Things you learn from DM

[IndigoBlue]

Whatever the agency minimum is, that would be your ideal starting point in terms of minimum number of dives to begin training as a D/M. During your training, you will gain a slew of dives as you help with classes.

The agencies are all guilty of insufficient required dives for the basic open water certification. By seeking additional training on your own with any of them for AOW, nitrox, CPR, rescue, O2 provider, and D/M you overcome that flaw that each of the agencies is guilty of.

The sooner you start your training as a D/M, the better. Any time spent waiting longer is only time spent developing really bad habits.

List of bad habits:

*Diving without a snorkel
*Diving without a digital depth/timer
*Diving with an archaic 5 ft hose under any circumstances
*Diving deeper than 50 ft in a thick wetsuit
*Diving with more than 10 lbs on a weight belt
*Diving without the appropriate back up gear for the nature of the dive

A good instructor can guard you against making these mistakes before they develop into bad habits, and training as a D/M as soon as possible is a good way to develop your diving skills to perfection.

 

[HammerNoMore]

<snip>

http://www.politicsforum.org/images/flame_warriors/flame_28.php

 

[MikeFerrara]

The sooner you start your training as a D/M, the better. Any time spent waiting longer is only time spent developing really bad habits.

List of bad habits:

*Diving without a snorkel
*Diving without a digital depth/timer
*Diving with an archaic 5 ft hose under any circumstances
*Diving deeper than 50 ft in a thick wetsuit
*Diving with more than 10 lbs on a weight belt
*Diving without the appropriate back up gear for the nature of the dive

A good instructor can guard you against making these mistakes before they develop into bad habits, and training as a D/M as soon as possible is a good way to develop your diving skills to perfection.

Not all DM courses address equipment configuration much. I doubt that many recreational instructors are discouraging divers from using a heavy wet suit for deep diving althoug some certainly do and for good reason.

But...5 ft hoses work ok for some and snorkels (more correctly refered to as head bangers or CO2 collectors) aren't any good underwater. LOL

 

[Allen42]

Whatever the agency minimum is, that would be your ideal starting point in terms of minimum number of dives to begin training as a D/M. During your training, you will gain a slew of dives as you help with classes.

The agencies are all guilty of insufficient required dives for the basic open water certification. By seeking additional training on your own with any of them for AOW, nitrox, CPR, rescue, O2 provider, and D/M you overcome that flaw that each of the agencies is guilty of.

The sooner you start your training as a D/M, the better. Any time spent waiting longer is only time spent developing really bad habits.

List of bad habits:

*Diving without a snorkel
*Diving without a digital depth/timer
*Diving with an archaic 5 ft hose under any circumstances
*Diving deeper than 50 ft in a thick wetsuit
*Diving with more than 10 lbs on a weight belt
*Diving without the appropriate back up gear for the nature of the dive

A good instructor can guard you against making these mistakes before they develop into bad habits, and training as a D/M as soon as possible is a good way to develop your diving skills to perfection.

IndigoBlue,

You didn't explain your reasoning for these opinions. I think it would be beneficial to newbies that run across this post to hear your reasoning so they may make an informed decision, rather than subscribing to these opinions as gospel without reason. (Some of these "mistakes" are taught to DM/DiveCons by course curriculum.)

Just my .02

-Allen

Edit: James, just followed your link... LOL. You're prolly correct.

 

[matt_unique]

List of bad habits:

*Diving without a snorkel
*Diving without a digital depth/timer
*Diving with an archaic 5 ft hose under any circumstances
*Diving deeper than 50 ft in a thick wetsuit
*Diving with more than 10 lbs on a weight belt
*Diving without the appropriate back up gear for the nature of the dive

Whoa there are some different opinions on this list. I suspect with a second pass you could qualify the statements but....

I think a snorkel is an unnecessary entanglement/annoyance hazzard. If waves are cresting over your head you can use your regulator and not worry about gulping water if the snorkel top goes under.

You would not get very far with 10 pounds of weight if you were diving a neoprene drysuit with winter thermals for example. Besides that, too many divers think the amount of weight is a measure of their skill. It is not. Your setup and environment will determine the amount of weight necessary. While many new divers are heavy, there is no magic number of weight which indicates "you have arrived" as a good diver.

I think you're right on with some items.

--Matt

 

[MSilvia]

I think it would be beneficial to newbies that run across this post to hear your reasoning so they may make an informed decision, rather than subscribing to these opinions as gospel without reason.

I think it would be beneficial to some not-so-newbies too. I question the validity of all of those points except the last, and would be very interested in hearing why you consider those things bad habits.

I'd absolutely love to see you do even a 15 foot dive in two layers of 7mm neoprene (a common exposure protection choice around here, and one I'm fond of even for deeper dives) using less than 10 lbs of weight. What's your secret?

 

[String]

Diving without a snorkel a BAD habit ?!

Off topic so not going to comment further on that 1 bizzare comment.

 

[MSilvia]

Off topic so not going to comment further on that 1 bizzare comment.

Good point. Could someone start (or better yet split) a new thread to discuss it?

 

[Diver0001]

....snip....

snorkels (more correctly refered to as head bangers or CO2 collectors) aren't any good underwater. LOL

Not to mention in the way. I recently left mine behind on a dive. The instructor insisted on me wearing it, despite the fact that I have a Holgarthian hose configuration, for OW 3,4. It's the first time an instructor insisted in my wearing it instead of just carrying it and (wouldn't you know it) during the dive the student's reg started to free-flow. I went to flip my longhose over my head to get it ready but instead it became entangled in my snorkel and made things worse. So I .... erm .... "removed" the snorkel (thankfully it was attached with the world's flimsiest snorkel keeper) and tossed it over my shoulder and cursed something that sounded like "Here Mr. Murphy it's yours now shove it up your ....bleep.... ". :475:

Needless to say it lead to a really embarrassing situation because the student ended up not needing to share air and I had to explain to them why I had thrown away my snorkel ...... I found it back on the next dive again but since then it's been turned in to a children's bathtub toy..... I was pretty P.O.'d after the dive, actually, but most at my myself for letting this stupid STUPID thing happen to me.

ooh. Still a little po'ed I guess....

In fact, the more experience I"m getting with a "normal" rec-rig the more I appreciate that just like anything else, all the bits fit together. You just can't mix and match configurations like long hoses with snorkels or canister lights with stab-jackets.....It just doesn't work.

so.... getting to the point.... from a certain perspective, I can see Indigo's point (yes, you read that right, I'm amazed too). A normal rec rig can take a snorkel..... It's not a problem. It becomes a problem when your config deviates from that norm.

R..

 

[MikeFerrara]

Not to mention in the way. I recently left mine behind on a dive. The instructor insisted on me wearing it, despite the fact that I have a Holgarthian hose configuration, for OW 3,4. It's the first time an instructor insisted in my wearing it instead of just carrying it and (wouldn't you know it) during the dive the student's reg started to free-flow. I went to flip my longhose over my head to get it ready but instead it became entangled in my snorkel and made things worse.

LOL

Just for the record though I naturally have a snorkel when teaching recreational classes ans standards require it. I don't always wear it on my head but I can donate gas with a long hose without it getting in the way. I find that if you stay horizontal and just duck your head slightly (as you would normally do anyway) the snorkel doesn't really get in the way. Rather than flip the hose over my head, I pass my primary in a streight line from my to the OOA diver with the mouth piece pointing down to avoid free flows. At the same time I duck my head so the hose clears.

I still don't like to wear a snorkel unless I'm snorkeling.