New Scuba Diver in Cape Verde but soon to the world

[adiverslife]

I understand. In the old days we lost people because of carbon monoxide getting into the compressed air fills. It may still happen but we have come a long way. Fortunately, our dive shop in Bonaire has a very good system but when we travel you never know what can happen. The best we can do is at least double check the O2 percentage.

 

[adiverslife]

I recommend doing the nitrox course. You can learn something and u have the option to dive nitrox.

The Buddha position is not something a diver needs to learn..
Hovering horizontal without movement is way more important.

Remember its always more Important to dive instead of doing more and more certs. Nitrox deep(and dry suit if you dive cold) are the only really necessary specialty. Also aowd and rescue ofc. But there are a lot of threads about this.

If you got any questions feel free to ask. SB has so many highly trained and experienced divers, there is always someone who did it before.

Yes, I am very excited the more people I see posting on Scubaboard. A great bunch of knowledgable people.

 

[DandyDon]

It may still happen but we have come a long way.

No, the agencies that did require quarterly system tests...

• Never enforced those requirements;
• Now no longer even give lip serviced to checking systems;
• And hardly any fill stations have and run inline CO monitors with automatic shutoffs.

Any busy compressor can overheat and produce CO internally, and no one is doing much.

Fortunately, our dive shop in Bonaire has a very good system

I doubt that it has inline CO monitors with automatic shutoff. Does it? If so, please post photos including auto-shutoff.

when we travel you never know what can happen. The best we can do is at least double check the O2 percentage.

And that is not at all true.

The best we can do is carry, maintain, and use tank testers.

 

[MichaelMc]

Welcome. It sounds as if you are immersing yourself in this which is great.

The 1/4 turn back thing on valves was relevant for old type valves that could stick at the ends of their travel. It is not relevant for any valve you are likely to encounter. Do not cram the valve all the way open or closed, but otherwise fully open or fully closed, but not gorilla gripped, is the norm.

The Buddha position is not something a diver needs to learn..
Hovering horizontal without movement is way more important.

^^^^ This.
A reason for the first part of this is that being vertical, like the seated Buddha, is mostly just useful just before surfacing so you can look around as your head comes out of the water. Buddha hover is a cute image but addresses only buoyancy. Many divers that put all their weight on their waist wind up with a natural head up butt down orientation in the water. It is an orientation that is very inefficient for diving plus it has secondary effects of stirring up the bottom and killing the visibility. The Buddha hover, as some sign of skill, completely ignores this issue.

Being horizontal underwater means you increase your vertical drag which makes depth control easier. It also streamlines you in the direction you likely want to move, horizontally. It also means that when you kick your thrust is just horizontal. Instead of also thrusting you partially vertical, thus changing your depth and buoyancy (as the air in your suit and BC expand), which you likely did not want. If you adapt the frog kick, it also means you can pull your ankles in or extend them further behind you to shift your center of mass to tilt forward, backward, or stay level as desired. So skip the Buddha hover and look at being horizontal and learning the frog kick.

If you are into more sources of info, RAID is another dive agency and their instruction material is available free online and should expand on the above. I would take a look at their site. I have no connection to them.
Learn to scuba dive | Get your scuba certification | Scuba diving lessons | Online scuba training | Learn to dive rebreathers | Scuba diving schools | Scuba vacations | Underwater photography | Diver training program.

 

[MichaelMc]

Dody,

The RAID class manual for Advanced 35 has a nice discussion of buoyancy and trim. They also have a gas blender class manual that might be of interest to you on the NITROX issue.

 

[Dody]

I understand. In the old days we lost people because of carbon monoxide getting into the compressed air fills. It may still happen but we have come a long way. Fortunately, our dive shop in Bonaire has a very good system but when we travel you never know what can happen. The best we can do is at least double check the O2 percentage.

Yes CO tester is on the list too. Damn! Expensive hobby when we want to do it right and minimize the risks. Just by reading SB, in the last 24 hours, I added 2 meters DSMB, Powered surface whistle, flashlight, signal mirror, Nautilus lifeline Discontinued?) or equivalent, PLB, Dive knife, Pony.

