The big list of drills

[Centrals]

Valve Feathering/Modulation Technique of breathing in an un-fixable catastrophic reg free-flow contingency.

(Never ever let your gas exhaust & simply expire away if you have the ability & can make the effort to control it. . .)

How would you do that with a broken valve knob?

 

[lv2dive]

Here we go again!!!!!lol

Valve Feathering/Modulation Technique of breathing in an un-fixable catastrophic reg free-flow contingency.

(Never ever let your gas exhaust & simply expire away if you have the ability & can make the effort to control it. . .)

 

[Scott]

When do you find time to practice diving for fun?

 

[JohnN]

When do you find time to practice diving for fun?

+1 Isn't that the point of diving?

 

[TSandM]

I guess that was my point . . . many of the things on the list can be practiced in the process of diving for fun. When I was first learning some of my skills, we did specific "skills dives", where the only point was to go down and practice. But one must be careful with that, because it gets old after a while, and can impact one's enthusiasm for diving.

Nowadays, I prefer to do most of my skills practice either during, or at one end of an otherwise "just for fun" dive. If I want to practice midwater SMB deployment, we go looking for critters and then do a direct ascent instead of swimming upslope to shore. If I want to practice S-drills, we agree ahead of time that we will either do them at the beginning, or at the end of the dive.

That said, one of my most fun dives from last fall was going out with my dear dive buddy Kirk, to practice bottle-passing drills with two bottles. We did a very small tour, and spent a half hour or so in midwater, passing back and forth full and empty stages and deco bottles. It was hilarious.

 

[Diver0001]

It's funny -- I read your list of drills, and at least half of them are simply things I do when I dive.

I had exactly the same thought

...oh... and this:

 

[alewar]

Thank you for the responses. Of course one dives for fun, but it's also fun to mix drills during the dive, just to develop or keep the muscle memory. It's also interesting to see what divers in other places practice. I mostly dive the same murky quarries over and over, because that's all I have nearby. Doing drills and seeing on camera how much I suck gives me some short-term goals I can work on.

 

[raftingtigger]

alewar, Find a reason to go diving besides just getting wet. It will keep you interested longer. Sounds like your usual diving areas don't have much to look at, so skill building seems like a good "focus" for that area. You might come up with some games and activities to keep diving interesting - and you will build core skills at the same time. Can't think of the thread at this time, but there is a thread here on SB on fun underwater games.

 

[Doc Harry]

What kind of drills do you guys practice now and then?
Here are the ones I can think of....

If I am doing a big solo dive, I go through most of these drills as a confidence builder.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

We practice ditching the weight belt and doing a controlled buoyant ascent by flaring out.
We practice buddy breathing, with and without masks.
We practice ditching the entire scuba unit and swimming up and then back down to retrieve it.
We practice removal and replacement of the tank underwater.

I don't necessarily recommend that any of these drills be done. They are ones that I think are essential for comfort with the gear.

This video, starting at 0:55 minutes shows some of the stuff I am teaching my daughter on her third time using a tank..


[video=youtube_share;NmeQmWZ_tzY]http://youtu.be/NmeQmWZ_tzY?t=1m[/video]