Lesson Learned - In Pool Session

[pt40fathoms]

Just to ring my bell to the chorus of replies. I also feel that R&R of the Scuba unit for OW students, even in the pool, is too much task loading and may result in injury to the student or worse. Few OW students would be able to handle a problem that could arise during this exercise, so I have to commend you on not hurting yourself. I would not consider this exercise at all in my open water class.

 

[Diver0001]

Just to ring my bell to the chorus of replies. I also feel that R&R of the Scuba unit for OW students, even in the pool, is too much task loading and may result in injury to the student or worse. Few OW students would be able to handle a problem that could arise during this exercise, so I have to commend you on not hurting yourself. I would not consider this exercise at all in my open water class.

R&R like in "remove and replace" of your own scuba unit is a PADI requirement for the open water course. I think the original poster was talking about an equipment swap with another diver.

R..

 

[Web Monkey]

Is there some point to a swap, aside from being an exercise?

Terry

When you are new just getting used to your gear and where everything is, is certainly difficult enough. I could not imagine having to take all of my gear off, switch it with my buddy, while still maintaining some kind of boyancy, and then using their gear of which I am totally unfamiliar with (Well except what I know from the buddy check). I am sure your instructor had good intentions, but I truly think you were task overloaded. It could have also ended up bad for your buddy when he encountered your reg without the mouthpiece. Real life.. if my equipment breaks I d/c the dive until I fix it. That is what 'save a dive" kits are for, AND my buddy and I don't swap gear underwater. I hope your instructor does not continue his/her extreme teaching during your OW dives.

Oh.. and give your buddy a break. He/she is new too and only acted as best they could.

 

[Web Monkey]

It's still a good lesson, although not the intended one.

If someone asks you to do something that you're not comfortable with (swapping gear, jumping off a boat in bad conditions, just seems weird, etc.), don't do it.

Even if it means you lose the cost of the dive, or look foolish, it's no big deal. It's only a dive, and the next one will come along soon enough.

Terry

No i havent made any open water dives. Yeh now that i think about it, it was too extreme especially under timed conditions.

Also after this incident i realized first hand the importance of buddy checks, and also mentions things to your buddy incase they do not know...like waiting till i found the spare reg before he turned off the main reg.

I also learned after replaying the incident in my head i kno what i shouldve done.

Finally im glad it happened in the pool and ended good

 

[divebunnie]

Wow! I am going to add another voice to the set of suprised ones here. It sounds as though you have gone over the results of the events that occurred enough already, so I won't go over you and your buddie's decisions.

I am surprised that the instructor put such task loading on you at such an early stage. You are still getting to grips with the basics when you are at the confined water stage, and I would reckon this was more important than mastering much more complicated manoevers than necessary at this point. Especially the fact that it was timed!! Nothing like a stop watch to induce a whole load of stress. What happens to the old "stop think act" method if you are on the clock?
I can remember both my buddie and myself being a little anxious about our kit exchange during our Divemaster course, so can't imagine how it must have felt for a novice diver. As it was, the whole event for me, was both challenging and great fun, but that is after having had over 100 normal, stress-free dives under my belt, and an exceptional buddie with whom I felt we made a great team.

Anyway, I'm really glad you both rose to the challenge, survived the incident unscathed, and that you are continuing your dive education, which can only be a good thing. As someone else mentioned, you were both new divers, so having to use your judgement as well as get used to the wholly different underwater experience, was a pretty tough call. It is good to be challenged, however not so much that you give up or worse have an accident.
Hope you enjoy your further courses and any diving that you do in the meantime.

 

[Rookie_J]

i am by no means experienced, but i saw a perfect example of why this would be an important skill for a beginner.

on one of my first dives, after certification, in negril, 7 of us went out to dive a reef. i was a bit nervous, diving with experienced divers who know how to monitor and control their air consumption and me (a rookie who sux air like crazy).. after the dive briefing we were informed the dive was to 80 feet and would last about 25-30 minutes (or until someone is low on air), when our guage gets to 1000, we are to signal our dive master.. i thought great, he singling me out..


about 20 minutes into the dive, i see one of the other divers make a mad dash for the dive master, pointing at his guage and waving his hands like mad. the dive master calms him down and they switch equipment. i looked at my guage, and i still had 1600, i felt really good about that.... the dive lasted about another 10 minutes and we were on the surface....

running low on air in a short amount of time happened twice with this guy.

and yes dive rules were broken.

 

[Tom Smedley]

In my humble opinion - harassment training - especially early in one's training serves no useful purpose except to turn off a student's enthusiasm. Here it goes - Back in the "good old days" we used horse collar BCs and were required to buddy breathe for 200 meters with a snorkel. We were also required to breathe from a tank with no regulator attached. The strong made it and the weak didn't. Several of the best and safest divers I know (including one who is now a full cave instructor) had trouble clearing their mask in open water training. All agencies have a section in their S & P manuals regarding harassment training and discourage it. They also advise the instructor not to "force" a student to do a skill in which they are uncomfortable. Just for grins I have my Divemaster (Divecon) candidates (some with more than a hundred dives) try buddy breathing with a snorkel and few can get it right without practice.

Open water training (like flight training and driver training) teaches you the skills to keep out of trouble and the log book makes them an experienced flyer or diver. Even in "the good old days" my driving license examiner did not require me to do defensive driving tactics to pass.

TT

 

[RonFrank]

About my certification, I had my final test yesterday (50 Multiple Choice Questions) which I recieved a grade of 98% ..1 question wrong I was sure about 2 answers and one was the right one lol but none the less I over achieved the required 75% and successfully and correctly completed 5 dive plan tables with 2 repetive dives each.

I also won a advanced naui scuba diver course for free...and decided to accept the offer and futher continue my diving education

Doing well entitled you to a FREE advanced course after you completely boffed the switch equipment exercise.

In PADI, while they don't have such an IMO absurd skill, if you fail ONE skill, you fail the course.

Sounds like NAUI has become desperate if they have to give away certifications.

Ron

 

[RonFrank]

, why would NAUI give you some Award if you have not even checked out.

I don't get it....

Ron

No i havent made any open water dives. Yeh now that i think about it, it was too extreme especially under timed conditions.

Also after this incident i realized first hand the importance of buddy checks, and also mentions things to your buddy incase they do not know...like waiting till i found the spare reg before he turned off the main reg.

I also learned after replaying the incident in my head i kno what i shouldve done.

Finally im glad it happened in the pool and ended good

 

[Saipanman]

Having said that, in my own OW course the instructor had us throw all of our gear into the deep end on the bottom and dive down to it with snorkle gear on and don it underwater. I liked this excercise even though in the real world I have never had to do this...

R..

Wait until your kit falls off your kayak. (Happened to me once). But I wouldn't have my students do it.