Swimming Skills Assessment

[Loquei]

I took the PADI course to learn to master a life long fear of water and found an additional difficulty- I'm one of those rare people with negative buoyancy. My confidence in the water was very low, my ability to swim equally poor, and through cajolement and encouragement I was put forward for the PADI swim test by my instructor team. They tricked me into a pass, allowing me to go with a snorkel and just swim "and not stop". 34 lengths later, I packed in to be told the PADI requirement for swimming is far less than that, and I'd passed. I was also told I would have to conquer the free swimming pool test before going on to do my Open Water. A short while later I went back and with painful slowness managed the eight lengths. I'd done the ten minutes treading water without too much difficulty.

I'd say swimming definitely helps with diving, esp in my case as an inexperienced, very nervous diver.

 

[boulderjohn]

I took the PADI course to learn to master a life long fear of water and found an additional difficulty- I'm one of those rare people with negative buoyancy. My confidence in the water was very low, my ability to swim equally poor, and through cajolement and encouragement I was put forward for the PADI swim test by my instructor team. They tricked me into a pass, allowing me to go with a snorkel and just swim "and not stop". 34 lengths later, I packed in to be told the PADI requirement for swimming is far less than that, and I'd passed. I was also told I would have to conquer the free swimming pool test before going on to do my Open Water. A short while later I went back and with painful slowness managed the eight lengths. I'd done the ten minutes treading water without too much difficulty.

I'd say swimming definitely helps with diving, esp in my case as an inexperienced, very nervous diver.

I am not sure exactly what happened from your description. PADI (and all members of the RSTC) have two ways of completing the swim test. You can free swim with no aids for 200 yards, or you can swim with fins and snorkel for 300 yards.

I don't think anyone is saying that one does not need to have any swimming ability. The debate, it seems to me, is between those who believe you need to be able to swim very well on the surface with no equipment (and should therefore practice that skill regularly) and those who feel average swimming ability is sufficient. The second debate, and I may be overstating it, is between those who believe you have to be an excellent swimmer to be comfortable in the water and those who say average swimmers can be comfortable in the water as well.

 

[TMHeimer]

Boulderjohn, I agree with all you say. I think there is also a lot of blurring the lines in the examples given, between swimming with and without fins. IMO, "swimming" ability has almost nothing to do with "swimming with fins" ability.

 

[Ghanguss]

Some of the better dives in my wider area are renowned for strong currents and waves.

Im not regularly at the pool atm, but can swim 2km in a respectable time. At the beach I can tred water for 3-4 hours while body surfing.

The most valuble things for me when diving are general fitness, and ability in the surf(beaches). Both these abilities make me comfortable in the water. In rough water or far offshore I remain composed, and most importantly am able to enjoy my diving.

 

[temet vince]

I'm currently enrolled in a PADI Open Water course, and we are about to do our 4th or 5th confined water dive (I forget which XD).

I don't mean to push any buttons here, but you are joking about this swimming ability stuff, right?

I'll be the first to admit that I love diving but that I'm much worse than a noobie (I'm currently getting my open water certification, and I'm still having trouble equalizing! There's not much lower than that!). But it seems to me that scuba diving has transformed into a self regulated sport, driven by a community that loves what it does. And the number one thing I read in practically every chapter of the PADI book is that no matter how much training you have, you should never dive beyond your experience level.

We are training a generation (or several, really) of divers to be responsible, to do what's right, and to self regulate themselves and the diving community as a whole. New divers are taught to learn their limits, and to protect themselves by knowing what their experience level can and cannot do, and what they individually can and cannot do.

I have never read anything so dumb on this forum as when I read this post. Swimming ability for scuba doesn't matter. I know this and I haven't even dived outside of a pool. How do I know? I know because my confined water dives were actually scuba dives, no matter how boring or basic. Did I breath underwater? Yes. Did I need to swim a marathon? No. Now, will I need to swim more in my open water dives? Of course. But what if I'm happy just diving in swimming pools? Is that not "real" scuba? Am I no longer accepted in the scuba community? Can I no longer encourage others to enter into our community and to find a lifelong enjoyable hobby?

