my daughters upcoming class is 6 weeks long (six Sundays, each having lecture and pool components on the same day) - she sure better learn how to take care of her gear......
Equipment Care
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CptTightPants21
Contributor
How many hours for each part on Sunday?...just curious
That, I do not know.... It runs 3:30 pm - 7:00 pm each Sunday, and there is travel to the pool that is close by. I have only used this shop for my advanced training, so I do not know the breakdown for OW.... I do have confidence in them up to this point...
Well, let's be honest... the goal is not for an OW student to be able to service their own gear right after they are certified. Rather it is to provide a rudimentary "foot-bone connected to the leg-bone" understanding of their gear.
During the course of the CW dives 1-5 the student will need to assemble and disassemble their scuba rig five times, do five buddy checks, etc. (If they are doing OW dives locally that's another 4 assembly/disassembly.) This provides plenty of opportunity to point out things like...
- Check the face o-ring on your tank (or DIN o-ring on reg) before putting your reg on a tank. If you find a problem, or have a missing/leaking o-ring, here's how you rectify that. "Hey, everyone gather round for a minute..." and replace an o-ring on a tank or reg.
- Check your hoses once you have your gear set up and pressurized. If you find a leak it could be a hose that needs to be tightened or maybe even replaced. Here's how you do that. "Hey, everyone gather around for a minute..." and swap octos between two regs.
- Be sure to rinse your gear properly. BCDs have parts that you don't want to allow salt or debris to build up on. For instance, the dump valve. "Hey, everyone gather around for a minute..." and unscrew a valve from a BCD, show the spring, show how it seals tight, explain how debris would present a problem, screw it back on, etc
Again, I don't expect they will recall all of that, don't test it, and don't expect students to be able to field strip their regs wearing a blackout mask. But at a minimum it helps decrease the sense of mystery with the gear and increase comfort that problems are rare, can be averted with proper care, and if they do arise can be addressed very simply.
As a related aside I will also NEVER refer to the gear as life-support equipment or otherwise imply that it requires an engineer with a master's degree to service. I will tell them it's important to maintain/service properly to ensure many years of problem-free use. I will suggest professional service as being easiest/best way to maintain gear over the long haul but point out that, just like cars, many people prefer to take care of that themselves and that's fairly straightforward. I'll also point out that while I CAN service my own gear... I don't and never will.
)CptTightPants21
Contributor
Most likely 30 minutes for travel to and from pool/unloading. 3 hours part pool, part lecture.
How old and is she super excited or is this something you kind of nudged along and she was willing to do it. One of my best dive buddies is getting his 10 year old certified, kid has been waiting 2 years and is "very enthusiastic". I can't say I am happy that I lose a dive buddy on trips and such while he takes care of his son, but it is good to get young blood into the sport.
How old and is she super excited or is this something you kind of nudged along and she was willing to do it. One of my best dive buddies is getting his 10 year old certified, kid has been waiting 2 years and is "very enthusiastic". I can't say I am happy that I lose a dive buddy on trips and such while he takes care of his son, but it is good to get young blood into the sport.
Yeah, about what i figure too.
She will turn 14 this fall, and has been pestering the heck out of us to learn to SCUBA for the last 2-3 years. She snorkels where we dive (and was above us in 75' of 45 degree water in Tobermory a few weeks ago following my wife and me on a wreck). She loves the water, is a competitive swimmer, and solo sails. A corrective surgery to her sinus has eliminated her "asthma", and has been cleared to proceed. She is really looking forward to this.... the same for me.
She will turn 14 this fall, and has been pestering the heck out of us to learn to SCUBA for the last 2-3 years. She snorkels where we dive (and was above us in 75' of 45 degree water in Tobermory a few weeks ago following my wife and me on a wreck). She loves the water, is a competitive swimmer, and solo sails. A corrective surgery to her sinus has eliminated her "asthma", and has been cleared to proceed. She is really looking forward to this.... the same for me.
CptTightPants21
Contributor
Well, let's be honest... the goal is not for an OW student to be able to service their own gear right after they are certified. Rather it is to provide a rudimentary "foot-bone connected to the leg-bone" understanding of their gear.
During the course of the CW dives 1-5 the student will need to assemble and disassemble their scuba rig five times, do five buddy checks, etc. (If they are doing OW dives locally that's another 4 assembly/disassembly.) This provides plenty of opportunity to point out things like...
- Check the face o-ring on your tank (or DIN o-ring on reg) before putting your reg on a tank. If you find a problem, or have a missing/leaking o-ring, here's how you rectify that. "Hey, everyone gather round for a minute..." and replace an o-ring on a tank or reg.
- Check your hoses once you have your gear set up and pressurized. If you find a leak it could be a hose that needs to be tightened or maybe even replaced. Here's how you do that. "Hey, everyone gather around for a minute..." and swap octos between two regs.
- Be sure to rinse your gear properly. BCDs have parts that you don't want to allow salt or debris to build up on. For instance, the dump valve. "Hey, everyone gather around for a minute..." and unscrew a valve from a BCD, show the spring, show how it seals tight, explain how debris would present a problem, screw it back on, etc
Again, I don't expect they will recall all of that, don't test it, and don't expect students to be able to field strip their regs wearing a blackout mask. But at a minimum it helps decrease the sense of mystery with the gear and increase comfort that problems are rare, can be averted with proper care, and if they do arise can be addressed very simply.
As a related aside I will also NEVER refer to the gear as life-support equipment or otherwise imply that it requires an engineer with a master's degree to service. I will tell them it's important to maintain/service properly to ensure many years of problem-free use. I will suggest professional service as being easiest/best way to maintain gear over the long haul but point out that, just like cars, many people prefer to take care of that themselves and that's fairly straightforward. I'll also point out that while I CAN service my own gear... I don't and never will.
Ok, that is exactly what my shop does.
I got the impression that you were giving them a first stage and having them disconnect and reconnect their hoses with wrenches and allen keys.
Why don't you service your own gear? I know that for some they don't want to do it because they don't get a lot of practice with it, but I for one am looking forward to learning how to clean and service my regs.
kf4zht
Registered
I took the class in college. Every week we had to clean the gear inside and out before we put it back on the trailer. It was one of the first things we learned and was repeated over and over. Since no one had their own BC/regs the instructor was watching everyone carefully as it was his gear.
In generally I am glad I took the class in college. While the checkout dives were the same the amount of pool time was much higher than my dad got when he took it at a local dive shop. After you do a mask removal and regulator sweep every week for several months it gets more ingrained than 3-5 pool sessions over a couple weeks.
In generally I am glad I took the class in college. While the checkout dives were the same the amount of pool time was much higher than my dad got when he took it at a local dive shop. After you do a mask removal and regulator sweep every week for several months it gets more ingrained than 3-5 pool sessions over a couple weeks.
- Not interested. At all. Not in the least.
- Don't have the time, even if I were interested.
- I'm the kinda guy that will get distracted by a bunny rabbit outside the window or something while I'm reassembling a reg and end up putting it back together incorrectly.
I swap hoses, reconfigure rigs, replace o-rings, make adjustments, and other assorted "field maintenance" stuff... but I've got a local shop with a guy I trust to handle annual service, etc.
We loan the students the club's BCDs and reg sets for the duration of the class. Of course we make darn sure they know how to care for them well and see that they actually do it. If they want to slack off they neeed to wait until it'stheir own gear ;-)
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