How often do you practice skills?

[BoltSnap]

I practice a couple of different skills on each dive. I also "practice" with any new gear before I dive with students using this new gear (usually 2 - 10 dives depending on the new gear).

 

[TSandM]

I use a lot of my skills regularly . . . kicks, buoyancy control, mask clearing (although now that I have a mask that FITS, I do that one less often!) The skills I don't use, like air-sharing and SMB deployment, I do at intervals, when I begin to get the itch that it's been a while. Nowadays, I have trouble finding people with whom to practice. Most of my buddies are through with their classes and have developed an attitude that they shouldn't practice, they should just go get a bunch of varied experience. There is a lot to be said for that, BUT anything you don't do regularly WILL get rusty. I like James' idea of an every two month practice session. Maybe I'll start buying tickets to Reno

 

[rcolsen]

I try and practice skills on every dive but I'm a new diver and need a lot of practice. I try and get in a pool or the Aquarium once a week now that winter is here. Access to the aquarium has been a great benifit, plus the kids like seeing us go through drills and it really has been a great place to work on my trim.

 

[SoccerJeni]

Greetings Jeni to be totally honest skills are a part of everyone of our dives.
Air sharing is always built into the dive but not planned only by the person who has the emergency. We do it that way to purposely pop a drill at the most difficult time so we keep each other sharp.

Diving in mixed teams require good pre-dive briefing but these drills have become quite fun and paid off huge when real emergencies arise.
We work a lot on buddy awareness and communication ; touch, line, light.
We function as a unit or team and try to encourage and build each other into stronger independent members.

Mastery of skills requires a constant vigilance that must be maintained there is no place for complacency in any dive environment. That is just the simple truth.

CamG Keep diving....Keep training....Keep learning!

That is exactly what I would like to do, have someone spring something on me to practice a skill when I'm not expecting it. I want some more assurance that I won't panic if something comes up. I wish I could find someone in my area that I could practice with regularly.

 

[firstdive2005]

Hi SoccerJeni! Great question on skills. I practise a lot. I dive a lot of warm water and a lot of cold water so my 'skills' vary. So I practice them.
A few friends of mine that I dive with have had the OOA experience heaped on them by me. Scared the crap out of them but they passed the test. lol. Not sure if I should laugh or not. I do practice air drills a lot. Mask removal. Reg removal, especially with exhaled lungs. I am happy that I do that, I just got back from a dive with my friend on the west coast. He finned my reg out of my yap just after I exhaled. Clearing and putting it back in my mouth was automatic. So was watching where I was in the line. lol.
For me, this sport is one that will nail me if I am not prepared for a surprise. I will likely make a mistake if I dont prepare my mind and body for this event. The mistake may be my last or it may kill someone else. It is my responsibility to try and prevent as much damage as possible. Practice at times is boring, sometimes it's fun but most important to me is it give me a sense of peace my equipment is known by me.

 

[nhebrant]

Its hard to say what you should practice - it all depends on how often do you dive?
Heres a quick check list:

- Mask remove and replace + no mask swim (depending on conditions)
- Hovering - neutral buoyancy (prop without touching bottom for a minute at least)
- Alternative air source use (and ascent when can)
-Scuba unit and replace underwater and surface (always handy and practices being comfortable)
- Use of surface marker buoy.
- free descent

after that up to you but I believe if you can do these ones comfortable then you pretty much nailed it.

If you are an occasional diver practice and beg or end of each dive. If you dive weekly then once a month all of those will keep you sharp enough.

Hope that helps

 

[TSandM]

I have to say, I have been diving for five years in a wide variety of environments, and I have never had occasion to remove my gear underwater, nor do I practice that skill (except to demonstrate it as a DM). Taking the gear off (and putting it on) on the surface is a good skill for diving off small boats, but although I know people argue about it, I just don't see the point of practicing removing it underwater. It's sufficient to know it's possible to do it, I think.

 

[boulderjohn]

When I was a beginning diver, I decided that doing a safety stop was a good time to work on buoyancy. On every dive I focused on trying to maintain a precise depth solely through breath control. I still do that.

Practicing OOA emergencies is important. During vacation trips with my non-diving wife, I was always looking for an insta-buddy, and I have to admit I never asked them to do that. When I dive with my technical diving buddies it is a regular routine. One of the things you don't realize if you only did OOA practice under a classroom situation is how easy it is for you to screw your buoyancy during the regulator exchange and either find your team shooting to the surface or plunging to the depths. Regular practice will enable you to make the exchange without that happening. It is harder than you might think. When I was doing my cave training, on two different occasions our instructor made my teammate signal OOA while we were in a low-ceilinged tunnel. I saw why he made that decision. On each occasion, after I handed my regulator, I had to wait for my teammate to come back down from where he or she was pinned to the ceiling. If he had done it in an area with a high ceiling, I would have been pulled along for the ride.

Due to a number of circumstances, I am not getting in a lot of real dives these days. I therefore go into the pool every couple of weeks, setting specific goals for each one. I am usually alone on these. On my next one I will be working on line skills.

 

[Captain12Pk]

Every dive. We make sure to practice some skill every time we hit the water. Sometimes it's no more than a valve drill or an "S" drill. But some training is involved in every dive.

 

[Captain12Pk]

That is exactly what I would like to do, have someone spring something on me to practice a skill when I'm not expecting it. I want some more assurance that I won't panic if something comes up. I wish I could find someone in my area that I could practice with regularly.

Come on out to CA. We'll practice with you. Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it.