Pool practice

[BabyDuck]

no! the nails are killers! even my cocker spaniel could flail someone to death with her nails while swimming - i'd hate to see you after a dobie contact!

 

[101recon]

no! the nails are killers! even my cocker spaniel could flail someone to death with her nails while swimming - i'd hate to see you after a dobie contact!

I learned this lesson VERY well.I had a 90lb pit bull that loved to swim.Unfortunately if you were in the water with him, he thought he had to be right with you at all times.I'm sure I resembled a barber pole with all the scratches.

 

[tracydr]

no! the nails are killers! even my cocker spaniel could flail someone to death with her nails while swimming - i'd hate to see you after a dobie contact!

Ha,ha,ha! Much less a panicked diver dobe!

 

[Thalassamania]

I use a series of doff and don excercises and a circuit swim:

• Freediving doff and don in full gear including wetsuit (down, leave mask and weightbelt on the bottom, surface in a flared position, surface dive back down, roll into and buckle belt, recover and clear mask, surface with snorkel in place and clear),
• Scuba doff and don in full gear including wetsuit (down, leave mask, rig and weightbelt on the bottom, surface in a flared position exhaling all the way, surface dive back down, roll into and buckle belt, recover and clear regulator, recover and clear mask, don rig, signal OK).
• Doff and Don - Buddy Breathe: Scuba doff and don in full gear including wetsuit while Buddy Breathing with your buddy who is the donor and must supply you with air while maintaining buoyancy and staying off the bottom.
• Circuit Swim: 50 meter pool, full gear in including suits and mitts:
  • 6 lengths w/o rig, doing mask or weightbelt ditch and recovery on the first two and
  • both on the last.
  • 4 lengths on snorkel with full scuba rig in place.
  • 4 lengths with surf mat with full scuba rig in place.

 

[vladimir]

As for the camera - practice macro shots of whatever you find, and maintain buoyance while shooting; I find that darned difficult.

You could make even more productive use of camera practice. How about photographing the grid of tiles with various lenses and ports to gauge the distortion or vignetting? Or snapping hundreds of pictures of a yardstick at different f-stops, shutterspeeds, and strobe intensities, to help develop your intuitive feel for exposure and depth of field? All while hovering motionless, of course.

My open water instructor set 4 tanks with at the corners of the pool and had us swim the perimeter underwater, sipping air directly from the valve at each corner.