How common is this?

[rjack321]

I should have been more clear what I was referring to in that video.

During my tech training (TDI and UTD) any skill that you could not perform with precision buoyancy was a skill you did not have. The moment you bob a foot up or a foot down means do it again. Falling to the ground while doing a skill or the Instructor standing or kneeling or student flapping hands to get into position was a huge no no, specially in my UTD class. Two bottle (Tech -2 ) would mean that you are already an expert in single bottle handling, bottle passing etc and you can maintain position (vertical as well as horizontal) without flapping hands and while being task-loaded.

So what we are seeing in this video would be totally unacceptable to my TDI as well as my UTD instructors. The very fact that people are not shocked by this video means that this is type of a class, two bottle handling (Trimix level) being taught to a student who does not have his buoyancy dialed in, while the instructor himself is standing is not as unusual out there.

Am I correct or am I missing something very very major here? Thanks.

The student is fine. Bouncing around by a couple feet with no mask on while removing and replacing bottles is fairly normal. They are a student afterall, they are there to improve not be perfect.

The skill itself is dubious. Would be better to have students passing each other bottles as you are actually far more likely to take or give up a bottle to another diver (buddy) midwater on ascent than just drop it on the bottom. If you were having an rough ascent day yes I'd try to help out by taking any extraneous bottles off you. Doing it mask off could be valuable as well, but for the buddy guiding the maskless diver - they are the only who is challenged by having to maintain touch contact with the maskless while also taking their bottles and directing their buoyancy.

The instructor just sucks with hideous trim and his fins in the sand. And he's a liar since according to the comments he has >30,000 dives. That's 3 dives a day for over 27 years with no breaks for illness, children, weddings, or anything else...

But there's a ton of youtube videos of terrible divers who think they're fabulous, this isn't special.

 

[decompression]

So...........its really hard to say if this is the first time the student has performed this task. I would hope that managing 1 stage with no mask would have been perfected before moving on to more task loading but many Agencies/instructors don't do this. The reason buoyancy is so vital is that it shows confidence, attention to the breathing cycle and minimises issues when He is added, amongst other things.

 

[Beyond_Diving]

I puked a little the first time I saw the video... even left a sarcastic comment stating that the "instructor" demonstrated great trim, buoyancy,etc., but the video poster didn't get my sarcasm... It's beyond me how any tech instructor (or frankly any instructor) would be anchored to the bottom like that... the only thing that shows the students is that it is ok to do that...

In my opinion, prior to embarking on a technical level course, if the student has no previous training/experience, I believe that a course like intro to tech, essentials or whatever should be a prerequisite, with ample time in confined/open water to properly develop skills prior to attempting them at depth/in an overhead environment (whether physical or otherwise).