DIR- GUE s-drill with a reel

[overthinking_diver]

Here are the real rules:

Don’t dive with unsafe divers
Don’t listen to unsafe divers
Option 1 - don’t dive
Always analyze your gas
Don’t dive a rebreather unless you need it
Nothing underwater is worth dying for
Always look cool

Oh, sh*t I definitely break one of these a lot. It's kinda like this:


Oh, I didn't swim in a circle because I lost my position, I did it to see what that fish over there was up to

The first 6, I do follow.

 

[overthinking_diver]

The underwater sign for "let's do a safety drill" is drawing an S with your fingers. Maybe that's why it was abbreviated as S-drill

 

[tursiops]

I guess my question was not clear. I understand what an S-Drill is, how to do it, and why you do it. I was trying to find out why at least one, maybe two, people in this thread apparently referred to the real thing -- providing gas to an OOG diver -- as an S-Drill. Perhaps they didn't. I don't "speak GUE", only tech, so perhaps I'm reading posts too literally.

 

[rddvet]

Yeah don’t get locked in to “rules”.

It’s more of a “this works really well for most situations”.

Here are the real rules:

Don’t dive with unsafe divers
Don’t listen to unsafe divers
Option 1 - don’t dive
Always analyze your gas
Don’t dive a rebreather unless you need it
Nothing underwater is worth dying for
Always look cool

I think that is one of the uphill battles with new gue students or outsiders who judge gue based on what they read. Too many people think the “rules” are hard and fast and can’t be broken. At the end of the day the safest choice is what matters.

 

[KevinNM]

I think Fundies covers the opposite scenario - deploying and SMB when you're already sharing air. This is a little easier because the donor can use both hands while the OOG diver can hold the long hose.

It's possible that what I'm asking here - share air **after** deploying an SMB was covered too and I just forgot about it.

The instructors are creative. If you are handling everything with ease they will make it more complex. “Everybody gets their money’s worth.” So don’t think ‘they can only do it that way’.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I guess my question was not clear. I understand what an S-Drill is, how to do it, and why you do it. I was trying to find out why at least one, maybe two, people in this thread apparently referred to the real thing -- providing gas to an OOG diver -- as an S-Drill.

It seems the OP simply mis-spoke. The OP clarified that in post #4.

 

[tursiops]

It seems the OP simply mis-spoke. The OP clarified that in post #4.

I guess I misread post #6 as well.

 

[ChrisMBC]

I guess I misread post #6 as well.

In the case of S-drill in the middle of ascending, while reeling in the spool, the donating diver can hand off the spool to the out-of-gas diver when they need two hands for something (like sorting the light cord).

I mean, I was literally talking about doing an S-drill in the middle of an ascent, which is the kind of 'fun' task-loading that GUE instructors seem to enjoy. But honestly, what does it really matter whether it's a 'S-Drill' or 'simulated OOG emergency' or 'real OOG emergency' - the actions taken should be identical and completely automatic. I thought that's the whole reason that we practice air-sharing so frequently that it becomes second nature, and it really shouldn't matter if it's a pre-planned drill or a real emergency, it's no drama.

 

[overthinking_diver]

I was trying to find out why at least one, maybe two, people in this thread apparently referred to the real thing -- providing gas to an OOG diver -- as an S-Drill.

It's because at least one person in this thread is very new to GUE or any diving training past PADI AOW . I definitely thought the two are interchangeable.

In any case, @PfcAJ's answer is what I needed. Next time I do practice S-drills in a controlled environment I'll include some with reels/spools to see how it feels.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I guess I misread post #6 as well.

Nope, I believe you read it correctly. That poster spoke imprecisely as well. What the instructor had the students do was handle an OOG scenario during an ascent while spooling in, not an S-drill during the ascent.

I once made some remark in front of a GUE instructor about the "modified S-drill"--an abbreviated version of an S-drill, typically performed on the surface before a dive--not being precisely the same thing as a "long-hose deploy," which is another term some people use. The instructor waved it aside, letting me know I was being anal-retentive.