Selftraining tasks and excercises?

[WetFatCat]

Class finished, certification done. I can do something and I know something, but could I do this and would I remember that under the pressure of stressfull situation? May be... To turn this "may be" into "sure" I need a practice, but there are so many things to practice with that I'm confused.
What is a good selftraining plan? So many things: breathing, buoyancy, accent, buddy skills, emergency management.
What's first and what's next?
What are good excersizes to improve particular skills in friendly environment of quarry prepared for divers and of may be not so frendly ocean environment?

Thank you, I appreciate your advices so much.

 

[Diver0001]

95% of diving is swimming around neutrally buoyant and looking at the fishes. I'd start with that.

R..

 

[Walter]

Agreed, next start practicing the skills you've already learned while swimming neutrally buoyant. No mask breathing is something I practice often. If I'm not as comfortable without a mask as with it, I figure I need practice.

 

[Firefyter]

Along with Diver0001's suggestion, I would recommend practicing mask removal and replacement, along with no mask breathing. It will greatly reduce the stress levels when someone kicks your mask off, or simply dislodges it.

 

[TSandM]

Time in the water. Buoyancy takes practice (or at least it did for me!) Build your confidence and relaxation. Get your weighting right, and get your weight distributed so it allows you to move freely in the water.

Once you can do a dive pretty comfortably, go back to doing your skills from time to time. Mask flood and clear you don't have to make occasions to practice -- you'll do that all the time. Mask remove and replace you'll have to practice. Another thing I found out was that I wasn't very comfortable without a regulator in my mouth, so practicing exchanging my primary for my octopus was a good exercise, as were air-share drills. But don't work on air-share drills in midwater until your buoyancy is pretty good, because they stress you a lot, and it's an easy way to end up in a uncontrolled ascent.

 

[WetFatCat]

Thank you.
I have no problems with no mask breathing, during our pool sessions we did a lot of funny activities including underwater exchange of all gear with a buddy or entering to the pool with all gear in hands and getting it on underwater.
At the same time neutrall buoyancy is still tricky as well as accent control. I always need to think what should I do to maintain necessary buoyancy. Do you know any special tricks to develope this skill and move it to instinct level?

 

[WetFatCat]

But don't work on air-share drills in midwater until your buoyancy is pretty good, because they stress you a lot, and it's an easy way to end up in a uncontrolled ascent.

Perfect point. Thanks a lot!

 

[langs15]

How would you breath without the mask? WIth a buddy or what? I alrady now how to get the water out of the mask, but need to work on that...

 

[Diver0001]

At the same time neutrall buoyancy is still tricky as well as accent control. I always need to think what should I do to maintain necessary buoyancy. Do you know any special tricks to develope this skill and move it to instinct level?

If you mean "tricks" as in "short cuts", no. Everyone, without exception, who has excellent buoyancy control has a lot of dives under their belt. There are, however, ways that you can shorten the learning curve or make the first few dives less .... adventure filled....

Lynne (TSandM) will probably take the time to tell you about her experience and some of the things that worked for her.

For my part, I think going sssssllllllloooooowwwwww is really the key to everything else that has to follow. Most new divers try to do everything way too fast. Slow down to a crawl and then slow down some more and that will help you learn it faster.

R..

 

[pir8]

Just get out there and dive. Take another class, any class, maybe buoyancy and get some supervised practice through the class.