Divemaster Stress Test!

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I am going to show my age here and wonder why gear exchange/ doff and don is only a DM skill now???? lol, sarcasm alert. I would suggest that the DM candidate be given a fouled up dive rite clasic reel, that is wrapped up in his fins, and his buddys valve and reg, whilst buddy breathing. Now that would be entertaing to watch, and let them demonstrate comfort and problem solving.
Eric
P.S. no cutting of the line will be alowed

SEI still has them as Open Water skills.

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2
 
Same at some of the crowded shore entry dive sites here. Can signal that a rescue course is in progress, have the instructor remain in control and indicate to real life rescuers that this is a drill. I would just hate for my student to end up screaming pizza when the crap gets blown onto the ventilation. In a way it would be better to have rescuers throw themselves in the water and understand they need to review their scene assessment abilities and think before they act. My 2 cents worth anyway... Sorry again for the diversion

Our local quarry probably has hundreds of divers every weekend with 2-3 rescue courses going on at any given point in time. It would be impractical to tell rescue and emergency personnel "there's a class going on, ignore all calls for help."

Besides, yelling "help" a few times in a controlled class will not help imprint that reflex in any meaningful way if and when the student finds himself in a real situation.
 
yelling "help" a few times in a controlled class will not help imprint that reflex in any meaningful way if and when he student finds himself in a real situation.
It could in pretty much the same way as repeating caring for the unresponsive diver or reacting to a panicked diver "a few times in a controlled class [could] help imprint that reflex in [a]meaningful way if and when he student finds himself in a real situation."
Mimicry, then repetition til mastery, then repetition in order to retain mastery...
 
Right... we'll have none of that! All problems will either be averted or discussed on the surface after the dive.

Pretty much. It's an open water dive.

Loose tank strap? Not a problem. Fix it right there.

Leaky non-adjustable reg? Non-functional SPG or computer? Hoovering diver running low on air? It's time to head up.

All this "deal with problems underwater" stuff is leakage from technical diving where the surface isn't available. When the surface is always available, and the boat or shore is only a couple of minutes away, I'll take "we're going to bag this dive and try again later" over "Call 911," any day of the week.

And yes, I believe that preventing problems is far preferable to trying to handle them after they occur and aborting a dive because of an underwater problem is more prudent than letting it snowball into something dangerous.

If you're diving with your buddy, I don't care of you want to whip out your regulator tools and rebuild your first stage while buddy breathing. That's your call. However if the shop hands me a diver and says "Take this guy out for a dive", you can be absolutely certain that I'll do everything possible to bring him back safely even if it the dive is cut short by a problem.

flots.
 
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Agreed, guys. Prevention is a much better skill to be learned. Like I mentioned earlier, I think there needs to be some build-up to these skills in the Rescue and Advanced Course. Again, maybe it was just my training that did not have a very specific focus on these issues, but looking at it from a training point of view it really seems need some previous, specific mention.

Again, most of these techniques are learned through normal diving experiences and exceptional cases where equipment failure actually occurs. I am surprised actually that a lot of stuff like the different fin kicks are not really addressed until technical diving (atleast from what I understand), where they are something very useful that I try to pass on to all divers I dive with. I guess you can't expect a course to touch every possible point, but I guess suggestions are always helpful!

A
 
All this "deal with problems underwater" stuff is leakage from technical diving where the surface isn't available. When the surface is always available, and the boat or shore is only a couple of minutes away, I'll take "we're going to bag this dive and try again later" over "Call 911," any day of the week.

How "always available" is the surface to a diver who's entangled? How important might it be for a DM (or anyone) to be able to calmly work through such a situation?

I know someone who could have easily died in 7ft of water when their foot became stuck in part of a wreck. They struggled for several minutes, and while the "immediately available" surface was only a few feet away (The diver actually removed a fin and was able to raise it partially out of the water in an attempt to signal for help, that's how shallow it was) it might as well have been 100ft deep in a cave.

Is the gear exchange an ideal test for "problem solving underwater"? No, but to suggest that "the surface is always available" so there's no need for a recreational diver to be able to solve problems underwater really stretches the bounds of credibility... or at least indicates a genuine lack of imagination.
 
I know someone who could have easily died in 7ft of water when their foot became stuck in part of a wreck.

A diver that needs a DM, shouldn't be inside anything. And any DM worth his card won't take a diver there.

In any case, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how to pull out a stuck foot, or cut some line.

Is the gear exchange an ideal test for "problem solving underwater"? No, but to suggest that "the surface is always available" so there's no need for a recreational diver to be able to solve problems underwater really stretches the bounds of credibility... or at least indicates a genuine lack of imagination.

