Deep 6 regulator and TDI

[Marie13]

You are a case in point. You are spending considerable effort to build a test a set before the course. If you lived here I could send you to a bloke who would have put a set of 10s in his van that morning for you and you’d come away from the course understanding your options without the commitment to owning that particular configuration.

And why shouldn’t I spend time before the course getting used to my kit? I’ll at least have trim mostly worked out. I think a student should at least be able to show up with a basic backplate and harness. You can pick the BP up used without spending too much money (unless you’re short like me and need the short plate which is a pretty penny but worth it). Harness and hardware aren’t going to break the bank, either.

 

[kelemvor]

And why shouldn’t I spend time before the course getting used to my kit? I’ll at least have trim mostly worked out. I think a student should at least be able to show up with a basic backplate and harness. You can pick the BP up used without spending too much money (unless you’re short like me and need the short plate which is a pretty penny but worth it). Harness and hardware aren’t going to break the bank, either.

That's exactly what I did. Some of it worked out, some didn't. My instructor was Reggie Ross. He didn't like the reels, hoses, and fins I had. He made me replace the reels straight away but let me try the hoses and fins that I had. After day1 I bought new hoses and fins of my own accord . I don't really remember if there was anything else about my rig that was a problem at the time.

Fortunately for me, I'd already spent the time getting my buoyancy and trim straight as well as becoming accustomed to sidemount before class. Those guys in central fl can be pretty hardcore, I was stressed every day of that class.

 

[Marie13]

That's exactly what I did. Some of it worked out, some didn't. My instructor was Reggie Ross. He didn't like the reels, hoses, and fins I had. He made me replace the reels straight away but let me try the hoses and fins that I had. After day1 I bought new hoses and fins of my own accord . I don't really remember if there was anything else about my rig that was a problem at the time.

Fortunately for me, I'd already spent the time getting my buoyancy and trim straight as well as becoming accustomed to sidemount before class. Those guys in central fl can be pretty hardcore, I was stressed every day of that class.

What was wrong with your hoses - length or material?

I’ve got standard rubber hoses. Regs are at the shop to gett 5th ports added. My trim adjustments are just with the twinset - heavier fins vs tail weights. Weight adjustments will come with the heavy undergarments once the quarry opens in April. I’ll even hit the Great Lakes with them.

 

[kelemvor]

What was wrong with your hoses - length or material?

I’ve got standard rubber hoses. Regs are at the shop to gett 5th ports added. My trim adjustments are just with the twinset - heavier fins vs tail weights. Weight adjustments will come with the heavy undergarments once the quarry opens in April. I’ll even hit the Great Lakes with them.

They were all miflex. When we did the single file air share drill, the hose kinked. It cut off air supply to the second stage at the end of the hose. Easy to duplicate out of the water, once I knew what to look for. I still use miflex hoses but not for the long hose.

 

[Doby45]

I am moving more and more away from Miflex style hoses in technical diving. There are a few areas where I could see them being used, like a bc inflator, but I am removing more and more of them from my regs. They are abrasive and do not seem to stow as well for me. I have also had a few of them that start to leak near the metal crimped on fittings.

 

[stuartv]

Ok, I will bite.

Yes, taking twice as long at a thing makes you worse at it than a good person. Do you always allow 4 days or was the extra time because those particular students needed more work?

And you had a shop prepared to rent the kit. That is fine. The point is not that the student gets use of the kit for nothing, but that they do not HAVE to speculatively buy kit based on an inevitability incomplete understanding of what they need.

I allow as long as it takes. Recall, one student only had 35 dives prior to the class with me. It took that long to cover all the skills, including finning techniques, which are also part of the standards, before they met MY interpretation of the standards and my definition of "adequate" when it came to their proficiency at all the different skills. Maybe I am a poor instructor, but I didn't think 4 mornings in the water was really all that long for all the skills to be taught in that course and for the students to develop them all to a level I deemed "adequate".

The course has almost nothing in the way of prerequisites. If other instructors can reliably take a student that has the bare minimum qualifications for the course and do all the classroom and in-water work to teach them all of the things required by standards AND get them to a level of "adequate" in all the skills that are required by standards, and they can do all that in 2 days, then I would definitely like to be in a few of their classes in some capacity, so I could learn how to do it better and more efficiently myself!

MY point was never that the students have to buy everything before starting. They can buy, borrow, or rent. Whatever. The point was only taking issue with your statement that "a good instructor will have to kit to loan or rent." I don't think it's right to steer a potential student down the path of eliminating a possible instructor with so simple a litmus as "he doesn't have gear for me to use, therefore he is not a good instructor and I should look elsewhere." I think that is poor advice.

 

[KenGordon]

MY point was never that the students have to buy everything before starting. They can buy, borrow, or rent. Whatever. The point was only taking issue with your statement that "a good instructor will have to kit to loan or rent." I don't think it's right to steer a potential student down the path of eliminating a possible instructor with so simple a litmus as "he doesn't have gear for me to use, therefore he is not a good instructor and I should look elsewhere." I think that is poor advice.

Sorry I stood on your toes. Surely a student that needs to borrow kit has no choice, they need an instructor who can help with that. Also even if they do not think ahead of time that they need to borrow kit it might turn out on the course that they do.

 

[Manatee Diver]

I understand where stuartv comes from, as owning and servicing a ton of equipment to provide for rental is a huge burden on independent instructors. But OTOH a student starting intro to tech doesn't know what works for them or doesn't. Like right now as a prospective student for intro to tech I don't know if I want to go back mounted doubles, side mount, or a mixture of both depending on the situation. How do I know that unless I try both? And I personally can't afford to buy both setups in the short term, but an instructor that is able to provide some standard equipment like spare wings, regs, and tanks can allow a student to try both with minimal investment which is a value added to students.

 

[Marie13]

I understand where stuartv comes from, as owning and servicing a ton of equipment to provide for rental is a huge burden on independent instructors. But OTOH a student starting intro to tech doesn't know what works for them or doesn't. Like right now as a prospective student for intro to tech I don't know if I want to go back mounted doubles, side mount, or a mixture of both depending on the situation. How do I know that unless I try both? And I personally can't afford to buy both setups in the short term, but an instructor that is able to provide some standard equipment like spare wings, regs, and tanks can allow a student to try both with minimal investment which is a value added to students.

That’s when you make an arrangement with an instructor and a shop to do a session to try each out with rental gear. As far as I can tell, Intro to Tech is BM doubles and a separate one for SM. You don’t do both in one class.

 

[Manatee Diver]

That’s when you make an arrangement with an instructor and a shop to do a session to try each out with rental gear. As far as I can tell, Intro to Tech is BM doubles and a separate one for SM. You don’t do both in one class.

You'd probably want to do that with the instructor you want to train under. IME the more experienced an instructor is, the more they know how to work around a student's limitations, as they've probably seen it before.

But then again as a disabled diver, my concerns are a bit different from your average bear's.