) draft of our article to PADI, and I began discussions of it with PADI headquarters. They seemed interested and wanted to talk about it. Very lengthy discussions followed.
2. During the discussions, a member of our group, Peter Rothschild (Peter Guy on SB), told me that the PADI OW materials did not have a single photo or video of a diver swimming neutrally buoyant and in trim. All pictures showed divers on their knees. I relayed that information, and PADI's director of instruction responded with a "OMG!" message and a vow to fix that. It took a while, but in a few years there were no pictures on the knees and lots of pictures and videos of divers swimming in trim.
3. PADI informed me that our article would be published after it was edited to size, but they said it would take a couple of years, because the content of all coming issues had been determined. PADI technical director Karl Shreeves was assigned to work with me to create a final draft.
4. That final draft required cutting out a whole lot, including the entire section on the rationale (theory). The history section (submitted by Sam Miller III) was also dropped. One grudging compromise came from their insistence that it was not "wrong" to teach on the knees. I thought it was wrong, and I pointed out how many of the skills are actually done incorrectly if they are done on the knees. Students must later learn to do them differently when horizontal. Karl saw that point, and we compromised with a (in my mind) nonsensical sentence saying that if students are taught skills on the knees, they should later be taught the same skills while in trim, hopefully in the same session. (Do you think anyone does that?)
5. I was told that it would not be two years after all--it would be published in an upcoming issue! What caused the change? My belief is that while Karl and I were discussing things, they were trying it out themselves, and they came to a "OMG! This really does work better!" realization.
6. After the article came out, it became a major argument within ScubaBoard. Andy Davis (who teaches in the Philippines) made an absolutely Herculean effort, with massive post after massive post after massive telling PADI instructors that if they taught students while neutrally buoyant, it would be a violation of PADI standards, and they would be expelled. In response, I got one quote after another from people at PADI headquarters saying that was not true, that there was nothing wrong with teaching students while neutrally buoyant from the start. Andy dismissed all those quotes as being the personal opinions of those individuals, and insisted his (Andy's) opinion was right, not theirs. He said the same thing when PADI President and CEO Drew Richardson was quoted--if you did what the PADI CEO said in that quote, PADI would expel you.
7. At the next annual instructor meeting I attended, the PADI regional Director running the meeting made a big speech about how much better it is to teach students while they are neutrally buoyant from the start.
8. I had a follow-up article approved for publication. It was about how teaching on the knees actually teaches skills incorrectly, and this time Karl and I had nothing to discuss. He agreed fully with me. There was no point in teaching on the knees. (For some reason, that article did not get printed.)
9. PADI put out new OW course standards, with a significant increase in buoyancy requirements. (There were nearly none before that.)
10. Since then, I have been frustrated that PADI has not done more to promote it. My belief is that there are some strong voices in the organization that are opposed for some reason.
11. The same is true for other agencies that now support that kind of instruction. They support it, but they won't go all the way. Here are two examples.
    1. When I was experimenting, the PADI Course Director in my shop was aware of everything I did, and he was so impressed with the results that he required all instructors in the shop to teach that way. He signed on to the article as a co-author. I later saw him chastising a representative of PADI HQ for not doing more to promote it. He then crossed over to SSI and is now near the top of the SSI food chain. I recently saw posts from an SSI instructor saying that SSI now requires NB instruction, but others said it was not true.
    2. In a webinar on the topic a year or so ago, Mark Powell of SDI/TDI said NB instruction is now required for SDI, but the SDI instructors I know have never heard anything about that.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

10. Since then, I have been frustrated that PADI has not done more to promote it. My belief is that there are some strong voices in the organization that are opposed for some reason.

Besides your article from 2011, what articles have been published in their journal advocating teaching open water off the knees?

PLEASE don't take this as PADI bashing. This is a genuine question as it isn't like other agencies (besides RAID) are leading the charge for requiring skills to be performed neutrally buoyant and trimmed. That information allows me to beat over the head people within other agencies.

 

[boulderjohn]

Besides your article from 2011, what articles have been published in their journal advocating teaching open water off the knees?

PLEASE don't take this as PADI bashing. This is a genuine question as it isn't like other agencies (besides RAID) are leading the charge for requiring skills to be performed neutrally buoyant and trimmed. That information allows me to beat over the head people within other agencies.

It is hard to say what efforts have been made.

