Do you S-drill

[stairman]

As a caver,were suppose to S-drill before the first dive of the day.Or with a new buddy.OW divers arent trained to do this but it makes good sense.If you dont know the routine here goes.Complete gear check,valves open all the way,BC hooked up,regs breathing etc.Figure turn around pressure and record on wrist slate.Set PC for gas mix.Do a bubble check checking each others valves etc for bubbles.Most important is the air share.I signal ooa,and my buddy hands off his primary[holding it by the reg hose,not the reg body]I take a few breaths,signal ok and switch back.The drill is then reversed where I am the donor.Hand off primary,get on backup when ok is signaled we switch back and the drill is over.Its important that the reg you donate is over all other gear and with a long hose it is pulled out completely.If you donate an octopuss then you do the drill that way.By not holding the 2nd stage body,but the hose[hand against the reg body]then recipient can see that its not upside down and can purge it if need be.By practicing this alot,mistakes are very minimal.Take care not to hand reg off upside down and holding the hose and not the reg.

 

[String]

Depends on conditions. Sometimes its possible, sometimes due to currents and need to get down its not possible to do sensibly.

 

[Blackwood]

We do a simulated S-drill where we fully deploy the long hose to ensure that it is in fact free (i.e. over everything else).

 

[tstormdiver]

Just learning to do this in my Adv. Nitrox & Deco course. It does make sense to do in most cases (there can always be conditions that would make it the exception not to do).

 

[battles2a5]

I do it before every cave dive. When practicing w/ regular tech buddies we do bubble checks and mod-s drills, big dives we do mod S and pretty thorough checks (check at surface, re-check mid-descent, recheck at depth). Don't do it on OW recreational dives.

 

[stairman]

While diving a boat,I do a similation on board before going in.The bubble check gets passed up but figure an observant buddy will see bubbles leaking while swimming.Skill degredation leads to confusion and accidents.Practicing these what ifs,makes real problems easier to solve.

 

[TSandM]

I do a full equipment check and bubble check before EVERY dive. I generally don't go below 60 feet with somebody with whom I haven't done an air-share drill.

We don't do air-shares on all our OW recreational dives, but most of my buddies know that it is quite fair game to throw an OOA at somebody during a dive, particularly if they seem to be a bit inattentive. We stay in practice

We don't do an S-drill before every cave dive. Danny Riordan told us to do a long hose deployment before every dive, but that practicing the drill could be done on deco or in the OW at the end of every second or third dive, so that's what we do.

 

[John_B]

Yes, I do bubble checks before descending and a modified s-drill (deploy the primary and breathe off the backup) at the start of every dive. If surface conditions are crappy, assuming we descend as a buddy team I'm good with doing the s-drill at the bottom instead of at 5'-10'. YMMV.

 

[plclark196]

I cavern and cave dive weekly and have never seen complete s drills performed prior to a dive - unless its a class...

 

[BabyDuck]

i *often* do a pre-dive s-drill, whether cave or ow, but i can't say *always*.