forgetting how to dive?

[mythoria]

can u forget how to dive after a prolonged period(eg 2 yrs) of not diving?

Thanks

 

[Xman]

Of course you can. Doesn't mean that you necessarily will, or will not. It will depend on how practiced and confident you were before the 2 year gap I would think. At the very least, a refresher and some sort of skill review would be a good idea after an interval of that long.

 

[STUEY2]

can u forget how to dive after a prolonged period(eg 2 yrs) of not diving?

Thanks

It's more possible to get a little rusty after that amount of time. I would sugest a refresher course where you can review the skills from your o/w and it will all flood back to you (and not just your mask).

 

[jiveturkey]

It's more possible to get a little rusty after that amount of time. I would sugest a refresher course where you can review the skills from your o/w and it will all flood back to you (and not just your mask).

I agree. Some of the safety things and theory might not be automatic anymore. Doing a refresher should take you up to speed. It's cheap and it's worth it.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

NAUI recommends a refresher if you've been out of diving for 6 months. Like the others said, it depends on how experienced you were before the break. Gear changes over time too as do some procedures (NAUI has slowed the ascent rate from 60fpm to 30fpm since I learned to dive) so a refresher can give you a chance to get updated on that sort of thing. Someone without much experience is going to forget a lot more than a diver who dove a lot then took a break. Some people don't even remember how to assemble the gear. Any time out of the water will make you a little rusty, some people take longer to readjust to the underwater world than others and that doesn't just mean physically you may experience some anxiety the first dive too. We offer all of our students free refreshers if they come in during regular class time to encourage them to make safe diving a top priority. I would rather refresh a student for free than see them go out after a hiatus and get hurt but I teach through a university not a shop so I have that luxury, a shop has to pay the bills. A refresher is well worth the time and money.
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

Do an update course. You won't regret it. Yes you can forget but the bigger problem is probably stress. A refresher (scuba skills update) will put you in the water with a professional and you'll leave confident and ready to dive. It doesn't cost much, the shop I instruct for charges 50 bucks.

 

[carbon]

For those of you familiar with the details of a refresher class:

Is there a specific outline and material to cover (perhaps agency dependent)? Or, do they try to discover your weak (rusty) points, and just cover those?

Thanks,
Carbon

 

[Diver0001]

For those of you familiar with the details of a refresher class:

Is there a specific outline and material to cover (perhaps agency dependent)? Or, do they try to discover your weak (rusty) points, and just cover those?

Thanks,
Carbon

The outline (PADI) for the refresher is specific on some points but leaves you free on others: The refresher must consist of a theory and an in-water part. The theory part will test your OW knowledge. There is a "quick review" test for this but you can also be asked to write the OW final test again too.... All of the gaps need to be addressed. The in-water part will revolve around the basic skills you learned in OW.

I do a verbal intake when I do a refresher and I will adjust what I do in the water to a certain extent based on what the person wants and/or feels that they need to work on, their past history and their immediate goals. If someone has 200 dives but hasn't dove for 10 years and just want to get back in the game they may need a different approach than someone with 8 dives who has been dry for a year and is getting brushed up for a trip to Egypt.....

The standards for PADI state that you have to review most of the OW skills in a review (there is a list). I usually do as many of them as I can in the first pool session and I chain some of them up into sets of excercices (for example a chain might look like this: getting set up, buddy check, deep water entry, 5 pt descent, fin pivot, neutral swimming, mask clearing, neutral swimming, hovering.....) so it all flows together. It goes faster and often gives me a pretty good impression of someone's basic skill and comfort level in the first few mintutes. After they start getting used to it again I start digging for rust and doing the more complex excercises. I adjust the order from diver to diver depending on priorities and how it's going but I usually save kit removal for the end.

People who can dive easily cover the whole refersher in one session as long as you chain the skills. The ones with a lot of rust go for two. If it's looking like they're going to need more than two pool sessions for a skills review I start talking to them about jumping in to the middle of an OW course in progress.

That's proabaly a lot more detail than you were looking for but it gives you a good idea of what's in a refresher. Approaches differ so take this as one way to do it, not the only way.

R..

 

[carbon]

.........
That's proabaly a lot more detail than you were looking for but it gives you a good idea of what's in a refresher. Approaches differ so take this as one way to do it, not the only way.

R..

Thank you very much. Your level of detail is perfect!

Carbon