 

[Dody]

Welcome to the community! Very cool. As a new diver myself, it's interesting to see the perspective from other recently-certified divers.


This video might prove useful in assessing various certifications and their usefulness to you.

I am not sure that I agree with all that is said in the video. At the end of my OW, my buoyancy control was poor. A couple of additional dives with my buddy did not fix that. The formal course not only gave me the science behind it but after three dives in the ocean with my instructor 100% dedicated to buoyancy I finally got it right and greatly reduced my gas consumption. So I would not call Buoyancy a BS course. IMHO, it is even the basis of all the other skills. I care about the skills. I don't care if no one will ever ask me a buoyancy certification card. Same think for navigation.
Not everyone wants to ask a fellow diver to be taught. Going to an agency is faster, and convenient.

 

[Dody]

Welcome! I had the privilege of diving in Tarrafal on Santiago a few years ago. It was great:

https://flic.kr/s/aHsm9WYxvq

I'm envious of all the incredible marine life you'll get to explore.

Very nice pics. Can I ask you what kind of material you have?

 

[adiverslife]

I am not sure that I agree with all that is said in the video. At the end of my OW, my buoyancy control was poor. A couple of additional dives with my buddy did not fix that. The formal course not only gave me the science behind it but after three dives in the ocean with my instructor 100% dedicated to buoyancy I finally got it right and greatly reduced my gas consumption. So I would not call Buoyancy a BS course. IMHO, it is even the basis of all the other skills. I care about the skills. I don't care if no one will ever ask me a buoyancy certification card. Same think for navigation.
Not everyone wants to ask a fellow diver to be taught. Going to an agency is faster, and convenient.

The reality is there is just not enough time in the OW courses to teach good buoyancy. I have had friends and family come down to Bonaire and ask the instructor what needs to be worked on and I spend an afternoon fixing the issues. Buoyancy is the thing that needs the most fixing and it gets done and in the process greatly improves their bottom time. I am a DM. You ususally have to go with someone who dives a lot to get things fixed. The good thing is it usually does not take long.

 

[Mr. Dooley]

I am not sure that I agree with all that is said in the video. At the end of my OW, my buoyancy control was poor. A couple of additional dives with my buddy did not fix that.
Not everyone wants to ask a fellow diver to be taught. Going to an agency is faster, and convenient.

Fair assessment - my buoyancy was also rough immediately after my OW course. I wonder if how useful a buoyancy course is is largely determined by how good your OW course was to begin with. My OW course consisted of maybe four pool sessions, then the checkout dives in the ocean. During these we'd descend, and smash into the bottom at 30 ft. Not sure anyone even bothered letting me know that's now how you do that. Where I train now, they say they don't even let anyone into open water with fewer than NINE pool sessions - yet both schools are SSI-affiliated. I did end up taking the buoyancy course and it wasn't exactly exhaustive - one pool session, basically. I will say my buoyancy now is much better, but I think that's largely from just getting more time in the water. I'm guessing the real value, from any course, is what your instructor puts into it.

But it does open up a larger conversation about how OW courses should be taught - should students even be passed without having a fundamental grasp of buoyancy? You'd think not. Yes it takes time and practice to get it down just right, but you'd think they could equip you with all the necessary fundamentals during OW training.

So I would not call Buoyancy a BS course. IMHO, it is even the basis of all the other skills. I care about the skills. I don't care if no one will ever ask me a buoyancy certification card. Same think for navigation.

Couldn't agree more about it buoyancy being a core skill - along with breathing, trim, and propulsion. I'm a perfectionist in these areas (as in I strive for perfection, not that I've attained it) so I understand the desire to learn the skill regardless of how often you'll be flashing your buoyancy cert. I think James' point on the video is that that offering and charging students for buoyancy lessons is inherently sketchy in his opinion, since he thinks an instructor should teach buoyancy as part of the OW course, not as an optional add-on.