Can a New Diver Develop Buoyancy Skills in a Pool?
- Thread starter Litefoot
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Yes.
Yes - some of the most productive sessions I've had with divers learning news skills have been in pools. They remove some of the variables and being shallow is less forgiving in terms of buoyancy than being deep. Pools are great places to get some "reps" in whether its working on buoyancy and stability, skills like gas sharing or mask removal, SMB deployment, or any of the kicks.
Hold yourself to a high standard, and then transfer the skills you've honed into a relatively sanitized open water environment like a training quarry.
Hold yourself to a high standard, and then transfer the skills you've honed into a relatively sanitized open water environment like a training quarry.
Yes.
Face the wall and keep still.
Hang at one depth for 1 min.
Move up a foot or two for 1 min.
Move down a foot or two for 1 min.
Move a lot further up and hang there for 1 min
Move down a bit and hang there for 1 min.
When bored, repeat!
You could even try closing your eyes and trying to feel any movement
It's excellent practice.
Face the wall and keep still.
Hang at one depth for 1 min.
Move up a foot or two for 1 min.
Move down a foot or two for 1 min.
Move a lot further up and hang there for 1 min
Move down a bit and hang there for 1 min.
When bored, repeat!
You could even try closing your eyes and trying to feel any movement
It's excellent practice.
Yes. To expand, on what's already been said...get near the bottom of the pool, get in neutral trim and hover. Then practice ascending using only your breathing and venting your BC. You can take a big breath to rise a little, exhale and practice holding that new depth. Take another big breath, rise a little more, hold the new depth. Repeat until you reach the surface. At some point, in this process you'll need to vent a little to keep from corking. Definitely good practice.
When teaching I had the luxury of using a full sized 50M pool with a 14ft deep end under the diving platforms.... In addition to the skill sets mentioned by Wibble, I would require all OW students to be able to fully circumnavigate the perimeter of the entire pool staying 3 feet off the bottom and NEVER touching either the surface or the bottom.
Also, for demonstration and visual reinforcement purposes in the pool, when demonstrating and evacuating skills I would always have the DM's perfectly hovering in a "lotus" position behind me.
Also, for demonstration and visual reinforcement purposes in the pool, when demonstrating and evacuating skills I would always have the DM's perfectly hovering in a "lotus" position behind me.
I'll throw in another YES. Way back when I was a DMT and DM I used to do buoyancy practice every chance I got be it in the pool or quarry. The biggest buoyance swing (relatively) is in the top 10-15' of depth. If you can nail and manage your buoyancy well in 10' of water, you can easily do it in 100' of water.
It's also the best place to take video of yourself performing skills to analyze later. GoPro makes a suction cup mount that works great on tile.
Just one piece of advice... if doing hovering skills do not space out and stare into the camera. It makes playback hard to watch. Trust me.
Just one piece of advice... if doing hovering skills do not space out and stare into the camera. It makes playback hard to watch. Trust me.
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