Hitting the pool

[Cave Diver]

Thanks Bubbletrubble! I can imagine the videotaping would be a great help! I only wish I had access to an underwater camera. I don't own one myself. Maybe one of these days I will! Seems like a really good way to evaluate what you're doing.

You don't need an underwater camera. You could put one inside a plexiglass box or something similar and have someone video it from the surface without it ever having to go under.

 

[SoccerJeni]

@SoccerJeni: Join one or more local dive clubs! As you grow your circle of dive buddies, you'll be exposed to all kinds of divers and dive gear. You're bound to meet and dive with people who carry a small camera during the dive. Ask nicely if the photographers would be willing to take a short video of you underwater. Another benefit of joining a club is that most plan dive trips to warm places. This will give you more of an incentive to work on your dive skills in the pool.

Unfortunately the only dive club I know of in my area is a club for hunters only. I talked to them about joining and they asked what I was looking to get out of a dive club? I said I wanted to learn more about diving and improve. They told me that really this club was just about hunting and shooting fish and that they were trying to get a club started soon for diving.

I imagine next Spring when I am able to go on my AOW with the LDS I will get to know more people and a greater possibility of video/pictures.

 

[SoccerJeni]

You don't need an underwater camera. You could put one inside a plexiglass box or something similar and have someone video it from the surface without it ever having to go under.

Really? Well, that's pretty cool! I guess I could figure something out like that sometime.

 

[Cave Diver]

Really? Well, that's pretty cool! I guess I could figure something out like that sometime.

You could use something as simple as a small aquarium. All you have to do is have a clear surface to break the surface of the water with. Put a camcorder inside a small aquarium, take a bit of care not to splash water into it and you'll have a perfect view of what's going on under the surface.

Fishermen used to make those by putting a pane of glass into the bottom of a wooden box and then seal the whole thing with silicone. They'd use it to help locate schools of fish to be more productive. I've got an old one laying around somewhere...

 

[SoccerJeni]

You could use something as simple as a small aquarium. All you have to do is have a clear surface to break the surface of the water with. Put a camcorder inside a small aquarium, take a bit of care not to splash water into it and you'll have a perfect view of what's going on under the surface.

Fishermen used to make those by putting a pane of glass into the bottom of a wooden box and then seal the whole thing with silicone. They'd use it to help locate schools of fish to be more productive. I've got an old one laying around somewhere...

Wow! That's pretty sweet! Thanks!

 

[boulderjohn]

Here is just a general observation of skill practice as you develop as a diver.

1. As a beginner, work on your skills as you would do them in real diving until you become very skilled at it. Work especially on buoyancy control and doing all your skills in horizontal trim without losing or gaining depth.

2. Once you have mastered that, some people seem to be advocating overlearning those skills to an extreme so that you can do them at a level that will amaze your friends and confound your enemies.

I disagree.

Instead, I think you should learn about more advanced skills, those not typically taught in an OW class. Focus on those more advanced skills instead of doing the basics beyond a level of excellence. For example, you can learn more advanced propulsion techniques, including frog kicks, modified frog kicks, modified flutter kicks, back kicks, and helicopter turns.

Imagine this. You are in a swim-through with a large room, and you see something on the edge of the room, under a low overhang. You swim gently over to it, your head just fitting in the space where it lies, your body inches above the bottom, your tank inches below the top, your fins propelling you gently forward without raising even a touch of silt from the bottom. You see what you want to see and back out gently, still not touching either the floor or the ceiling. Given sufficient room, you do a 180° turn in place and gently exit.

I think you feel much more satisfaction about having accomplished that than you will clearing a mask 5 times with your regulator out.

 

[Cave Diver]

Imagine this. You are in a swim-through with a large room, and you see something on the edge of the room, under a low overhang. You swim gently over to it, your head just fitting in the space where it lies, your body inches above the bottom, your tank inches below the top, your fins propelling you gently forward without raising even a touch of silt from the bottom. You see what you want to see and back out gently, still not touching either the floor or the ceiling. Given sufficient room, you do a 180° turn in place and gently exit.

I think you feel much more satisfaction about having accomplished that than you will clearing a mask 5 times with your regulator out.

Yeah, but what if she gets this big grin on her face after accomplishing that and her mask floods. Then what?

 

[Blue Sparkle]

Fishermen used to make those by putting a pane of glass into the bottom of a wooden box and then seal the whole thing with silicone. They'd use it to help locate schools of fish to be more productive. I've got an old one laying around somewhere...

I've made something similar with the ubiquitous, plastic 5-gallon bucket. I cut out the bottom -- leaving a lip around the edge -- and then siliconed in a piece of acrylic. This was for a "look bucket" to scope out good snorkeling spots from a dinghy.

Pretty neat idea to use something like that or an aquarium for taking underwater photos without needing a waterproof camera or housing. I had never thought of that!

Blue Sparkle

 

[Bubbletrubble]

You are in a swim-through with a large room, and you see something on the edge of the room, under a low overhang. You swim gently over to it, your head just fitting in the space where it lies, your body inches above the bottom, your tank inches below the top, your fins propelling you gently forward without raising even a touch of silt from the bottom. You see what you want to see and back out gently, still not touching either the floor or the ceiling. Given sufficient room, you do a 180° turn in place and gently exit.

This sounds like a scuba version of the old text game Zork.

Let's see if I can add to it:
"You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike...It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue."

(Apologies to anyone too young or too smart to get this stupid joke)

 

[knowone]

Hows about a big jar for panoramar?

I would shudder without my torch and my redundant torch and my redundant torch?