"Correct Weighting" Identified as #1 Needed Improvement in SCUBA Diving

[KenGordon]

Depending what BCD they have, is they have a wing type BDC that is stable, if they have the "El chepo" BCD like all schools have and understandable that they do, then it requires finesse and practice.

It is a bag of gas. It gets bigger as you go up and smaller as you go down. The price and shape are not the issue. Indeed the 'El chepo' bcd probably has more dumps.

What I see is divers who are too heavy find that they are unstable and easily pop up to the surface. They have been told that uncontrolled ascents will kill them so are worried about that. So they think that to stay down 'more easily' they ought to add more weight. A vicious circle.

This isn't always about the initial instruction.

 

[KenGordon]

The truth is, if a diver is proficient at diving without a BCD, they will likely be able to dive with one without problems. If they cannot dive without a BCD, they will likely struggle to dive with one for the exact reason you described above. They will likely dive with too much weight and struggle to stay ahead of the devices inherent instability, wasting air in the process and making accurate gas management more difficult (another DAN point for improvement in the previously quoted article).

And we could fix sculling with the hands with a cable tie or two....

 

[The Chairman]

Besides, if you start extending the course time, adding PPB,

This is THE most important skill in my most humble opinion. Getting the student comfortable while being neutrally buoyant accelerates the pace of the class. Consequently, I don't 'add' PPB to the class, I add the class to trim and buoyancy.

Again, I'll suggest basic OW scuba should be taught without a BC.

I'm pretty sure you'll violate standards for every agency by teaching it this way. I learned without a BC and a BC was a welcome addition.

This is because BCDs are unstable. The more air in the BC the more unstable it is.

Don't confuse bubble management with Boyles Law. Having less air in your BC improves both. However, poor trim (horizontal attitude) is the greatest reason divers overweight themselves: Master Neutral Buoyancy

And we could fix sculling with the hands with a cable tie or two....

Sculling is the second greatest reason divers feel a need to overweight themselves.
mportance-of-horizontal-trim-simple-vector-physics/

 

[Steve_C]

To begin with you can be a few pounds overweight and still have no problem at the surface with a BCD. Issue is severe overweighting.

Some is how they are taught. I have seen instructors keep adding weight to a diver who can get down and not stay down. Of course the instructor is making it worse as noted.

For all the learn scuba with no BCD folks. I assume that at the surface they are at least slightly positive or do they have to keep kicking to stay up. That seems to have problems. So the diver goes down and their suit compresses and goes a little negative. How do you now hold your trim without moving? Does the diver have to keep sculling or finning? That does not seem like a good habit to learn. Again, now I am doing my safety stop. If I am slightly positive at the surface I will be neturalish, maybe, at the safety stop. I do not want my suit taking me up unless I want to go.
I am not saying it cannot be done but for a diver who likes to relax and not fin unless they want to move or not use arms and hands at all no BCD seems to complicate ones life rather than simplify it.

I do not see how one can be relaxed and motionless at several different depths during the same dive without a BCD.

 

[hammet]

I'm not a professional diver nor do I consider myself an expert by any means. That being said, dive operations in resort type places that don't cater exclusively to divers often have boats filled with people who talk, talk, talk about other dive vacations they've been on, huge sharks they've seen on the last dive, and blah blah blah. Many have to ask what weights to use on their belts. Then, when they get in the water, (after sorting out a myriad of equipment issues), they flail around like epileptics, flutter kick the fan coral, and expend more air trying to take pictures with their gopro or whatever they do that makes them look anything but a good diver. The contrast between the DMs and the divers is night and day!

In my limited experience, I think this is a symptom. The basic principles of the buoyancy, air conservation, kicking, hovering, (and to a certain extent, navigation) really need to be taught to ALL divers as soon as they get OW certification. There are lot of specialties that the AOW class teaches but perhaps it is too broad. Even those who have taken the AOW class do not seem to use the basic skills they were supposed to have mastered.

Perhaps a new level of certification should be offered which falls somewhere in between OW and AOW. I think it could be done with just one or two hours of instruction in a classroom followed by two long shallow water dives to learn the skills.

Just my .02.

 

[Steve_C]

Some people pay attention and try to improve, some do not
Some people have situation awareness and some do not
Some people dive a lot and some do not
Some people benefit from the extra training and some do not.
All are OW or AOW.

 

[Boiler_81]

This is THE most important skill in my most humble opinion. Getting the student comfortable while being neutrally buoyant accelerates the pace of the class. Consequently, I don't 'add' PPB to the class, I add the class to trim and buoyancy.

I'm pretty sure you'll violate standards for every agency by teaching it this way. I learned without a BC and a BC was a welcome addition.

You are correct, the agencies wouldn't allow it. However, I got much better at weighting when I got into double hose vintage diving without a BC. Diving with a 72 and no exposure protection will require you get your weight dialed in.

 

[KatieMac]

Again, I'll suggest basic OW scuba should be taught without a BC. Less equipment, fewer things to teach, less time involved, but the core weighting skills will actually be learned by the student or they won't be able to conduct a successful dive to pass the class.

I'm not an authority, having completed only 14 dives. I do understand why you are proposing it though. But if they taught that way, I never would have got certified. I've never been a swimmer and was anxious on the surface when I took my OW last year. Even with my BC inflated on the surface! I can't imagine I would have continued after the first dive if I didn't have it. (Thankfully I seem to have conquered that this year)

 

[KatieMac]

I was rising too far up and too far down, alternately adding and releasing air from my BC.
- Bill

Sorry for hijacking the thread. I was rising/dropping more than I wanted on safety stops last week. I wasn't inflating/deflating though. But the rest of the dive I was neutrally bouyant. Is this because I'm overweighted a bit?

 

[Pullmyfinger]

It is not difficult to teach students while neutral. You just need to find an instructor that is interested in teaching that way.
We are out there.

I recently attended an instructor meeting where the presenter talked about teaching OW classes while neural.
It was merely talk, as the next days instructor evaluation would have all of the instructor candidates demonstrating skills while on their knees.

If you can't do it, you can't teach it......IMO.