The Most Difficult Skill to Master

[Fish_Whisperer]

That's why I love being a n00b: Almost EVERYONE is better than I am, and I get to learn from them! (I get to learn from divers with poor skills, too: How I don't want to look in the water, and why, and how uncomfortable it looks.)

 

[Hank49]

Weighting and distribution including tank position is key. Then I would say buoyancy awareness and skill are next. I'm not so sure that equipment has anything to do with it. I see this skill demonstrated all the time by my regular dive buddy/instructor. I've seen him do it wearing an old chlorine faded regular jacket bc just as well as when using a bp/w.

I should have added, "to stay motionless in a horizontal position". When I had my old sun faded jacket bcd, I could remain motionless...but in a vertical position. My legs are heavy I guess and would drop as soon as I stopped moving. When I changed gear and which resulted in a change of weight distribution, I could do the same thing horizontally with no fin waggling. Breathing rhythm is important too.

 

[jpsexton]

I should have added, "to stay motionless in a horizontal position". When I had my old sun faded jacket bcd, I could remain motionless...but in a vertical position. My legs are heavy I guess and would drop as soon as I stopped moving. When I changed gear and which resulted in a change of weight distribution, I could do the same thing horizontally with no fin waggling. Breathing rhythm is important too.

I would venture to guess that when you used your old bc you had not perfected your tank position yet. Just moving your tank up or down a little can have dramatic effects on horizontal position. The trick really is to get your overall weight distribution adjusted so that you have a natural center pivot point. When you achieve that you can remain motionless in any position. After all of that skill comes into a big play. I've got the weight ironed out and on a good day I can remain motionless but I have lots of work to go myself.

 

[DIR-Atlanta]

I think the point I was trying to make, and probably not succinctly enough, was that new divers don't know enough to know how they should look and behave in the water.

Shouldn't new divers be able to use their OW instructor as a sort of prototypical example of "how they should look"? Why couldn't the instructor demonstrate this type of thing to the students and help them learn how to do it better?

 

[TSandM]

The instructor COULD, but from my admittedly limited experience, there are a lot of people out there teaching scuba diving who can't be still themselves, and don't see the need to do so.

 

[Rick Inman]

Shouldn't new divers be able to use their OW instructor as a sort of prototypical example of "how they should look"? Why couldn't the instructor demonstrate this type of thing to the students and help them learn how to do it better?

Funny guy.

I think we know...:shakehead

 

[DIR-Atlanta]

Shouldn't new divers be able to use their OW instructor as a sort of prototypical example of "how they should look"?

Funny guy.

Actually, I'm half serious - why shouldn't we expect (or perhaps demand) that our industry professionals be able to demonstrate best practices? If someone had signed up for a driver training course and their instructor was weaving all over the road, then they would immediately ask for a different instructor (or more likely, ask for a refund and then go find another course). Why should diving instruction be any different?

 

[dsteding]

Why should diving instruction be any different?

It shouldn't, but the reality is that anyone--even before they learn--can spot a bad driver (using your analogy). A skilled diver is something that is much less well-known. As a result, the demand and high bar simply isn't there for most people learning how to dive.

I think this places the burden on the agency, but that is a different discussion . . .

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Actually, I'm half serious - why shouldn't we expect (or perhaps demand) that our industry professionals be able to demonstrate best practices? If someone had signed up for a driver training course and their instructor was weaving all over the road, then they would immediately ask for a different instructor (or more likely, ask for a refund and then go find another course). Why should diving instruction be any different?

Because the typical person signing up to learn how to drive an automobile has been exposed to what it's supposed to look like all his or her life ... by virtue of having been a passenger over the years. How many people signing up for OW classes have ever actually seen another diver underwater prior to signing up for class? They have no idea what to expect, or what it's supposed to look like.

So if instructors train you to do skills on your knees ... or demonstrate poor technique themselves ... that's what you come away thinking you're supposed to do. You simply don't have a context on which to make any other conclusion ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Charlie99]

When I first witnessed this skill, I had my biggest diving epiphany. ........... I tried to join the circle, and suddenly realized that I was about to swim right into the squid, and then past it into another diver! So I quickly started sculling wildly with my hands to propel myself backwards. It worked, kind of, and I avoided the collusion. But as I tried to bring myself to a stop, I plunged down into the bottom and stirred up a giant cloud of silt.

In observing and discussing with other divers I've come to the opinion is that the biggest problem is simply that divers aren't aware of whether they are neutral or negatively buoyant. Your story is a good example of what happens to a negatively buoyant diver that stops finning --- they start sinking.

Frog kicking, with a long glide portion of the stroke, pretty much forces one to stay close to neutral. A diver that is continously flutter kicking just doesn't get as effective of feedback on their buoyancy.

Other divers often want to know why I use so little air. My usual recommendation is that they simply stop every once in a while and see if they start sinking, and to learn to adjust their BCD so that they stay more or less at the same depth without finning.

Very often after their first dive concentrating on doing this they surface just bubbling with excitement and gushing "Wow! Diving was so much easier! I didn't feel like I had to keep moving." Usually, these are instabuddies that I'll never see again, but I'll wager that once they have experienced the difference, that they will continue to improve until staying truly neutral is an automatic, nearly effortless skill. An easier, less stressful dive style will then automatically reduce their SAC.

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The other observation that I'll share is that once buoyancy control became automatic, I was no longer conscious of what cues I was using to adjust the air in my BCD. In response to someone on the boat asking me about how I know when to add or release air, I paid attention to what I was doing on the next dive and realized that rather than adjusting my BCD to control buoyancy, that I was adjusting the BCD to control my breathing.

By this I mean that after a while I started to control my buoyancy by my breathing pattern. Need to move up a bit? OK. I'd just suck in a bit more air, and pause a bit longer or go a bit more slowly during the fuller lung half of my breathing. Getting a bit floaty? OK, I just start breathing more towards the bottom of my lung capacity. After getting my breathing skewed off to one end or the other for a while, I'd just automatically adjust the BCD to re-center my breathing pattern.

The funny thing is that this skill and technique was totally unconscious and only when analyzing my diving almost as if I were another person did I realize what was happening.

Hopefully the above rambling will help somebody to more easily and quickly get into the groove.

Charlie Allen