Practice drills

[nettyadam]

G'day
Besides practising what we have learnt in ow classes over and over during our dives.What are some 'fun' or interesting drills to do. Some tasks to keep up skills and problem solve whilst under water even if it is confined water on a bad weather day? Cheers

 

[DevonDiver]

Have a look at this thread: What skills can we practice? [Archive] - ScubaBoard

 

[ajduplessis]

Complete an entire dive without using your inflator hose on your BC/wing, do everything orally.
Do a shallow dive without a mask and a buddy to guide you.
Plan and complete a short shallow dive while sharing an octo (buddy breathing)
Navigation diving, plan waypoints distances in a rectangle and see if you can get back to where you started.
If you have rescue practise recovering a buddy without his assistance from a shallow depth and not exceeding ascent rates and completing safety stop.

 

[Rhone Man]

I always regard safety stops as a good time to work on drills (particularly as you will normally be in the water column, thereby always working on bouyancy skills at the same time as well). Exchanging masks, buddy breathing, just hanging inverted, and always trying to stay within +/- 1 foot, are great ways to refine and practice skills.

 

[snowdog]

I found this somewhere; I think it was from the linked thread above.
I think most of them were already mentioned, but in my opinion you should practice:

1 - Buoyancy, buoyancy, and buoyancy again.
2 - Orientation, with natural clues and the compass, both day and at night.
3 - Mask flooding, replacing, recovery, and clearing, (recovery, as in having to find it when you lose physical contact with it.
4 –Regulator skills (Air sharing, Recovering back) both for yourself or buddy.
5 - Adjust your buddy's cylinder, both at the surface and at depth.

 

[DevonDiver]

Do an entire dive single-handed (not solo - only using one hand).

Take a slate and aim to record your air pressure ever 5 minutes exactly

Take a slate and aim to record the dive time, every time you use 10bar/200psi

With your buddy, establish a distinct hand signal. During the dive, at random intervals, use that signal and time how long it takes for your buddy to notice. Loser is the one with the least attention (longest time/s to notice).

Work out your SAC/RMV.

Once you know your SAC/RMV start asking eachother, during the dive, how many minutes of air remain until you hit your ascent reserve point.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

I endorse all that snowdog said, and add this: Find tasks to do underwater that are not necessarily training skills. For example, braid three short ropes together, take off and replace your fins or exchange fins with a buddy, or make up other such "task" games, which you will do while maintaining neutral buoyancy. I really like this kind of distraction training- where you have your mind focused and can expand your comfort zone. They key is to have fun with it! Good for you for practicing beyond the requirements!
DivemasterDennis

 

[DevonDiver]

make up other such "task" games, which you will do while maintaining neutral buoyancy.

I'd call it 'task loading' rather than 'distraction training', but the end result is the same. Once a diver gets comfortable with a range of skills, combining those skills is a great way to help bed them down into the muscle memory for instinctive use. This especially applies to combining neutral buoyancy with other tasks.

One of the best drills, of this type, is to do a mask remove-and-replace whilst hovering horizontally above the bottom. Set yourself the target to maintain a set depth/distance from the bottom. Do the drill and see where you end up (have a buddy on hand initially, in case you float up). As you become more slick with the drill, set more precise goals. When the day comes that you can maintain a +/1 10cm depth, 50cm from the bottom... complete a full mask remove and replace... and not kick up any bottom... then you know you've achieved something well above-average.


'Mirroring' is another good buoyancy/control drill. 2 divers face eachother in horizontal trim. One leads, the other mirrors. The lead diver uses breath control to rise and sink. The mirroring diver attempts to match that exactly. Make it competitive and it can be lots of fun. You can add other elements to this, such as helicopter turns, back kicks etc.

 

[scubadiveilat]

Go over on the skills you find uncomfortable. Or dislike most.If none cover any of them. It's a great start.

Have fun and enjoy!!!

 

[Frosty]

Go over on the skills you find uncomfortable. Or dislike most.If none cover any of them. It's a great start.

Have fun and enjoy!!!

I totally 100% agree with this one. Think about what skills you weren't comfortable with and work on them.
For me it was getting in and out of my rig on the surface.
Navigation is one skill you can work on all the time-