Article: How a Small Group of Instructors Spurred Reform in Scuba Instruction

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I am in favor of any effort to produce divers who are more in control of their body position in the water column. Many many dive sites will be thankful as well!
 
Seen this before.
If proper wieghting is done first then divers will learn proper skills.
Why force a new diver to flood and clear mask horizontal.
This is recreational diving , not cave diving lessons.
 
Where did you see this before and why are you against it?

Teaching divers to dive in correct trim is a goooooood thing. All divers (including beginners) should be able to function while horizontal. Mask clearing is 'safer' while horizontal. Vertical divers usually kick towards the surface.

Good instructors train divers- not seahorses.
 
Where did you see this before and why are you against it?

Teaching divers to dive in correct trim is a goooooood thing. All divers (including beginners) should be able to function while horizontal. Mask clearing is 'safer' while horizontal. Vertical divers usually kick towards the surface.


Good instructors train divers- not seahorses.

If you don't mind, I will use that quote, it's excellent!

All the best, James
 
Just to point out a couple of things.

1. Although GUE and UTD have "always" done it this way with introductory open water divers, "always" really means "a couple of years," and they have only certified a mere handful of open water divers since they started their programs. PADI certifies more than 9000,000 new divers a year, and it has been in operation for about 50 years. There is a bit of a difference in what it takes to turn a program of that size around and what it takes to start a brand new program from scratch. GUE and UTD both teach primarily technical diving.

2. The home of GUE is Extreme Exposure in High Springs, Florida. That shop is owned by the person who owns GUE and Halcyon. By far most of the open water instruction in that shop is done through PADI.

---------- Post added August 5th, 2013 at 10:35 AM ----------

I received a PM pointing out that I added a digit in my previous post--PADI certifies about 900,000 divers per year. I also was in error in that I thought it was 900,000 NEW divers each year, but it is actually total certifications. http://www.padi.com/scuba/uploadedFiles/About_PADI/PADI_Statistics/padi statistics jun2010.pdf.

So what that GUE and UTD have only been certifying for a couple of years? My point is that they never (to my knowledge) taught skills while kneeling on the bottom.

I'd be very interested in seeing the stats of GUE, UTD and PADI certs who remain active as a PERCENTAGE, not numbers. I suspect that most of the GUE and UTD certs remain active year round whilst PADI certs dive only on vacation.

Any of the basic skills taught in a tech oriented class can be applied to "non-tech" diving so that's an irrelevant point. I believe it's wonderful that GUE allows PADI to use its pool. It's called business sense.
 
If I can return the thread to its original intent, rather than GUE/PADI wars, I was really intrigued by this article! Even more, I was intrigued by the video in the posts after the article by mselenaous BCD Remove and replace. Key Largo Buoyancy class - YouTube
because it was so at odds with my experience trying integrated weight systems after diving for years with a weight belt.
Watching that video made me open a separate thread on the doffing/donning drill (http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ba...5-weight-belt-less-integrated-weight-bcd.html) discussing using a weight belt AND integrated weights to stay neutrally buoyant.

I would be interested in boulderjohn's comments regarding maintaining neutral buoyancy in a wet suit without a weight belt while doffing the gear. I can't quite tell how the guy in mselenaous' video did it horizontally in that shallow pool without weights on his wetsuit, without floating to the surface. It must have been because he was SO careful to stay under his negatively buoyant rig during the drill. Impressive, but realistic? Dunno.
 
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I would be interested in boulderjohn's comments regarding maintaining neutral buoyancy in a wet suit without a weight belt while doffing the gear. I can't quite tell how the guy in mselenaous' video did it horizontally in that shallow pool without weights on his wetsuit, without floating to the surface. It must have been because he was SO careful to stay under his negatively buoyant rig during the drill. Impressive, but realistic? Dunno.

First of all, in the other thread, I think you got some good comments from both Colliam 7 and Crowley. They are well worth rereading.

I am a great believer that we should be teaching trim as early as possible. I am required to teach OW students in the shop jacket BCDs. On the first day of class, I have them use the weight integrated pockets. After that, we use a weight belt. That way they have experienced both systems. On both days, I put some of the weight up on the cam band to help with trim. Because the BCD removal and replacement happens at the end of the confined water classes, my students have weight belts.

However, I have done the doff and don without any weight on my body more than a few times. It isn't hard, as long as you remember where your weight is and act accordingly. In the video, the diver always has contact with the weight, and so he is not free floating. He is probably also correctly weighted, or at least nearly so. If I am in a fresh water pool with a shorty wet suit, correct weighting for me is no weight at all, and I have more "bioprene" on my body than I care to admit. I would guess that this diver has no more than a few pounds of lead used for the skill, which makes it all so much easier. I am sorry to say that there are instructors that heavily overweight students, which makes all skills harder.
 
If I can return the thread to its original intent, rather than GUE/PADI wars, I was really intrigued by this article! Even more, I was intrigued by the video in the posts after the article by mselenaous BCD Remove and replace. Key Largo Buoyancy class - YouTube
because it was so at odds with my experience trying integrated weight systems after diving for years with a weight belt.
Watching that video made me open a separate thread on the doffing/donning drill (http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ba...5-weight-belt-less-integrated-weight-bcd.html) discussing using a weight belt AND integrated weights to stay neutrally buoyant.

I would be interested in boulderjohn's comments regarding maintaining neutral buoyancy in a wet suit without a weight belt while doffing the gear. I can't quite tell how the guy in mselenaous' video did it horizontally in that shallow pool without weights on his wetsuit, without floating to the surface. It must have been because he was SO careful to stay under his negatively buoyant rig during the drill. Impressive, but realistic? Dunno.

Well I was the one in the video and I'm not a guy :)

But in any event, yes I was careful to stay underneath my bcd. I was challenged during my buoyancy/propulsion/trim class with NetDoc to fully remove and replace my bcd without floating to the surface or sinking to the bottom of the pool. In addition to that, he said he thought I could do it on my very first try. After a mildly panicked look came across my face, off I went to give it a try. Sure enough, I did it correctly on my very first try. This video was taken on my third time doing the skill. So while the skill is not only "impressive," it is also very realistic.

Just my 2 psi. :D
 
Great job! Very good to see that PADI recognized the benefits of this approach.
 
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