Kicking styles.

[JamesK]

Awkward, but effective!

 

[t4e]

i love the frog kick, not only effective but very comfortable and easy on your legs

 

[Quero]

I only teach alternative kick styles to OW students if they are having flutter kick issues (very rarely otherwise, and only if they are "ready" for these alternative kicks); there's enough task loading in OW courses that adding alternative kick styles is just overload.

As for the weight requirement, I just finished with a student who needed 18 lbs in the pool in a 3mm wetsuit. It depends a lot on body composition--people need what they need. However, when a diver needs that amount, it's often a good idea (particularly for men) to shift some of that weight upwards (by using trim weights, for example), to help prevent the problem of the legs dropping down.

 

[Dbmata]

Yup, it says Frog Kick too! By the way, the guy in the video is Andrew Georgitsis

Well, I was asking more if it was the correct video, it was the correct skill.

I think I might have to try it. Going skin diving this weekend, might be able to work up to a few seconds of safe downtime to try it.

 

[DevonDiver]

Yes, 18#. Even with that I found myself "caught" a couple times at the surface - I'd claim that as operator error though.

Not really.

Over-weighted = more compensating air in your BCD = greater variation in gas volume as an effect of ascending/descending = a much more difficult task for the diver to control their buoyancy, especially in shallow water where the greatest expansion/compression of gas volume occurs for a given depth.

Over-weighting students is only about instructor convenience. It's counter-productive to the evolution of good diving skills.

With the frog and backfin, is that better to just let sit until I need it and learn "in the field"?

It's not typical to get taught this on OW lessons. To be honest, it's not typical for many instructors at any level.

You won't be able to achieve a good frog or back-kick until you have your buoyancy, weighting and trim resolved with some precision. You need to be horizontal for these fin and control techniques to be properly effective.

Fine-tune your precision weighting.
Resolve your natural, horizontal trim and streamlining.
Then work towards developing fin and control techniques.
Then use those techniques to provide more efficiency in the water (i.e. kick and glide) to improve your air consumption and comfort in the water.

Some tips: Scuba Buoyancy Masterclass 1of9 - Buoyancy Control for Scuba Divers -Scuba Tech Philippines

 

[Dbmata]

You won't be able to achieve a good frog or back-kick until you have your buoyancy, weighting and trim resolved with some precision. You need to be horizontal for these fin and control techniques to be properly effective.

Fine-tune your precision weighting.
Resolve your natural, horizontal trim and streamlining.
Then work towards developing fin and control techniques.
Then use those techniques to provide more efficiency in the water (i.e. kick and glide) to improve your air consumption and comfort in the water.

Some tips: Scuba Buoyancy Masterclass 1of9 - Buoyancy Control for Scuba Divers -Scuba Tech Philippines

Understood. Thanks for the link, I'm going to read through it over the next couple days here. With rental gear it might be a beast to get proper weighting, unless I rent from a single shop only, which wouldn't be impossible.

Revolving kit will make it a pita.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

I just want to mention here that in our dive center's PADI AOW course, even though it is not a specific agenda item, we do spend time on different finning styles, especially because we do the training in a local reservoir with a very silty bottom. Viz can go from 20 feet to zero in no time, so it is really appropriate to discuss kicks and body position and control in tandem.
DivemasterDennis

 

[dwhthediver]

I demonstrate both a proper flutter kick to open water students, but they see a frog kick since it is about the only kick I use. I do, however teach it in peak performance buoyancy class, as well as moving the required weight around so it easy to get proper trim, buoyancy isn't just not hitting the bottom or not floating up.

 

[Rhone Man]

I have always thought that if PADI wanted to create a more useful "specialty", then "Advanced kicking techniques" would be a good one.

I am a big fan of encouraging divers to use the frog kick, not so much for anti silting, but because it usually also lowers air consumption.

 

[JamesK]

I am a big fan of encouraging divers to use the frog kick, not so much for anti silting, but because it usually also lowers air consumption.

I am a big fan of the Frog Kick because it makes me look like some entirely new species. I find that when I get back on dive boats men stand between me and their wives for fear that they will not be able to resist the call of the wild and the chance to tame such a beast. I find that fish stare at me, and show me to their young as an example of how to be fluid and efficient underwater. I swear I once had a spotted eagle ray stare at me with a jealous look of amazement. When mere mortals see my anti-silting techniques, they are forever changed. The power stroke on my Frog Kick has been scientifically proven, in multiple university studies, to actually increase visibility for those around me.