Recently Certified Ow's: What Do You Most Wish To Brush Up On Or Learn?

[Landau]

Navigation and dry suit buoyancy. Especially recover from an over buoyant feet high position in a drysuit. Did well at this in pool, but once when I stuck my head down to look at a fish on a dive ascended about 20 feet before I remembered to do a front roll to get the feet down so I could vent the suit

Also was super impressed with my insta-buddy's navigation skills last dives. Shore dives with different ascend than descend points and no good references underwater.

The first dive she was upset we ascended 40 feet from the planned spot, the second we were within 10 feet of the optimal spot.

 

[J.W.]

Did you really mean to say that?

I mean without scuba gear. Free diving experience can help you to stay calm under water. I should have clarified that, sorry

 

[Dizzi Lizzi]

Clearing my mask was 1st since I had (past tense) such problems with it, I could do it but took several breaths. 2nd was controlled ascent to avoid alarms (as long as I closely watch my computer I'm good) Big tasks next are buoyancy and trim, shooting my smb and nav. Next few dives will be shared air ascent till we are comfortable with it. Thanks for the post you gave me a few more things to think about.

 

[glassbottom]

So while i was certfified as a young teen years ago, i took a near decade hiatus before re-taking and re-learning to dive as an adult. When i would younger i was a straight dependant diver learning on my pops for all gas planning and "personal" calls. But some of the basic skills like dof and don, finding your reg and clearing your mask etc, where very easy and natural to me (because they are very very basic skills and it was like riding a bike).


As an adult, i have maybe 10 dives under my belt since certifying again.

Every dive i tend to focus on bouyancy and trim most and being an attentive buddy. However i still tend to overweight myself and thus its a bit harder to stay neutral while not moving, but its getting there.

I also dont instinctively know my gas comsumption so each dive i work (in my own head) on knowing how much gas i have in between checks. My goal is to have a better than rough estimate of what my PSI is before i look, but still look. Kind of like if you asked me how much gas i have in my truck. I know its not the same and i will always keep the habit of checking but i feel intrinsically knowing my SAC rate a little better is a good thing, especially at different depths.

Before the last dive of the day i tell my buddy i want to practice dsmb deployment during the saftey stop, so i usually do that right at the end. But im pretty terrible at it still but if i had to get one off i could. I usually make sure anyone topside knows too so they dont panic.


All that is to say that im still a bit task loaded with basics so i avoid things like cameras at all costs. Ive also put off AOW for a time because i want my basics to be more instinctual before i get myself narced for the first time.

 

[WrmBluH2O]

OP here. Thanks so much everyone for sharing! I'd like for anyone now, from the newly-certified to the ultra-experienced, to please feel most welcome to jump in and post...

 

[seeker242]

To get an intuitive feel of ascent rates. Like what exactly does 15/30/60'/min feel like...intuitively. Knowing my ascent rate without looking at the computer.

 

[glassbottom]

To get an intuitive feel of ascent rates. Like what exactly does 15/30/60'/min feel like...intuitively. Knowing my ascent rate without looking at the computer.

That's a good one. When i originally was trained it was 60 fpm. Now it's 30 and I have to work really hard to stay at 30 especially in the last 20 feet or so.

 

[gryffin]

[QUOTE="mattia_v, post: 7647359, member: 426337"

Not quite sure what you want to achieve here...inflation is simple enough (press a button) - whether or not you need to inflate under water (for me, when I'm trimmed out properly, this means nothing more than a very short burst of air) depends solely on your bouyancy and trim. You should really never have to fully inflate your BC under water, all you risk is a very fast, dangerous, uncontrolled ascent. BCD inflation at the surface is just pressing the inflate button. And keeping your regulator in your mouth and mask on.[/quote][/QUOTE][/QUOTE]

Oops- I realized I wasn't very clear- I meant manually inflate (i.e., orally inflate). When I'm bobbing on the surface without my bed inflated, and then try to inflate it by blowing in it, I can't get enough air in it quickly enough. Also, we never did this skill underwater in my class.

I agree that fit is probably the problem with my mask. What is frustrating is that I have now bought two masks, both with professionals advising me how to determine fit and neither one seems to work for me.

 

[DiverDownD3]

As I'm starting to get more dives under my belt, I've realized how not entirely true some of the stuff they teach you in OW. For example, never holding your breath. It is drilled into you from day 1 of the class. Yes that's typically true, but for my first 10 dives or so after my class I was struggling with maintaining buoyancy while diving around wrecks. Most of my diving is on wrecks, so I am constant dealing with minor changes in depth as I swim over/around the wreck. I was constantly inflating/deflating the BCD, wasting a lot of air. My latest trip to FL a lightbulb went off. I realized I can manipulate my breathing patterns to control those minor ascents and descents. Need to drop about 5-10'? Instead of letting out air of your BCD, deep exhale and let physics do the rest.

I understand they can't teach you everything, that's the point of OW. Give you the basics, you go dive, you go learn through experience. It's cool to figure these things out on your own. Gives me a drive to dive with those experienced friends, because I realize there is so much more to learn.

 

[glassbottom]

As I'm starting to get more dives under my belt, I've realized how not entirely true some of the stuff they teach you in OW. For example, never holding your breath. It is drilled into you from day 1 of the class. Yes that's typically true, but for my first 10 dives or so after my class I was struggling with maintaining buoyancy while diving around wrecks. Most of my diving is on wrecks, so I am constant dealing with minor changes in depth as I swim over/around the wreck. I was constantly inflating/deflating the BCD, wasting a lot of air. My latest trip to FL a lightbulb went off. I realized I can manipulate my breathing patterns to control those minor ascents and descents. Need to drop about 5-10'? Instead of letting out air of your BCD, deep exhale and let physics do the rest.

I understand they can't teach you everything, that's the point of OW. Give you the basics, you go dive, you go learn through experience. It's cool to figure these things out on your own. Gives me a drive to dive with those experienced friends, because I realize there is so much more to learn.

Im not so sure here. If I take really deep breaths (either inhaling or exhaling) yes I change my buoyancy, but if I breath normally I generally don't have issues staying neutral even when not moving.

Also this can be dangerously close to skip breathing or over/hyper ventilating which can have its own complications (ie: shallow water blackout, CO2 loading and headaches etc). What I have noticed though is that as I get more dives in, I shed more weight in my BC and this helps a ton with staying neutral, and consequently my SAC rate as well. This is also why I don't try and focus on breathing or my sac rate under water. I noticed once on the pool dive I was trying and next thing I knew I was basically skip breathing. So my goal is to stay neutral and reduce movement (ie: hands) as much as possible, and just relax and take it slow) and as such ive started to see my sac rate drop anyhow.

now as far as weighting, what I have noticed is that during a weight check im pretty well dialed in when let all air out of my BC, staying vertical in the water column and my head is about 1-3 feet below the surface and im pretty neutral. This does mean I don't just let air out of my BC to descend, I generally make a swimming descent anyway but I see a lot of new divers trying to just descend vertically by just venting their BC, and that's a sign you are overweighted.

If I want to change my depth 5-10 its generally a single/half a fin kick and im there anyhow. Trying to make that big of an adjustment via breathing wouldn't work for me now that I have my weighting a little more dialed in. Now if im trying to adjust 6-24" (inches) yeah I can do that with my breathing.