NSS-CDS removes air sharing...

[Manatee Diver]

Surprised this hasn't come up here, NSS-CDS's training committee removes air shares from their training programs.

Just stop. Do it now. - NSS-CDS Training Program

They go over the alternate procedure which involves the donor reg being clipped on the left D ring of their harness.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. Clipping the reg off means you no longer feel it pulling in your mouth as you move the hose around. But in a post-COVID world I can understand the reason.

 

[elmo]

Interesting. At first I interpreted it as teaching an alternate procedure. But it's "just" skipping the actual breathing from the donated reg part.
For comparison, the Cave Diving Association of Australia has taken a more extreme stance - don't go cave diving at all

 

[bletso]

Of course they are assuming that the students mastered the skill in OW training and that the OW agencies will continue the skill un-altered. OW agencies may have to alter their training as well in light of this pandemic. Then what? Perhaps we should be stressing self sufficiency more.

 

[rddvet]

I completely understand where the CDS is coming from with this, but I don't fully agree with it. If it's that much of a concern, I'd say require a negative test or students be quarantined pre-class (which I'm sure is completely unrealistic and why after much deliberation I'm sure is why they came up with this). I think it denudes training of muscle memory and air sharing as a whole. In my first cave class we had to navigate a restriction while air sharing. I was warned to protect the reg from being ripped out of your mouth. I thought I had, but apparently my buddy forgot I was attached to him and I had to struggle to keep hold of his long hose reg. I also accidentally ripped the reg away from my wife the first time we did a side by side dpv air share in our overhead dpv class. I think new students will lose the muscle memory of donated reg straight to the mouth and purged as well as the experience of protecting the reg.
Not a big fan, but I don't make those types of decisions. The jury is still up if corona can survive a wet environent, and I'm of the volition it can't. Another option would be to halt all classes until a more appropriate time, but that's not good for instructors,.

 

[Superlyte27]

I completely understand where the CDS is coming from with this, but I don't fully agree with it. If it's that much of a concern, I'd say require a negative test or students be quarantined pre-class (which I'm sure is completely unrealistic and why after much deliberation I'm sure is why they came up with this). I think it denudes training of muscle memory and air sharing as a whole. In my first cave class we had to navigate a restriction while air sharing. I was warned to protect the reg from being ripped out of your mouth. I thought I had, but apparently my buddy forgot I was attached to him and I had to struggle to keep hold of his long hose reg. I also accidentally ripped the reg away from my wife the first time we did a side by side dpv air share in our overhead dpv class. I think new students will lose the muscle memory of donated reg straight to the mouth and purged as well as the experience of protecting the reg.
Not a big fan, but I don't make those types of decisions. The jury is still up if corona can survive a wet environent, and I'm of the volition it can't. Another option would be to halt all classes until a more appropriate time, but that's not good for instructors,.

Who still teaches side by side dpv air share. Way too scary, especially with unfamiliar buddies.

 

[rddvet]

Who still teaches side by side dpv air share. Way too scary, especially with unfamiliar buddies.

we took cave dpv with Edd. He teaches multiple different ways to air share but specifically had us do side by side air share to show how much it sucks. His point was taken when the reg got yanked away. He said he only teaches it because other instructors do and he wanted us to understand why he didn’t recommend it.
As an aside, it appears quite a few instructors still teach it.

 

[kensuf]

we took cave dpv with Edd. He teaches multiple different ways to air share but specifically had us do side by side air share to show how much it sucks. His point was taken when the reg got yanked away. He said he only teaches it because other instructors do and he wanted us to understand why he didn’t recommend it.
As an aside, it appears quite a few instructors still teach it.

I teach it for the same reason that Edd told you, but we practice it in OW and for some reason or another, my students never seem to want to try it cave diving after the OW session. Funny that.

 

[rddvet]

I teach it for the same reason that Edd told you, but we practice it in OW and for some reason or another, my students never seem to want to try it cave diving after the OW session. Funny that.

It was one of our later skills in the class and did it from the sign out of JB. Like a dumbass I thought "oh there's our deco bottles" and made a quick turn towards them and ripped the reg away from Chelsea. As soon as I saw her face I remembered it's a simulated failure, we have no deco, why the hell did I go towards the bottles. I also had the jimmy leg when towing and kept kicking her in the head. We argued alot during that class.

 

[formernuke]

I've heard but have not confirmed that PADI has modified the training as well.

 

[rjack321]

It was one of our later skills in the class and did it from the sign out of JB. Like a dumbass I thought "oh there's our deco bottles" and made a quick turn towards them and ripped the reg away from Chelsea. As soon as I saw her face I remembered it's a simulated failure, we have no deco, why the hell did I go towards the bottles. I also had the jimmy leg when towing and kept kicking her in the head. We argued alot during that class.

my dpv class was a long time ago. back then, 2005, if you had to tow someone with a gavin or another 350-400w scooter the best you were going to get was 100fpm. towing side by side was the way to actually get home with gas reserves.

The way I was taught the donating diver was behind and kept a (left) hand on the recipients arm and used max trigger to maintain contact while the recipient used less trigger to be slightly slower and get pushed. Long hose goes from the right post across to the back of the recipients right arm and is held between their arm and the donors left hand