The Most Difficult Skill to Master

[dsteding]

Rick, would you agree that the biggest trick to mastering this skill is equipment selection, especially weight distribution, suited for one's body type?

For what it is worth, I think this is part of it-but I'm starting to think it is more about body awareness.

Here is what I mean:

When someone is a newer diver, having your gear dialed makes it easier to achieve good trim and to quiet down in the water. For instance, adjusting the harness on a BP so it isn't flopping around on your back can help a lot. Likewise, proper weight placement (and the right amount of weight) can allow you to stay horizontal and helps to minimize buoyancy issues.

But, as you get further along, I think a perfectly quiet hover is more about positioning of your own body. There are all sorts of things that you can do to shift your center of gravity and center of buoyancy without adjusting your rig: hand position, degree of knee bends, head position, back-arching, all this stuff helps achieve good, motionless hovering. The truly skilled divers I've observed seem to have an intuitive grasp of all these tools, so that if something needs a bit of tweaking, they can do it before dynamic instability sets in.

That, to me, means that being perfectly motionless (and I'm talking ABSOLUTELY still) means being very aware underwater regarding your body positioning. If that awareness is there, imho, gear selection becomes less of an issue.

My one experience with this is in diving different double tanks. It used to be that my trim would go to hell if I switched from one tank set to a different type. It would take a bunch of dives to get things back. Now, with a bit more of experience, I find it takes about half a dive to get things dialed back in. I'm not saying I'm perfectly motionless yet (errr, ask my dive buddy about my struggles at 20 feet with air in my boots last Saturday . . .) but I do think that I'm starting to develop an understanding of the tools at my disposal in terms of body positioning to achieve that goal.

 

[Blackwood]

The only time I was in calm enough waters to remain motionless, I wasn't skilled enough to do so... I was in the pool.

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

In Cozumel, last month, I started nailing my dives. I felt like my weighting, trim, breathing, and mindset all really came together for the first time. The whole week was an absolute joy, and the dives, sooooooo peaceful... What an amazing difference to just be carried along on a gentle current, perfectly neutral, several long moments of not moving at all, and the only sound, increasingly longer, gentler exhales and the crackling of the brine... Finally, after getting my first fifty dives under my belt, I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of things! (I suppose NOW comes the REAL learning!)

 

[RJP]

Rick, would you agree that the biggest trick to mastering this skill is equipment selection, especially weight distribution, suited for one's body type?

I'm not Rick, but I don't agree. Technique and skill are the biggest contributors to success here. Distributing the weight of the gear is about skill and technique, not about selecting the gear. I would say a great diver will be able to adapt and get by with whatever gear someone throws at them. Whereas someone with tons of cash to buy and place all the right gear in all the right places, but without skill and technique they're no-where.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

In Cozumel, last month, I started nailing my dives. I felt like my weighting, trim, breathing, and mindset all really came together for the first time. The whole week was an absolute joy, and the dives, sooooooo peaceful... What an amazing difference to just be carried along on a gentle current, perfectly neutral, several long moments of not moving at all, and the only sound, increasingly longer, gentler exhales and the crackling of the brine... Finally, after getting my first fifty dives under my belt, I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of things! (I suppose NOW comes the REAL learning!)

It's a really cool feeling when it all starts coming together ... like you can finally just relax and get into the flow.

Fifty dives is about average ... that's what I tell my OW students to give it before they start to feel really comfortable in the water. Some of it's developing the skills, but some of it's mental too ... you have to give your brain a chance to adapt to the new environment.

Next step is to start adding tasks while holding your buoyancy ... a camera, for example. Try sneaking up on something and holding perfectly still while you line up a nice macro shot ... it does wonders for improving your bouyancy skills ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

Thanks, Bob. I'm still working on my SAC rate, so I'm reluctant to add anymore tasks, at the moment. That was another thing I was pleased with: I was diving with AL100s all week, but I started and finished every dive with everyone, (instead of having to come up early, as I have in the past), and I still had 800-900psi left in the tank. I'm not in competition with anyone but myself, but my rotten SAC rate has been the toughest hurdle for me to clear...

(Sorry... don't mean to hijack)

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Thanks, Bob. I'm still working on my SAC rate, so I'm reluctant to add anymore tasks, at the moment. That was another thing I was pleased with: I was diving with AL100s all week, but I started and finished every dive with everyone, (instead of having to come up early, as I have in the past), and I still had 800-900psi left in the tank. I'm not in competition with anyone but myself, but my rotten SAC rate has been the toughest hurdle for me to clear...

(Sorry... don't mean to hijack)

You're in good company ... when I was at 50 dives I could drain an AL80 in 25 minutes ... on a 40-foot dive ... :11:

I used to tease dsteding that I could see the sides of his tank cavitate when he breathed ... he's much better now ...

Relaxation is the key ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[mdb]

You're in good company ... when I was at 50 dives I could drain an AL80 in 25 minutes ... on a 40-foot dive ... :11:

I used to tease Dsteding that I could see the sides of his tank cavitate when he breathed ... he's much better now ...

Relaxation is the key ... ... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Good comments on this nice thread. I was fortunate to make my first 50 dives with fine NASDS instructors. We used to practice as we called it then "hanging neutral" off La Jolla Canyon. It was fun to tweak weight and BC etc so your breathing lifted you up and down in the water.

I know we want to get divers in the water after an e-course or 5 dives, but, maybe, in the long run, we would have a better retention rate and more active divers if we changed the matrix a bit.

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

You're in good company ... when I was at 50 dives I could drain an AL80 in 25 minutes ... on a 40-foot dive ... :11:

I used to tease dsteding that I could see the sides of his tank cavitate when he breathed ... he's much better now ...

Relaxation is the key ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

*chuckle* That's about how bad my breathing is. Slowly but surely it's improving, and I thank you for the encouraging words.

 

[radinator]

Heh, I saw the title of this thread and I thought it was asking for input on what we thought was the hardest skill to master. I clicked on the thread already planning to add "Doing Nothing" to the list. And there it was, in the OP. Good call Rick.

I love hovering motionless (as well as I can do it) in heavy surge. There I hover while the water sweeps me 15 feet back and forth along the bottom. I get to view a good size area without doing any motion at all. Back and forth. Back and forth. It gets to be quite soothing.

I was with an instructor once and he was hanging onto a rock for all he was worth, while I was floating free and going with the surge. He came up to me afterward and complimented my hover. He also complained that he had sprained his wrist trying to hang on. Oops.