Advanced Open Water Disappointment

[The Chairman]

Ok, I have to ask, what is your mermaid joke? I'll take the bait... lol

Why do mermaids wear seashells?

Spoiler

'Cuz "B" shells are too small!

How do mermaids wash their hair?

Spoiler

In Tide

The biggest hinderance to learning is fear. Fear can be seen in tenseness, anxiety, hesitation, breathing issues (getting floaty), and more. Little jokes and games help the student forget they are learning. To steal a concept from Baden-Powell of the Boy Scouts, I make my class a "game with a purpose". I mean, why even scuba if you're not having fun?

This is why putting the student in control ASAP is so important. A diver who cannot control their buoyancy is NOT HAVING FUN! Bouncing to the surface or flailing on the bottom is incredibly scary and frustrating. Fear retards and often stops the learning process. BTW, being cold is another fun killer. During the class you often see instructors make adjustments to a student's BC to help them out a bit rather than develop their skills to do it themselves. What happens after they pass the class without having that skill truly mastered? Their next few dives might very well be their last. No, not because they get hurt or killed, though that is possible, but because without having adequate control over their buoyancy and bouncing all over the place, they decide diving is not for them. White knuckle diving is never any fun.

Control = Fun.

No control = abject fear.​

This is why I consider trim and buoyancy as the foundation of diving. All the other skills are easy in comparison and their proper execution depends on a good foundation.

 

[Dan G]

I always regretted learning to snowplow with my skis first, before learning to ski on my skis.

Properly taught, learning a snowplow first is not the same as learning skills while kneeling. In fact, learning to snowplow and make a "wedge turn" correctly is similar to learning to be neutral in the water right away. A beginner skier builds on the snowplow to make more dynamic turns. What does equate to learning on your knees and then needing to unlearn kneeling, are when people are self taught and have so many bad habits that need to be undone when they take their first set of lessons.

 

[The Chairman]

What does equate to learning on your knees and then needing to unlearn kneeling, are when people are self taught and have so many bad habits that need to be undone when they take their first set of lessons.

Moments of abject fear on the slope are why I never pursued skiing. Yes, I was self-taught, never wanting to take a class and it shows.

 

[L13]

Properly taught, learning a snowplow first is not the same as learning skills while kneeling. In fact, learning to snowplow and make a "wedge turn" correctly is similar to learning to be neutral in the water right away. A beginner skier builds on the snowplow to make more dynamic turns. What does equate to learning on your knees and then needing to unlearn kneeling, are when people are self taught and have so many bad habits that need to be undone when they take their first set of lessons.

Maybe I just did it wrong, I was self taught.

 

[The Chairman]

Maybe I just did it wrong, I was self taught.

Confession is good for the soul!

 

[Dan G]

Maybe I just did it wrong, I was self taught.

Perhaps. There's plenty of people who took ski lessons and were taught poor technique, too. Anyone who was taught to "crush a bug under their big toe" to make their first wedge (snowplow) turn was taught bad technique and likely carried that bad technique with them. Good chance they will successfully turn very early on, but it's creating bad technique that has a ceiling. In math ed, we call things like this a "dead end strategy." We want students to develop strategies they can use and apply to many topics, not just shortcuts that get the correct answer but cannot be generalized to other ideas.

Based on this thread, those advocating "neutrally buoyant from the start" have the same idea for diving it would seem.

 

[BlueTrin]

Maybe I just did it wrong, I was self taught.

For skiing it’s a seamless transition as you learn to shift your weight.

A “closer” comparison would be that everyone is taught to always breathe when you start scuba, but then you learn that you can keep your glottis open and you don’t have to always continuously exhale or inhale especially when staying at the same depth, and that’s useful to fine tune your buoyancy?

 

[The Chairman]

we call things like this a "dead end strategy."

That's a powerful term. Thanks.

 

[The Chairman]

For skiing it’s a seamless transition as you learn to shift your weight.

A more accurate comparison would be that everyone is taught to always breathe when you start scuba, but then you learn that you can keep your glottis opened and you don’t have to always exhale or inhale when staying at the same depth, and that’s useful to fine tune your buoyancy?

Precisely. All of my students learn to identify their glottis and how to keep it open.

 

[scubaozy]

The problem is that this is not quantified so it allows a range of what's acceptable according to the instructor and not any standard. Agencies often hide behind the ambiguity, often throwing the instructor under the bus if it goes to court.

Do you think you will not be sued over a cm or your ruler not being calibrated?

Yeah. I know. It's a part of a NAUI IDC. There are other rules too, but this one seems to leave the biggest mark. I've seen too many divers on the reefs kneeling to clear their masks.

I did see that at occasion as well but I do not explain it with law of primacy, in my observations, those people are not able do both things at the same time due lack of developed motor skills. What I see is they are negatively buoyant and compensating with fin kick and once needing to clear the mask, they stop and slowly sink, ending up in kneeling position.