Scuba Trick Tips for New Divers to Advanced Divers?

[Melicertes]

My ascents have been done wrong, I have been using the padi 60fpm rule and 3 minute safety stop at 15 feet, and I will now implement a deep stop a la JeffG method which seems to be the better offgassing system.

I don't know so much if I would say that the standard 60fpm/3min@15ft guidelines are "wrong". Define what you mean by "wrong."

For any of my dives deeper than 70ft it is standard practice for my buddy and me to do a deep stop at half the maximum depth for around 5 minutes *in addition* to the standard 3min(in our case preferably 5min)@15ft stop.

I don't think that *any* safety stop can really be seen as "wrong" since it will always help you offgas nitrogen at the ambient pressure of your shallower stop depth after starting your ascent from your max depth. It's just that adding a more conservative deep stop make sense to me and allows me to look at my mug in the mirror and say "I dived a teensy weensy bit safer today", while trying to get all 5 of the swimmers ear drops into my right ear on the first try. Besides I like planning my dives as multilevel dives to build in a deep stop while diving a depth contour and looking for one or two more nudibranchs - I just lurve nudibranchs!

 

[Melicertes]

Three skills I'd say I need more practice on? Hmmm...
1. Underwater Navigation, and I'm not saying just compass work, I'm thinking using natural underwater features to keep my head's sense of direction in line with where I was wanting to go in the first place - stuff like direction of the sand ripples, locations of different reef organisms on the reef, erosion patterns etc.
2. Learning more about evaluating beach entry points based on water movement and wave action - to identify where those pesky rocks are you never clearly see but that always gets you halfway up the shinbone as the wave retracts and helps you to ever so gracefully lose your balance and get a nose full of salt water just for the heck of it; I'm used to boat diving - shore entries aren't such a big deal but I've had a few bruises recently LOL
3. Marine life identification - wifey's a zoologist and I learn a heck of a lot from her about echinoderms, nematocytes, and those type of things. I'm finding it fascinating to understand a little more about marine organisms beyond just looking up the common name of that red fishamjigtypethingy on an id chart after the dive - looooots more practice and learning to do still here in this department for me. Fun nonetheless.

Okay so I cheated on number 2, but hey a surface skill can be just as handy as an underwater skill right?

 

[Hoyden]

I really hated mask removal/replacement when I did OW. It was easily the hardest part of the class for me. I got through the skill, but would have done just about anything to avoid doing it. In some advanced classes I had to do maskless swims, ascents, deco bottle recoveries and pretty much anything else that you could imagine without a mask. You'd think that two back-up masks in a buddy pair would cover the possible emergencies that you could encounter, but you'd be wrong. I wear contacts and thought that my problem with mask removal had to with that, but really I just didn't like breathing through my mouth with my nose exposed to the water. I started lap swimming with a snorkle and goggles. After doing that for some time, the nose issue no longer bothered me. Then I went to a really low volumn mask. I was using a Scubapro frameless mask and thought that it was low volumn until I picked up a Omer Alien to carry as a backup after breaking my backup Scubapro. Not only does it fold flatter than any other mask I have seen/tried, but clearing it from a full flood takes about a third of the air that clearing the Scubapro required

The skills that I most need to work on are:

bouyancy (maintaining open water stops)
bag shooting
reverse kick

 

[*Floater*]

In addition to the usual DIR drills, here are some things I've been meaning to practice more:

1. Bubble trick or bubble mask; blowing a bubble into your eye socket (no mask) while holding your hand there to trap it so you can read your gauges, and of course maintaining proper buoyancy control at the same time.

2. Backup retrieval without hands (for those who keep their backup on a bungee necklace).

3. Breathing off the corrugated hose. It's one thing to do this at the bottom, and another to complete a dive while doing it. Note: Some people think this is dangerous because the wing's bladder may not be sufficiently clean.

 

[BigBill]

I don't know so much if I would say that the standard 60fpm/3min@15ft guidelines are "wrong". Define what you mean by "wrong."

For any of my dives deeper than 70ft it is standard practice for my buddy and me to do a deep stop at half the maximum depth for around 5 minutes *in addition* to the standard 3min(in our case preferably 5min)@15ft stop.

I don't think that *any* safety stop can really be seen as "wrong" since it will always help you offgas nitrogen at the ambient pressure of your shallower stop depth after starting your ascent from your max depth. It's just that adding a more conservative deep stop make sense to me and allows me to look at my mug in the mirror and say "I dived a teensy weensy bit safer today", while trying to get all 5 of the swimmers ear drops into my right ear on the first try. Besides I like planning my dives as multilevel dives to build in a deep stop while diving a depth contour and looking for one or two more nudibranchs - I just lurve nudibranchs!

I like what you say about your safety stops. I was deep diving, well 78 ffw, and we also made two stops, with one at 40 ft and another at 15 ft. The first stop was also good as it allowed our diving party to take a rest and regroup.

 

[Melicertes]

I like what you say about your safety stops. I was deep diving, well 78 ffw, and we also made two stops, with one at 40 ft and another at 15 ft. The first stop was also good as it allowed our diving party to take a rest and regroup.

Why thank you.

IMHO resting and regrouping is always good. Besides, why make a fun activity like diving a chore by turning it into a hell dive on Reality TV's newest show, Diver Boot Camp? Okay that's just lame but the point remains.

Take all the time you need and enjoy the dive while you're at it I say.

 

[BigBill]

In addition to the usual DIR drills, here are some things I've been meaning to practice more:

1. Bubble trick or bubble mask; blowing a bubble into your eye socket (no mask) while holding your hand there to trap it so you can read your gauges, and of course maintaining proper buoyancy control at the same time.

2. Backup retrieval without hands (for those who keep their backup on a bungee necklace).

3. Breathing off the corrugated hose. It's one thing to do this at the bottom, and another to complete a dive while doing it. Note: Some people think this is dangerous because the wing's bladder may not be sufficiently clean.

What would you use these skills for, especially pts 1 & 3?

 

[*Floater*]

What would you use these skills for, especially pts 1 & 3?

1 in case I lose my mask and don't have access to a backup (in case I need to read a message from buddy without mask or do a deco stop without mask on my own, etc.). 3 in case my primary and backup are unavailable - according the GI3 (DIR guru) this is your second backup to be used in a pinch. Plus training with it helps to get you comfortable controlling your buoyancy manually, just in case you ever need to do so, and you can use it to check that your wing is really empty (by sucking it dry) if you ever wonder about that after "emptying" it the normal way or just have trouble getting that last bit of gas out if otherwise. I agree that I'll probably never need these skills, but I like to have them available in my bag of tricks just in case...

 

[JeffG]

3 in case my primary and backup are unavailable - according the GI3 (DIR guru) this is your second backup to be used in a pinch. Plus training with it helps to get you comfortable controlling your buoyancy manually, just in case you ever need to do so, and you can use it to check that your wing is really empty (by sucking it dry) if you

You don't breath it that way. You press both the inflate and deflate buttons and breath off the bubble exhaust.

 

[BigBill]

Skills I need to work on:

1. Continually refine basic skills
2. Buoyancy
3. Underwater Navigation
4. Air consumption