dsteding
Contributor
I find a lot of people tend to post when things go wrong, nothing bad about that, but I thought I'd post something positive.
I had the opportunity to take NWGrateful Diver's advanced course this past week, and I must say it was a challenging, rewarding, and thoroughly enjoyable week.
Bob's taken a lot of time to work out his class, and it certainly shows. Besides addressing the standard NAUI materials, Bob placed a strong emphasis on the following:
1) Buddy skills and working as a team. We spent a fair amount of time in the classroom discussing what makes a good buddy, how to effectively communicate, and how to match up expectations and goals.
2) Trim and buoyancy. Sure, we learn some of this in OW, but Bob took the time to break down the theory, how to build a balanced rig, and we even digressed into a rather pinheaded conversation about the relationship between center of gravity and center of buoyancy (okay, I digressed into some abstract, pinheaded musings, but I digress . . . )
3) Dive/gas planning: Probably one of the most critical things I got from the classroom. We broke down rock bottom, discussed WHY we need to plan this way, and went through various examples. A very educational evening. If there is one rule of thumb that everyone should listen to, as a newer diver, don't dive deeper than the size of your tank in cubic feet. For example, an AL 80 shouldn't go below 80 (or 77 feet, actually).
The dives:
Bob took us out in the water and thoroughly worked us over. It worked, however, as we came away from this weekend as better divers . . . here are some of the dive highlights:
Dive 1: A mid-water navigation dive at 20 feet, in okay visibility with no references besides our buddy and instruments. For someone at my skill level, this really stretched me. We actually didn't finish the course due to some team communication issues, and general fubars on a Saturday morning. So, we'll be doing this again soon. But, we both came away from it with better buoyancy, better trim, and better communication skills. And, we saw a big Pacific Skate to boot.
Dive 3: We went down to 33 feet to measure gas consumption rates. First a flat-out swim for 5 minutes, then a relaxing swim back for 10 minutes. For those who may not know this, it is official, Bob is half-fish. Maybe half seal. Point being, he can flat out haul ***** underwater when he wants to. He'd look over his shoulder at us with a look like a big dog that is a bit frustrated his puppies can't keep up. At the end of the dive, we got to shoot our SMBs and do a free ascent, which was great fun, great practice, and something I'm going to regularly integrate into my dives.
Dive 5: Search and recovery. We went out to do a contour search to find Bob's beloved cinder block painted with a dive flag. Got to use a lift bag on this one, which was challenging, and a good exercise at managing more than just your own buoyancy on ascent. I'm proud to say our team got it up off the bottom, did a nice, slow controlled ascent, and didn't drop the block. Once again, this dive really allowed us to learn to work underwater while controlling buoyancy, and also forced us to work together as a team both during the search and during the recovery.
Dive 6: A terrific, relaxing night diving on Sunday evening. After all the skills work, it was nice to go diving with friends in what has to be some of the best visibility of the summer. the only task was to deploy our backup lights, which was easily accomplished. We did a nice tour of a familiar dive site.
Sprinkled into all these dives were random OOA drills, including one while a bit narc'd at 90 feet. Great practice with the long hose, and also something that will continue to be part of my regular dives. Lynne, don't be surprised if I start spitting my reg out every once in a while . . .
Overall, a very enjoyable, educational class. Bob strikes the right balance between challenging and stretching us as divers while still making it a good time. He's also great company, with many awesome tales about dives he's done, places he's been to, and, of course, Dead shows that he's, uh, experienced. I think the skills I learned and the concepts that were taught will continue to sink in and make me a better diver as I continue to practice.
Many thanks to Bob, Marc, and my teammate and classmate, Chris. I really enjoyed diving with everyone, and I look forward to diving together again soon.
-Doug
I had the opportunity to take NWGrateful Diver's advanced course this past week, and I must say it was a challenging, rewarding, and thoroughly enjoyable week.
Bob's taken a lot of time to work out his class, and it certainly shows. Besides addressing the standard NAUI materials, Bob placed a strong emphasis on the following:
1) Buddy skills and working as a team. We spent a fair amount of time in the classroom discussing what makes a good buddy, how to effectively communicate, and how to match up expectations and goals.
2) Trim and buoyancy. Sure, we learn some of this in OW, but Bob took the time to break down the theory, how to build a balanced rig, and we even digressed into a rather pinheaded conversation about the relationship between center of gravity and center of buoyancy (okay, I digressed into some abstract, pinheaded musings, but I digress . . . )
3) Dive/gas planning: Probably one of the most critical things I got from the classroom. We broke down rock bottom, discussed WHY we need to plan this way, and went through various examples. A very educational evening. If there is one rule of thumb that everyone should listen to, as a newer diver, don't dive deeper than the size of your tank in cubic feet. For example, an AL 80 shouldn't go below 80 (or 77 feet, actually).
The dives:
Bob took us out in the water and thoroughly worked us over. It worked, however, as we came away from this weekend as better divers . . . here are some of the dive highlights:
Dive 1: A mid-water navigation dive at 20 feet, in okay visibility with no references besides our buddy and instruments. For someone at my skill level, this really stretched me. We actually didn't finish the course due to some team communication issues, and general fubars on a Saturday morning. So, we'll be doing this again soon. But, we both came away from it with better buoyancy, better trim, and better communication skills. And, we saw a big Pacific Skate to boot.
Dive 3: We went down to 33 feet to measure gas consumption rates. First a flat-out swim for 5 minutes, then a relaxing swim back for 10 minutes. For those who may not know this, it is official, Bob is half-fish. Maybe half seal. Point being, he can flat out haul ***** underwater when he wants to. He'd look over his shoulder at us with a look like a big dog that is a bit frustrated his puppies can't keep up. At the end of the dive, we got to shoot our SMBs and do a free ascent, which was great fun, great practice, and something I'm going to regularly integrate into my dives.
Dive 5: Search and recovery. We went out to do a contour search to find Bob's beloved cinder block painted with a dive flag. Got to use a lift bag on this one, which was challenging, and a good exercise at managing more than just your own buoyancy on ascent. I'm proud to say our team got it up off the bottom, did a nice, slow controlled ascent, and didn't drop the block. Once again, this dive really allowed us to learn to work underwater while controlling buoyancy, and also forced us to work together as a team both during the search and during the recovery.
Dive 6: A terrific, relaxing night diving on Sunday evening. After all the skills work, it was nice to go diving with friends in what has to be some of the best visibility of the summer. the only task was to deploy our backup lights, which was easily accomplished. We did a nice tour of a familiar dive site.
Sprinkled into all these dives were random OOA drills, including one while a bit narc'd at 90 feet. Great practice with the long hose, and also something that will continue to be part of my regular dives. Lynne, don't be surprised if I start spitting my reg out every once in a while . . .
Overall, a very enjoyable, educational class. Bob strikes the right balance between challenging and stretching us as divers while still making it a good time. He's also great company, with many awesome tales about dives he's done, places he's been to, and, of course, Dead shows that he's, uh, experienced. I think the skills I learned and the concepts that were taught will continue to sink in and make me a better diver as I continue to practice.
Many thanks to Bob, Marc, and my teammate and classmate, Chris. I really enjoyed diving with everyone, and I look forward to diving together again soon.
-Doug
