Help me with Low Visibility Ideas for classes

[malvarez2]

Thanks for the replies. I think I need to do some experimentation with the tank lights. In the past, I have never had a problem with the ambient light during the dive, just the ability to see through the algae blooms. I am not sure how far a tank marker light would extend that visual range. I know they help quite a bit for deep or dark dives.

Students with lights they have to control, really seems like a problem to me due to the task loading. Also supplying lights to all students would be a problem.

I also agree that the most important controlling factor is the student to instructor-DM ratio. I've added that to my final draft. Keeping this low allows the cycling of students through the platform exercises while others explore. I'll have to see how my instructor feels about that, but it is an intriguing twist to what we do today.

Any thoughts on the noise maker communication? Would it be better for an instructor looking for a missing Diver group (DM with them) to constantly make noise for a minute as a homing beacon, instead of trying to have an interactive communication?

How do you use your shakers/Dive Alerts?

 

[malvarez2]

Pearldiver07...you figured out the lake I was referring to. I was trying to not name names.

 

[rligon]

your idea of the colorful strap worked really well in my OW class. Our DM always kept her yellow SMB on her BC, and it made it a lot easier to spot her in some pretty lousy viz.

 

[pdelannoy]

Sometimes I hang a strobe or tank light on my down line, float line, anchor line...whatever you have. This seems to help getting back to the rally point if they are not too far away.

PD

 

[Pearldiver07]

Pearldiver07...you figured out the lake I was referring to. I was trying to not name names.

Well, after several hundred dives there, it'd be hard for me not to know.

But as a variation on another's post, another instructor and I laid lines at Mansfield Dam before the permanent ones were put in.

We used orange weedeater line on a large spool. It has the bright color, the plastic holds up well under water, and it has just the right amount of stretch to allow you to tighten it up between tie-offs.

But as always, get some sort of "OK" before laying line in a park or area that someone owns or manages. You'll make more friends and fewer enemies.

I'd like to see the finished product when you're done. It would be interesting.

 

[malvarez2]

The lines we have run for classes are temporary for the day. We find that the yellow rope from Home depot's $10 box (100') works well. The green is much harder to see, but still works, and the white rope we use for the surface buoy also works well. Orange weed eater line sounds like something to try. One of the tricks to running any line is keeping it tight enough so that it doesn't float up into the swimming paths. We tie it to stumps and large rocks to try and keep it down.

 

[qrpc]

I am not sure how far a tank marker light would extend that visual range.

The range will be better than nothing, but even if the students stay within range, the marker light will make it easier for them to keep track of who the instructor is. Especially if you run into another group of students during the dive.

 

[James R]

Pearldiver07...you figured out the lake I was referring to. I was trying to not name names.

You didn't need to, it's quite clear (no pun) which lake you were referring to

The last few classes I've gone out with as DM were done as Pearldiver suggested: two with me, two with another DM, and two with the instructor. These were AOW.

I have found it easiest to put the two students together and me swim directly above them so I can monitor/control - especially in OW classes or with AOW students that may have been better off taking scuba review prior to AOW. Above them allows me to ensure they stay together, go the direction I want them to go, and easily steer them with a little nudge on the tank valve if they veer off course. Also, it makes them actually pay attention to where they're going a bit more b/c they aren't just blindly following a DM or Instructor.

In Travis, Windy Point especially, be sure to brief that when following down the chain to SWIM above it, not crawl, drag their butt like a dog (yes I have seen this), etc. Swimming down the chain will keep them from stirring up the bottom even more than it already is. Students/staff following them will appreciate being able to see and will make it easier to keep everyone together.

Good luck finishing up your DM program, it's good fun and great experience.

 

[boulderjohn]

The lines we have run for classes are temporary for the day. We find that the yellow rope from Home depot's $10 box (100') works well. The green is much harder to see, but still works, and the white rope we use for the surface buoy also works well. Orange weed eater line sounds like something to try. One of the tricks to running any line is keeping it tight enough so that it doesn't float up into the swimming paths. We tie it to stumps and large rocks to try and keep it down.

Here's what I did for a navigation line last week. I clipped a long line to the platform for a starting point and began to unwind it. After a while I screwed in a ground screw, the kind of thing used to screw into the ground to hold a dog on a leash. I clipped on 5 feet of light line with another carabiner on the end, running the main line thorough it. I repeated this every 25 feet or so until I ran out of line. I ran the end of the line through the carabiner and attached a Diver Down float to it. (It could have been an SMB or lift bag.) I made that taut, thus pulling the main line through all the clips. As a result, I had a nice, tight line about 5 feet off the bottom, thus keeping the students from rototilling the silt as they followed it.