Teaching nothing

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I remember a relatively new instructor who happened to be the DM for one of my dives. It was just the two of us plus a DMT. After 69 minutes, the instructor had to call the dive because he was low on air. I surfaced with 1200 and he was at 400. The DMT was lower.

I was very flattered when he asked me how I did that.

Did you tell him "you need to do nothing more!"

 

[Boarderguy]

I remember a relatively new instructor who happened to be the DM for one of my dives. It was just the two of us plus a DMT. After 69 minutes, the instructor had to call the dive because he was low on air. I surfaced with 1200 and he was at 400. The DMT was lower.

I was very flattered when he asked me how I did that.

Because you're a girl and girls don't breathe when diving.

 

[KatieMac]

Did you tell him "you need to do nothing more!"

It was a pretty amazing dive actually. He's not from the area and didn't know many of the local species. So he's show me something with the wrong signal, I would say no and show him the correct signal. Then back on the boat we'd talk about it and I would show him the right species in the identification books. I'm a bit of a geek about fish id. He was a good sport.

We saw one, then another, then two spotted eagle rays (4 total), 2 different stages of drumfish together. 3 turtles, 3 banded coral shrimp, scrawled filefish, hogfish, big lobster, absolutely massive grouper, barracuda, lizardfish, various crabs. gigantic lobster and two entwined sharptail eels. Not to mention a lot of the usual stuff you see - angels, trunkfish etc. Curiously not a single lionfish though.

After a while, he just stopped showing me stuff because he expected I would find something better within seconds.

 

[KatieMac]

Because you're a girl and girls don't breathe when diving.

I've had two male dive instructors who are better on air than me. One not so big. The other was about 6'3" and 200 lbs. And a dive buddy - big guy - better than me now. When we first started diving together, I was better. He's doubled my dive count now though and is better than me. My brother-in-law ... better than me. Or at least equivalent. My husband is close to as good on air as me - he's done fewer dives though but still close. And he certainly would have had more air than that young, fit instructor.

It's not a female thing. That's just an excuse

 

[MichaelMc]

"Teaching how to do nothing underwater more often" seems like a great slogan.
Or "Finding quiet stillness, doing nothing underwater more often."

 

[Ontwreckdiver]

When you get a student who never dove before, you put him in a wing, put up trim weights and get him 100% properly adjusted, train him how to stay trim and still (which you won't in 5 days, or 10 but never mind that) you just made a trim and streamlined owd diver.

Any instructor that is any good can get a student properly trimed out in any style of BCD.

 

[KatieMac]

Any instructor that is any good can get a student properly trimed out in any style of BCD.

Yup and I never would have started in a wing. I couldn't have rented one where I was certified anyway.

@Vicko is it common where you dive to have wings in rental gear?

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Yup and I never would have started in a wing.

Why not? Simply because of availability as you said:

I couldn't have rented one where I was certified anyway.

Where were you first exposed to BP/W?

 

[KatieMac]

Why not? Simply because of availability as you said:

I knew about wings - my BiL uses one and he's been diving with me since I started. But it wasn't available to rent. Even if it was, I used to have weird anxiety on the surface after a lifelong fear of the ocean and just felt comfortable in the rented jacket.

I ended up purchasing a hybrid. It fits. It's comfortable. It works for me. I don't have buoyancy or positioning issues and don't power dive all year, so I see no need to spend money to change to a back inflate or wing. If I dove loads or wanted to do more than rec diving, I would consider upgrading.

 

[RobPNW]

As a newer diver, I will not discount the importance of buoyancy control and trim. For me, my first instructors really emphasized safety and self rescue. Position control in the water was certainly covered but there's only so much a new diver can absorb and I appreciated the focus on keeping me from killing myself. On follow up dives, I was less worried about those safety related skills and could relax and focus on things like buoyancy control. I think that skill just takes time to develop and tweak, beyond the time typically available in a basic open water class. Just my two cents.