PADI Remove and Replace BCD Underwater for DMC's

[drbill]

Hmmm... we performed this skill as part of my original "open water" certification in the 60's but I don't remember doing it when I worked on the PADI divemaster certification (which I never completed out of concerns regarding liability).

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I'm a PADI DMC, doing my skill evaluations in a couple of days. I apologize for not posting this in the "Going Pro" section, but I do not have access to that forum.

Normally I use my own gear. However, since I started my DMC class I've been using the free rental gear that my dive shop offers for use in the pool. The trouble I'm having is the chest strap. I normally dive with a SeaQuest Diva BC which does not have a chest strap, while the rental gear I use does.

So skill evaluations are in a couple of days for our class of DMC's. My question is pertaining to the chest strap for the PADI remove/replace BC skill (demonstration quality). Since I do not normally have a chest strap, I am unsure whether to loosen the shoulder straps first or undo the chest strap first. I do not want to lose points for such a basic thing. It's been a couple years since open water and my memory is bad.

Anyone know what the PADI standard is? Thanks in advance!

As others have suggested, I would recommend using the gear you plan to dive in for the demonstrations. I don't think there's a specified "standard" way of doing it, but for my students with sternum straps, I recommend they undo that one first and connect it last.

We had a 200 yard swim test to get into basic SCUBA in college just to thin the herd.

That was a standard part of the YMCA OW class as recently as 2004 (when I last DM'ed one) ... you couldn't start the OW class until you'd completed it.

I also advise that you sit on the bottom, swing the tank and BC over your head after you unclip evrything so that is ends up in your lap. If weight belt removal is involved as well, don't wear a wet suit for that drill.

That wouldn't pass muster in my class. As a DM candidate, all drills must be done off the bottom. If your skills aren't up to that standard, you shouldn't be taking a DM class.

If I am reading this right, the OP is in a class to become a Divemaster but has only 0-24 logged dives. I would have thought PADI would require a lot more dives than that to become a DM. Can you really sign up so soon to become a DM with such few dives?

By the way, this is not a knock on the OP. I think it's great you are really into diving. I would have thought that you would need at least 100 or so dives to become a DM, that's all.

You need a minimum of 20 dives to start the class and 60 to complete it. NAUI has the same standard.

Shoot that was easy, we had to do it while buddy breathing and then swim from the deep end of the pool to the shallow end while still buddy breathing.

That's a separate skill.

However you do the straps is not the issue. What is the issue is that you need to do it slowly and exaggerate every movement so that a new diver would CLEARLY see all of the "critical attributes" of the skill. If you can do it in less than a second without screwing it up may look cool but the new diver will learn nothing from it. My personal technique is chest strap first, waist buckle, loosen shoulder straps, cummerbund, left hand through, slide bc around to the right, and hold it front of me. I also demo both replacement methods- over the head( easiest) and back on like a jacket. Again this is done slowly and with emphasis on each movement where there may be an issue that could screw up a NEW diver such as the arm outside the second stage as was already noted.

There you go ... remember that as a DM you won't be doing this skill for your own benefit, but as a demonstration for others who have no idea (yet) how it's done. Everything must be slow and exaggerated, so as to make it clear what's expected of them. That's what "demonstration quality" means.

Becoming a DM is as much about how you think about doing the skills as it is about your ability to perform them ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[muddiver]

BTW, if I did what Muddiver is telling you to do when I did my DM, I think my instructor would have had a heart attack.

boulderjohn, would you be so kind as to enlighten me on what aggriegious mistake I made? Anyone can toss unjustified criticism all day long, but it isn't very useful.

That wouldn't pass muster in my class. As a DM candidate, all drills must be done off the bottom. If your skills aren't up to that standard, you shouldn't be taking a DM class.

That's fine and I thinks that it is great that you make it a requirement to be hovering, but unless you can show me the standard from all of the certification agencies that supports you statement, doing all skills off the bottom is just your personal opinion on how SCUBA training should be done.

I can do any skill off teh bottom, mid water, up-side-down, or with a blanked out face mask or black water. But that is me and after many years of experience. I am going to go out on a limb and say the OP is in a PADI program because they use the term DMC and PADI has come out with the Peak Buoyancy Performance course because most of the students that go through their program don't have the neutral buoyancy skill that you and I have.

 

[boulderjohn]

boulderjohn, would you be so kind as to enlighten me on what aggriegious mistake I made? Anyone can toss unjustified criticism all day long, but it isn't very useful.

You read too much into it.

The OP asked for advice on how to do a specific skill so that she can get a good score on her test.

You offered such a process.

I said that she should not be asking people on the Internet for that advice. She should be asking her instructor, so that she did it the way he would prefer. As an example, I said that if she were to take your advice and do it your way, her instructor would not approve at all if her were anything like mine.

My point was not that there was anything wrong with the way you do it. My point was that she is better off going to her instructor for that advice, and that doing it the way someone else tells her to do it could be counterproductive.

Please notice that I myself did not tell her how to do it.

 

[chipwd]

Shoot that was easy, we had to do it while buddy breathing and then swim from the deep end of the pool to the shallow end while still buddy breathing.

You are right! I left that part out. We had to do the skill in the deep end while buddy breathing and then complete it by swimming (still buddy breathing) to the shallow end of the pool.

We did not find it easy though, we all took at least twice to get it down and some took more times than that.

 

[Joe-Diver]

You are right! I left that part out. We had to do the skill in the deep end while buddy breathing and then complete it by swimming (still buddy breathing) to the shallow end of the pool.

We did not find it easy though, we all took at least twice to get it down and some took more times than that.

It's a fun one for sure!

 

[--tom--]

One other thought, there may be some anatomic issues that would allow you to not even have the sternum strap buckled in the first place.

Check with your instructor.

 

[keyshunter]

Shoot that was easy, we had to do it while buddy breathing and then swim from the deep end of the pool to the shallow end while still buddy breathing.

Actually, I thought it was great fun. But then, I did the gear exchange with one of my regular dive buddies. She was about 50 pounds lighter than I, so obviously we used my gear which was way too large for her. We did not practice. We just discussed it, and then jumped in and did the exchange. But, we were quite experienced and comfortable in the water (I had about 800 dives and she had about twice that number) and had often practiced buddy breathing on deco stops.

 

[Web Monkey]

Shoot that was easy, we had to do it while buddy breathing and then swim from the deep end of the pool to the shallow end while still buddy breathing.

You guys are all wimps! We had to do it in the ocean with chum and Great Whites and it was up-hill both ways and it was snowing underwater.

Terry

 

[boulderjohn]

I'm a PADI DMC, doing my skill evaluations in a couple of days.

OK, so how did it go?