That's bananas RJP
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It's not for the agency I teach for but I was researching some additional techniques for Stress & Rescue and stumbled upon SNSI and their Rescue Diver videos show and reiterate doing skills neutrally buoyant (not necessarily in horizontal trim and without some arm motion ... but clearly neutrally buoyant.)To someone else's question on reg retrieval ... If teaching neutrally buoyant in trim, I'd still teach the sweep method of regulator retrieval. One still doesn't know where it went to if in the dark or limited vis so it still works well. It's probably even more effective while in trim.Since folks have "glommed" onto PADI in this discussion, how about the other Agencies?Which of the many, many, agencies demand as a Standard that all is taught neutrally buoyant. Beginner, recreational open water.Note that I mean it is in the Standards for the Agency. Not "my agency allows me to do what I want" stuff, but a Standard such that if the Instructor did not teach the students neutrally buoyant they would be in violation.
I was given a ZERO on one of my CW skills by the examiner during my IE... for frog kicking! "That's a highly technical skill which is inappropriate for an OW setting. What would happen if an OW student tried to kick like that?"
You get "0 points" in cases where there is either a standards violation or such a severe deficiency as to create a student safety issue. (If you get a ZERO on a skill you also fail the IE.) When I asked them to show me where in the manual it was stated that a frog kick was prohibited they decided to allow me to redo the skill... as long as I did it with a flutter kick.
Had a voicemail of apology from headquarters waiting for me on the following Monday morning.
It just shows how confusing this all is for some. They see it as a bad thing and not as a benefit. It's going to take a lot of time to get everyone to see it as an alternative way to teach, much less actually teaching that way.
Haven't we had this discussion over and over again - particularly since PADI revised its OW course?
BTW, when Boulderjohn (with some help from the rest of the world!) wrote the article for PADI about teaching "neutral buoyancy style" [aka "An Early Introduction to Neutral Buoyancy"] Sam Miller was asked about the "on the knees" style of teaching. As I recall, the best he (and the rest of us) could come up with was that it derived from the teaching at Scripps -- wet suits (thus "over weighted" when on the bottom); sandy bottom; no such thing as a BCD.
It was the BCD that changed how we dove but the teaching framework was entrenched and didn't change with the "new" gear.
Training in Basic Scuba / OW for first time scuba prospects should be conducted for the entire course sans BCD. Emergency floatation device (Mae West) only?
That will cure the buoyancy / overweighting issue real quick - for instructors too. But can you imagine the squaking from the manufacturers and the lawyers? - delicious, but we'd be creating a whole new class of divers after about 3 or 4 years
All Scuba training should be done in the gear they will be expected to be using after the class. It's a matter of comfort through control, and that will enable more people to want to continue diving after the class.Training in Basic Scuba / OW for first time scuba prospects should be conducted for the entire course sans BCD.