Question Tech Diving Habits for Open Water Students

[johndiver999]

I think that there is so little time in most courses that if you can get the students to actually master the required skills and have ample opportunities to observe and emulate good skills, that is probably the best you can hope for.

If there is time, I think lots of practice with no mask swimming and other similar stress inducing watermanship skills are most beneficial in making confident and somewhat safe students. I also think having the students do underwater sprints in the pool and then recovering underwater is a good lesson in what uncomfortable feels like underwater and why we should avoid overexertion. Swimming backwards, not so much, lol

 

[grantmac]

I think it's important for students to finish a course, any course, with a clear understanding of the areas they need to improve.

 

[J-Vo]

Most important habit that a tech Diver can teach, is how to say: "If you can't do XXXXX our way, you should pick a new hobby."

They say that with such perfect composure. Very impressive. Much condescension.

Crude. But I think you get my point.

I used to read a comical cycling blog, the author says there are three levels of cyclist:

Beginners
Freds/Wilmas
Douches

 

[KevinNM]

I do want to eventually take the GUE course, there are just none available in my area right now. I've heard good things about it though

@mer used to spend a few months a year in Hawaii. Not sure if she still does.

 

[Nassim]

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?

Great points! I second your point about using frog kicks, bicycling through dives often tilts the diver up in a standing position and gives them less control over their depth. Also learning how to fin backward is essential to protect fragile environments, especially from photographers.
Speaking of which I wish new divers were urged to establish excellent buoyancy long before ever taking a camera on a dive.
It would be great to not over-weight new divers which leads them to use their BCD as a replacement for good buoyancy control by inflating and deflating through the whole dive, shortening their dives.

 

[LFMarm]

I would add to the list: Keep practicing and perfecting skills. While this is not tech specific, I have not seen many rec divers refresh and practice basic skills (mask removal, s-drill, buoyancy, propulsion, signals with team, lost fin, etc.).

 

[steinbil]

I would add to the list: Keep practicing and perfecting skills. While this is not tech specific, I have not seen many rec divers refresh and practice basic skills (mask removal, s-drill, buoyancy, propulsion, signals with team, lost fin, etc.).

I'm pretty sure this is an industry culture thing. If the big agencies would emphasize the fun and fulfillment of training skills and actually catered to it for vacation divers, I think it would make a difference.

Imagine if:
- skills were always taught while hovering*
- everyone were taught to do 1 skill per dive
- DMs would include just 1 skill per dive

*as long as doing skills on the knees is all you know, it's not practica to practice or use the skills in real dives