Am I a Nerd for Practicing Diving in a Pool?

[Ez E]

@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.

Yes!!! I need to get to that point. Im not there yet. But I have started to settle down in the water. I didn’t know if I was just getting comfortable in closed water, or if I am just getting more comfortable in water period. It’s basically why I asked a question if I am wasting my time.

 

[DreadnoughtNH]

Definitely not a nerd, and not a waste of time particularly if comfort/confidence in water is the goal. If I had access to a pool, I'd spend hours in it working on gear placement and skills (despite 500+ dives, not panicking when my mask comes off takes active concentration!).

 

[rx7diver]

Are you concerned about putting your gear in a chlorinated swimming pool? A public pool that admits a lot of very young kids is very highly chlorinated, probably. However, your buddy's pool is still chlorinated.

rx7diver

 

[FishWatcher747]

Just a reminder to anyone that does not know this, you don't need to be on scuba to do mask drills.

Wear a weight belt. I use 13 pounds. Stand in about 3 1/2 feet of water, I use my lap pool but a shore location would work just as well. With mask on sit down. Flood or remove mask. Put mask back on. Clear mask. Stand up. I do repeats of ten.

Also snorkel laps in a pool just using fins to propel oneself using only swim goggles is very helpful for overcoming the fear of getting water in the nose if one loses the mask during scuba diving.

Being relaxed while diving is not natural, it has to be trained.

 

[thomschoon]

I find the pool a great place to relax and work on the gear configuration for my new dry suit. On a hot day it is also a place to hide from the wife instead of doing honey-do’s

As to chlorine, I keep my salt level to the top of the scale and chlorine at the bottom and haven’t had any issues, and rinse with RO water afterwards.

 

[Joneill]

I have been renting tanks and diving in my buddies pool to get more comfortable underwater. Am I a nerd?

Not at all!

 

[Ez E]

Are you concerned about putting your gear in a chlorinated swimming pool? A public pool that admits a lot of very young kids is very highly chlorinated, probably. However, your buddy's pool is still chlorinated.

rx7diver

A little bit. He has a fresh water hose next to the pool and I have rinsed down everything as good as possible.

Edit: this is also not a public pool. This see’s maybe 2-3 adults per day/per week.

 

[Ez E]

Just a reminder to anyone that does not know this, you don't need to be on scuba to do mask drills.

Wear a weight belt. I use 13 pounds. Stand in about 3 1/2 feet of water, I use my lap pool but a shore location would work just as well. With mask on sit down. Flood or remove mask. Put mask back on. Clear mask. Stand up. I do repeats of ten.

Also snorkel laps in a pool just using fins to propel oneself using only swim goggles is very helpful for overcoming the fear of getting water in the nose if one loses the mask during scuba diving.

Being relaxed while diving is not natural, it has to be trained.

This seems like good and very practical info. Never thought of that and will do.

 

[inquis]

I have been practicing buoyancy while floating just above the floor of the pool

If you can hold a depth within ±1 ft as well as go back & forth between 10 and 5 ft in a shallow pool, you will find buoyancy on a real dive to be trivial. Control is harder the shallower you are.

 

[johndiver999]

If playing around in the pool and trying challenging things seems stressful to you - then you definitely will benefit from doing it.

Even if the pool is warm, wearing a hood and gloves that you normally use will be helpful. If you dive in cold water, I would imagine the full suit would be too warm, so your ability to fine tune trim etc. is reduced, but the hood and gloves should be practical.

If it were me, I might also bring an extra weightbelt to practice with and wear 8-10 lbs too much weight for a portion of the time. This will give you extra practice and challenge in managing your buoyancy effectively.

Also back rolls off the side are good to practice.