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

[REVAN]

Good response from @Soggy_Diver. The last dive I did was in a 7mm wetsuit, but I didn't plan to or dive beyond 50' deep. I weighted for neutral at 15' with shallow breathing and did the dive with lungs mostly full at the beginning. If someone needed to go to 100' or beyond and be neutral on the bottom most people would need a BC ("most", to leave some wiggle room for folks like Dave Mullins, who has a vital capacity displacement in excess of 30 pounds).

 

[boulderjohn]

I'm sure it's a great idea but I strongly suspect it means more pool time per student which means higher prices which means fewer students which means less money for YSDAoC (your scuba diving agency of choice). Sounds like just the ticket.

No, it doesn't. I have been doing it that way for years and found that it takes no longer than teaching them on the knees. In fact, I think it takes less time because many of the skills are much, moch easier for students when they are in horizontal trim than when they are kneeling.

I want to expand on this. What dmaziuk wrote is consistent with what I have heard over the many years I have been advocating neutral buoyancy instruction. It is not the only objection I hear, but they all have one aspect in common:

The person who objects to neutral buoyancy instruction objects to it on the basis of something he or she imagines must be true rather than something he or she has seen.

Now, people like dmaziuk can be excused for coming to this conclusion, because it really is what you might expect. In fact, it is what I myself expected when I first heard someone suggest it. Then I began experimenting and had my "Holy cow! This really works!" moment. The problem for me comes when people continue to hold their imagine-based opinion after they have heard contrary evidence from people who actually do it. They are saying, in essence, "I know you do it your way, I know you have experienced it many times, but my imagination is so very, very powerful that I know what it is really like, and I know that you are wrong."

It all comes down to this--the people who have heard that neutral buoyancy instruction is superior to instructing on the knees will not try it because the instruction they are comparing their current methods to the instruction they have imagined rather than the real thing.

 

[boulderjohn]

I was asked earlier to post a copy of the article on neutral instruction from the 2012 PADI professional journal, The Undersea Journal. Here it is.

Before reading, please note:

• The article was published 5 years ago, and it would be different if it were published today for several reasons.
• The original draft was about 3 times as long as the final article and included a lot of details that had to be edited out to keep it to the specified length.
• I worked with Karl Shreeves of PADI on the final wording, and some of it is in there at his insistence. I have continued to be in touch with him, and I know he would be different today. The big issue was that he did not want to say it was wrong to introduce skills on the knees, even though I felt it was. The compromise was the part where he wrote (those are his words) that if skills are introduced on the knees, they should then be repeated while neutral and horizontal, hopefully in the same instructional session.
• the layout editor screwed up the pictures big time. I sent in comparison photos, and they were supposed to contrast images on the knees with images while horizontal. For example, the picture of me replacing my mask on page 56 should have been contrasted with one of me kneeling. The photo on page 57 is a stock shot that has nothing to do with the article, and I sent them a wealth of good shots that illustrated the points they could have used instead.

 

[Chavodel8en]

I would like to point out that we're trying to reason with an unreasonable person. Fact, logic and reason will have no impact.

That's a possibility, but could it be that youre just part of the world-wide cabal of instructors that is standing in the way of this truly revolutionary manner of scuba training.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Good response from @Soggy_Diver. The last dive I did was in a 7mm wetsuit, but I didn't plan to or dive beyond 50' deep.

At what depth do you think a BCD becomes useful?

Yes, for shallow diving (15'), a BCD really isn't necessary, but we teach people to go much deeper than that.

That's a possibility, but could it be that youre just part of the world-wide cabal of instructors that is standing in the way of this truly revolutionary manner of scuba training.

Since you have fired a shot across the bow, then please, enlighten us. How is a diver supposed to control their buoyancy in a wetsuit at 100' of depth?

 

[The Chairman]

Since you have fired a shot across the bow,

His tongue was firmly planted in his cheek. He's joking with us.

 

[Chavodel8en]

Looking at my records, when I started OW training I had 38 lbs. with a 7mm farmer john & Alum 80. The instructor recognized that I was clearly overweighted and that I should be seeking to lose lbs as I got more comfortable diving. By the end of OW training, I was down to 32 lbs. I still had some new diver bad habits (skulling as I tried to descend, failing to completely empty BC at the end of the dive) that still had me overweighted.

Within several dives I was down to 24 lbs w a 8mm full suit & Alum 80 (or 18-20 lbs w steel), which is what I dive with now (I was down to 22 lbs when I was in much better shape).

New divers have bad habits, that may necessitate extra weight. I don't see this as so horrible. The "OMG a diver was 50 lbs OVERWEIGHT!!!" is obviously horrible, but reacting for the whole industry to an obviously extreme case is -- well it isn't very smart.

It would be ideal to get new divers locked in on their weighting. If you can do so as an instructor, kudos. But I have no complaints about my OW instructor overweighing me. He still expected me to show skills mid-water. He also let me know that I was over-weighted, and that I would gradually drop lbs to reach my optimum weight. I think this was fine.

Better to be over-weighted and clumsy in the water, with a plan to improve, than to be a new diver popping to the surface.

 

[The Chairman]

Better to be over-weighted and clumsy in the water, with a plan to improve, than to be a new diver popping to the surface.

Within reason. Fifty pounds overweight could be problematic and even dangerous. 2, 5, or even 10 pounds overweight should never jeopardize your health.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

His tongue was firmly planted in his cheek. He's joking with us.

Woosh! I missed that one.

Better to be over-weighted and clumsy in the water, with a plan to improve, than to be a new diver popping to the surface.

I disagree. Students need to develop awareness of how Boyle's law affect them more at shallow depths and they have to know to manage their depth and buoyancy more carefully until it gets automatic. Students need to be heavy enough to get down and light enough to have an empty BCD/drysuit at 15' for their safety stop. I've seen how my students progress towards good buoyancy and trim skills much faster when they are not overweighted. Students who are slightly overweighted actually have more difficulty and cork more in my experience as they have to counterbalance more weight than if they were properly weighted. If they just have to counter a little bit of weight, they learn to make small adjustments to their BCD and use their breath to fine tune their depth.

 

[Chavodel8en]

Since you have fired a shot across the bow, then please, enlighten us. How is a diver supposed to control their buoyancy in a wetsuit at 100' of depth?

I was joking. Clearly, any deep diving and/or cold water diving necessitates a BC -- unless you are a diving god w/ an athlete's lungs, I guess.

Speaking seriously, it seems clear that all of the actual instructors are going to keep on teaching with a BC. I would say to the OP, if you are committed to this instructional model, you aren't getting anywhere convincing the instructors. I don't you'll get an agency on board either.

You will need to start your own no BC scuba school. Good luck getting insurance coverage.

Alternatively, you can let the students use a BC, and just admonish them to stay off the buttons as much as possible.