SDI specialty training for solo diver

[plaamook]

Also…buddy breathing is a good exercise. They should keep it like they keep dive tables to teach gas theory.

 

[BlueTrin]

Also…buddy breathing is a good exercise. They should keep it like they keep dive tables to teach gas theory.

@tursiops and @boulderjohn will probably know better and maybe chime in, but I think the reason it wasn’t taught anymore is that some people in OOA situations ended up buddy breathing rather than using the alternate due to training.

Edit: the reason above is why bsac stopped teaching it, I do not know for PADI

Buddy breathing??

Me being new to this site & seeing alot of 'fairly new divers' here, I was reading a thread about using no BC's & got to wondering, do they (still) teach true buddy breathing in OW classes today?...In '85 when we were certified, it was equally taught along with octopus technique- just remembered...

scubaboard.com

 

[plaamook]

@tursiops and @boulderjohn will probably know better and maybe chime in, but I think the reason it wasn’t taught anymore is that some people in OOA situations ended up buddy breathing rather than using the alternate due to training.

Edit: the reason above is why bsac stopped teaching it, I do not know for PADI

Buddy breathing??

Me being new to this site & seeing alot of 'fairly new divers' here, I was reading a thread about using no BC's & got to wondering, do they (still) teach true buddy breathing in OW classes today?...In '85 when we were certified, it was equally taught along with octopus technique- just remembered...

scubaboard.com

Ok yeah.
That never would have occurred to me.
It’s still a good exercise. The kind of thing that forces you to make friends w the situation. Like taking all your gear off and putting it back on again. Swimming around w out a mask. People need to do these things.
Though I have no idea what replaces it now. I’ve been out of that loop for some time.

 

[BlueTrin]

I think nowadays, everyone is expected to have a secondary regulator/octopus.

You learn buddy breathing if you go down the technical route for sharing deco gas if needed. (I.e. scenario is that during deco, your buddy realised that his cylinder is empty or the regulator does not work, if you buddy breathe you can still do your normal deco schedule)

 

[boulderjohn]

@tursiops and @boulderjohn will probably know better and maybe chime in, but I think the reason it wasn’t taught anymore is that some people in OOA situations ended up buddy breathing rather than using the alternate due to training.

Edit: the reason above is why bsac stopped teaching it, I do not know for PADI

Buddy breathing??

Me being new to this site & seeing alot of 'fairly new divers' here, I was reading a thread about using no BC's & got to wondering, do they (still) teach true buddy breathing in OW classes today?...In '85 when we were certified, it was equally taught along with octopus technique- just remembered...

scubaboard.com

I wasn't around in the era when it changed, but here is some of what I know.

Back when buddy breathing was the norm, Berkeley profession Glen Egstrom, one time head of NAUI, did a study that concluded ) that it took an average of 17 successful practice sessions for a buddy team to be confident that they could do it successfully in a real emergency. After that, regular practice for a buddy team to do it confidently was required. So it is not as easy as some people claim, and there is a good chance that if you do it, you will not be with a teammate with whom you have done all that practice.

Once alternate air regulators became popular, there was a general call throughout the dive community to end buddy breathing because the alternate air source was considered so much safer. Alex Brylske, the editor of Dive Training magazine, wrote an article to that effect, after which agencies started to switch to alternate air instruction instead.

Buddy breathing has a sad history of creating two casualties instead of one. A panicked diver was too often unwilling to give the regulator back to the buddy. The only case of buddy breathing I know of happened more than a decade ago in Florida, when a dive operator rented a regulator with no alternate to a diver and she ended up buddy breathing with someone who went out of air. Both died.

When I started teaching, buddy breathing was still an option, and it was still on the list of choices for divers in an OOA emergency. The list of options was in order of priority, and buddy breathing was listed after CESA, because CESA was considered safer. (I agree with that.)

 

[boulderjohn]

They should keep it like they keep dive tables to teach gas theory

Although dive tables are still taught in some classes, it is not for the purpose of teaching gas theory. Gas (decompression) theory is one thing; how to manage decompression is another. People sometimes think they are the same thing, but that is because they were frequently taught together. Mark Powell's book Deco for Divers will teach you all you will ever want to know about decompression theory, but nowhere does he teach how to use tables.

 

[scubadada]

When I was certified in 1970 it was buddy breathing, no second reg. When I was recertified in 1997, it was all share with a second reg. I have never shared air.

 

[plaamook]

Although dive tables are still taught in some classes, it is not for the purpose of teaching gas theory. Gas (decompression) theory is one thing; how to manage decompression is another. People sometimes think they are the same thing, but that is because they were frequently taught together. Mark Powell's book Deco for Divers will teach you all you will ever want to know about decompression theory, but nowhere does he teach how to use

I just mean the basics of how to avoid dcs.
I was told it (tables) was considered the easiest way to explain it irrespective of the standardisation of computers.
But like I said, I’m out of that loop

 

[BlueTrin]

I just mean the basics of how to avoid dcs.
I was told it (tables) was considered the easiest way to explain it irrespective of the standardisation of computers.
But like I said, I’m out of that loop

Nowadays everyone is expected to have a computer. The cheapest ones will be barely more expensive than a reliable bottom timer and do Nitrox too.

Even the Mares Puck has a dive planner.

 

[boulderjohn]

I just mean the basics of how to avoid dcs.
I was told it (tables) was considered the easiest way to explain it irrespective of the standardisation of computers.
But like I said, I’m out of that loop

Yep. Lots of people think that. I am not one of them.

When I taught the academic portion of scuba classes, I made sure students understood the basics of decompression theory in the first part of class. For a number of years, I later taught them how to manage decompression using tables. Then for a number of years, I taught them how to manage decompression using a computer.