New S-Drill?

[amascuba]

We were taught to hold the second stage out, with the mouth piece pointed towards the OOG diver, with our left hand, and deploy and stow the hose with our right hand.

I took my Fundamentals class in March 2007.

 

[Gombessa]

I believe there has been a change to the S-drill -- something where the buddy holds the long hose regulator while the donator restows it, and only gives the regulator back once the hose has been dealt with. We didn't do our S-drills that way in Cave 1, so I'm not sure how widely it has been adopted.

Ah ha! Maybe I'm not crazy after all. I wonder what the point is for the change. 1) It makes it seem marginally harder as you have to maintain relative position for longer, and 2) the donee now has something to do other than twiddle thumbs while the donor restows the hose.

 

[Shawn@IReallyloveScub]

If you go to UK DIR diver web sit Clare Gledhill has video's you can watch of the current steps.
She is GUE Fundies instructor rated and Tech 2 carded

DIR Diver - Home
I think this is wright?

 

[robertarak]

Actually, I *THINK* the new S-Drill with the OOG diver holding the reg to simulate real deployment is to have both hand free to work the light cord after primary reg. deployment. Once the OOG diver has the reg. and the hose is fully extended, then the donating diver passes the can light head underthe primary hose to the right hand, then over the primary hose back to the left hand. This frees the primary hose from being trapped by the light cord. Before taking the reg back at the end of the drill, the light head is passed from left to right over the primary hose then from right to left under the hose, then the hose is re-stowed.

I am just a wee-baby fundies divers, but this is how we are currently training.

 

[TSandM]

They saw some kind of problem with managing the long hose. I don't really understand it, because although I was a woeful creature in Fundies, deploying and restowing the long hose was something I managed to do. Our Norwegian teammate in Cave 1 showed me a really slick and cool way to manage the light cord and the long hose for restowing -- I'm not as good at it as he is yet, but it's coming. It's just not that hard.

 

[rjack321]

I am so glad I am done with these classes and can go diving. Sometimes I think the grand poo-bahs get bored and dream up changes for giggles. This whole team restowing jazz is right up that alley.

 

[Bismark]

While I do understand the comments relating to losing track of the forest for the trees, I think it is useful to see what this indicates about GUE as an agency. Sometimes, it is worthwhile to take a look at the individual trees in order to assess the health of the forest. I for one am quite happy knowing that GUE is committed to continually strive for the best, most efficient means to accomplish the ends. They are not simply saying, "we came up with the best way and it will always be the best way". They are willing to revisit procedures if a better procedure is found. I do understand that sometimes these details may seem trivial, however, for an agency to proclaim a commitment to excellence as one of their goals, I personally am happy that they are constantly striving for excellence. As for the details, any tech diver who feels that the "devil is not in the details" is someone I don't want to dive with.

DIR is all about the details, from how to correctly tie boltsnaps to how to conduct a proper gas switch. The big picture is simply a collection of very small pictures put together. I for one am happy that they are paying attention to the little pictures so the big picture continues to be a committment to excellence.

 

[rjack321]

While I do understand the comments relating to losing track of the forest for the trees, I think it is useful to see what this indicates about GUE as an agency. Sometimes, it is worthwhile to take a look at the individual trees in order to assess the health of the forest. I for one am quite happy knowing that GUE is committed to continually strive for the best, most efficient means to accomplish the ends. They are not simply saying, "we came up with the best way and it will always be the best way". They are willing to revisit procedures if a better procedure is found. I do understand that sometimes these details may seem trivial, however, for an agency to proclaim a commitment to excellence as one of their goals, I personally am happy that they are constantly striving for excellence. As for the details, any tech diver who feels that the "devil is not in the details" is someone I don't want to dive with.

DIR is all about the details, from how to correctly tie boltsnaps to how to conduct a proper gas switch. The big picture is simply a collection of very small pictures put together. I for one am happy that they are paying attention to the little pictures so the big picture continues to be a committment to excellence.

See I don't see it that way. There are more and more little details proscribed by high springs: pocket contents, max ppO2 1.2 vs. average ppO2 1.2 MODs, the valve drill, and now stowing the long hose on an S-drill.

The net result of these changes is: 1) new divers who focus on them and lose sight of the big picture and 2) existing divers who have widely different approaches in time and space because of minutia that they then need to iron out.

I'm all for a better mouse trap, but please make any changes substantive and worthwhile. If I do a mod-S do I get help stowing it then?? :doh2: Really I can stow my own stinkin' long hose no need to help out.

 

[Bismark]

I understand your thoughts, honestly I do. But you are already an accomplished diver who ran through these skills etc, several years ago. The difference on whether you hold my long hose for me while I stow it after donating during an s drill or not, really would not affect our ability to accomplish an air share. However, for the Fundamentals student, they might as well be taught the most current version of "correct" as possible. I don't see how we can, on the one hand, say that GUE is leading the way in technical training, partially because of their attention to detail, then at the same time, criticize them for their attention to detail. I am at least happy that they do not feel the last word has been written.

I agree that new divers focus on the minutia and lose sight of the big picture, but that has always been the case. Far easier for the new diver to memorize a list of gear requirements than to understand what a unified team really means. As far as GUE graduates of different times having "wildely different approaches in time and space" I think that may be stretching it a bit. Thinking divers, remember.

As far as substantive changes, what do you suggest? If your suggestion is to either make substantive changes or leave it alone, we would then be essentially stagnant. I don't think HQ is making changes just for the sake of making changes. I suggest that we take a look at the other training that is out there and zoom our big picture out one more notch: I for one am happy that GUE issues are considerably smaller than those found in most of the other technical agencies.

I don't have all the answers Rich but as long as the sport is still in it's relative infancy, I think a lot of other people will think they do have those answers. Debate such as this and points such as yours serve as a counterweight to those who live in minutia. Hopefully, we can find a middle ground between change for the sake of change and change for the sake of the betterment of GUE training.

 

[cfenton]

This change with the s-drill was from the procedural changes in November, 2006:
http://gue.com/files/nov2006changes.pdf
The point of the change was to emphasis the team concept. I'm sure those of us the learned the old way can happily continue as we were without any repercussions. I'm personally happy that GUE continues to make changes, even at this detailed level. Standardizing pocket contents for example, while not a major issue, makes so much sense. After all didn't we all start diving DIR because everything had a logical reason and we were tired of doing things a certain way because "that was how it's always been done."

Bismark, maybe this change was before your DIR days. Don't worry I can show you on Thursday ...you asked me to speak up.