Navigation course ?

[Jim Lapenta]

Here's the thing with a aow nav dive as I experienced in my own course years ago and what I see happening now. The goals are unrealistic for divers who have no previous experience with a compass other than one time on ow checkouts. They may not take into account low vis, people whose buddy skills need work, have poor buoyancy and trim, or other issues in the same vein. So you use multiple small goals like insisting the buddies stay together and share the task loading. You teach them helicopter turns and the importance of coming to a stop to turn. Having signs or markers on the way points is not cheating. It's reinforcing their confidence by giving immediate feedback. It helps to reduce frustration by giving them a visual clue to get back or stay on track. They should be looking for references like that anyway. It's why I wrote my own nav course materials and guidelines for the uw nav dive in aow. You can't use the same approach, goals, and information universally. Conditions, skills, experience, etc all have to be taken into account or your students are done a disservice. This area you are laying out can be great. Just keep in mind that it is for divers to use and learn from. Not get mad at.

 

[mullannix930]

That is a good point Jim. I will put points of interest on the waypoints and, as I can, add small objects in line with the waypoints. I am wanting it to be used to teach as well as allow a diver to practice and test.

 

[tbone1004]

the biggest thing is to have a defined end-point for the divers. If you put stuff in the middle of their path it reduces the effect at the end because they'll cheat. Hey, we're 5' to the right but we were supposed to go right over, so they'll move over and continue. Not good. You want them to succeed but you need enough feedback to make sure they know they're nowhere as good as they think they are. That is why long navigation sets to something like a boat, bus, or a plane is a huge feedback because no matter how much they suck, they should still find it, but the degree of how much they suck will show in whether or not they hit the up-line or hit something in the middle or the far right. That gives them real time feedback. The ending waypoints are critical because I have yet to see an AOW student who knows exactly how far they kick on each cycle, I'm pretty sure this is impossible with flutter kicking, but in a lake that should be explicitly verboten. That said, they don't know how it's going to work with a buddy holding onto their arm, and most importantly they are far too task loaded to keep accurate count and consistent kick speeds. Combine that with almost all AOW students inability to do a flat turn on their own, heaven forbid as a team, and they need some kind of reference marker to turn around with.

Now, the other justification to have waypoints as well defined objects is what is navigation useful for? Getting to and from something, they aren't on a mission to sneak into somewhere, they are going directly from point a to point b in the water *if they ever actually use a compass to navigate, which is probably never*, so make it realistic

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Many divers don't use a compass because they were never really shown how. Couple that with instructors who only know how to teach what the book says with little actual experience. The final straw is preparing them to be led around by the nose by DM's, Guides, etc. instead of teaching them to be skilled, safe, independent divers who may want a guide now and then, but never really need one.
Big reason many see diving as not as cool as it used to be. Too easy.
Take a lesson from many Keys ops and So Cal boats.
Don't put guides or DM's in the water unless specifically requested.
Make people responsible for themselves and the requests for Nav classes will go way up.

 

[mullannix930]

The waypoints will have definitive objects, but I will put small objects in between. The small stuff will more be to cut the featureless bottom, than to help with nav. On top of the waypoint objects, there will be buoys on them with down lines. The platforms will have the buoy anchored to them, but the other points will have an object (buoyancy course etc) that will be at the point. This would allow the diver to try to hit the line but even if they don't they can get close by finding the object.

 

[tbone1004]

you want them to have featureless bottoms, when learning to navigate they have to learn how to trust the compass and their navigation. If they are given breadcrumbs they'll never learn because they'll be cheating the whole time based on the bread crumbs. Featureless bottoms never hurt anyone

 

[mullannix930]

The in between objects will be off to the sides, and small (like concrete lawn statue size) and unless they are hugging the bottom (10-20 feet) they won't be able to really see them enough to help them. Also those little items won't be listed for location. Only if you do the course and memorize them would they help.

 

[tursiops]

As long as it's ok for things to be on the waypoints, for the AOW nav dive, I will go with it.

I don't think you mean "on the waypoints," do you? The waypoint is the end of a segment, not the segment.
So, do you mean things along the segment, to be seen while people are swimming, or something at the end of a segment, as a visual target to aim for? If the former, that's fine; if the latter, it tends to invalidate pure compass usage, as others have pointed out.

 

[mullannix930]

I know what a waypoint is. if you look at my first post, you will see an idea of what I was talking about. The platform is on one of the corners (waypoint) of the course. The Buoyancy course would be near another corner and a different platform would be on a third corner. The objects aren't visible until you get within a short distance of the waypoint and then you would still have to find the down line. To give an idea of finding the down line off of the buoy on the platform... I was there yesterday and It was not visible unless you were within a few feet of it.

the small objects that I was talking about is just filler stuff that adds to the scenery.

---------- Post added June 7th, 2015 at 09:53 PM ----------

I came across a little defensive on that last one. I didn't intend to and am sorry. I am using the large points of interest to be in the area of the waypoints (2 platforms and a buoyancy course) with the buoyancy being close enough to see but the obstacles are small enough to not be visible from a long distance. That way divers will have something other than a blank area to make the turns. One of the waypoints on the square and one on the triangle will not have an object on them at this time. That way divers will have to go on distance estimation.


My other reason for doing it this way is to help in the initial setup of the area that I am working on. The in water work is done by me and the few (normally only 1) other divers that are willing to help out. It's amazing how many people say they want to help, but then scatter when you ask for it. I will probably change it around after instructors use it and give input. I don't want it too difficult but am also not wanting to make it overly easy. I want to use it to challenge my skills also, but I need to keep it realistic for what a couple of people can do.