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More to the point you want to "test" three things at that same time: experience, proficiency and judgement. Here's a radically different approach:
The first time I went down to work at the University of Puerto Rico’s lab at La Paguera, I was instructed to report to the Dive Locker at 10:00 A.M. Waiting there was the lab Diving Safety Officer, a man who was truly a legend in his own time, Walt Hendrick Sr.
Walt questioned us (there were two of us) closely about our diving background as we carried our gear bags and tanks up over the hill and down onto the dock, maybe two hundred yards total. We were told to put our wet suit booties on and jump into the water beside the dock. Walt walked up and down the dock and continued to talk with us; we needed to swim back and forth to hear him.
Walt took our fins and masks (with snorkels) out of our bags. He put my fins together and pulled my mask over them to hold them together. He tossed the bundle to me and repeated the process with my partner. “Put them on,” he said. This was a little complicated because when you pulled them apart you had three pieces, each headed in its own direction. I jammed my mask up over my left arm, took one fin in each hand, took a big gulp of air, and resting on the buoyancy of the air in my lungs, held my breath while I got my fins on. Then I put my mask on, my snorkel in my mouth and waited.
My buddy got his gear squared away and Walt said, ‘See that float over there?” He was indicating a crab pot buoy a goodly distance away. “I want you to do a surface dive, take ten kicks underwater, surface for one breath, dive, take 10 kicks underwater, until you reach the float.”
I took a breath and dove, ten kicks, took a breath, ten took, take a breath, ten kicks, took a breath, ten kicks (this is getting hard), another breath, ten kicks (I don’t know if I can do this), gasp a breath, ten kicks (I’m done for), gulp a breath, five kicks (I give up), surface. There’s the float, fairly close by. Walt waives for us to return.
We snorkel back on the surface. We stop at the edge of the dock and Walt questions us, “Did you make it?” No, “Did you do ten kicks each time?” All but the last one. “Did you only take one breath each time,” Yes. “OK, get on out, you can dive at the lab." So we got out of the water, packed our gear up, and walked back to the dive locker.
I had a chance to talk to Walt a few days later, DSO to DSO. “What was that all about?” I asked, “I’ve never had a checkout like that, we never even went on SCUBA.” Walt smiled. “Here’s how it works,” he lowered his voice to a conspiratorial tone. “Most of it is misdirection. We had a long talk as you walked to the dock; this gave me two critical pieces of information. The first was who you think you are, the second is what kind of shape your in.”
It had been kind of a long walk up and down hill carrying a full gear bag and the tank that we never used. “Now by the time we got to the dock I knew that if you two were, in fact, who you told me you were, I’d have no trouble letting you dive here.”
“You both modified your swimming to compensate for the booties, a good sign; you both dealt with the loose gear and getting it on; but most importantly you both told me the truth.”
“The truth about what?” I asked.
He said, “When you were snorkeling out to the float I could easily tell if you made the same distance on each breath by looking at the ripples; I could easily tell if you took just one breath; I didn’t care if you made it to the float, just that you told the truth about what you actually did. You see I can learn all kinds of things about you just by watching carefully.”
“What else did you learn?" I asked.
“Well, when ever you came to the surface and had to talk, you pulled your mask down around your neck. That tells me you’re from California and given the number of times you took it off you’re either an instructor or you’re not very comfortable having a mask on your face.”
I’m sure that Walt learned a whole lot more about us than he ever let on. I started going down to the lab at least once a year to work with Walt. The more time I spent with him the more I came to see that there was layer after layer after layer of information that he was able to gather from these simple exercises. I’m know that I never got the bottom of them all.
The first time I went down to work at the University of Puerto Rico’s lab at La Paguera, I was instructed to report to the Dive Locker at 10:00 A.M. Waiting there was the lab Diving Safety Officer, a man who was truly a legend in his own time, Walt Hendrick Sr.
Walt questioned us (there were two of us) closely about our diving background as we carried our gear bags and tanks up over the hill and down onto the dock, maybe two hundred yards total. We were told to put our wet suit booties on and jump into the water beside the dock. Walt walked up and down the dock and continued to talk with us; we needed to swim back and forth to hear him.
Walt took our fins and masks (with snorkels) out of our bags. He put my fins together and pulled my mask over them to hold them together. He tossed the bundle to me and repeated the process with my partner. “Put them on,” he said. This was a little complicated because when you pulled them apart you had three pieces, each headed in its own direction. I jammed my mask up over my left arm, took one fin in each hand, took a big gulp of air, and resting on the buoyancy of the air in my lungs, held my breath while I got my fins on. Then I put my mask on, my snorkel in my mouth and waited.
My buddy got his gear squared away and Walt said, ‘See that float over there?” He was indicating a crab pot buoy a goodly distance away. “I want you to do a surface dive, take ten kicks underwater, surface for one breath, dive, take 10 kicks underwater, until you reach the float.”
I took a breath and dove, ten kicks, took a breath, ten took, take a breath, ten kicks, took a breath, ten kicks (this is getting hard), another breath, ten kicks (I don’t know if I can do this), gasp a breath, ten kicks (I’m done for), gulp a breath, five kicks (I give up), surface. There’s the float, fairly close by. Walt waives for us to return.
We snorkel back on the surface. We stop at the edge of the dock and Walt questions us, “Did you make it?” No, “Did you do ten kicks each time?” All but the last one. “Did you only take one breath each time,” Yes. “OK, get on out, you can dive at the lab." So we got out of the water, packed our gear up, and walked back to the dive locker.
I had a chance to talk to Walt a few days later, DSO to DSO. “What was that all about?” I asked, “I’ve never had a checkout like that, we never even went on SCUBA.” Walt smiled. “Here’s how it works,” he lowered his voice to a conspiratorial tone. “Most of it is misdirection. We had a long talk as you walked to the dock; this gave me two critical pieces of information. The first was who you think you are, the second is what kind of shape your in.”
It had been kind of a long walk up and down hill carrying a full gear bag and the tank that we never used. “Now by the time we got to the dock I knew that if you two were, in fact, who you told me you were, I’d have no trouble letting you dive here.”
“You both modified your swimming to compensate for the booties, a good sign; you both dealt with the loose gear and getting it on; but most importantly you both told me the truth.”
“The truth about what?” I asked.
He said, “When you were snorkeling out to the float I could easily tell if you made the same distance on each breath by looking at the ripples; I could easily tell if you took just one breath; I didn’t care if you made it to the float, just that you told the truth about what you actually did. You see I can learn all kinds of things about you just by watching carefully.”
“What else did you learn?" I asked.
“Well, when ever you came to the surface and had to talk, you pulled your mask down around your neck. That tells me you’re from California and given the number of times you took it off you’re either an instructor or you’re not very comfortable having a mask on your face.”
I’m sure that Walt learned a whole lot more about us than he ever let on. I started going down to the lab at least once a year to work with Walt. The more time I spent with him the more I came to see that there was layer after layer after layer of information that he was able to gather from these simple exercises. I’m know that I never got the bottom of them all.
