Most training agencies use words like "control" in standards regarding the quality of student performance. The problem is that "control" often means different things to different people. For example, it is impossible to pass the written standards of the TDI Intro to Tech class. NO BUOYANCY SHIFT. NO SCULLING OF THE HANDS OR FEET. For how long? 30 seconds? 1 minute? An hour? At every moment in the course over how ever many days it is conducted? Time isn't specified. No GUE instructor could do that. Every diver will eventually move a fin for a slight correction or change buoyancy by inches or a foot in a breathing cycle. What TDI is relying upon is the sound sensible judgement of its instructors to evaluate buoyancy control and sculling with fins that is reasonable for skills that would be proficient or even exceptional.
While technical diving demands greater control, control is also a very important part of recreational and entry level diving. It is often difficult for new technical divers to learn to hover at the same depth as a team and perform emergency drills or tasks with exceptional control while remaining in a horizontal position that makes a team look like they are skydiving and doing RW (relative work: skydiving term) underwater.
In the past, my experience as a diver was that most divers did very little hand swimming or sculling. Control was fins only. Buoyancy among open water divers was good. Trim was a skill that seemed to be maintained while swimming, but would fall off or become vertical when the diver stopped moving. If a diver can maintain a neutral position in the water and stay off the bottom or coral and hang vertically in a controlled, relaxed manner, then begin moving by fluid and efficient kicking skills and swim in a graceful horizontal manner, I do not believe that is unacceptable.
Those of us who can ascend horizontally know the benefits, but as long as divers can slowly ascend while sharing gas and hold safety stops by controlling rate of ascent and buoyancy, I think that is acceptable for open water.
Presently, I'm getting students who are swimming with their hands as much as their feet. Worse, I see instructors doing it. "Control" seems to be the same sort of control that drivers have on snowy and icy roads. Divers seem to counter-steer through their slips, slides, and slop.
My question is should hand swimming be an absolute standards violation of all agencies across the board resulting in open water course failure?
If not, how much hand swimming or sculling is acceptable?
How do you define control?
While technical diving demands greater control, control is also a very important part of recreational and entry level diving. It is often difficult for new technical divers to learn to hover at the same depth as a team and perform emergency drills or tasks with exceptional control while remaining in a horizontal position that makes a team look like they are skydiving and doing RW (relative work: skydiving term) underwater.
In the past, my experience as a diver was that most divers did very little hand swimming or sculling. Control was fins only. Buoyancy among open water divers was good. Trim was a skill that seemed to be maintained while swimming, but would fall off or become vertical when the diver stopped moving. If a diver can maintain a neutral position in the water and stay off the bottom or coral and hang vertically in a controlled, relaxed manner, then begin moving by fluid and efficient kicking skills and swim in a graceful horizontal manner, I do not believe that is unacceptable.
Those of us who can ascend horizontally know the benefits, but as long as divers can slowly ascend while sharing gas and hold safety stops by controlling rate of ascent and buoyancy, I think that is acceptable for open water.
Presently, I'm getting students who are swimming with their hands as much as their feet. Worse, I see instructors doing it. "Control" seems to be the same sort of control that drivers have on snowy and icy roads. Divers seem to counter-steer through their slips, slides, and slop.
My question is should hand swimming be an absolute standards violation of all agencies across the board resulting in open water course failure?
If not, how much hand swimming or sculling is acceptable?
How do you define control?
