I read your post about doing advanced open water/deep diving. The fact you are going to the pool to practice is why you did great. Keep up the good work.
There are 20 basic skills. Two of them you will get practice with on each dive. They are:
- Assembling, adjusting, wearing and disassembling your equipment.
- Deep-water entry.
Three skills you should be doing on every dive but I don't see everyone doing them:
- Perform a predive safety check.
- Descend using the five-point method.
- Ascend using the five-point method.
I see a lot of divers entering the water and forgetting to close the zipper on their drysuit, not wearing their weight belt, air is turned off, don't have their mask, etc. Make sure you check your buddy and your buddy checks you.
I also see guys jumping off the boat and descending. They don't signal the boat crew they are fine and they don't wait for their buddy. It is not a race.
For trim and buoyancy control, you want to practice:
- Adjust for proper weighting float at eye level at the surface with no or minimal air in the BCD, while holding a normal breath.
- Become neutrally buoyant underwater by pivoting on fin tips (or other point of contact, if appropriate), using both oral and low-pressure BCD inflation.
- Hover using buoyancy control for at least 30 seconds, without kicking or sculling.
PADI (and possibly other agencies) teach the fin pivot. Personally, it is okay to start this way but you really just want to be able to hover and trim out into a horizontal position. Even fins shouldn't be touching the bottom. It is okay to start with fin pivot but ultimately you just want to be able to hover then rise and fall in the column without touching bottom (but getting close).
The rest of the skills are for the rare situations. They get you comfortable in the water and ensure you are not going to panic if something does go wrong. They are:
- Recover and clear a regulator at depth.
- Remove, replace and clear the mask.
- Remove, replace, adjust and secure the weight system at the surface in water too deep in which to stand.
- Remove, replace, adjust and secure the weight system.
- Remove, replace, adjust and secure the scuba unit on the bottom in water too deep in which to stand, with minimal assistance.
- Remove, replace, adjust and secure the scuba unit at the surface in water too deep in which to stand, with minimal assistance.
- Alternately breathe from snorkel and regulator without lifting the face from the water.
- Ascend properly using an alternate air source and establish positive buoyancy at the surface.
- Breathe effectively from a free-flowing regulator for at least 30 seconds.
- Respond to air depletion by signaling out of air, and securing and breathing from an alternate air source supplied by a buddy. Continue for at least one minute while swimming.
- Simulate a controlled emergency swimming ascent by swimming horizontally for at least 9 metres/30 feet while emitting a continuous sound.
- Swim without a mask for at least 15 metres/50 feet, then replace and clear the mask.
I've had my regulator kicked out of my mouth. It is easy for someone to come from the side (out of your field of vision) and cut across you. Especially if you are on a cattle boat. Never lost my mask but I have had it leak occasionally. Practicing the mask skills made clearing a slightly leaky mask a breeze.
The removing, replacing and adjusting of weights and gear is sometimes useful. I have been entangled or hooked on something. Taking my gear off and looking at it is a lot easier than trying to figure out what is going on behind my head.
The skills at the bottom of the list are the ones which you rarely need but when you do need them it will be critical that you do them well.
I absolutely will stab anyone in the case of a shark, so I will begin practice this weekend. My poor buddy! (Truly my first shark experience was during the Tired Diver Tow on my OW cert, I was NOT happy!)
