What to self-teach, how to self-teach it, an how to practice it.

[dumpsterDiver]

These dry suit stories are funny. My dad took me to the shop to buy one (a 7mm neoprene unisuit) when I was 14 (maybe 15), the instructor tried to talk me out of it, but I was tired of freezing in 40 degree New Jersey water. There was no training for dry suit diving in 1974 that I ever heard about.

So I bought it, read the manual and went diving a few times (solo)in a quarry before diving the wrecks solo. I was pretty skinny and needed 40 lbs of lead, which I hated and was always worried would fall off, but I don't remember it being a big deal at all to learn to use the suit. Somehow I learned to wear wool socks, cotton farmer johns, cotton tee shirt a wool sweater and a down vest under the suit.

It was so cool to have a power inflator to control your descent!. My horse collar did not have a power inflator so this was a big improvement compared to manual inflation of BC with numb lips in 40 degree water. I was also told I didn't need a BC when using the dry suit, because the suit would provide bouyancy. So I just wore a back pack, Maybe not having a BC made it easier to learn?

 

[timegan]

:cool2 : Thal, You are way more than welcome! But as for your invite to play in my local sand box....I'll PM you as to where to log on, If you really want to? .....I've invited/asked some SB members to log on in the past, (Long hose) they tried their best...to no avail, all thought the 7' hose wrapped around your neck 3>4 times before the length would be used up was insane....As well donating the primary was and still is sacrilegious to them. Lamont chimed in, the red head, hoosier, as well as many others (My thanks) with some great info...no go.

 

[bamamedic]

Hmmm...well, a drysuit didn't seem all that complicated. I spent some time talking with experienced drysuit divers, reading up on how to recover from emergencies such as feet-first ascent, and I made sure to make my first few drysuit dives very conservative, and to dive with experienced drysuit divers who could give me pointers on my trim, etc. I also bugged my original OW instructor (who also dives dry) to go on a dive or two with me to make sure I wasn't doing anything too dangerous or stupid.

I taught myself to dive a BP/W along with the long hose/bungeed backup configuration. There was a ton of information on the internet about how to set it up. It wasn't too challenging to switch from a standard BC to a BP/W, and a kind-hearted tech diver spent some time working with me on long hose deployment, OOG situations, and such.

I also taught myself to dive doubles. Did a ton of research on which cylinders to purchase, how to configure regulators and all that good stuff. I made my first few doubles dives under the watchful eye of a much more experienced doubles diver. Had some screwup at first (like forgetting to turn my left post back on after a valve drill, and wondering why my drysuit inflator didn't work!), but mostly it's been OK. During AN/Deco training, I learned how to deal with simulated valve/reg/manifold failures, and that was kind of an eye opener, because it was kind of embarassing how slow I was to react at first (had to remember what ran off of which post). I'm still glad I taught myself how to dive doubles (with the help of some awesome mentors, of course!), because I tend to need to take things like that at my own pace, and sometimes the fast pace of class isn't the best way for me to learn.

I tried to teach myself how to deco dive ("tried" being the operative word!). I had the help of a couple of very good mentors, and slowly, over the course of a summer, we started practicing gas switches, then gradually moved on to actual decompression dives (as I became more competent with my doubles and my drysuit). I felt that I was fairly competent in decompression diving, but when I took AN/Deco, I was amazed at how much there was to learn. That was one class that was worth every penny!

When it comes to learning stuff outside of a formal class, I seem to first research the heck of of the subject, then find a good mentor or two to help me out with the finer points. That seems to work pretty well for most things, but the bigger stuff (like deco and cave diving), I'm more than happy to take a class

 

[Peter Guy]

I'm not sure that I have "self-taught" myself anything (at least with regards to Scuba). But being married to Lynne means I have a built in instructor for almost everything!

Does learning how to clip and unclip my light count?