• I mentioned that in an annual meeting, the regional representative made a big deal about the superiority of teaching NB. I am guessing he did that under orders, and I am guessing that all regional reps had the same orders. I don't know, though.
• Not long after that, a DM at the shop where I was working went to one of those big IDC mills in the Caribbean, and he came back a month later as an MSDT. He was immediately named the Director of Instruction for the shop, and he wanted to have all of us teach the way he was taught at that IDC--ridiculously overdone and on the knees. He gave us a link to their demonstrations. That led to a dispute that pretty much ended my work there. About a year later, that IDC totally changed instruction, and that link led to demonstrations that were 100% NB and in trim. Something happened. I don't know what it was , but there must have been a major development to make them change everything like that.
• I was told that Course Directors have been given directions regarding this. I am not a course director, so I don't know that.

So I have been saying that I am disappointed that more has not been done, but I honestly have no real idea how much has been done. I am sure, though, that it is more than meets the eye.

 

[VikingDives]

I think both @boulderjohn and @wetb4igetinthewater are spot on in this thread.

None of us is going to change any agency. SDI has made some small changes in the right direction, but they are like a frigate on the ocean. A little smaller and more nimble than PADI, who is the battleship/aircraft carrier. The may have started their turn, but it hasn't been effected yet and it will inevitably take longer. Let's put agency aside for a minute and talk about customer retention.

When instructors are taught, when I was taught to be an instructor anyway, there was a large portion of the course devoted to sales - how to upsell gear and equipment to students during their open water course so you could keep them as customers....

I thought it was a good course in sales, and the techniques work... it was also total ********.

When I taught students on their knees in the crappy way I'd learned to dive, been taught to teach people to dive, etcetera, here's my bottom line:

ABOUT 10% OF THOSE STUDENTS BOUGHT SOMETHING MORE THAN MASK, FINS, BOOTS AND SNORKEL, OR CAME BACK FOR ANOTHER CLASS...

So the "old" model required me to extract as much cash from the paying student as I possibly could, because I'd probably never see them again. i sold overpriced, entry-level garbage gear, and you can probably buy that back on eBay today...

When I branched out on my own, I was f'ing done with that model and figured I'd try my own. My rules to live by are:

Small classes - we have a 3:1 student to instructor/pro ratio so we can give individual attention.

No crap - we don't sell anything we won't use ourselves. That way, we don't feel guilty about selling stuff and students don't feel ripped off.

Fair prices - My training is expensive, but I will train you. We do long pool sessions, but you'll learn to frog kick, back kick, never kneel etc. We also have intro level masks, snorkels, fins and boots that come in more than 100 dollars less than other shops. Good gear doesn't have to be expensive.

Treat people the way I wanted to be treated when I learned to dive. I'm trying to make my business work, and I make no bones about that, but I don't do it in a way that makes me or anyone else feel like they've been taken advantage of. I'd rather have a customer who buys a bunch of used gear on here and consider him a friend (@CycleCat , I'm looking at you) than someone who buys my most expensive reg and feels like I'm taking advantage of his lesser knowledge.

Trust is more important than sales - I've had the occasional student that wanted to buy something that I don't believe in (console computers, for example). I'll tell them why I don't like them, but then I'll try to help them make the best decision about what to buy, even though I don't get the sale. . .

The result? I can't tell you the number of students that come back or who make purchases, but generally I'll say it is greater than half... If I'm not on the record, my estimate is close to 100%. The only students I've "lost" over the last two years are those who gave up on themselves in the pool or those who moved away.

I attribute most of my success to teaching in NB/T though. When my students finish a course they enjoy diving and they keep diving. A nice effect of that is they help keep me in business... I hope that some instructor who's thinking about making the move to NB/T reads this and jumps on the bandwagon. The only way we are going to turn the ship is by making small corrections over time. Some of those divers I've taught are on their way to becoming instructors now... I doubt they'll be teaching anyone while kneeling.

 

[CycleCat]

I'd rather have a customer who buys a bunch of used gear on here and consider him a friend (@CycleCat , I'm looking at you) than someone who buys my most expensive reg and feels like I'm taking advantage of his lesser knowledge.

It's just so dang easy! All those little green FOR SALE tags when I open ScubaBoard! I've got to stop buying more scuba gear.... ohhh look, a shiny regulator "never wet.'

 

[apedai]

That's one of the things worked on in Fundies. When someone's preoccupied or looking down, that's when they might get your buddy to "disappear".

Yes, I used to give all my attention to my computer and ignore my buddy during safety stops

 

[Ayisha]

Yes, I used to give all my attention to my computer and ignore my buddy during safety stops

That's the beauty of a wrist computer and the "Bob Sherwood" style (head up, hands forward) trim position. You can keep an eye on your teammate(s), a line, the scenery, and your computer all at the same time, even in low viz.

Some people might think the position looks funny, but it serves a purpose, particularly in low viz. It can become second nature with a little practice as well.