How long did it take to get used to limited vis?

[ReefGuy]

hey reef

Nobody's ever going to totally agree on here - thats why we're here (I think).

It probably is possible to work out a system with buddys but the amount of practice to acheive it would be way beyond the 2 days/mth our team does as far as I can see (get it ). A single, solo, tethered diver is easier and faster. Maybe outline how you guys work it, I may be missing something

You're in Florida though, so perhaps you're applying this to low - "not bad" vis?

Please don't think I'm criticising. I know there's more than one way to do this.

We're strictly recovery, too, so time isn't so critical. FD gets the rescues around here.

Most of our diving is done canals and ponds. We're fortunate if we get more than a couple of inches on our first pass. After that, 0. To make things interesting, we freqently run across debris from past hurricanes. I got stuck once under something, probably part of a roof, on a training dive. Couldn't reach my comms, and couldn't back out (there was a lip or something that my tank kept getting caught on). Having my buddy arms' length was immensely comforting to me and saved a lot of stress topside (when I would have given 4 tugs and been unable to answer on comms). He was able to work me out and the search went on.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

Funky, we do a training exercise with our OW students that you might want to try, it's called "black-out mask". We put foil over their masks so they can't see in the pool. We have them review all of their hand signals and emergency procedures on the surface while "blindfolded". We do recommend they go ahead and close their eyes for the exercise so they feel they are in control of the "blindness". We go underwater in the shallow end and work on buddy skills and emergency procedures again. Once we are confident they are comfortable we send them on a "mission". We put metal objects and pool toys in the deep end, they are instructed to bring up a certain number of metal objects per buddy pair and the pool toys are to remain on the bottom. The students love the exercise! We tell them we aren't training them to dive in zero visibility but we ARE showing them that they have the ability to remain calm when they can't see and they have the skills to safely remove themselves from the situation even if an emergency occurs. Bad visibility is a fact of life around here sometimes so we make sure the students are trained to deal with it.

If you want to make it a little more challenging do it wearing a blindfold instead of a mask I had a whole class VOLUNTEER to do it without the mask when given a choice. "Why do we need to wear a mask if we can't see anyway?" was their reasoning LOL!
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[muddiver]

In commercial dive school the drill was to tie knots in ropes that were hanging off of a horizontal piece of pipe at 20'. You could add a drill to your class to show student that many things can be done by feel, before you cut them loose to do SCUBA skills by feel.

Otherwise I love the drill you came up with!

 

[muddiver]

I got stuck once under something, probably part of a roof, on a training dive. Couldn't reach my comms, and couldn't back out (there was a lip or something that my tank kept getting caught on). Having my buddy arms' length was immensely comforting to me and saved a lot of stress topside (when I would have given 4 tugs and been unable to answer on comms). He was able to work me out and the search went on.

This is very interesting. I see a safety problem here with the AGA push-to-talk set up. All my gear is round robin like a telephone. You always hear the diver talk, breath, sneeze, etc. So if the dive stops breathing or talking you know there is a problem and you can send the back up diver.

Just something to take into consideration.

 

[stuck]

black muck is about the norm on most of our calls,but about half of our training is done at a private spring.So we have black out mask training for the new guys or guys who are thinking about trying out for the team.Being in a dry suit bugs me in real bad vis if im in a real confined spot.so if its not a contaminated dive i prefer skins and just a aga.I did get real sick once on a recovery of a body and a large tump truck, i got diesel or hydrolic fluid in my ear canel and i had bealls palsey on my right side for about 2 weeks.Have comms does make it at least feel safer,our surface supplied system is open circiut,but the wireless system is push to talk, were trying to change that to open circiit.Were always attached or using jack stand with 2 divers.Probably like most guys here we close our eyes and sweep.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

In commercial dive school the drill was to tie knots in ropes that were hanging off of a horizontal piece of pipe at 20'. You could add a drill to your class to show student that many things can be done by feel, before you cut them loose to do SCUBA skills by feel.

Otherwise I love the drill you came up with!

That sounds like fun too! I can't take credit for the drill though, they've been doing that at the university for almost 30 years. It's the reason I kept coming back and helping with the class...there's an incentive to be a staff member for that exercise

I didn't mention the blindfolded navigation afterwards New students CAN figure out how to find the North corner of the pool without being able to see their compass if they take the reading and know where they should end up before they are blindfolded and start milling around in the deep end.
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[ReefGuy]

This is very interesting. I see a safety problem here with the AGA push-to-talk set up. All my gear is round robin like a telephone. You always hear the diver talk, breath, sneeze, etc. So if the dive stops breathing or talking you know there is a problem and you can send the back up diver.

Just something to take into consideration.

That's true, but we're also tethered, so I still had communication. We considered the non PTT, but we have a diver who constantly hums while looking for bodies. It's annoying enough without hearing it through the comms .