Navigation practice
- Thread starter Doctor Rig
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When I wrote my Underwater Nav course it was in response to ALL of the agency ones that I could find and frankly, for newer divers, they are all crap if taught as written. The sad thing is that there are many instructors who don't take the initiative to learn to navigate properly themselves.
I took a PADI UW Nav class taught by the book and I struggled. Then I found a mentor who took me on a 1 hour dive covering a lake where we used to do checkouts. I just followed along and watched what he did. Or tried to. He did many things that I never saw. But I knew we made 7 course changes, some swims were more than 10 minutes in midwater without seeing the bottom. Never once surfaced to check if were were on course. Vis was 10-30 feet depending on where we were in the lake. We came back to within 5 feet of where we started.
Then he explained this wizardry. How he had developed his nav skills.
Initially, all of these were done as a buddy team with a buddy who was just as committed to developing the skill. Change off tasks so each can do any of them. Watching depth, time, air. Noting features. Using the compass.
Before any of these, your buoyancy and trim need to be good. You need to be able to hold depth in the water column.
1. Start with small segments and nail those. 4 fin kicks, 8 fin kicks, 1 minute, 2 minutes, etc. Reciprocals, triangles, squares, etc.
2. Make precise turns! Not looping lazy ones. - this requires excellent buoyancy and trim. Yo-yoing or getting vertical throws your turns off.
3. Prepare for the turn as you approach it. Change the bezel before you reach the turn point.
4. Note the point you make the turn.
5. Observe a point or landmark, if possible, and note it mentally, in wetnotes, or on a slate.
6. When you note a turn point or landmark, turn around and look at it from the direction you'll be returning from! It may look very different from the back or side.
7. Make maps as often as possible. They don't need to be works of art but you should be able to look at them and know exactly what they convey.
8. Learn to make use of a line and reel. You can use these in low vis or to verify and hold a heading.
9. Learn to measure and judge currents by swimming the legs of a square and noting the effect of current on them. This is not rocket science but it takes some patience and observation skill development.
10. Practice, practice, practice,
I wrote my basic Nav course to include all of these. It had 6 dives, and we often did them in shallow water, 30 ft or less. Students would end up with 8+ hours of bottom time because NDLs and air allowed it.
Every skill was based on acting as a team, sharing the task load, and switching off skills so that each got to practice.
Communication was stressed over and over as well as excellent buddy skills.
I had students come back after the class and say that they had others ask them if they were DMs or instructors because of their navigation skills. All I did was give them a foundation, and they ran with it. They had fun while working on it and discovering new things in the same places because they were now looking, seeing, and registering new items.
Few people will be able to swim a 100 ft, let alone yard reciprocal without some serious deviation the first time they try. They need to learn how their kicks and body position affect this. Or judge on the surface how the wind will have an effect.
In setting up a course on a "featureless" lake or quarry bottom, I used 3ft/meter long lengths of PVC pipe shoved into the bottom with a piece of reflective tape around the top. Easy to set up and carry, can tie off a line to, and won't float away.
I used cave-diving cookies and arrows for directions and to mark paths.
None of this will make someone a good navigator overnight. But enough practice starting like this and they can become the wizard.
I took a PADI UW Nav class taught by the book and I struggled. Then I found a mentor who took me on a 1 hour dive covering a lake where we used to do checkouts. I just followed along and watched what he did. Or tried to. He did many things that I never saw. But I knew we made 7 course changes, some swims were more than 10 minutes in midwater without seeing the bottom. Never once surfaced to check if were were on course. Vis was 10-30 feet depending on where we were in the lake. We came back to within 5 feet of where we started.
Then he explained this wizardry. How he had developed his nav skills.
Initially, all of these were done as a buddy team with a buddy who was just as committed to developing the skill. Change off tasks so each can do any of them. Watching depth, time, air. Noting features. Using the compass.
Before any of these, your buoyancy and trim need to be good. You need to be able to hold depth in the water column.
1. Start with small segments and nail those. 4 fin kicks, 8 fin kicks, 1 minute, 2 minutes, etc. Reciprocals, triangles, squares, etc.
2. Make precise turns! Not looping lazy ones. - this requires excellent buoyancy and trim. Yo-yoing or getting vertical throws your turns off.
3. Prepare for the turn as you approach it. Change the bezel before you reach the turn point.
4. Note the point you make the turn.
5. Observe a point or landmark, if possible, and note it mentally, in wetnotes, or on a slate.
6. When you note a turn point or landmark, turn around and look at it from the direction you'll be returning from! It may look very different from the back or side.
