Annoyed with myself! Should I be?

[Jim Lapenta]

It used to be a basic Open Water skill in the YMCA then SEI program until 2011 or so.

When some yahoos at a university in Texas (not trained by a Y instructor) were screwing around without supervision trying it.
One of them did not exhale and embolized. Yes he died. Darwin won. A Y Instructor was on site teaching another class and not even supervising the morons, but she still got sued.

And ruined a fun and great confidence building skill. We were no longer allowed to teach it until DM/AI level.

Taught properly with the right sequence of steps over several sessions, it was amazing to see the smiles on the faces of the students who did it. Highly effective for building confidence and problem solving skills. We had to sub station breathing. Students in 3 or 4 corners of the pool would doff the BC and regs, and at a signal from the instructor, swim along the bottom to each others gear and don it. Do that a couple of times and then finish the class in whatever gear they ended up with.
Ok, but not as fun or as rewarding an experience.

 

[FJUK1]

Just another input from OP here, I panicked when after purging the 2nd stage twice (via purge button) left some water in the stage and then I just let go of it and floated about 1-2ft upwards towards the surface.

I think this happened either because I had a mouthful of water to begin with after putting the reg into my mouth, OR because when dekitting I noticed my tank valve was about 60-70% open (not sure if this limits airflow significantly or not? and maybe the purge wasn't powerful enough to clear the reg? idk). The reasons for it not being fully open was my fault.

On top of this I always felt like I've been super calm and relaxed in the water (even when I can breathe!), but this has made me rethink that a bit and am glad to have been somewhat humbled at this early stage in my training and has given me something to think about...

Can't believe this was a basic open water skill for quite a long time! Would have definitely (and probably rightly so) slowed my progression a bit. Again thanks everyone for the input/advice!

Edit: I also was taking a full breath of air before trying to swim down to 2m to collect the tank and regs, obviously that was making it harder to descend. TLDR a lot that I've now learnt from and hopefully big improvements to be made the next time!

 

[pauldw]

Hello,

Just had my latest pool session and it went well. We had 30mins to spare at the end and my instructor decided to play a fun game with us to burn our leftover time....

What you're supposed to do during down time in a pool is lay on the bottom and learn to blow air rings. Did the instructor teach that? If not, it's gross negligence.

 

[icechip]

It used to be a basic Open Water skill in the YMCA then SEI program until 2011 or so.

When some yahoos at a university in Texas (not trained by a Y instructor) were screwing around without supervision trying it.
One of them did not exhale and embolized. Yes he died. Darwin won. A Y Instructor was on site teaching another class and not even supervising the morons, but she still got sued.

And ruined a fun and great confidence building skill. We were no longer allowed to teach it until DM/AI level.

Taught properly with the right sequence of steps over several sessions, it was amazing to see the smiles on the faces of the students who did it. Highly effective for building confidence and problem solving skills. We had to sub station breathing. Students in 3 or 4 corners of the pool would doff the BC and regs, and at a signal from the instructor, swim along the bottom to each others gear and don it. Do that a couple of times and then finish the class in whatever gear they ended up with.
Ok, but not as fun or as rewarding an experience.

We did it back in my YMCA cert class in '79, I liked it. It was a good confidence building skill activity. Did not know about the Texas tragedy.

 

[DanBMW]

Hello,

Just had my latest pool session and it went well. We had 30mins to spare at the end and my instructor decided to play a fun game with us to burn our leftover time.... This involved de-kitting entirely and chucking our fins, mask, reg set (connected to tank with gas on), bcd and weights into the pool away from one another. Our task was to reassemble this without touching the sides of the pool (again this was meant as a fun activity at the end of a teaching session). Is it strange to be pissed off with myself for not being able to complete this? Just put a dampener on it for me although it was meant to be fun... (This was in 2M water).

In 1966, when I was 15, this was a required skill for the YMCA Beginners.

 

[SlugLife]

Hello,

Just had my latest pool session and it went well. We had 30mins to spare at the end and my instructor decided to play a fun game with us to burn our leftover time.... This involved de-kitting entirely and chucking our fins, mask, reg set (connected to tank with gas on), bcd and weights into the pool away from one another. Our task was to reassemble this without touching the sides of the pool (again this was meant as a fun activity at the end of a teaching session). Is it strange to be pissed off with myself for not being able to complete this? Just put a dampener on it for me although it was meant to be fun... (This was in 2M water).

That sounds challenging and complicated, even at my level of experience which is "moderate." If you were safe the entire time, (Whether you completed it or not), I'd consider it a pass myself, unless you were doing something like training for cave-diving.

(That activity does sound like it could potentially be a little dangerous, depending on the skill level of those involved.)

 

[Jim Lapenta]

That sounds challenging and complicated, even at my level of experience which is "moderate." If you were safe the entire time, (Whether you completed it or not), I'd consider it a pass myself, unless you were doing something like training for cave-diving.

(That activity does sound like it could potentially be a little dangerous, depending on the skill level of those involved.)

In a proper class that is based on skills and education over profit, it is not as much challenging as it is rewarding and a verification of the skills that have been taught to build up to it.
16 hours in the pool and 16 in the classroom over 6 to 8 weeks, so people actually have time to absorb what they are learning. Rather than just parroting it back as is common in quick cut rate classes.
It's fun and a great conference building and problem solving exercise. Under proper supervision, it's no more dangerous than any other skill.

 

[SlugLife]

In a proper class that is based on skills and education over profit, it is not as much challenging as it is rewarding and a verification of the skills that have been taught to build up to it.
16 hours in the pool and 16 in the classroom over 6 to 8 weeks, so people actually have time to absorb what they are learning. Rather than just parroting it back as is common in quick cut rate classes.
It's fun and a great conference building and problem solving exercise. Under proper supervision, it's no more dangerous than any other skill.

I intentionally added "depending on the skill level of those involved". My impression from the OP's initial post was that this could have have been half-way through an intro Open Water class. They may have clarified later in the thread.

Doing this as part of a "bootcamp" style class you describe makes a lot more sense.

 

[FJUK1]

I intentionally added "depending on the skill level of those involved". My impression from the OP's initial post was that this could have have been half-way through an intro Open Water class. They may have clarified later in the thread.

Doing this as part of a "bootcamp" style class you describe makes a lot more sense.

Just to add this was during my 3rd and a half pool session (out of 5 before open water sessions), we average about 1-2hrs a month of pool time so the complete opposite of a bootcamp!

In reply to Jim, definitely get that its a great way to build confidence (if you nail it first time) but not doing so has knocked mine quite a bit. Oh well, next time....

Additionally there was no prep for this, which i think i mentioned earlier in the thread, just sprung on me as a "fun" way to end the lesson, which I didn't mind.

 

[Orihimef]

What you're supposed to do during down time in a pool is lay on the bottom and learn to blow air rings. Did the instructor teach that? If not, it's gross negligence.

I've seen that a lot, you have to use your tongue right? What is the benefit of doing that though?