When does "Gas Management" get taught?

[O2BBubbleFree]

GUE doesn't do OW yet. 5thd-x, the people behind the Essentials class, have OW courses available, and although I haven't taken an OW class with them before, I believe they teach the Essentials from the get go.

My understanding is that GUE has been working on an OW class that would take you from OW through AOW, Nitrox, and Rescue diver over some unknown period of time and money. If you knew you were going to really love diving, then this would be an excellent class to start with once it's available.

ADDED: DIR is a way of diving developed by GUE.

~ Jason

Disclaimer: I'm the site admin for 5thd-x

Thanks for the clarification, and the ........ plug?

I've already chosen my 'path.'

 

[StSomewhere]

Essentials of DIR (aka: Essentials of Recreational Diving) is a class and also a DVD availble here: http://www.5thd-x.com Adobo and I took the class together.

BTW I think you are on the right track. I can't help you with your OW vs AOW issue except to say that some people aren't going to take your AOW so if you at least present this as a rule-of-thumb chart format for a depth range, tank size, and SAC rate to your OW divers, at least it eliminates the "be on the boat with 500 psi" guessing game.

Always remember that the numbers will make some student's eye's glaze over and other's minds engage. If you can teach your OW students a little about SAC and they already learned Boyles law then going through the rock bottom calculation once or twice on a whiteboard may help them trust your rule-of-thumb chart.

 

[limeyx]

Just to reiterate, I am proposing introducing OW students to the calcs, but emphasizing hard numbers to use for different depths, and give a handout for them to use if they wanted to do further study.

Then for AOW students revisit the issue, focusing on how to do the calcs.

Are you saying that for OW students the ‘how’ is more important then the rule of thumb or chart? If so, why?

You say that you focused on the calcs in ‘Essentials.’ I’m sorry, but I’m not familiar with that class. Care to enlighten me?

Added later: OK, with a little quick research I see that 'Essentials' is an intro to DIR, kind of a 'Discover DIR' or prep school for DIRF.

This is basically what we did in our DIR-F (luckily I had seen it in AOW first)

We walked through an example as a group with instructor (with a nice printed calculation sheet)
and then in our own teams, did the calcs for our own tanks.

But then, we were given RB #'s for a number of common tanks at common depths to help us out until we got proficient with the calculations.

And of cours the emphasis is always on "Scuba Math" (TM) -- basically rough approximations that you can do in your head. Dont need 9 decimal places accuracy, and err on the side of conservatism.

Seemed to work out pretty well in my opinion.

 

[limeyx]

Stick with being a fireman. More money, steady work, hot chicks... Ok hot chicks if you work in Sacramento, and can use the fire truck to cruise porn conventions.

~ Jason

Hey! You're married mister!

 

[O2BBubbleFree]

Essentials of DIR (aka: Essentials of Recreational Diving) is a class and also a DVD availble here: http://www.5thd-x.com Adobo and I took the class together.

Again, thanks. But it's not for me.

BTW I think you are on the right track. I can't help you with your OW vs AOW issue except to say that some people aren't going to take your AOW so if you at least present this as a rule-of-thumb chart format for a depth range, tank size, and SAC rate to your OW divers, at least it eliminates the "be on the boat with 500 psi" guessing game.

Always remember that the numbers will make some student's eye's glaze over and other's minds engage. If you can teach your OW students a little about SAC and they already learned Boyles law then going through the rock bottom calculation once or twice on a whiteboard may help them trust your rule-of-thumb chart.

That's what I'm shooting for.

 

[vkalia]

Stick with being a fireman. More money, steady work, hot chicks...

Whaa - you mean diving doesnt have more money and hot chicks? I have been LIED to!!!!! Oh, the horror, the horror. Damn you, PADI!

Vandit (what about fame? Is there fame atleast?)

 

[SeaHorseWoman]

i'm learning gas management on SB, and bringing questions, ideas, and skills to practice back to my teacher when I go dive.

 

[StSomewhere]

Again, thanks. But it's not for me.

You are missing my point. The course slide deck for that class (which is on that DVD) has a very basic introduction to the rock bottom principals we are talking about, plus a practical discussion on gas management and how all usable, 1/2 usable, thirds, etc. apply to rock bottom for different diving situations.

You don't have to be DIR to learn a thing or two about proper gas management. It just so happens that DIR instruction puts a greater emphasis on this, which makes it a good resource. I think someone else already posted this, but the folks at 5thd-x have kindly posted a couple of useful PDFs on the subject:

http://www.breakthrudiving.com/xducation/pdf/Diveplanningworkbook.pdf
http://www.breakthrudiving.com/xducation/pdf/fundamentals.pdf

 

[O2BBubbleFree]

You are missing my point. The course slide deck for that class (which is on that DVD) has a very basic introduction to the rock bottom principals we are talking about, plus a practical discussion on gas management and how all usable, 1/2 usable, thirds, etc. apply to rock bottom for different diving situations.

You don't have to be DIR to learn a thing or two about proper gas management. It just so happens that DIR instruction puts a greater emphasis on this, which makes it a good resource. I think someone else already posted this, but the folks at 5thd-x have kindly posted a couple of useful PDFs on the subject:

http://www.breakthrudiving.com/xducation/pdf/Diveplanningworkbook.pdf
http://www.breakthrudiving.com/xducation/pdf/fundamentals.pdf

Sorry 'bout the misunderstanding, and thanks for the info.

The DVD is probably a lot easier than digging it all out of the threads here... but SB (and the .pdfs you linked) is free. I like free.

Um, what's 'course slide deck'? Collection of slides used in the course?

 

[TSandM]

Yes . . . on the DVD, you also get the Powerpoint presentation of the class.