Question Tech Diving Habits for Open Water Students

[hawaiian.hokie]

For all the Technical Divers in here, what skills or habits do you think all open water students should be learning?

The context for this question: I'm a fairly new open water scuba instructor, and I've been diving about 10 years. My initial open water class was with a bunch of TDI cave diving instructors, and there were definitely some skills/habits they taught early on that stuck with me. Some random examples (that I don't see taught often in Open Water):

- A greater reliance on frog kicks, helicopter kicks, and finning backward
- Nothing ever dangles (SPGs, secondary reg, etc). Everything is always streamlined and ideally clipped with a bolt snap
- Always attach bolt snaps using cave line or a zip tie (something that can be cut)
- If you're diving a new gear setup, spend the first few minutes of the dive practicing deploying your secondary breathing source to help build some muscle memory
- If you loose a reg and can't find it on the first sweep, go to your secondary. Don't keep doing the same motion hoping for a new result.

So besides making sure open water students have solid fundamentals (like neutral buoyancy, good trim, and good dive plans), what do you think are some early skills or habits that can help set them up for success, reduce risk, and help them as they continue to more advanced training? What bad habits do you see new tech students having to "unlearn" that they could have learned during open water?

 

[grassgreen]

All valves fully open. Check how a spg will behave by closing the tank, purge reg, watch for needle to drop smoothly.

 

[steinbil]

I think your list looks pretty good.

Here are some things I would focus on:

1 - Mentality
Respecting the limits of training, the need for practicing skills and progressive training while gaining experience. A diver should be knowledgeable and responsible for their own equipment, planning and diving. And they would hopefully feel confident to speak up or call a dive if they're not comfortable. Don't follow a DM or a buddy blindly - take responsibility for your own safety.

2 - Team focus
Before, during and after dives, divers should keep an eye on their buddies to make sure their equipment is working and configured correctly. Use of passive communication by team positioning and use of lights. Pre-dive planning and post-dive briefings.

3 - Fundamentals
Like you say, everything neutral and in trim from the beginning makes everything easier in the long run and helps build mental capacity. Practicing lying still in the water - with all that requires of fin techniques, positioning and situational awareness. Already in my OW class, I was practicing skills while maintaining a reference - a rock on the bottom, an smb, a line, sometimes just my instructor as a reference. The next step is keeping track of a fixed reference AND your team mate(s) while performing drills - I wouldn't expect anything close to mastery at the OW level, but if they start early and practice the skills, it will be easy by the time they reach technical training.

4 - SMB deployment & blue water ascents
I consider this to be a fundamental skill, and so could be part of the last bullet point, but since it's something often overlooked I wanted to emphasize it. Again, in my OW class I did bluewater ascents with and without a line. This is something I see even slightly more experienced divers struggle with - often they turn their back and swim while reeling in the SMB, instead of using their buddy as a visual reference. And I consider blue water ascents to be a fundamental skill for safety, if you can't execute a safe blue water ascent, then you should only dive in confined water...

5 - Equipment configuration
I put this last because I think it is the least important point, but I still think it has a lot of benefits, especially for divers continuing into technical diving. Start the students off with a long hose + necklace and a backplate + wing. SPG clipped to left hip D-ring. Benefits: it's more flexible, more sturdy, scalable, cheaper and builds good muscle memory. I started off in a BP/W and have not looked back. And once you have the basics down, switching to a rental poodle jacket on vacation is not a problem - been there, done that.

PS.
GUE's recreational program does all of this, that might be a place to look for inspiration.

 

[Bowers]

Looks like a good list. Buoyancy, trim, propulsion, streamlining and primary donate are main things. Ability to deploy an smb is another important skill that ow students should learn but is often overlooked. Students absolutely can learn to do skills while remaining neutral (getting them properly weighted is key). There is no reason anyone should go to checkout dives and need to touch the bottom or have mucky kicks.
Also teach them to calculate RMV and keep track of it during checkout dives.
RAID is another great option for an agency that teaches this way.

 

[Alekseolsen]

Teach them what their computer tells them and how to "respond to it".
I've heard a few times "my computer told me DECO, So I had to get out of the water and to the boat" instead of doing the only sensible thing, follow the Deco schedule.

 

[happy-diver]

Most importantly, they are people, and underwater essentially alone, so promote they let go of your apron
dive under into that big bad underwater place able to use their brain independently to better effectiveness

As most pretty much know the basic difference in being tech or not is in dive time and in the head
and being able to run your hand from your bottle to your reg along the hose having read the mod

 

[Alex Ouroboros]

I remember years ago being chastised by a scuba instructor for helping DM but with a long hose and necklace,,, (on a single)
I tried explaining that it makes so much more sense and is safer,,,, but to no avail he just started quoting the padi-police handbook…

 

[kensuf]

Primary donate.

 

[MidOH]

Primary donate.

Most rentals seem to have an Air2 now. So they can only primary donate.

Problem is, most rec divers have no concept of donating air at all.

Go ahead and suggest pre dive, that if they run out, to grab my long hose from my mouth. Its ok.

Their eyes just glass over, and they have no response. They have no idea what you just said. Your choices in a reg failure situation are: Mug them, or CESA.

Pony > instabuddy.

 

[inquis]

Valve is reachable in the water and that arching (not hunching) the back is how to reach it.