MSDT Prep Questions

[yle]

so a deep wreck dive at night using Nitrox while taking pictures doesn't count towards five specialties....

Thanks for the laugh... I can hear people asking "but why NOT?!" The same people that would want to take a new camera on a deep wreck dive at night. For their AOW class.

 

[Diving Dubai]

and then take the MSDT course immediately following the IDC.

This is normal, if a slightly misleading title by all. It's more of a prep course, and I did mine straight after ICD. No problem with that because its a nice relaxing wind down, where you and your fellow IE candidates can have some fun without pressure.

It's those centres that give certs away as part of this course which irk me. It's a money making scam and does the candidate and industry no favours

 

[Diving Dubai]

I'd agree with this, except for those DM's that assist for a lot of classes prior to becoming instructors. They'll have the experience you refer to long before they take the IE... which they should be able to breeze through by that point.

Partially agree. I DM'd full time for 2 months before IDC and certainly I learnt a lot of the little details especially positioning and student control - by that I mean the little details of how you as an instructor ensures you have control at all times - esp with reg out skills. But yes you get to see the "problem" students who have some fear that you need to find a way of overcoming to progress

My IDC was bundled with AI - which was effectively a free course and PADI were doing a deal on fees too. Although I never used AI in anger I found it really useful to effectively go through the process prior to ICD so had a head start

I know a couple of Instructors who took AI, and struggled, so delayed IDC for 6 or so months while they consolidated their skills and then were ready for IDC and breezed through it.


I still maintain that none of the above prepare you to stand alone in the pool on CW1 with a couple of students. It's a scary thing. Thinking back it took me about 5 or 6 courses to really get into a teaching flow and feel at ease with it.

If a student struggled with a skill I'd take it personally, it isn't their fault but my inability to communicate the skill or offer a different explanation or the principles. With practice this fades away as you develop those skills and that knowledge though and it becomes easier

 

[Stephen McCallister]

I watched my room mate go through their MSDT prep course and he would come back in the evening laughing at how much it was a joke. For example self reliant diver, he didnt even have 2 sets of gear. they just dropped him in the water with a buddy and had him do a few things, picked him up and that was it. It was like that for a most of the other specialties that he wanted to pick up. Just go out and do the dives then its done.

 

[tursiops]

I watched my room mate go through their MSDT prep course and he would come back in the evening laughing at how much it was a joke. For example self reliant diver, he didnt even have 2 sets of gear. they just dropped him in the water with a buddy and had him do a few things, picked him up and that was it. It was like that for a most of the other specialties that he wanted to pick up. Just go out and do the dives then its done.

And THIS, my friends, is why there are crap instructors.

 

[Stephen McCallister]

thanks for all of the advice and thoughts and some scolding, lol. It was all taken to heart and i will not be going back to the place that I was at. I am looking at going some place else and I am not in a hurry to get there.
Cheers

 

[Stephen McCallister]

so pulled out the log book and slate and dive computer and have this to ask:

Correct me if I am wrong but in dive planning we are supposed to always round up in order to be on the safe side. Like if my depth was 101 or 102 feet you would round up to 110 instead of down to 100 feet correct?

So lets say you go on a deep dive using 32% nitrox and hit 102 feet, do your dive, and come up.
Upon surfacing you check your computer and it says that your max depth was 102 feet and your dive time was 32 minutes.

According to the dive slate, you went over our NDCL. for both, 100 ft by 2 minutes and an 8 minute decompression stop is required and 6 hours of no diving. If you round up then 110 ft by 7 minutes and a 15 minute decompression stop is required and no diving for 24 hours.

But do you trust your computer and let it manage it for you. The dive computer gave an average depth of 62 feet. Here is a profile of the dive:

 

[tursiops]

Why not? It is a more accurate version of the dive than a square profile table.
In a discussion of NDL and possible deco, why mention average depth 62 ft? It is irrelevant except for working out gas consumption.

 

[Edward3c]

so pulled out the log book and slate and dive computer and have this to ask:

Correct me if I am wrong but in dive planning we are supposed to always round up in order to be on the safe side. Like if my depth was 101 or 102 feet you would round up to 110 instead of down to 100 feet correct?

So lets say you go on a deep dive using 32% nitrox and hit 102 feet, do your dive, and come up.
Upon surfacing you check your computer and it says that your max depth was 102 feet and your dive time was 32 minutes.

According to the dive slate, you went over our NDCL. for both, 100 ft by 2 minutes and an 8 minute decompression stop is required and 6 hours of no diving. If you round up then 110 ft by 7 minutes and a 15 minute decompression stop is required and no diving for 24 hours.

But do you trust your computer and let it manage it for you. The dive computer gave an average depth of 62 feet. Here is a profile of the dive:
View attachment 600219

This is quite simple. You plan the dive then dive the plan.

From what you’ve said you didn’t plan to stay within the tables, but did the dive on your computer then tried to fit it to tables. Use one or the other.

Yesterday we planned to dive 30m with a total in-water time of 60 minutes without going into mandatory deco. Our plan was not to get within 6 minutes of mandatory deco, and to surface with more than 50bar; the dive profile shows how we did it. The dive is not possible on tables.

 

[Stephen McCallister]

So dive the table or the computer?
I didnt plan the dive, it was a guided dive and from the school. The dive briefing on the boat never gives you depth or time at depth, or time at the site to allow you to do any dive planning. It was get on the boat and we are going to this site, dont know which ball they are connecting to until they get there. Then its get in, follow the guide, do air checks and then come back up.
For shallow depths, like most of their dives are, it just a timed dive. 45 minutes in the water then back on the boat.
I was just going back into my log book and filling in some notes. Decided to look at the tables and compare to what the computer showed. The computer had a safety stop for 3 minutes (which is always for that depth) not 8 or 15 so had no reason to believe anything was wrong.
Just trying to figure out where I went wrong and how to correct the action.
If the computer is always making adjustments and still shows everything with in limits then how are you supposed to dive? Like your taught by the tables or just let the computer deal with it?