Sometimes there is not a lot of room between you, the ceiling and the bottom.
Frog Kick VS Modified Flutter
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OP
Gandalf-the-Diver
Contributor
This does not necessarily work in confined spaces in wrecks, I imagine.
The importance of these kicks can be seen on a recreational dive I did in South Florida about 7-8 years ago. I am a single diver, so I am accustomed to working with instabuddies when required. In this case, they matched me with someone who told me he was a newly minted instructor who knew the wreck we were going to dive--the Captain Dan--really well. Now, I was fairly familiar with the wreck then myself, but when it comes to instabuddies, I am really easy. If they want to do something, I am OK to go along for the ride. He did not seem interested in my qualifications (cave diver), so I did not offer any information. When he said he would lead me through the wreck, I looked at his freediving fins and thought it would be an interesting experience to watch him maneuver through the rooms with them.
Well, I knew the wreck well enough to know that a silt storm would not be that big a deal. There was not a lot of silt, and there weren't many ways to get lost. It's a good thing. He flutter kicked from one room to another. I am sure he got a nice view of the wreck as he went. I got a nice view of his flopping fins in the gray silt as I followed. As I said, there was no real danger to me, but in a different environment, it could have been very serious. In a different environment, if he had had to turn around and go back, he would not have been able to see a thing.
The second dive was a reef dive, and there he was in his element. His buoyancy control was just fine, and those freediving fins allowed him to cover lots of ground in a hurry when he wanted to. That is the environment where he should have done all his diving until he got some more training and another pair of fins.
Well, I knew the wreck well enough to know that a silt storm would not be that big a deal. There was not a lot of silt, and there weren't many ways to get lost. It's a good thing. He flutter kicked from one room to another. I am sure he got a nice view of the wreck as he went. I got a nice view of his flopping fins in the gray silt as I followed. As I said, there was no real danger to me, but in a different environment, it could have been very serious. In a different environment, if he had had to turn around and go back, he would not have been able to see a thing.
The second dive was a reef dive, and there he was in his element. His buoyancy control was just fine, and those freediving fins allowed him to cover lots of ground in a hurry when he wanted to. That is the environment where he should have done all his diving until he got some more training and another pair of fins.
I've taught the PADI Wreck course on the Hilma Hooker in Bonaire. There is an open swim-through just to the left of the engine room entrance that is maybe 3m wide by 2m high...a long rectangular shaft (maybe 10-12m long?) that you can see daylight at the other end. It is always full of silt. I ask the students (never more than two) to tie off outside the shaft, swim halfway down it, turn around, and swim back, reeling in. I tell them it is tie-off and reel practice. It actually is finning practice....if their kick is not really good (frog or modified flutter) when they turn around they see the mess they've kicked up, and have to reel in while swimming through it. We then talk about their finning in the debrief...
I remember swimming around the Mizpah one time and seeing what looked like an atomic bomb cloud coming from the stern area. Someone was vertical, a couple feet from the bottom and just finning away oblivious. I swam by horizontally frog kicking and shaking my head.
Another time, on the Spiegel Grove, some guy said he was a cave diver and insisted on going first. I had never seen him diving in the caves of north Florida, and he left a serious silt trail everywhere he went, sometimes very heavy. I couldn't understand why he would dive that way. I tried to bring it up post dive on the boat in a nice way, but he wasn't having it. Lastly, years ago when my son was doing his open water class we were finishing up at Blue Grotto in Williston, FL. We witnessed an older man and young lady hovering vertically off the bottom finning away making a huge silt storm. My 12 year-old son looks over at me at depth and just shakes his head and motioning why?! Out of the water, he said he never wanted to dive like that, and thankfully he never has! (Thanks John S.)
And no, I'm by no means perfect with my finning, but at least I try.
Another time, on the Spiegel Grove, some guy said he was a cave diver and insisted on going first. I had never seen him diving in the caves of north Florida, and he left a serious silt trail everywhere he went, sometimes very heavy. I couldn't understand why he would dive that way. I tried to bring it up post dive on the boat in a nice way, but he wasn't having it. Lastly, years ago when my son was doing his open water class we were finishing up at Blue Grotto in Williston, FL. We witnessed an older man and young lady hovering vertically off the bottom finning away making a huge silt storm. My 12 year-old son looks over at me at depth and just shakes his head and motioning why?! Out of the water, he said he never wanted to dive like that, and thankfully he never has! (Thanks John S.)
And no, I'm by no means perfect with my finning, but at least I try.
The perfect opportunity to teach him a new hand signal. Bye bye
A few years ago my wife and I took our young grandchildren to the Denver Aquarium. While we were looking at the fish in the main aquarium, we saw a couple of divers, meaning that some individual had paid to dive with one of the pros. I quietly took the opportunity to explain (very quietly) to my 5-year old the difference between the two. The pro was dong a nice job of hovering in trim, using gentle frog kicks to navigate, but the customer was a wreck. He was vertical, finning to hold depth, and sometimes even standing on the bottom.
About 5 minutes later we were looking around a different area, and the two came into view. I had walked away a few feet, and when I came back I herd my granddaughter take the opportunity to tell the complete strangers next to her what a crap diver that customer was.
So the lesson is obvious: if you don't have good diving skills, don't put yourself in a position to have those skills openly critiqued by a 5-year old.
About 5 minutes later we were looking around a different area, and the two came into view. I had walked away a few feet, and when I came back I herd my granddaughter take the opportunity to tell the complete strangers next to her what a crap diver that customer was.
So the lesson is obvious: if you don't have good diving skills, don't put yourself in a position to have those skills openly critiqued by a 5-year old.
OP
Gandalf-the-Diver
Contributor
Just re-reading my old thread. Your descriptions in your 1st paragraph are spot on, as far as I am concerned. When I 1st posted this thread, I was sitting around 225 dives, now around 320. Modified flutter is proving to be my preferred kick style, although I make feeble tries at modified frog now and then.
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