Question about swimming ability

[Devil505]

You&#8217;re starting out for the day (tossing your gear on the boat) & you slip and fall in! (you're in great shape but.....oh darn.....You can't swim!<G>)

 

[Dreadnaught]

Can any of the swimming nazis here actually come up with a situation that a cold water diver would face where swimming ability (not just fitness and endurance) would help avoid a fatality? I can't figure one out...

ROFL....You're dead & we haven't even gotten off the pier!
Perhaps you can't "figure one out" because, looking at your dive profile, you are not certified & have never logged a single dive!

 

[beach89]

Can any of the swimming nazis here actually come up with a situation that a cold water diver would face where swimming ability (not just fitness and endurance) would help avoid a fatality? I can't figure one out...

So if you're 80ft under and your BCD fails then you just dump your weights? Or if you're doing a shore dive and your buddy gets DCS and you take over an hour to tow him back one mile to shore. Or if you come up far away from the boat and there's a storm coming. In all of these situations, you're telling me that a poor swimmer would be ok?

 

[lowwall]

Shore dive. Ascend and find you can't outswim mild offshore current.

 

[lamont]

So if you're 80ft under and your BCD fails then you just dump your weights? Or if you're doing a shore dive and your buddy gets DCS and you take over an hour to tow him back one mile to shore. Or if you come up far away from the boat and there's a storm coming. In all of these situations, you're telling me that a poor swimmer would be ok?

Sure, towing someone when you've got fins on and a BCD or drysuit is more dependent upon general fitness and endurance. Swimming involves a whole other pile of technique other than just kicking -- you can get yourself in enough shape to swim a mile in scuba gear without being able to swim a lap freestyle because your swimming technique sucks and you don't know how to breathe....

Falling off a boat when you don't have scuba gear on is one valid case where swimming helps, and one of the major reasons why I learned how to swim -- but now you need to expand and go yell at all the boaters who can't swim too -- good luck...

Perhaps you can't "figure one out" because, looking at your dive profile, you are not certified & have never logged a single dive!

Hmmm... Guess I'll have to sell all my doubles and deco bottles and my scooter then...

 

[Jeddbird]

If any new divers (or people thinking of taking up scuba dving) are still reading this thread, I suggest that you compare the dive profiles of those on both sides of the debate:
Those who claim that good swimming skills are not necessary to safely enjoy the sport are invariably either brand new divers or non-divers completely!

Those who urge strong swimming skills as a prerequisite are the veterans!

 

[markfm]

Uhmm, not quite...
Not everyone here actually shows their full certs and number of dives -- some "brand new divers or non-divers completely" are actually experienced, just don't bother to list things in their profile.

Personally, I think basic comfort is important, but certainly someone doesn't have to be this awesome like-a-fish person to be okay with scuba. Lamont hit it on the head. You don't want someone who will panic in a minimal chop or current, but otherwise being a great surface swimmer just isn't all that necessary to be a reasonably decent, content, happy, safe, diver. Be able to swim? Yes. Be able to swim any particularly long haul in any specific time? Nah.

Then again, this is absolutely a dive-within-your-training-and-ability thing. Analogous to not taking a brand new diver, used to pool-like conditions, on a dive in ripping current immediately after cert -- they haven't built up to that yet. If you do a bunch of diving, you will, by definition, also do surface swimming, in whatever exposure suit is worn in the conditions you dive, and your swimming will improve.

 

[plot]

I started out a really horrible swimmer and perfectly comfortable on the water provided that I could float and/or breathe off a reg -- building comfort with diving was all about ensuring that I knew what to do under any circumstance to establish positive buoyancy and getting comfortable with gas management. Learning how to swim has helped me with my gas consumption and general fitness, but it hasn't really made me any more comfortable in the water... Swimming is not the answer to the diving problems of not being able to get positive and not running OOA...

That's exactly the point I'm getting at. I was the same way when I started diving, horrible swimmer, perfectly comfortable diving. My swimming ability has improved greatly since I've started diving, but I don't think any of it had to do with the actual act of diving itself...

 

[plot]

If any new divers (or people thinking of taking up scuba dving) are still reading this thread, I suggest that you compare the dive profiles of those on both sides of the debate:
Those who claim that good swimming skills are not necessary to safely enjoy the sport are invariably either brand new divers or non-divers completely!

Those who urge strong swimming skills as a prerequisite are the veterans!

Alot of those veterans also think you should have to spend a year in the classroom/pool/diving with an instructor before you get a basic ow cert.


I'm completely with lamont on this one. Especially in cold water, your bouyancy is so great that swimming ability doesn't really matter. Being able to kick your feet is the only "swimming" skill neccessary.

Divers look at you like you're a serious newbie if they see you using your arms anyways.

 

[Jeddbird]

I'm completely with lamont on this one. Especially in cold water, your bouyancy is so great that swimming ability doesn't really matter. Being able to kick your feet is the only "swimming" skill neccessary.

I noticed that you list no dive info in your profile plot. Are you a diver? If so, please let us know your experience level?