regrets...I've had a few...er, skills I learnt after the fact

[boxcar]

Hi all,

Carrying on from another thread...to avoid the hijack...

There's a lot of talk on the Board about the skills of new divers (e.g. What is O/W certified? 'Advanced O/W isn't really advanced'...that sort of thing) and some disparaging remarks about various cert agencies or the practices of some instructors... often quite a lot of advice from more experienced divers...

Now that you've moved beyond being 'new to diving' (define that as you like) what skills do you wish you'd learned in OW cert (or other entry cert)? OR What have you learned in the meantime that you consider essential? How'd you learn it?
What's your view on continuing education in diving (formal? informal? within a group of peer divers? etc)

I posted here as I think there are a lot of relatively inexperienced divers (including me) who are looking at diving as an ongoing hobby/recreational activity and are looking for some insight on getting 'better' in order to enjoy the sport more, for the long term.

 

[Charlie99]

It may sound strange, but a key skill that took me a while to learn was how to DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. By that, I mean learning how to halt all motion of any kind and then adjusting BCD buoyancy to be truly neutral. And then using lung volume changes to make minor depth changes. Diving became so much easier when I didn't have to keep finning to stay at the same depth.

After learning how to stop all motion it was just another small step to getting my weighting right, which in turn made it so much easier to control buoyancy since I didn't have a huge bubble of air in the BC expanding and contracting as I ascended and descended.

Charlie

 

[String]

It may sound strange, but a key skill that took me a while to learn was how to DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. By that, I mean learning how to halt all motion of any kind and then adjusting BCD buoyancy to be truly neutral.

Id agree with that. I spent earlier tonight and last week trying to get that through to one student, been trying to get him stationary hover horizontally and so on. Hes under the impression that as he can maintain a depth whilst finning along he's neutral and buoyancy OK and for some reason its hard to get across that pretty much anyone can maintain a depth by finning to guide them onto it. Result is ive spent 60 minute just doing things like that. Its good advice.

The other "Do nothing" advice is in the event of a problem, the STOP, THINK, ACT scenario. In other words if something happens dont immediately panic, bolt or do something rash - you always have some time to think an action and perform it, even 3 or 4 seconds can be more than enough (note, does not apply to rapid ascents!).
Thinking through a course of action rather than relying on possibly incorrect surface based instincts is a good habit to get into.

 

[BIGSAGE136]

I would love to learn how to properly shoot a bag from depth. The possibility of getting blown off of a wreck is always there. Sometimes the currents around South Florida can get pretty ripping. The Speigel Grove is a good example. If you are ever blown off of the line I understand the proper thing to do is to shoot your marker immediately and just enjoy the ride as you off-gas. I have never had the opportunity to do this and would love to learn.

 

[diverbob]

I think what a lot of people fail to realize is that OW class just gives you the basics to go out, be safe and have fun. But it is up to the diver to gain the experience, and fine tune their skills on their own. You can take other classes to help out along the way, but it is really up to the diver.

 

[Firebrand]

I've found that the best skill to master is neutral buoyancy. This past weekend I dived in a place called Hospital Hole. The max depth there is 140 feet, and it's not really confined as it is easy to maintain constant finning. However, I was there completing my AOW certification. At a depth of around 75 feet, there is a layer of hydrogen sulfide, which if you come into contact, you will smell like rotten eggs when you exit the water. I really didn't want to smell like rotten eggs, and therefore, hovered at 72 feet, doing nothing. The ability to maintain buoyancy is a VERY important skill. Get that down, and move on with your training from there. (BTW, don't let my number of logged dives be a judge of my experience in the water...I have been skin diving all my life, swam competitively in school, was a certified lifeguard for three years, and grew up lobster hunting out of Key West. When I finally made myself complete my scuba certification, buoyancy skills were easy for me.)

 

[boxcar]

I think what a lot of people fail to realize is that OW class just gives you the basics to go out, be safe and have fun. But it is up to the diver to gain the experience, and fine tune their skills on their own. You can take other classes to help out along the way, but it is really up to the diver.

Good point ...I think that is the part of the 'spirit' of this thread...Anything specific you've found to be particularly valuable?

 

[Gary D.]

What skills should be learned?

Before “ALL” the agencies found they could make a chunk of change by dividing up every little skill, OW used to be what OW, AOW, Rescue and a few other skills all rolled into one just for OW.

IMHO I think it was a combination between the cash and the amount of people failing the courses. A while back the failure rate was very high. Today it is very low. Are they producing better divers today? I don’t think so but they have made it much easier to get an OW card. In the process, a lot of important skills are skipped and are being left up to the new diver to learn as they can afford them.

Gary D.

 

[RonFrank]

Hi all,

Carrying on from another thread...to avoid the hijack...

There's a lot of talk on the Board about the skills of new divers (e.g. What is O/W certified? 'Advanced O/W isn't really advanced'...that sort of thing) and some disparaging remarks about various cert agencies or the practices of some instructors... often quite a lot of advice from more experienced divers...

Now that you've moved beyond being 'new to diving' (define that as you like) what skills do you wish you'd learned in OW cert (or other entry cert)? OR What have you learned in the meantime that you consider essential? How'd you learn it?
What's your view on continuing education in diving (formal? informal? within a group of peer divers? etc)

I posted here as I think there are a lot of relatively inexperienced divers (including me) who are looking at diving as an ongoing hobby/recreational activity and are looking for some insight on getting 'better' in order to enjoy the sport more, for the long term.

I just completed AOW, and Nitrox, and I plan on rescue in the fall. I'm considering DM as well, and maybe even AI in the next year, we shall see. While some agencies are better than others, the fact is that diving under the watch of an instructor is all good. A good instructor will help one improve on ever dive, and every instructor I've had has made suggestions after every dive on what I can do better.

IMO buoyancy is the key, and that is the skill that I work on with every dive. The interesting thing is that since it's something that is most difficult at 10', it's something that can be practiced in the pool. The deeper I go, the easier it is to maintain nuteral buoyancy, so while there are many aspects in diving where deeper is something one has to be aware of buoyancy is something that get's easier at depth.

 

[Stirling]

What I missed was not a skill so much as a little better awareness of currents and underwater geography. When I was skin diving, every trip back to the surface reminded me of where I was in relation to the boat, or the beach, or whatever. I never wandered very far without knowing it.

Very early on in my SCUBA diving, I followed a "more experienced" diver - looking back, he had probably a dozen dives - down current from the dive boat, and when we turned around he burned up all his air trying to get back to the boat. So we surfaced and discovered that we were way the hell gone from the boat. I had no idea we had traveled so far, much less that we had been traveling fast with the aid of a current and were now going to have to swim straight into it to get back to the boat.

My class never touched on currents (except rip tides) or what to do in that situation. We swam to the boat because it never occurred to us that we had any alternative. It took a very long time (everybody else finished their first dive, then did a leisurely surface interval lunch break and another dive while we were swimming what turned into a long circuitous route toward an island to get out of the current and then around the island and back out to the boat).