How do you realistically and immediately assess every drill and skill you practice?
etc..
Example:
After OW, I did some diving in Mexico. Cenotes and Cozumel reefs. I saw my DM on the reef dives shoot a bag at the end. I thought I should know how to do that.
I watched a GUE video on YouTube that showed me how to shoot a bag.
I went to a pool with a buddy and I practiced it. I took my GoPro and got my buddy to video me and I watched it afterwards.
Hovering just off the bottom makes it really easy to see in a video if you're maintaining good buoyancy and proper trim.
That is how I learned to shoot a bag from depth.
How hard was that?
The hardest skill I've been trained on so far is valve drills. It has the most steps and is the most physically difficult for me.
I don't see any reason a person couldn't use the same approach and learn how to do valve drills just as well as I learned it from my instructor in Intro to Tech. Including self-assessment. It's just not that hard. And it is easy to find standards to apply to one's self-assessment. As well as not having to be too imaginative to think of exercises for yourself to make sure you can do it even when otherwise loaded.
Hold a stop to +/- 1 foot. Share air. Shoot a bag and hold onto it. Do a gas switch. Simulate a failure and do a valve drill. All at the same time or in succession. Give yourself a time limit for everything.
Get a buddy to record video while you do it. Watch it and assess yourself. Maybe even ask your buddy(s) to watch it and critique.
The main benefits I see of retaining a certified instructor are that they already have a pre-packaged program. You don't have to do your own research to figure out how you want to do things. You don't have to work out your own practice regimen. You don't have to work out what your performance standards should be. You don't have to figure out how to objectively assess your own performance.
But, you also don't necessarily learn other schools of thought on how to do things. And if you don't, then you don't get to learn the pros and cons of those options and decide for yourself what is best for you. Some people teach "all deco gases on left". Others teach "rich on right". If you just sign up with an instructor, you'll probably be taught one of those ways and probably no mention of the other, or at least no objective assessment of why one is better than the other (not to say that there aren't SOME instructors that will give you an objective assessment of the alternatives). Doing your own research gives you the opportunity to learn about the pros and cons of each method and decide for yourself.
What's that you say? I'm not qualified to decide which way is better? Okay, then I'm not qualified to choose between two instructors who teach those two different ways, am I? Because if I am, then I have already implicitly chosen which way I'm going to do it, haven't I?
If you're willing to do your own research to figure out all those things (how to do it, how best to practice, how best to self-assess, what the performance standards should be, etc.), then, well, all the information is out there. The tools are available. The books, and videos, and experienced divers you can talk to. They're all available. If you're willing to do the work for yourself, instead of just buying into a certified instructor's pre-packaged curriculum, practice regimen, performance standards, and assessment methods.
Oh, and the other important benefit of a certified instructor is getting that card that lets you actually do things you can't do otherwise. Like go out on charter boats and get fills at shops.
I think it's kind of sad how closely some people hold information on how to dive. They're either protecting the instructor industry or protecting themselves from being sued. So frustrating and so disappointing.
I've said for a long time that if you can't write down how to do something, then you don't really know it. If you do know it, then you COULD write it down and I could learn it from what you wrote (without your personal attendance).
If someone wants to go from OW certification to doing AN/DP diving, why shouldn't they be able to learn it on their own, just like a pilot can learn to fly, and then simply book an exam to demonstrate their knowledge and skills? Learning to fly requires a very few hours of training with an instructor (akin to OW training), and then they are free to go fly solo as much as they want until they are ready to fly with an examiner and get their pilot's ticket. They can do all the "classroom" work online. Why do you think learning to dive requires so much more hands-on in-person training than learning to fly and can't be done using books and self-practice?
