Diving techniques: New vs Old

[Eric Sedletzky]

I knew if I posted this in Advanced scuba discussions I would get dismantled (not like I really care), but I figured Vintage would be the best place to ask this, or at least start a discussion about it.

After watching Sea Hunt and seeing several old movies from the 1950"s involving diving, I notice there is a drastic difference between what was the style of underwater swimming/diving then, and what is accepted as the same now.

I noted that back when no BC was used, divers tended to use their arms a lot more. The standard technique seems to have been to do a crawl stroke combined with fin kicking in a scissor style. changing positions from head up, to the body being completely verticle, to the body being pointed straight away towards the direction of travel, etc. In other words; it seems that the old style of diving seemed to be very freestyle. I'm assuming this because seeing Sea Hunt I would guess that they would have employed the best divers of the time to demontrate what was considered model technique of the day.
I personally think that the style flowed and was very natural to our human/mammalian instinctive swimming style above or below water.

Now days the style seems to be to have the arms bent and crossed in front of the diver with the legs at a 90 degree angle with the lower leg verticle and a sculling or modified frog kick for propulsion. The wing used exclusively for water column positioning (elevator), and any deviation from this position (trim) unacceptable by modern standards. I think this new style is very unnatural and born from equipment dependance.

I don't see why the use of the hands and arms is considered taboo by todays diving standards. It seems that if someone uses their hands for anything they are considered a stroke or an amature. What's up with the obsession about fins only for ALL positioning including backing up, turning, spinning, etc. Nice trick I suppose, but is it really practical in all situations, and is it really necessary?

As I observe every other sea mammal I see they all use their arms/fins for navigation and agility in the water. Just look at pinnipeds, dolphins/porpoises, whales, and even all finned fishes, they all use their pectoral fins (arms and hands) for propulsion and body positioning. Did you know that whales still have remnants of five fingers (bones) in their pectoral flippers?

Why is it that the use of our god given natural propulsion tools are frowned upon these days?

 

[DaleC]

Old school: You are what you do. The doing was important.
New school: What you do doesn't matter. What matters is that you look good doing it.

 

[spectrum]

Why is it that the use of our god given natural propulsion tools are frowned upon these days?

As anyone who has been diving without some form of buoyancy compensator, especially with a significant wetsuit knows there is only so much you can do with lung volume. For that reason you often see vintage divers "swimming the dive", using body pitch to drive their depth. You also see them touch off with a hand to "bounce" off the bottom. Dives were (are) planned for a specific depth and weighted accordingly and with that restriction you can manage the tank swing with your lungs. Some times a rock was used to get down, or slow the ascent and the anchor line was ever present. There are a good number of restrictions and tricks to doing that sort of diving, especially in colder water. It takes planning, discipline and skill. There was a high bar set in terms of fitness and swimming ability too.

Contrast that with what most divers are seeking today. Multilevel dives, longer duration and relaxation. Excess arm movements pump water through the wetsuit, chilling the diver. In terms of energy burn the arms are terrible at propulsion compared to finned legs. A slow paced dive with pauses to gaze at something of interest burns less air per minute than "swimming the dive". Ecology was just coming into being in the day. Today touching off on the bottom is often considered destructive. In silty environments that we rarely see on old footage it is considered obnoxious or even dangerous.

I don't know how many times I got to something of interest (especially on a silty bottom) only to have a diver approach wave an arm and obliterate the view.

Mike Nelson had a story to tell in 30 minutes he had to swim fast.

Many times buddies are swimming in close proximity sometimes in groups. Those flailing arms have ripped more than one second stage from a mouth.

With today's gear there is less need to use ones arms. There are a number of down sides as well so restraining the arms is a good strategy. I know when I started I set a personal goal to minimize the arm action since it seemed like better form. Sometimes the move of a buddy or surge will catch you off guard and you do what you need to do.

Maybe it's not bad form if the diver is warm, gets good run time, does not plunder the environment or endanger other buddies.

Pete

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I'm still in the "doing" stage rather than the looking good phase. NOBODY I dive with swims around with their arms crossed in front of them.

 

[spectrum]

I'm still in the "doing" stage rather than the looking good phase. NOBODY I dive with swims around with their arms crossed in front of them.

I don't find any of those poses comfortable at all. My arms tend to be laid back or a hand poised near a dump valve while tucked in.

 

[Akimbo]

I am not sure the swimming style really has changed that much. I started with Voit Viking fins and noticed that using my arms while freediving actually slowed me down. I also do not recall people using their arms much in the early 60s — wanting to "see" what is in the ocean was the whole point then too.

I suspect that most of the "arm assist" swimming was for drama in these films. They needed to get past the boring swimming part quickly so Mike could get to the hero stuff. Besides, the difference in speed was not all that great but was the visual signal of urgency. Besides, nobody north of Hollywood used their arms in cold water back then. Suits were so stiff and ill-fitting they would pump about 20 GPM with fast arm movements.

Watch the hydrodynamics of the various heroes, usually wearing doubles and simple harnesses. Their bottles and shoulders shifted side-to-side like a crazy, which is very poor form compared to a competition swimmer. Be careful making conclusions from images. Everything shot in 1958 was not a 150 Lb black sea bass, not all Abalones taken were 11", and most divers left the boat feet first.

All that said, I do think the total disregard for carrying excessive crap flopping in the current, wearing doubles just so you can get back onboard with 1200 Lbs, and actually teaching frog kick and hovering techniques is laughable.

 

[DCBC]

I noted that back when no BC was used, divers tended to use their arms a lot more. ...I don't see why the use of the hands and arms is considered taboo by todays diving standards. It seems that if someone uses their hands for anything they are considered a stroke or an amature.

Perhaps because back then divers had to know how to swim. Such is not the case today with all agencies.

I think the point previously made surrounding today's diver being dependent upon technology is a good one. Training standards have dropped considerably and this seems to have affected the way things are done.

 

[Fish&beer]

I totally agree with DCBC. Back when I was certified 1969, we had to swim numerous laps in the pool for a warm up prior to our scuba drills. At the time I was on the high school swim team and the lap swimming was no big deal. But the other out of shape students soon got into some sort of shape prior to our open water dives.

Today it seems many cert agencies offer on line book training and often not even see the students until the open water dive part. To me this is a recipe for a pending disaster. But that's just me!

But don't get me wrong, today's gear has made diving easier for new divers and the techniques prob follow that reasoning. As for me I enjoy diving vintage w/ a few new gear ad ons for the charter boat requirements. As for Sea Hunt, I think the producers made the u/w swimming part of the drama, as most of the viewers were non divers.

Like dumpsterDiver I never dive w/ my arms crossed, I'm usually carry stuff like video cameras or pole spears.

 

[herman]

I wonder how much was actually for TV/movie drama as opposed to actual diving, I was not there.....I can tell you the vintage divers that I dive with look nothing like that.....more like GUE without all the stuff. And considering I am writing this from the hotel room between dives with a bunch of vintage divers I have recent experience, my double hose and shark skin wetsuit are still wet.

 

[Nemrod]

I don't use my hands or arms to swim underwater, not then, not now, not ever. They either are holding my camera or tools or they are folded under or alongside my body.

N