Annoyed with myself! Should I be?

[pauldw]

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

No (Bubble Rings Underwater: A Comprehensive How To Guide), and it's sort of fun.

 

[Jeff_O]

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.

In 80 I was taking a community college course and it was a semester long. Lots of time. I did that drill but as with other students we did the drill with the reg not removed from the tank. Not sure if water intrusion through first strange was the reason. I took probably 30 to 45 min if I recall right to get it done after the many tries.

Also, multiple times before that test was just going to 12ft and leaving just mask/snorkel and fins at the bottom and come up. Then dive back down on that one breath of air and put on everything and clear mask and come up.

Another drill was done at about 6 foot deep at the deep end of 12-foot water.
We were told that prior drills were with foil blocking out the mask, but instead they just turned out the lights in the indoor pool.

Reg was removed from mouth and the trainer was not leaving besides assisting if you did not put the reg back after purging. Next the trainer would grab you and your rig and spin you around vertically in mid water. You should not to freak out to pass.

I did not have a problem, but maybe some did. I have heard this is not done in any of current classes from a dive shop.

I agree that this was not optimal for a short course compared to what I got for maybe a 2-unit class I took.

Something instructor never mentioned but I thought up in a moment where myself and a dive buddy had a long surface swim back and mats of kelp with marginal air left. I remember someone saying prior to the dive about an underwater arch. It was right by the entry point.
A short surface swim where there was no kelp and through the underwater arch that I found easily, we were both back on the beach. Given better dive planning this should not be praised so much. With 43 years of diving, I try to use the term “Plan the Dive – Dive the Plan!

 

[admikar]

This was standard procedure with BSAC 35 years ago.

The first thing I went for was a mask, then I could see where a tank and reg was.

I did it with CMAS in 2015.
Doff in the middle of 5m pool, swim along the bottom and surface. Take few breaths, dive down and swim over. Found my tank turned off, but had no problems in completing the drill. And this wasn't optional drill.
Someone did mention that this boosts your confidence and, boy, did it boost.

 

[Orihimef]

No (Bubble Rings Underwater: A Comprehensive How To Guide), and it's sort of fun.

That does sound fun, I should try it. I go underwater without an air tank though so I can't blow too many bubbles without running out of air.

 

[Fishdip]

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).

100% should report the shop and instructor if this is a OW class.

 

[Waterwulf]

Our Instructors had another fun little game that they liked to inflict on us. This was before the age of the Octo regulator. Some had them but not most. Buddy breathing was seriously taught. The pool was on the Hurlburt SpecOps Base in Northern Florida and the Instructors were all Spec Op guys making some extra cash teaching a NAUI course. They were thorough (Mean!) and efficient (Sadistic!) and very good at their jobs.

They would drop tanks at regular intervals around the pool, one for each student. Then we each had to submerge at a tank and wait for the signal, a hammer on a steel pipe dangling in the water. Then we would each take off for the next tank. Grab a couple of breaths and head for the next one. Eventually, everybody would end up at the same tank Buddy Breathing like crazy.

Thing was, all of the tanks had to be dry before anybody could surface. If anybody surfaced early, we had to do it again. We finally figured out to break up into groups at the end and hog on two or three tanks until they were empty. The Instructors laughed at us and said it took us long enough to figure it out.

It taught team work and confidence building.

 

[FJUK1]

UPDATE:

Although I said I was mostly over this I've continued to think about some parts... When I dove down to collect my 2nd stage, I purged as usual and there was still water either in my mouth or in the reg (I purged longer than usual, about a full second). I then purged again and still was about to breathe in water if I inhaled.

Maybe this is the dumbest question of all time but do I need to actively spit out water from my mouth after opening it to put the reg in? Or should the purge do this? (I don't mean exhaling to purge the reg, say I had no air in my lungs and had to rely on the purge button).

I've never had problems with this before during reg recovery etc, usually just a quick purge on the reg button and problem solved. Any ideas?

 

[lowwall]

UPDATE:

Although I said I was mostly over this I've continued to think about some parts... When I dove down to collect my 2nd stage, I purged as usual and there was still water either in my mouth or in the reg (I purged longer than usual, about a full second). I then purged again and still was about to breathe in water if I inhaled.

Maybe this is the dumbest question of all time but do I need to actively spit out water from my mouth after opening it to put the reg in? Or should the purge do this? (I don't mean exhaling to purge the reg, say I had no air in my lungs and had to rely on the purge button).

I've never had problems with this before during reg recovery etc, usually just a quick purge on the reg button and problem solved. Any ideas?

The purge isn't going to clear water from your mouth.

You need to practice in about 1 foot of water until it becomes unconscious. Reg out, reg in, _______, breathe. I wish I could tell you the blank part, but it's completely automatic at this point.

I think I clear it with the same quick partial exhale I use for quickly clearing a snorkel. I guess I must since I usually don't bother with the purge button.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

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.

That is not a boot camp style class. What I described was the standard basic open water class for most training until the for profit business model style started replacing skills and education based training.

 

[TrimixToo]

This was a required skill when I was first certified, but it was clearly outlined in the course materials, so it wasn't s surprise. As s surprise drill it has lots of drawbacks. As a planned drill it wasn't (IMO) that bad.