Panic Attack in the pool session

[Ber Rabbit]

I like the analogy of driving a car in the rain. Whenever it rains or snows the ditches fill up with cars. People panic when the car skids. They do not develop or practice the skills required to regain control of a car once it begines to skid. Driver training is, IMO, guilty of some of the same things that diver trianing is in that they put people in situations where skidding is a real possibility without ever training them for it or making them demonstrate that they have those skills.

Nicely said Mike. I learned to drive in the fall and my mother refused to let me go with the driving instructor until I knew how to drive. She saw the driving course as a formality that satisfied state requirements but didn't really teach you anything so she taught me herself. I remember the first icy day after I got my license, she told me to take the car with my sister and one of our friends; I was to go out on the country roads and find out how the car slid. "Steer into the skid. Play with it, try it at different speeds feel what the car is telling you, oh and keep it between the ditches." she said. That experience has paid off many times over the years. My personality is much like hers and my scuba students get to "play with the skid" in the pool.
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[diptera]

Nicely said Mike. I learned to drive in the fall and my mother refused to let me go with the driving instructor until I knew how to drive. She saw the driving course as a formality that satisfied state requirements but didn't really teach you anything so she taught me herself. I remember the first icy day after I got my license, she told me to take the car with my sister and one of our friends; I was to go out on the country roads and find out how the car slid. "Steer into the skid. Play with it, try it at different speeds feel what the car is telling you, oh and keep it between the ditches." she said.

My Mom did the same thing, but I can't begin to count the number of people who, when I tell them that, see my mother as being abusive for putting me through such an 'ordeal.' In high school they were the ones whose parents wouldn't let them have the car when it rained or snowed. In order to get their license, their parents signed an affidavit essentially asserting that they were fit to drive, whenever the highway patrol had the roads are open. Sounds a lot like many dive instructors/agencies, that issue an OW card but expect the cardholders to be supervised.

All the skill in the world won't help you if you're the type of person who goes to pieces when life throws you a curve ball. Keeping a cool head in a crisis is a skill all by itself, one that many people pick up just because of how they are raised (i.e., it's far more common in people whose parents are disciples of the school of hard knocks, who aren't afraid to upset their little dears or bruise their tender self esteem once in a while.) Other people may need to acquire this skill, and as a prerequisite, because precious few instructors and/or agencies even get close to teaching it. (One actually prohibits teaching it.)

 

[MikeFerrara]

The good old days...When I was learning to drive my father took me to a snowy parking lot and just reached over and spun the weel, sat back and said "now fix it". I still practice because different cars drive differently and you get rusty through the summer. I have a ball during the first snows and when it happens on accident it's no big deal. In 30 years of driving in midwest whether and traffic, it's kept me out of real trouble more times than I can even count. Of course a side result is that I hate front weel drive and absolutely detest antilock brakes. If I want to lock the brakes I don't want any arguements from a computer. If you're going to drive with the front you should be steering with the rear so that you can still steer when the drive weels slip and they will. LOL Selling front weel drive and antilock brakes to people who think they aren't ever going to slide is sort of like lots of things that go on in diving...."Diving is safer than bowling, why don't you take your ten year old with you and don't you worry about that buoyancy control thing(you'll get it later), or the buddy breathing thing and it's no problem at all if you can't swim" Gutter balls are rarely fatal.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

Of course a side result is that I hate front weel drive and absolutely detest antilock brakes. If I want to lock the brakes I don't want any arguements from a computer.

AMEN brother!

Ber :lilbunny: