Swimming Skills Assessment

[Petert71]

The poll is rubbish.

I consider myself a strong swimmer. I can swim or stay afloat for hours if need be, but I've never been on a swim team, a lifeguard or anything that is defined as 'strong' in the poll. I've never done a triathaon or fitness swimming. Plenty of people can beat me in a race.

I learned to swim as a child and before taking up diving, it was something I only did occassionally. Never had any issue in water, I'm totally confident with any situation I've ever been in. I've swam in large surf, heavy seas and cold water unaided.

I suspect divers from 40 years ago would gasp at the swimming ability some divers I've seen lately, but that doesn't mean they're going to get themselves into trouble. If you put someone in a 6mm wetsuit with no weights they'll float forever.

I've also met divers who are very confident in the water, perhaps too confident. Some are pushing their limits and an accident waiting to happen.

Finally, my wife drives an auto and has never learned to drive stick. I've tried to teach her but she just doesn't get it. She's also a nervous driver. As a result she's never had a speeding ticket or an accident (although she did scratch her car on a pole recently). She's a very safe driver. There's plenty of young idiots out there who would be excellent drivers except they take unneccessary risks.

 

[yankeenica]

In my opinion, to scuba dive successfully you have to feel comfortable in the environment. In order to ascend to the surface without a line you have to be able to perform an efficient and effective kick. I have had students try, unsucessfully, to surface doing the 'bicycle' kick. I had to assist them. To pass the pool work they absolutely had to improve their swimming skills.

 

[george29938]

Although I swam competitively in high school and college now at 66 I'm just an average swimmer with average endurance. I've always considered it important but not critical to be a good swimmer to be a diver. That was until 6 years ago when my son, who went through Seal training, and I were night wall diving off the north shore of Hawaii. The kayak broke loose, drifted away and we could not find our return cut in the reef. After 30-40 minutes of swimming up the reef, searching for a cut, we finally found one and returned to shore 1/2+ mile from where we left his wife who was our safety. She was getting ready to call the patrol as we were an hour overdue, I could barely crawl out of the surf and my son had to carry my gear to the truck. So to answer your question; until you are in a situation where you have to be a good swimmer it's not important BUT when you life depends upon being a good swimmer it sure helps! I now keep in better shape; just in case .

 

[islandjim]

This is something I think about almost every day. The reason is, I have my face down in the water as I do my daily mile swim. At 57 I find swimming has helped me through many problems as I aged. From cancer, rotator cuff surgery, and a bad back, to the stress of almost losing my business. Today it gives be energy that lasts for most the day, it loosens up those tired muscles, and allows me to meditate and plan my day as I do my 35 laps. How does it help with scuba? I really don't think the swimming end helps much besides being physically fit, but it is the mental end that can't be beat. Being comfortable in water is very important and when diving it is more important. You use less air when stress levels are low, you use less air because your muscles are tuned to work, and the comfort of being in the water is something I love. Yes swimming does play a role in diving, both physically and mentally. Enjoy your swim!

 

[pdenoble]

Swimming skills for divers may seem to be overrated, but indeed, they may be life saving. Nobody expects every diver to be a competitive swimmer or to have a perfect form in a specific dive style. When it comes to swimming in diving, we have to consider several scenarios.
First, swimming underwater. In most situation diver may choose the pace. However, there will be situation when swimming against strong current could not be avoided. In that case the current defines the speed of swimming that diver must be able to sustain for a while. Given the wide variation of swimming efficiency, some divers may reach their maximum aerobic working capacity already at moderate pace of swimming. This can get them in trouble both due to an overwhelming physical stress on the body and due to unexpectedly fast consumption of air.
2. Swimming on the surface with scuba equipment on. Keep in mind that it takes more energy to swimm at same speed on the surface than underwater. Sometimes divers may have to swim several hundred yards and that may be first time in their life they atttempted it. Swimming just by leg-kicks, back or forward, is quite different than free style swimming. Even goood swimmers may bee surprised if they did not practiced this before. For many average divers , this is relatively hard work.
3. Free style swimming at surface after ditching all your scuba equipment. This is an unwanted situation that may arise exceptionally. Free style swimming ability comes to the light here.

I would sugggest to all divers to make swimming practice in full equipment a part of their preparation for the dive trip. Situational training could not be replace completely with swimming laps in a swimsuit.
3.

 

[earz]

I work for The Swim School in Shreveport Louisiana, and my main foucus is training adults to swim. We have geared the program toward 3 main end goals of the adults.

1. Safety Safety Safety
2. Confidence in and around the water
3. Progressing them into advanced swimming/snorkeling and scuba. Here is a nut sheel of how we attain these goals.

We put the adults from day one in Mask Fins snorkel and learners safety vest. We teach them how to reverse and forward flutter kick as well as the most important thing they will learn how to swim in one direction and then on their own do a 180 turn and swim back. We then add the Free style to the bag of "tricks".

As the adults get more confortable and proficent in the strokes we take pieces of gear off and then start from scratch.

Eventually they are wearing at most goggles, and are able to get a side breath and swim the length (50 feet) and back. But we are still not done yet. To graduate to the advanced classes they must still jump into the water tread for 2 minutes, float on their back for 2 minutes and then swim back to the side and climb out with out the use of a ladder.

Now having said that I believe that swimming should be scratch taht must be taught in its most basic form to beginning divers. Proper kicks, not bicycle kicks which will lead to greater air consumption and the possibly of cramps in your calves is very important. Being able to roll on your back and kick swim out of the lake/ocean is only brushed over in most classes I have watched. In fact when I went in to get qualified I was not even asked if I could swim. I mentioned it and the instructor told me if you can walk and breath you can dive.

Bad JuJu if you ask me. Swimming in the most basic form should be a requirement before even taking the class. While there is no cert card for swimmers, a simple 100 yard revers flutter, forward flutter, free style swim should be mandatory along with the ability to turn direct yourself in the water and the ability to tread water for at least 5 minutes. In my HUmble opinion if you cant do these things you probably do not have the fitness level to partake in diving.

Just my 9 cents worth.

 

[Emparo821]

i'm not as dedicated as i should be to staying fit and getting in the water, during winter i dont swim as much. but during the summer i usually try and swim at least 3 to 5 times a week if not more. and i try and stay in good physical condition because if your fit your body is more efficient. an efficient body means you use less air, are less suseptible to injury, and if your not working hard just to be comfortable you think ahead and avoid problems in the dive. so i would say that being a STRONG swimmer should be a pre-requisit

 

[TMHeimer]

3. Free style swimming at surface after ditching all your scuba equipment. This is an unwanted situation that may arise exceptionally. Free style swimming ability comes to the light here.


Some excellent points. But I'll beat the same old drum here. Why would you ever ditch your fins (I know, strap breaks-but on both?)?

 

[boulderjohn]

3. Free style swimming at surface after ditching all your scuba equipment. This is an unwanted situation that may arise exceptionally. Free style swimming ability comes to the light here.
3.

Some excellent points. But I'll beat the same old drum here. Why would you ever ditch your fins (I know, strap breaks-but on both?)?

I guess I will join in and ask when it will be necessary to do the crawl stroke in a dive-related scenario. Why will all useful equipment ditched? Why the need to use a tiring stroke that will use much of your energy quickly? If you can invent a scenario that might possibly occur, please suggest the odds of that happening, because, after all, we play the odds in every risk we take.

It reminds me of the time my son's English teacher had them spend weeks on the most useless exercise ever devised in any educational system: copying pages verbatim out of an advanced grammar manual so that they could carry it around with them and be able to refer to it in case (and this is a quote) "they ever needed to know if a verb was in the subjunctive mood." I asked if he also suggested they carry a life preserver with them in case the continent ever sinks, since the odds are probably better for that.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

I guess I will join in and ask when it will be necessary to do the crawl stroke in a dive-related scenario.

Working on dive boat, end of second dive, breaking down and rinsing gear as divers come on board. Diver surfaces screaming for help 80' the other side of the mooring from where the slight wind current is holding the boat. We often have plenty of scope on our mooring line, so the swim step is sometimes easy 70' from the mooring.

DM 1 runs to back corner of boat to get mfs, jumps to swim step, dons mfs, flops off back of boat to snorkel past the bow 40-50 yards; time to get into the water just less than a minute. DM 2 runs straight for the bow, does a nice flat dive straight at the victim from the bow. Any competitive breast stroke experience and DM 2 might make the mooring before surfacing (or just use the line!), then "crawl" the remaining 25 yards; time to victim just less than a minute.

After the second dive on the boat I guide for, one guide is up early to help disassemble and wash. The above scenario is not far fetched. I'd be in my 5 mm wet suit, but I'd be mighty tempted to "go off the bow."