Basic skills refresher practice

[cmrangel]

Hi all
I am a new diver (AOW, 20 dives) and recently had a chance to revisit one of the skills I had learned during my OW class. I did a OOA drill with a buddy and realized that my skills had degraded. Getting to the Octo, etc. was not as smooth as I would like, it all went OK but I could tell I could have done things more smoothly. This has led me to improve my setup (different post) but it has also made me realize that I had gotten rusty in since my OW class (2 yrs) and I need to have a better approach to practicing some of the important skills. I think some obvious skills that would need practice would be recovering a reg/clearing, donating a reg for OOA, mask clearing, mask replacement/swimming without a mask (always freaks me out a bit). etc.

So, I am asking those more experienced, what skills do you think should be practiced? How do you work it into your overall diving? Do you practice them on every dive, maybe a safety stop...? I have been so focused on exploring diving and the wonderful So Cal marine life that I have let things lapse and I want to get a bit more structured in keeping my skills up to date and am looking for helpful suggestions.

Thanks in advance !

 

[phoenix31tt]

Basic skills to practice... Mask Flood/Clear, Mask removal/replace, Reg removal/replace, Reg Switch, S-Drill (Air Sharing)... Practice them at any point in a dive, you don't need a buddy to practice s-drill just go through the motion. If you are diving with a buddy let them know at which point in the dive you would be doing a skill... more necessary for mask removal and s-drill as they will take the longest.

All these skills should be practiced while you are neutrally buoyant and in proper trim. I would not practice these on a safety stop until you have practiced it at depth with a floor as reference so you can ensure that your buoyancy is not going haywire while you are doing it

 

[sheeper]

neutral buoyancy. Practice it...make it part of who you are until it is not a skill but a hard ingrained habit. Sadly too many divers, even experienced ones, do not focus enough on that "skill". And the best part is all you have to do is keep diving!
while you are neutral, practice the other basic skills. I'd also throw in deploying a DSMB. it's a critical skill that is overlooked by most.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

Every dive should be a buoyancy improvement dive, as well as body control improvement dive (trim). All other skills should be refreshed regularly, iespecially the mask removal and replacement, and sharing air with another diver. I also recommend using a compass and working on navigation until you have mastered that skill as well.
DivemasterDennis

 

[archer1960]

I'm glad somebody asked this question, so I didn't have to! What about checking and/or operating your own tank valve? Is that one appropriate to add to the list?

 

[phoenix31tt]

I think it's a good skill to learn but not at the top of the list for single tank. Making it a habit to check it before you enter the water is a more worthwhile practice.. Then you won't need to do it in water


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[TSandM]

Well, I spent some time thinking about the skills I HAVEN'T had to use in the last ten years. I have never had to remove and replace my gear underwater. And I didn't have to breathe off a free-flowing regulator, because my buddy donated his long hose and I just breathed that. I have never ditched a weight belt, either, although I don't think it's a bad thing to practice. I think every other skill I learned in OW, I have had to use at some point, so I think they are all worth practicing.

Every dive ends in shallow water, no matter how the rest of it went, and those safety stop minutes are an excellent chance to practice skills. But always discuss what you are going to do with your buddy beforehand, because if you suddenly go "out of gas" to him without warning, you may get an unexpected response!

Some skills, like mask clearing, you'll likely get enough practice with without having to set up specific opportunities.

Some skills are really overlooked. One of the skills I see students having major trouble with, that nobody ever practices, is disconnecting that LP inflator hose. When you need to do it, you need to do it NOW, so it's an awfully good one to be facile with, especially if you dive in heavy gloves.

If you have a buddy who has the same attitude you do toward staying current, you can agree to throw some unexpected drills at one another. There was a time when I couldn't get through a single dive without somebody throwing an air-sharing drill at me, and you get to where sharing gas is just a ho-hum moment, which is as it should be.