7. Make maps as often as possible. They don't need to be works of art but you should be able to look at them and know exactly what they convey.
8. Learn to make use of a line and reel. You can use these in low vis or to verify and hold a heading.
9. Learn to measure and judge currents by swimming the legs of a square and noting the effect of current on them. This is not rocket science but it takes some patience and observation skill development.
10. Practice, practice, practice,
I wrote my basic Nav course to include all of these. It had 6 dives, and we often did them in shallow water, 30 ft or less. Students would end up with 8+ hours of bottom time because NDLs and air allowed it.
Every skill was based on acting as a team, sharing the task load, and switching off skills so that each got to practice.
Communication was stressed over and over as well as excellent buddy skills.
I had students come back after the class and say that they had others ask them if they were DMs or instructors because of their navigation skills. All I did was give them a foundation, and they ran with it. They had fun while working on it and discovering new things in the same places because they were now looking, seeing, and registering new items.
Few people will be able to swim a 100 ft, let alone yard reciprocal without some serious deviation the first time they try. They need to learn how their kicks and body position affect this. Or judge on the surface how the wind will have an effect.
In setting up a course on a "featureless" lake or quarry bottom, I used 3ft/meter long lengths of PVC pipe shoved into the bottom with a piece of reflective tape around the top. Easy to set up and carry, can tie off a line to, and won't float away.
I used cave-diving cookies and arrows for directions and to mark paths.
None of this will make someone a good navigator overnight. But enough practice starting like this and they can become the wizard.
I personally like the console mounted compass....but that's probably because I'm an old fart who still actually uses a console.. With my AI Pro Plus 3 , I have all of my critical data right in front of me while navigating and also the compass is tilted level..... so it's not at all difficult to get it oriented correctly right in front of me.
Wow..... are they also humble because of you?
If I've got serious navigation to do on a dive, I either have a compass board I can use (with notes/headings written on it), or I use a compass on a retractor clipped to a chest D-ring with a strong retractor...easy to form a "tripod" in front of me with two hands and the retractor. Very stable. Occasional nav (am I going N or W?) is with the little arrow on my Teric.
OP
Doctor Rig
Contributor
Thanks everyone for you insight, experience sharing, and suggestions! Very helpful!
I think the smiley face at the end of his comment denotes sarcasm.
I started wearing my compass on my left hand with a bungee from my ow course. I try to keep my hands together in a relaxed position in front of me while diving, so by just lifting my hands slightly, I can see my compass and my computer so I have bearing and time.
The ow course included some basic navigation: timed swim on a give heading, when time is up, turn for reciprocal and swim back. Plan and navigate a triangular course so that you come back to the spot you started from. Wasn't too difficult. I think what helped me, was that I was reasonably proficient in navigating on land.
I have since been trying to improve my skills by doing dives that require some navigation. The site I dive most has plenty of features and landmarks on the bottom, but poor visibility.
All that said, for a featureless bottom and limited vis like the OP described, I'd start off with reasonably short legs (tens of meters) and then increase distances as skills and also CONFIDENCE builds. (I can say from my own experience that not being sure where the h**l you are in murky waters can be a bit nerve racking..)
I would love to practice on a navigation course where I would reach one marker and there would be a compass heading and time / distance to the next marker and then to the next and so on.
EDIT: Just noticed OP stating that divers in question are familiar with navigation but would enjoy practice, so I would maybe start of with 50-75m legs, depending on skill levels.
The ow course included some basic navigation: timed swim on a give heading, when time is up, turn for reciprocal and swim back. Plan and navigate a triangular course so that you come back to the spot you started from. Wasn't too difficult. I think what helped me, was that I was reasonably proficient in navigating on land.
I have since been trying to improve my skills by doing dives that require some navigation. The site I dive most has plenty of features and landmarks on the bottom, but poor visibility.
All that said, for a featureless bottom and limited vis like the OP described, I'd start off with reasonably short legs (tens of meters) and then increase distances as skills and also CONFIDENCE builds. (I can say from my own experience that not being sure where the h**l you are in murky waters can be a bit nerve racking..)
I would love to practice on a navigation course where I would reach one marker and there would be a compass heading and time / distance to the next marker and then to the next and so on.
EDIT: Just noticed OP stating that divers in question are familiar with navigation but would enjoy practice, so I would maybe start of with 50-75m legs, depending on skill levels.
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