How frequently do you practice basic skills?

[Charlie99]

Or... maybe we have a skewed sample... Of the 27 people world-wide who practice skills, 14 of them are on ScubaBoard. Says a lot for the Board huh?

And that's even after we tried to deskew the sample by eliminating, oops, I mean excluding, the Hogarthian and DIR crowd.

I'll even up the stats a bit by admitting to rarely doing formal skills practice. Most of the skill listed in the original post are pretty much second nature to me, so I'm more likely to spend a safety stop practicing skills such as blowing bubble rings or doing strange things like hovering vertical head down/feet up. Eyes closed ascents is another interesting skill to practice.

One skill not taught in OW class that is worth consciously practicing on a routine basis is better situational awareness. I often dive from boats in a group of 7. A skill I work on improving is that of keeping track of 6 other divers, how they are doing, and learning to spot signs of potential future problems before they occur. Twice in the last 2 years, this has put me in a position of being able to stop a runaway ascent.

 

[doole]

If this thread is representative, then everyone practices, and there are no turkey divers!

Or... maybe we have a skewed sample... Of the 27 people world-wide who practice skills, 14 of them are on ScubaBoard. Says a lot for the Board huh?

In a way, yes it does.

The regulars on this board tend to be serious divers.

The dilletantes are all over at alt.binaries.multimedia.fetish.hampsters.bondage...

 

[RP Diver]

And that's even after we tried to deskew the sample by eliminating, oops, I mean excluding, the Hogarthian and DIR crowd.

I'll even up the stats a bit by admitting to rarely doing formal skills practice. Most of the skill listed in the original post are pretty much second nature to me, so I'm more likely to spend a safety stop practicing skills such as blowing bubble rings or doing strange things like hovering vertical head down/feet up. Eyes closed ascents is another interesting skill to practice.

Nothing much impresses a newby diver more than seeing someone tipping his head back during a safety stop and blowing bubble rings. I've seen them practically drown themselves at 10 feet trying to duplicate it without knowing the proper technique. :11:

I admit to it being years since I consciously practiced any basic skills. I will occasionally flood and clear my mask after realizing that I didn't rinse after defogging, but not really as a "practice" exercise. I've pulled out my wife's octo on occasion and used a bit of her air to give me some added bottom time, especially on a deep dive where our breathing disparity is more pronounced. After spending 4 years of DM'ing in classes at my LDS, I don't know of a basic "skill" that I can't still nail on demand, even though I haven't worked a class in over 10 years.

 

[Sideband]

In a way, yes it does.

The regulars on this board tend to be serious divers.

The dilletantes are all over at alt.binaries.multimedia.fetish.hampsters.bondage...

They don't have time to practice basic skills. Have you ever tried to get a hampster into a leather speedo? It takes time and a lot of patience.

I think it's hard to get any true results from a poll. At best you will only get those people that either agree or disagree, AND answer polls. As for the skills, I just spent 5 hours in the pool with another new class doing the skills and will be there again next Sat. and Sun. for 10 more hours of it. This summer is going to be alternating between a weekend of class then a weekend at the quarry. I'm headed for AI so here's my turn to skew the poll some more.

Joe