Am I a Nerd for Practicing Diving in a Pool?

[-JD-]

Thats where I am at. Every dive even in a very controlled environment seems to be helping.

I had what I call 10 minutes of sh*t show when I would first get in the water. Any water. And then settle in.

I feel like now I am more comfortable in the initial water phase.

First dive of every trip I'm still always feeling "unfamiliar." No longer "s*** show", no longer incompetent, I just need to re-acclimate - It gets better!

The pool is very limited. I have been practicing buoyancy while floating just above the floor of the pool. Also have been doing mask removal and replacement and then clearing. I know that is easy peasy for most but I struggled with it when I went through my refresher. Not sure why as I aced it in 2001 when I did it initially.

• Now do buoyancy upside down (facing the surface), "standing on your head" (a great way to look under ledges on a reef). Bonus - notice how your regs breathe differently in different orientations and learn (cautiously) if they breathe "wet".
• Figure out how to weight yourself (amount and locations) so trim is baked in for YOU in YOUR kit.
• Reg switching/retrieval.
• Kicks
• DSMB deployment.
• Pony switching (if you dive with one).
• etc.

 

[Ez E]

First dive of every trip I'm still always feeling "unfamiliar." No longer "s*** show", no longer incompetent, I just need to re-acclimate - It gets better!

• Now do buoyancy upside down (facing the surface), "standing on your head" (a great way to look under ledges on a reef). Bonus - notice how your regs breathe differently in different orientations and learn (cautiously) if they breathe "wet".
• Figure out how to weight yourself (amount and locations) so trim is baked in for YOU in YOUR kit.
• Reg switching/retrieval.
• Kicks
• DSMB deployment.
• Pony switching (if you dive with one).
• etc.

Whew thats a lot to digest and train. I will try all of this. I think I will do NAUI AOW early next year and will be doing Nitrox/enriched air this July. I want to practice what you said and I think it will transfer nicely to AOW. I also kinda want to do the GUE fundamental course as I hope additional training will help this **** show of a diver.

 

[chillyinCanada]

For the first number of years, I always practiced in a pool. This was especially helpful for diving with my mask completely off, so that I could overcome any lingering concern with regard to mask loss/retrieval and clearing.

I also took refreshers in the pool before every trip away. I don't do that anymore because at 1000 dives, it's not a important as it was at <100 dives.

 

[grantmac]

As someone who dives in a drysuit with thick garment 90% of the time I'd be thrilled to be able to do a pool dive before heading tropical to avoid that first dive shakedown.

 

[-JD-]

Whew thats a lot to digest and train. I will try all of this. I think I will do NAUI AOW early next year and will be doing Nitrox/enriched air this July. I want to practice what you said and I think it will transfer nicely to AOW. I also kinda want to do the GUE fundamental course as I hope additional training will help this **** show of a diver.

Having a buddy or at least a bystander around the first few times isn't the worst idea until you get comfortable.

The weighting and trim is an iterative process. The rest could be incrementally added into an every-pool dive routine. Part of the magic is getting accustomed to transitioning between attitudes and dealing with things in different positions.

Just don't hold your breath - You'll be fine!

 

[Ez E]

First dive of every trip I'm still always feeling "unfamiliar." No longer "s*** show", no longer incompetent, I just need to re-acclimate - It gets better!

• Now do buoyancy upside down (facing the surface), "standing on your head" (a great way to look under ledges on a reef). Bonus - notice how your regs breathe differently in different orientations and learn (cautiously) if they breathe "wet".
• Figure out how to weight yourself (amount and locations) so trim is baked in for YOU in YOUR kit.
• Reg switching/retrieval.
• Kicks
• DSMB deployment.
• Pony switching (if you dive with one).
• etc.

You know the more I have thought about this the more it hits home. Most of what you listed is places where I am not comfortable at all or maybe I have never done. Wow!!! Its $20 for an air tank rental(24hours) and at 10 feet deep I can train that for 2 hours atleast.

 

[Lorenzoid]

The pool is very limited. I have been practicing buoyancy while floating just above the floor of the pool. Also have been doing mask removal and replacement and then clearing. I know that is easy peasy for most but I struggled with it when I went through my refresher. Not sure why as I aced it in 2001 when I did it initially.

I spent a total of 10 hours doing just that one summer. Also be conscious of holding position while doing those skills—not finning wildly to stay in one place. Maybe place a small object on the bottom as a marker. Trying to minimize fin movement while performing tasks and staying put may be more of a cave diving thing, but for a nerd it may be fun to work at regardless.

 

[Ez E]

I spent a total of 10 hours doing just that one summer. Also be conscious of holding position while doing those skills—not finning wildly to stay in one place. Maybe place a small object on the bottom as a marker. Trying to minimize fin movement while performing tasks and staying put may be more of a cave diving thing, but for a nerd it may be fun to work at regardless.

I will do that!! I am just happy that Im not a moron that spends more time in the pool than OW. Seems likes all the divers I know spend all their time diving local quarries or tropical sites. Im still concentrating on closed water pools!!!

Obviously I have dived outside of pools but I feel like there is a lot I need to master to feel mote comfortable in OW.

 

[ontdiver]

@Ez E : Diving is all about repetition and with every dive you will gain a bit of confidence. And at a certain point everything will fall into place.

 

[fred32176]

What ever works for you. But you won't get the same experience as in a spring.

12 days ago, I was going to practice deploying a DSMB in Alexander Spring, but a photographer came in the spring, and a woman in a scanty sea nymph with stockings outfit started free diving in front of the photographer. While my dive buddy and I were in the spring for over an hour sea nymph and photographer did not come back.