Sport diving and armed forces frogman / work diver training

[Anthony Appleyard]

An ex-naval British frogman / naval work diver trainer once told me that "sport diving encourages a casual tourist-type attitude to being underwater, which can be hard for an armed forces frogman / diver trainer to overwrite with a proper disciplined armed forces attitude to doing the job as ordered and not getting distracted by pretty fish or desire to explore, and as a result he preferred trainees who had no previous experience of sport diving". Are there any group members who have knowledge this way?

 

[Gary D.]

I think things have changed now but when I started dive training in the Navy you better keep your mouth shut if you had ever dove before. They don't like having to break sport habits.

I'm that way today. On our team the students progress much faster starting from square one than those who have been divers.

Sport is sport and working is working. It's tough crossing back and forth.

Gary D.

 

[Anthony Appleyard]

... dive training in the Navy ... They don't like having to break sport habits....

What specific sport diving habits are these?

 

[mirrocraft]

sport diving involves different dive tables and different types of gear i can think of it like learning to shoot in the marine corp if you shot before you had bad habits if you didnt you would lissent to the instructor so you wouldnt screw up

 

[Gary D.]

The two aren’t very closely related except that they take place in the water. In sport your are taught to be reliant on your buddy and gear dependent. In the military you learn to be self reliant and not dependent on your gear.

In the Navy we were taught to do both free and buoyant assents from 119’. We didn’t just learn the theory but actually practiced it dozens of times.

You learn that SCUBA is a container of air and a way to get it into your lungs. It may not mean a regulator and just might be the valve but “EVERYTHING” else is optional.

Sure you are taught to dive with a buddy but should that buddy not be there it’s no big deal and you don’t need to abort a dive.

There are many, many differences. Some sport divers don’t like military diving saying it is job specific. Sure it is but so is sport diving. In the military you learn to be self-sufficient and do a wide variety of jobs and operations under a very wide variety of conditions. In sport you learn to stay next to your buddy and look at the scenery under more ideal conditions.

For example, Sport Rescue classes are reported over and over to be a very tough class by most who take it. In the military a tough Sport Rescue class would be a very easy day of training.

Trust me when I say they have very little in common. When I got out of the Navy I thought I wanted to be an instructor. That was until I went through the first two classes.

For those thinking about joining the military diving ranks it is best to just stay quiet about your diving exploits. I had been to Navy Scuba School prior to Second Class School. That in itself was not a good thing. Already being a Navy Scuba diver and repeating scuba in Second Class School I was the class whipping post and poster boy. If I made the slightest mistake it was blown up like Mt. St. Hellens.

Attitude plays a big part. If it gets bad you can even be washed out on graduation day which I have seen happen.

I would have not traded that training for anything.

Gary D.

 

[sweatfrog]

The more life's experience you can get, the better off you are. That holds true throughout your time here on earth.

However, when in the military keep your mouth shut and your eyes open around the Instructors. Looking at the pretty fishes while your mates are working will only piss them all off.

You can get great training and build your confidence level tremendously (unless you've created an 'attitude') in the military.

 

[Anthony Appleyard]

I read in a British sport scuba diving magazine that a Clearance Diver (= general-purpose British naval work diver) went on a sport dive, and he was so accustomed to lines and linesmen that he did not like having to dive untethered and he refused to go away from the bottom of the shotline.

 

[TheTrickster]

I read in a British sport scuba diving magazine that a Clearance Diver (= general-purpose British naval work diver) went on a sport dive, and he was so accustomed to lines and linesmen that he did not like having to dive untethered and he refused to go away from the bottom of the shotline.

That is funny.... But showed that he kept his cool, and stayed within his perceived safety area - good on him!

 

[Skull]

Bend em' and mend em' is the USN motto ...obviously the biggest difference is that the navy has a task that needs to be accomplished per dive...rec diving has no task at hand. As to the actual diving part ...you let the air out of your BC and lungs , submerge and then begin breathing under the water. As to the actual techinques for underwater swimming ie trim, bouyancy et al ...is all derived from the Navy (British and US) diving manuals ...so really what is the difference? Task loading/accomplishments are the only difference...

 

[Gary D.]

Bend em' and mend em' is the USN motto ...obviously the biggest difference is that the navy has a task that needs to be accomplished per dive...rec diving has no task at hand. As to the actual diving part ...you let the air out of your BC and lungs , submerge and then begin breathing under the water. As to the actual techinques for underwater swimming ie trim, bouyancy et al ...is all derived from the Navy (British and US) diving manuals ...so really what is the difference? Task loading/accomplishments are the only difference...

You’re right to a point but the level and intensity of the training is second to none.

Take all of the certified sport divers out there and put them through the military training. I’ll bet a conservative estimate would be that 99.999% would fail with the bulk of those going in the first few days.

That’s the difference. If you haven’t been there and haven’t had the opportunity you don’t have a clue as to how tough it can be. Books and war stories don’t give an accurate picture.

Gary D.