Peak Buoyancy Specialty Course
- Thread starter OnTheMark
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Diverlady13
Contributor
I think there was a bit of confusion on terminology by the OP. James' video about cert cards was referring to the full PPB certification...the speciality course for which one receives a separate cert card. What the OP was asking about is the AOW course which offers a single PPB dive as one of the 5 AOW dives. I can't imagine why anyone would tell him to not do that dive as part of the AOW course. Of course a single dive is not going to truly give OnTheMark good or perfect buoyancy, but it will do a lot more for his diving skills than the Fish ID dive or Dive Against Debris dives.
Yeah when I did my AOW I asked for PPB but I honestly can’t remember any of the actual instruction.
Some instructors conduct evaluation dives to evaluate where prospective students are at. I failed to do that once with a diver I didn't know. He was rototilling the bottom while bicycle kicking. That was early in my days as an instructor so I sent him to take PPB to another instructor instead of fundies.
Diverlady13
Contributor
I vividly remember that dive and found it immensely helpful for my diving. No, I did not come out with peak buoyancy, but I did learn enough that I could practice what the course taught and not develop bad habits. I wouldn't have taken the full specialty because after learning the basics I think the most improvement comes with practice.
MtnDiverColorado
Contributor
Fwiw, though the buoyancy courses tend to be mocked a lot on YouTube, I got a lot out of the one I took. The additional time I spent with the instructor there, did get me on the right road to make a significant improvement to my diving and trim, which of course develops over time, but it really gave me a solid starting point and things to be cognizant of.
I'll add that a part of the criticism on Diver's Ready seemed to focus on why it needed to be a separate course, why not just have a dive instructor give you tips... And I thought that was kind of weird. I am not going to ask a professional to freely donate his time to me to improve my diving. They deserve to be compensated, and doing it through a formal class makes sense, imho.
I'll add that a part of the criticism on Diver's Ready seemed to focus on why it needed to be a separate course, why not just have a dive instructor give you tips... And I thought that was kind of weird. I am not going to ask a professional to freely donate his time to me to improve my diving. They deserve to be compensated, and doing it through a formal class makes sense, imho.
I don’t think that he was saying don’t compensate him. The way I understood it is get an instructor to work with you but don’t go for the cert. That way he gets something out of it (and possibly more $) than if you go for the cert in which case the agency gets a cut.
Most of the people criticizing the PPB dive or specialty are asking it to do something it cannot possibly do.
Will having PPB as one of your AOW dives enable you to “master” buoyancy? Of course not.
Mastery of anything takes time and practice.
However, based on my observations working on dive boats, an OW diver with less than 25 dives and performing at about the fiftieth percentile of proficiency among divers with similar experience definitely needs additional instruction in buoyancy.
Divers at this experience level typically cannot descend without overweighting themselves, cannot reliably descend using a line as a visual reference without thumping into the bottom, cannot perform any but the simplest skills at depth without rising in the water column, cannot make depth adjustments using breath control only, cannot hover without kicking or sculling, are seldom in a relaxed horizontal position, and often cannot maintain proper depth at the safety stop without hanging on to the anchor or mooring buoy line. Even though students must demonstrate this level of proficiency to earn an OW cert, most new divers give scant evidence that they retained that level of proficiency.
A PPB dive in an AOW course that continues to emphasize buoyancy in the other four dives go a long way to correcting these common deficiencies.
A PPB specialty course can go even further. Just because it doesn’t leapfrog you from needing significant remediation to mastery doesn’t mean it won’t significantly improve your diving and give you the tools to continue improving on your own.
Do you need a card to do it? Of course not. If you want to pay for an instructor’s time and don’t need the AOW card to go on deep dives, you should have no trouble finding someone willing to work with you. That doesn’t mean the course is worthless or that a lot of divers don’t need it.
Will having PPB as one of your AOW dives enable you to “master” buoyancy? Of course not.
Mastery of anything takes time and practice.
However, based on my observations working on dive boats, an OW diver with less than 25 dives and performing at about the fiftieth percentile of proficiency among divers with similar experience definitely needs additional instruction in buoyancy.
Divers at this experience level typically cannot descend without overweighting themselves, cannot reliably descend using a line as a visual reference without thumping into the bottom, cannot perform any but the simplest skills at depth without rising in the water column, cannot make depth adjustments using breath control only, cannot hover without kicking or sculling, are seldom in a relaxed horizontal position, and often cannot maintain proper depth at the safety stop without hanging on to the anchor or mooring buoy line. Even though students must demonstrate this level of proficiency to earn an OW cert, most new divers give scant evidence that they retained that level of proficiency.
A PPB dive in an AOW course that continues to emphasize buoyancy in the other four dives go a long way to correcting these common deficiencies.
A PPB specialty course can go even further. Just because it doesn’t leapfrog you from needing significant remediation to mastery doesn’t mean it won’t significantly improve your diving and give you the tools to continue improving on your own.
Do you need a card to do it? Of course not. If you want to pay for an instructor’s time and don’t need the AOW card to go on deep dives, you should have no trouble finding someone willing to work with you. That doesn’t mean the course is worthless or that a lot of divers don’t need it.
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