PADI DM swim times

[ben_wilson3301]

Underwater exchange full gear including mask, reg and bc with buddy. People usually start with the buddy gear on and exchange into their own gear so its familliar.

 

[hypertech]

You swap masks, fins, and scuba units with another diver while buddy diving.

Really, if you have a basic plan, its an easy task. You can easily hold your breath underwater for 30-90 seconds while you work on a task and your partner has the reg.

In my case, it was a lesson in managing the other diver who was freaking out over giving up control of the reg for even a second to get through the exercise. It took a couple tries because they kept cheating and bolted once, but we got it done eventually.

 

[Pliny]

Not close to or considering DM, but if you learn eggbeater kick the tread looks pretty easy and an experienced diver with good kicking form should able to do the fin/mark/snorkel swim for a 5. Then just completing the other two at any pace is 12.

 

[hypertech]

The tread is easy because you can float on your back. And the last two minutes, you can float on your back and stick your arms up in the air.

The snorkel was the hardest for me. Try to find wimpy short full foot fins. I couldn't find any that could fit and had to use my massive fins with 7mm boots that would rather float than swim and ended up breaking the surface (major energy drain) when kicking a lot.

I did well on the rest and survived the snorkel.

 

[mmerriman]

"stick your arms up in the air"
Don't stick your arms out - only your hands - thats the requirement and is considerably easier than arms out - try it and see

 

[Crowley]

I used to work for a big CDC and have been involved in training about 300 divemasters and from those courses I would say the following:

Everybody scores a 5 on the float - you have to - because very few people score top marks in the other swim tests. It's also ironic this is most difficult for fit, muscular people who tend to sink a lot and work harder to keep their hands out of the water than say, a person with a few more curves, who floats naturally and just has to put their hands on their belly to keep them out of the water.

Not many people score 5 points in the 400m swim. An "average" score for the 400m would be a 2.5, with most people making a 2. For the 800 metre snorkel swim, average about 3.25 would be a good guess, with three points being the most common score. For the 100 metres, nobody got less than 3 points, most got 4.

Only 3 people in my 3 year tenure at this dive centre made a perfect 20.

They have added the equipment exchange just for simplicity of paperwork, I think, and it does require some thought but is otherwise pretty easy.

Cheers

C.

 

[TMHeimer]

If your legs are like cement in fresh water like mine, to do the tread you can "drown proof". This is the only way I could possibly do the 2 mins. hands out. You take a breath and just let your face/head go under, but the air in your lungs keeps you really at the surface. No kicking, piece of cake, whether hands out of water or not. I read it is perfectly legal, but doesn't hurt to mention it first to the instructor. So you can do this for the whole 15 mins. if you like, forget the eggbeater, and conserve all energy for the other 3 swims. Had my instructor mentioned this I would've saved all that time trying to figure out the egg beater when it would never have worked anyway for me. Everyone's body buoyancy is unique.

 

[bracko]

The tread is easy because you can float on your back. And the last two minutes, you can float on your back and stick your arms up in the air.

we weren't allowed to float on our backs and i think it mentions it in the PADI manual at least for OW students, so I'm not sure why DMC's should be allowed to in their physical test.

we did the 3 of the skills in a pool in a single day (tread, swim, snorkel, in that order) my calf's were like golf balls 100m into the snorkel.

TMHeimer - head can't go under in the tread... I don't have the manual in front of me, but surely you can't sink in a "tread water" exercise.

 

[Pliny]

. if you like, forget the eggbeater, and conserve all energy for the other 3 swims. Had my instructor mentioned this I would've saved all that time trying to figure out the egg beater when it would never have worked anyway for me. Everyone's body buoyancy is unique.

Eggbeater is almost just asynchronous frog kick except your heel goes more behind you on the recovery stroke. You can't do that swimming breaststroke because you would lift your leg out of the water.

Agree the 400 times are tough. The mens WR is about 3:40 so going half that pace (and I can't do a flip turn worth squat so I swim an extra 1m each lap) is flying for a recreational swimmer and that's only a 4.

I imagine the tired diver tow for speed is going to depend on a whole bunch of things like how good your "victim" keeps trim. Not sure if its best to jack up their BC to float them high or let them float low. Not that I would do that in a real rescue situation.

 

[knotical]

we weren't allowed to float on our backs and i think it mentions it in the PADI manual at least for OW students, so I'm not sure why DMC's should be allowed to in their physical test.

we did the 3 of the skills in a pool in a single day (tread, swim, snorkel, in that order) my calf's were like golf balls 100m into the snorkel.

TMHeimer - head can't go under in the tread... I don't have the manual in front of me, but surely you can't sink in a "tread water" exercise.

But - from the Open Water Diver Course Instructor Guide

…comfortably maintain themselves in water too deep in which to stand by completing a 10-minute swim/float without using any swim aids.

And - from the Divemaster Course Instructor Guide:

Tread water, drown-proof, bob or float using no aids and wearing only a swimsuit for 15 minutes, with hands (not arms) out of the water during the last two minutes.