Special Training to do Swim Throughs?

[lavachickie]

One important element that a few people have mentioned is a proper pre-dive briefing. The option for a diver to exercise their decision making skills about environment and their own abilities. It often doesn't happen.

My first dives after certification were in Cozumel. I spoke to the DM at Scuba Club before getting on the boat and after boarding but pre-dive, told him this was my FIRST post-cert dive, told him my limitations like a very good girl scout. "No problem. Just follow me," he said.

And I did -- down to 97 feet and a boatload of swim throughs at Palancar Caves. (It's just a name -- we did not encounter any try caves.)

Like many, I did fine and have lived to AOW and Rescue diver with around 350 dives now. But I thought of many people I knew who were nearly certified who might not have done so well. And now, having a few more years and many more experiences (seeing both people take to water like fish, and... well, the opposite) it amazes me that more things don't go wrong!

To me, a swim through is a short expanse of overhead where one can clearly see the exit from the entrance, and doesn't present any significant restriction such that one person can easily cruise through.

Situation awareness is a must, and good buoyancy control is a must, things that I too would EXPECT from a well trained OW diver. BUT... let's be honest. There are MANY divers that get the card that do not have either of those skills.

(Let me tell you about a family member who was certified, but who could not walk out in water deeper than her waist because she full on panicked if her feet left the ground. I'm not joking. I took her diving after her certification and quickly discovered this. We worked on it, and by the end of the morning she was able to position herself on her back at the surface somewhat comfortably, and had started to stop fighting the water and instead working with it. We could swim out and, with support, she could descend to 20 feet, toodle around and then ascend up 20 feet and eventually not climb me like a cat scared up a tree when we got to the surface [which I'd told her she could do if she was worried -- I was comfortable and had enough lift for us both in my BC]. But someone certified her!! When I asked how in the f*$k that had happened, she said he let her lie down in shallow water, crawl into the water and go from there.)

Is "more" training needed? No, just proper training in OW, and the chance to work on further developing the skills before doing anything "out of the ordinary."

 

[Foxfish]

There is another thread going about overhead environments that made me want to ask the following question:

Do you believe that divers should have special training beyond say OW or even AOW before going into a "typical Caribbean swim-through"?

Here's the reason I ask. I would imagine that most of us with at least a few years of diving behind us have found ourselves in various Caribbean destinations, like Little Cayman for example. A lot of times the sites found there will have various swim throughs. Some may be a few feet in length. Some may be 30 to 40 feet in length. Some are pretty wide open where folks can pass side by side while some can be smaller that would only allow single file passage. The majority of the time a DM is in the water guiding the way. There's no telling how many successful dives like this are done each day where the divers only have OW or AOW training.

Thoughts?

We've probably got thousands of these in the area where I live. Most I consider low risk. I don't think you need to have a specialty to dive these. If you are doing a lot of dives in these and pushing the limits then doing a specialty seems a sensible idea.

We've got a few caves that I know of that could be dangerous. I stay out of them.