How often do you practice skills?

[ZenDiver.3D]

Basic Five and deploying a SMB from scratch and un-deploying it back to scratch every dive for the last year and a half.

Absolutely! SMB's are not carried by many and not practiced for deploying at depth or on the surface, nearly enough. Line drills are truly needed by most.

 

[DiveMaven]

We travel to dive 2-3x a year, so don't get to dive "regularly" (though we do about 100 dives per year). Before each trip, we always hit the pool to check out gear and practice skills as a mini-refresher.

Like others, we practice skills while diving as well, but we never miss the opportunity to do our pool sessions either.

 

[jon1]

I don't know that this is the best analogy. If you don't parallel park, for example, you tend to have trouble with it on the rare occasion you have to.
If you don't practice regulator recovery or gear removal and replace, or sharing air, you will find that on the occasions you may need it, you will be clumsy and have problems.

I practice a skill or two every dive.

I have to agree that that analogy wasn't the best. The simple skills however I find are just practiced in regular diving.

 

[ZenDiver.3D]

I have to agree that that analogy wasn't the best. The simple skills however I find are just practiced in regular diving.

No worries.

And you would be surprised at the number of people who do no more than partially clear a mask after their initial training. They dive along, and never do anything during their dives but putter. I wish they would practice, like so many of us who use our skills on each dive.

 

[TMHeimer]

Here and there, now and then, depending on if it is convenient (not too cold, no real current, etc.). When solo diving there are only so many you can do, etc.

 

[ajduplessis]

i do at least one skill on virtually every dive (something different each time).

+ + 1

 

[cloudflint]

I train every Wednesday in a pool over the winter. Sometimes when im diving with other club members we will suddenly pretend to go unconscious or be out of air or something like that just to keep each other sharp and to make sure we don't get complacent. Ive done that many unexpected rescues and air shares and stuff that on the few times ive had to do them for real ive found it rather boring since the excitement of suddenly being thrust into an emergency situation has long since faded

 

[down4fun]

Most every dive some sort of skill is practiced. For example the safety stop is a great place to practice helicopter turns and backward fining as well as mask removal. If I have a particular dive or class coming up then it is not uncommon for me and my buddies to commit several dives to just practicing skills. Same goes for new equipment, first dive is usually very shallow and used for building skill and familiarity with that equipment. When my partner and I first started diving together all the time we were a mixed team, meaning he was on a ccr and I was o/c. We spent a couple of dives in the sand at shallow depths working on safety drills and working out the quirks of rescue scenarios in a mixed team. The great thing is that all the people I dive with have the same sort of mind set and are always up for a skills dive. This allows you to have a buddy watch you, both for safety and technique, while you do your skills and then vice versa.

 

[Rhone Man]

What else do people do during the safety stop?

 

[Sask Diver]

I do skils twice a week during the winter, The only diving I get to do during the winter is in the pool untill febuary