Which skills during DIR-F?
- Thread starter BarryNL
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Ideally, taking the class for enrichment and preparation should be the goal. But they must know that it's unrealistic for many because the whole "grading structure" with fail, provisional, rec pass, tech pass levels, along with the requirement of a tech pass for further training, puts both real and imagined pressure on people to pre-train.
JeffG
Contributor
Jeff's right.
I really think the ideal way to do Fundies is to take it as soon as you have some basic buoyancy control in a single tank. Get shown the kicks, the procedures for air-sharing and bag shooting. Get introduced to the dive planning and the ascent strategies, and most important of all, get a taste of what diving as a team is all about.
Then go off and dive that way, and do some practice and skills dives, and build your technique. Hopefully some of your classmates in Fundies are local to you, and you can work together. Transition into doubles with the help of more advanced buddies, and eventually go do a tech pass checkout dive.
Of course, all this is based on having a good DIR community with which to dive, and an instructor who doesn't have to be flown in from Singapore.
I really think the ideal way to do Fundies is to take it as soon as you have some basic buoyancy control in a single tank. Get shown the kicks, the procedures for air-sharing and bag shooting. Get introduced to the dive planning and the ascent strategies, and most important of all, get a taste of what diving as a team is all about.
Then go off and dive that way, and do some practice and skills dives, and build your technique. Hopefully some of your classmates in Fundies are local to you, and you can work together. Transition into doubles with the help of more advanced buddies, and eventually go do a tech pass checkout dive.
Of course, all this is based on having a good DIR community with which to dive, and an instructor who doesn't have to be flown in from Singapore.
To pass a test, anyone has to study using a text-book, absolutely no-one can "pre-train" for something without having a textbook, unless we consider "out-of-water web-directions" to be appropriate textbook-quality material.
If you have a like-minded buddy who already went through one of the classes, you won't be seeking web-directions, as they will, most likely, tell you about your trim and control in the water. Best advice: try to reach out, meet and dive local DIR-minded community
Coming back to the original question of the things to prepare, I would repeat some of the advice posted before: make sure you are comfortable with whatever rig you are diving, specifically, try to think a bit about your trim every time you are in the water. The only thing, I would advice to work for on in the water before the class is buoyancy.
Repeating myself, buoyancy and trim are essential. If you can obtain perfect control of these two basic, but challenging, in-water concepts, no kind of task-loading skill sessions, introduced during the Fundamentals course, will get you off the correct path towards mastering the skills taught in class. I am pretty positive that it is not the new skills that prevent anyone from passing, but lack of proficiency in these two basic concepts that does.
For those who are still "pre-training" for the class and consider 3 foot buoyancy window too big, establish 1 foot buoyancy window and try to stay within it - I can't.
A bit arrogant point, but I, as all of us, do love and value my life: Those that consider the transportation and course fees too expensive, I would advise to think about the value of one's life to you, your family, and people you care about. Do you think that arranging another relatively expensive session with quality instructor is not worth your life? When something bad is going to happen underwater, whether in 3 feet or 100 feet of water, the card and a pass won't be useful at all, but the skills that you obtained during the extra sessions with the instructor may save one's life. And if you think that you already know enough, and won't learn more from an instructor who is, at least, Tech 1 certified (and most of them are more) - you are truly wrong.
IMHO: I bet that an instructor will know whether a student will be able to pass the Fundamentals class during the first 30 seconds under water, without even doing any skills.
If you have a like-minded buddy who already went through one of the classes, you won't be seeking web-directions, as they will, most likely, tell you about your trim and control in the water. Best advice: try to reach out, meet and dive local DIR-minded community
Coming back to the original question of the things to prepare, I would repeat some of the advice posted before: make sure you are comfortable with whatever rig you are diving, specifically, try to think a bit about your trim every time you are in the water. The only thing, I would advice to work for on in the water before the class is buoyancy.
Repeating myself, buoyancy and trim are essential. If you can obtain perfect control of these two basic, but challenging, in-water concepts, no kind of task-loading skill sessions, introduced during the Fundamentals course, will get you off the correct path towards mastering the skills taught in class. I am pretty positive that it is not the new skills that prevent anyone from passing, but lack of proficiency in these two basic concepts that does.
For those who are still "pre-training" for the class and consider 3 foot buoyancy window too big, establish 1 foot buoyancy window and try to stay within it - I can't.
A bit arrogant point, but I, as all of us, do love and value my life: Those that consider the transportation and course fees too expensive, I would advise to think about the value of one's life to you, your family, and people you care about. Do you think that arranging another relatively expensive session with quality instructor is not worth your life? When something bad is going to happen underwater, whether in 3 feet or 100 feet of water, the card and a pass won't be useful at all, but the skills that you obtained during the extra sessions with the instructor may save one's life. And if you think that you already know enough, and won't learn more from an instructor who is, at least, Tech 1 certified (and most of them are more) - you are truly wrong.
IMHO: I bet that an instructor will know whether a student will be able to pass the Fundamentals class during the first 30 seconds under water, without even doing any skills.
BS
double BS
I just got the "textbook" for DIR-F, and it isn't even a book, just a bunch of articles pulled from DIR-Quest issues, and a powerpoint slideshow that leaves most of the information to be filled in by the instructor.
And whenever anyone uses the "is your life worth it" argument it is usually total BS. Money and safety are totally separate in Scuba Diving. It also doesn't make any sense here...what you are recommending is that the person needs the skills in the class for safety reasons, and then argue they should not practice them because-well, I don't even know why...
Tom
It took me a lot longer to un-learn my incorrect frog kick than it would have to just learn it fresh in the fundies class in the first place. And when I got back to my local waters from the class, for a year I had no one to tell me if I was doing it right or not.
It's easier to learn it fresh and right the first time.
Except the clipping. Being proficient at clipping and unclipping before the class saves a lot of futzing around during the class.
After you've gone through the class you'll know which textbook I am talking about. Some of the major things one learns in the water, are not described in any book - you can't learn to drive a car by reading textbooks, however one can learn some of the laws that we have to abide on the road - in scuba, for example, you can learn gas management rules, protocols, etc.
If that's what you think my post means I will leave the interpretation of that post to the rest of the participants of this board.
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