Beginner's Skills Practice?

[JaminBrown]

Hi all!

Background: I got my OW cert about a year ago Then I did 16 dives on a live-aboard vacation in December, which help me quickly solidify a bunch of basic skills including the pre-dive gear setup & check, breathing, buoyancy, basic navigation, etc. Got all my own gear in early July, and my wife and I have been shore diving several times since then, and will continue while the Maine waters remain dive-able in our wetsuits.

I feel pretty comfortable in the water, and my wife (a Master Scuba Diver with 200+ dives) says I'm a natural. So now I want to up my knowledge and skills. I'll look into AOW in the future, but for now my focus is skills practice.

What skills would you recommend working on, and how?

What I have in mind already:

• Mask removal and replacing (which will be "fun" to practice with a hood and 5mm gloves on).
• Pretending my primary was just knocked out of my mouth/failed and switching to backup.
• Emergency "Out of air" situations, grabbing backup reg from each other, and a controlled ascent.
• Shooting a DSMB from depth.
• Navigation.

I also just got a copy of Scuba Diving Fifth Edition by Dennis K. Graver to refresh and improve my book knowledge. And My wife has her NAUI Master Scuba Diver book that I'm going to read as well.

Would love to hear your ideas. Thanks!

 

[boulderjohn]

It is always good to maintain skills for OOA events, and I do recommend learning to shoot a DSMB from depth. Navigation is good if you know how to do it--the instruction for navigation is required for the AOW, though.

IMO, if you have a chance to practice, I would focus primarily on buoyancy and trim. When I first learned to dive, I thought I had buoyancy down. When I had 30 dives, I realized that I didn't know squat about buoyancy before and now finally had it. At 50 dives I was embarrassed to remember what I was like at 30. Then came 100 dives and the feeling of total confidence, only to have that erased 100 dives later when I became a professional. After a few hundred dives as an instructor, I started tech training and realized that in terms of buoyancy and trim, I was a total beginner. As that training progressed, I met divers who were so far beyond me I despaired that I could ever catch up. I am now a tech instructor, and I know people whose skills are such that I don't even worry about ever getting there--it isn't going to happen.

If you have access to a pool with a deep end (say 12 feet), try this.

1. Get yourself weighted as properly as you can, so that you don't have a whole lot of air in the BCD.
2. Dump all the air so you drop to the bottom.
3. Add a dash of air, just enough so you feel a little buoyant.
4. Inhale enough to rise off the bottom.
5. Exhale so you stop the ascent and then inhale so you ascend some more.
6. Repeat #5 so that you slowly, slowly rise the the surface without kicking or without inflating the BCD.
7. Exhale mightily to start your descent and then reverse the process to get almost all the way to the bottom.
8. Stop just before you reach the bottom and hold the position before making the final descent.
9. Repeat.

It helps to introduce to task loading yourself while diving.

• Put some weights on the bottom of a pool, pick pick them up, carry them, and put them down without touching the floor of the pool. See how much weight you can do this way without having to adjust the BCD, then move on to bigger weights and BCD adjustments.
• Put a slate on the floor of the pool and play games with your wife (like Tic-Tac-Toe) without touching the bottom.
• Do all your other practicing (mask removal and replacement, etc.) in mid water.

 

[JaminBrown]

IMO, if you have a chance to practice, I would focus primarily on buoyancy and trim.

Wonderful reply, thank you!

You are right, my buoyancy is good for a beginner, but it is a skill I should always be working on improving. I love your suggestions. We don't have easy access to a pool, but we have some fairly well protected coves we shore dive at where we could work on these in less than 20' of water.

I also need to work on my trim, not sculling, and improving some kick styles.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Being properly weighted is step 1. This means that with nearly empty cylinder (about 500 psi), empty BCD, you rise and fall with your breath at your safety stop. If you sink even when you inhale, you need to shed some weight. Likewise, if you ascend to the surface no matter how much you exhale, then you have too little weight.

Depending on your body composition, you may have some difficulty with being trim. I could never do it without exposure protection as I am leg heavy. My feet would still sink even without fins.

I don't know what kind of BCD you have, but you want to be able to distribute your weight so that you can lay comfortably horizontally (doesn't have to be 0, but not 89 degrees). If you are on FB, get to know Ryan Custureri and Demis Farrugia. These guys post a number of videos of their beginner courses and are extremely helpful.

If you nail your weighting, you'll be able to sink to the bottom and ascend to the surface using just your breath.

John's suggestions for task loading are excellent.

I would also suggest a workshop, not a course for flushing out whatever issues you feel need to be worked on.

 

[MichaelMc]

Pick someone each dive who will go OOA without warning. Do the response up through a short bit of intentional controlled ascent.

For me, a side benefit of doing that, with a well trained buddy, was showing me the value of a longer hose. It allowed us to see around us, maintain awareness and easier depth control instead of being clumped awkwardly together. I had a 7', they had a standard setup.

Getting to rock solid buoyancy control and trim are a fundamental skill. They allow you to be more relaxed and adaptive in the water. And thus safer.

 

[TMHeimer]

Great advice given so far and you'll get more from instructors. So I'll just add to review a page or 2 of your manual(s), other material regularly (I do daily). When it gets too cold over there, go through the motions of the skills while watching TV or something. I do this once a week all year. And oh, if you don't live right on the water, find a close shore dive, put plastic on your driver's seat, drive there in January already in your wetsuit, and do a 20 minute dive. Drive back and get out of your wetsuit at home. Or don't be like me-- buy a drysuit....

 

[RDF in CA]

Great thread! Thanks to everyone.