There is no reason anyone needs to be able to swim very well to scuba dive. Even disabled individuals are scuba diving with great success. How base it is to berate such individuals as poor divers because they can't swim a marathon!

Every person decides how/when/where they scuba. Some may never leave a pool, some may love chilling that 10 minutes allowed at 130 feet in the ocean. But no one should ever dive and surpass their physical limits. If you're not a great swimmer, then don't dive in a location where you'll need to swim well. There is no single scuba diving profile; otherwise, why would we need tables or computers?

Scuba diving is a broad sport, with so many different locations and scenarios, with so many different conditions and challenges, and with so many different people and skill levels. To me, this is what makes Scuba so great. I will never experience the same thing twice, and I will always be able to learn something from the diver next to me, whether I'm a newbie or a divemaster, or whether they are a newbie or a divemaster. I'm sorry that I had to step in and see such shallow minded veteran divers who don't realize that confined pool diving is just as much a part of the Scuba community as ocean diving is, even if it is not as thrilling. It's still "scuba".

 

[TMHeimer]

Some interesting points, especially about disabled divers. But c'mon now--the only reason I've ever heard of pool diving after a diver is certified is if he/she is either working on his own skills or working as a dive pro.

 

[temet vince]

Some interesting points, especially about disabled divers. But c'mon now--the only reason I've ever heard of pool diving after a diver is certified is if he/she is either working on his own skills or working as a dive pro.

True. But I've only done pool diving thus far, so that's all I can really go by. I suppose that biased my post, and I overemphasized pool diving .

I still think it makes a good point though.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

I'm currently enrolled in a PADI Open Water course, and we are about to do our 4th or 5th confined water dive (I forget which XD) ...

... I don't mean to push any buttons here, but you are joking about this swimming ability stuff, right? ...

... I have never read anything so dumb on this forum as when I read this post. Swimming ability for scuba doesn't matter. I know this and I haven't even dived outside of a pool. How do I know? I know because my confined water dives were actually scuba dives, no matter how boring or basic ...

... There is no reason anyone needs to be able to swim very well to scuba dive. Even disabled individuals are scuba diving with great success. How base it is to berate such individuals as poor divers because they can't swim a marathon! ...

I would never belittle a handicapped diver. As a 30 year veteran of the sport, I count those who venture beneath the waves with varying disabilities as some of my greatest diving heroes.

The disabled divers I have met are highly motivated and will put a 100% effort into using whatever abilities they possess to become divers, unlike the able-bodied whose drive to make excuses for poor all-around performance far exceeds their motivation to excel.

 

[Hickdive]

TV hits the nail on the head first time. Probably not had enough diving experience to develop the machismo yet.

To (mis)quote Master Chief Billy Sunday in Men of Honor (sic);

"Swimming don't got d*cksh*t to do with deep-sea diving"

If you think swimming is really that important then the fact that certain disabled divers can't swim should automatically exclude them from diving. It doesn't matter that they give 100% effort, the logic that swimming ability is essential in divers leads to the conclusion that a lazy swimmer who can just meet the minimum swimming standard for entry to scuba will always be better than a disabled person who cannot swim a stroke but who is an otherwise perfectly capable diver.

From experience, I'd rather have a water-confident poor swimmer as a trainee diver than a competitive swimmer because at least the former doesn't imagine they'll be able to swim their way out of trouble like the latter.

Ironic that someone with no open water dives gets it.

 

[knowone]

I know a diving dude, that when he's around, and he's not diving, dons his 3mm and sunnies and goes maybe an hour or two, on a relaxing circumnavigation of this. Nice.

Fifty or two hundred yards out, sometimes in weather far less benign.

You couldn't pay him, or he couldn't save his own life doing that pool
laps thing.

Yeah, so the people think he's mad, and use any of their own misplaced prejudices and inadequacies and fears to judge and bang on and on about things they know absolutely
nothing about with justifications that defy all.


But when he goes, it's ok, because he cant hear them and anyway

they're not there.