If the surface isn't available, it's not an Open Water dive and the DM needs to be excused from any additional DM duties, for demonstrating poor judgement.

flots.
 
so I'm going to blow up the DM thread by reviving this topic two and a half years later... but this morning I happened to see a DM stress test video pop up that was filmed about the time this thread was being 'discussed', and I'm in the middle of my DM training, and looking forward to the 'exchange' challenge.

But the garbage in this video, taking these two DM candidates out, having them start buddy breathing, and then as soon as the drill starts, throw sand in their faces and keep pulling their masks off their head once they are swapped, then loosening their cam bands and dropping tanks, wrapping 2nd stages around BCD straps multiple times, free flowing regulators in their face, over and over so that they never do get the gear swapped. FOUR times, 52 minutes, and the dive shop and instructor are proud of themselves more for how well they hazed the DMs over the actual value of swapping gear.

The military hazing drill has a foundation in the military frogman mission. The idea of the original drill is that a military diver might need to remove gear and store it underwater (undercover), exit the water or swim silently to a second location to perform a mission task (blow stuff up hopefully) and the return for their gear, locate it, don it, and leave the area. The idea for the hazing was that it was possible (not likely) that in freezing water their head might be clouded, they might have to don their gear under stress (or worse have to swap damaged gear with another diver who is injured or DEAD), or even worse, fight off another enemy frogman during all of this. EXTREME standards, and none of it relevant to a DMs training or job in my book.

A DM is there as a 'lifeguard' of sorts and learning problem solving. I think that there is much more value in the other drill the military does, which is that you swap a set of gear with a set already laying on the bottom. The gear on the bottom has been 'tampered with' and before it can be donned, some problems have to be worked out, usually and suddenly without a mask, or having the regulator pulled from your mouth. Still extreme, but at least it requires true problem solving to get the gear set up to don and use.

The task is to buddy breath and exchange gear, not to see how much crap a DM can take underwater until the hazing is relaxed enough to allow the task to be performed.
 
Hi there fellow members,

Almost finished with the divemaster course (yay!). Completed the other four endurance tests well but yesterday I got stuck on the stress test! I feel quite comfortable with my dive skills (good technique, buoyancy control, etc) but something about the multitasking while sharing a regulator makes me lose control of my breathing pattern. So a few questions for those of you who have passed this:

1) Does anyone have a similar experience on this test and can give me a few pointers on how to not lose my calm and keep focused on the tasks?

2) How many times did it take you?

I assume by the "stress test" you mean the "equipment swap".

The answer to question 2 in my case is once. However I had been diving for a long time and had a lot of dives under my belt, as did my buddy. Not everyone comes into the course with the same baggage. In particular you need to buddy breathe during this exercise IIRC and some newer divers never learned it.

The answer to question 1 is to stop viewing it as a stress test and start viewing it as a test in RELAXATION. The more you relax and view it as a game, the easier the test will be. Calling it, or viewing it, as a stress test will put you in the wrong mind-set, imo.

The three keys to making it easy on yourself are:

1) go slow
2) communicate with your buddy
and
3) consider the order of things.

#1 is obvious. The key to doing things right the first time is to go slow. Just like many things in life, if you don't have time to do it right, you don't have time to do it twice.... so take your time.

#2 communication is key. Only start with a step when you and your buddy are both ready for it. Coordinate. Make sure your buddy understands when you are ready to act and make sure he/she understands when they need to wait for you to be ready.

#3 The order of things can make a big difference.

a) As far as I remember, you need to swap out all gear except the suit and weights. So if you start with easy stuff like the fins then you can get in sync with each other. The task is to get it done. There is no requirement about the order of things.
b) The mask, IMO should be last unless both partners are sure the other's mask fits them. A leaking mask will complicate everything that comes after that so do it last. Also, this is the only task that really needs to be done simultaneously. All the other tasks can be done one diver at a time.
c) Finally, since the exercise involves buddy breathing then practice it with your buddy before the test. The time to get on the same page with them on the tempo and protocol for buddy breathing is not during the test; it's before the test. It might be a good idea to get an instructor to show you how to buddy breathe the way it was taught before it was scrapped from the OW course. Inventing a wheel can be fun but using an existing wheel is more efficient.

In order to score 5 points it needs to look "purposeful", "problem free", "routine" and "fun".

Making it look "purposeful" is easy if you get on the same page with your buddy about the order of things before the exercise.

Making it look "problem free" is easy if you practice buddy breathing and keep the tempo low.

Making it look "routine" is easy if you avoid confusion (see purposeful). Agreeing to hand-signs ahead of time will help on this front. Your instructor will be looking for team work and communication.

Making it look "fun" is easy if you get your mindset to "game" instead of "stress test". If you make a mistake, don't be afraid to roll it back and try again. Muddling through a mistake is weaker than resetting with good communication and trying again. Mistakes can happen. It's what you do about it that your instructor will be looking for.

R..
 
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