Doc Wong's Fundamentals Course

[TSandM]

Doc, you're on a slippery slope here . . . I spent a half hour in my pool last night swimming with my eyes closed, with my mask off, and back kicking (trying to match your laps -- no such luck!)

 

[Adobo]

Doc, you're on a slippery slope here . . . I spent a half hour in my pool last night swimming with my eyes closed, with my mask off, and back kicking (trying to match your laps -- no such luck!)

Lynne,

If you guys ever want to move to NorCal to experience the diving in Monterey, please consider living in the peninsula. I'll do pool training dives with you until we're both blue in the face. (that's an expression, of course.). I just absolutely love working on basics in the pool. Back kicks, helicopter, mask drills, whatever.

We have a great community here but somehow I struggle to find buddies who will work on their "game" during the week. The ones that might be willing live all over timbuktoo.


Doc,

Great write up. I've heard your name quite a bit in the local circles which leads me to believe you have plenty of experience. I'm glad to hear that these skills are actually difficult and that it is not just me who has trouble getting it "right".

 

[DocWong]

Doc, could you elaborate a bit on the drysuit flexibility tips and tricks? I took my DIRF in a wetsuit and hence wasn't exposed to DIR drysuit techniques. (In my current drysuit at least I'm not even close to reaching my valves.)

1. While at the surface, put some extra gas in your drysuit, get horizontal and stretch out. This will unbunch your undergarmets and allow for freedom of movement. You can do this while decending too. We've dubbed this the "Beto Stretch".

2. Before you do your valve drills, make sure you have enough gas in your drysuit and avoid being "shrink wrapped".

3. When you reach for your valves, run your hand and arm straight back, as if you were skimming the side of your head with your hand, forearm and elbow AND keep your head back. Moving your head forward will decrease your range of motion.

Let me know if this helps!

 

[DocWong]

Lynne,

Doc,

Great write up. I've heard your name quite a bit in the local circles which leads me to believe you have plenty of experience. I'm glad to hear that these skills are actually difficult and that it is not just me who has trouble getting it "right".

Hey if you're in the SF Bay Area and want to work on skills, I have a long way to go so I'll be practicing a lot this next 6 months, then I'm assuming it's periodic practice to hone skills.

 

[*Floater*]

Thanks for drysuit tips - in fact some of those will probably work even in a wetsuit, though reaching valves wasn't a problem for me in warm waters.

By the way, Beto sounds like an excellent DIRF instructor.

 

[DocWong]

Doc, you're on a slippery slope here . . . I spent a half hour in my pool last night swimming with my eyes closed, with my mask off, and back kicking (trying to match your laps -- no such luck!)

Cool!!!

I'm going to have to try that!

 

[DocWong]

*Floater*,

I was initially taught to "just take the squeeze off" in my drysuit class. That it definitely not enough air in a suit to reach your valves consistently and comfortably. Also, having your bp/w adjusted correctly is a big deal. For example, I could not effectively reach my valves during my Intro to Tech class. Let's just say that drill wound up in an air-share with my buddy. Not so good.

During the Intro to Tech class, Joe demonstrated the "proper" amount of air in the suit. He had me kneel, negative, on the bottom (*gasp* the horror!) and he added air into the suit until I felt like a balloon. He then had me vent the suit until it equalized. I now had the proper amount of air in my suit and could feel it. After the dive, he explained that I should have that much gas in my suit, proportional to depth.

QUOTE]

That's great, but how did you know it equalized? What indicated just the right amount of air in the suit?

 

[DocWong]

Also, I realize I need to get into much better shape and am going to increase my fitness levels. David Chamberlain from BAUE gave a talk on decompression theory last week and one of the things that he went over was how body fat are repositories for nitrogen loading and that less body fat would mean better off gassing of nitrogen and less tendency for DCS.

So the three of us are going to be responsible for each other to get on a regular fitness routine.

What I've seen in the last 20 years of chirpractic, nutrition, wellness practice is that most patients know they need to exercise more, but somehow life gets in the way and we don't make time to exercise. When you have no one to be responsible to if you skip exercise, it can take a lower priority in life.

So we've decided that we're going to take turns being team leader for fitness. Each week we'll switch off to ensure that #2 and #3 is on their program. We'll schedule weekly pool exercise and drill sessions too.

Does anyone else find that if you had a core team to commit to fitness that you'd be better able to do it?

 

[JeffG]

That's great, but how did you know it equalized? What indicated just the right amount of air in the suit?

The valve is an ambient pressure valve. So when the gas stops coming out the valve means that the pressure inside = pressure outside.

 

[DocWong]

The valve is an ambient pressure valve. So when the gas stops coming out the valve means that the pressure inside = pressure outside.

Ambient pressure valve? You mean your drysuit exaust valve that's usually located in the upper left arm? Is this valve any different than the typical exaust valve?