is this class worth it...Advanced Buoyancy Clinic (ABC)?

[flots am]

Turned into the typical 5 pretty quickly this time. I am surprised nobody has invoked "you know who" yet.

Voldemort?

 

[ScubaSteve1962]

Scuba Buoyancy Masterclass 1of9 - Buoyancy Control for Scuba Divers -Scuba Tech Philippines

 

[rcarriles]

I think ABC is a matter of preference. I took the class before I did my OW check out. I think it helped me tremendously. Besides learning to hold depth, we played what my instructor called, "pass the potato". While we held depth, he would come and hand us a weight belt and we could not lose our depth. You did not know when he would bring the weights or when he would come take them away. This game made you learn how to use your BC very quickly. All in all I think the $100 ABC class was very much worth the money because I feel more confident with my buoyancy.

 

[Dive-aholic]

Video is a useful tool ... like most tools, if it is used properly. As an instructor, I would only consider it if I had someone else doing the video ... I want to devote my full attention to the student, not the camera. That's why I said the comment was a generality ... video can be useful, or it can be a distraction, depending on how it's used. It should not, however, be used as a criteria for determining the value of the class.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

I use video feedback even during the dive sometimes. It's not optimal but I have a good size display on my camera and it can be viewed underwater. However, most of the time I do use it during surface intervals. I also hardly pay any attention to the camera. I've used it so much I just turn it on and shoot while looking at the student. I don't need to look at the display to use it. The camera has proven very useful in many of my classes. I even had one student who adamantly stated he was too far head down and insisted he had to change his orientation. This was a sidemount class and in backmount he had to be slightly head up to be able to see. Not the case without a manifold behind your noggin. He was shocked when I showed him the video...and apologetic. I don't use video exclusively but it has helped a lot when I can show students how they are incorrectly positioned so they can fix it. Sometimes talking them through it just isn't enough for some.

 

[mainedvr]

Dont do it....and if you do be sure to find out what it entails. My wife and I took a boyancy class winter before last and we did some pool work and did not get anything really from it. If you can find a good instructor that will give you decent feed back and I like what DA said about video feed back. I was looking at taking a GUE primer course with a dive shop in CT as it is basically getting skills together and the biggest is boyancy at least as the owner stated it, he said it was derived from their advanced boyancy course (may be mis quoting him but something like that). We did not take it but that is more of something I would do instead. Good luck with it and hey practice makes perfect fun....

 

[Rich Keller]

I didn't see enough information about the course to draw such a conclusion. In fact there was NO information about the course anywhere in this thread. Wondering how you came to this conclusion.

It is just buoyancy control not rocket science. There is nothing they can teach you in that course that cannot be learned right here for free.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

It is just buoyancy control not rocket science. There is nothing they can teach you in that course that cannot be learned right here for free.

... you cannot learn buoyancy control on the internet ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Rich Keller]

... you cannot learn buoyancy control on the internet ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

That is the only answer I would expect from an instructor. Regardless of where you learn, you are not going to know until you get in the water and apply what you have learned.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

That is the only answer I would expect from an instructor. Regardless of where you learn, you are not going to know until you get in the water and apply what you have learned.

... and you just validated my answer ... you can only learn buoyancy control in the water.

Reading about something isn't learning it ... if it were, everyone coming out of OW would have perfect buoyancy control ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[supergaijin]

Because you're an instructor you have a vested interest in saying that blah blah blah.

Doing some dives specifically to work on buoyancy or dedicating a part of your dive to work on buoyancy skills is a good thing. To be fair you can rent a tank and drop in to a pool to do it yourself. You'll probably run out of ideas pretty quickly whereas a good instructor will have a program designed to teach you good buoyancy skills.

Whether you do it
1. specifically with an instructor/experienced diver with teaching ability (PC makes life so much easier)
2. by yourself spread out over a number of dives

I think you should do it.

Can you learn it from the internet? Sure- as easily as it would be to learn to whistle.