3 replies to this topic

[Moose]

Last night, we had a college pool to do some training. It was a lot of fun and I think everyone learned a lot of great skills and reinforced some ones we already knew.

In fact, it was a great way to nip developing bad habits in the butt! I’m sure we all know what to do if our buddy gives the “out of air” sign right? Well, when was the last time you practiced it? Are you sure you are doing every step correctly? (Like holding on to the reg you pass your buddy, and only pass a reg to him, across your body?)

I recommend that each of you try hold a skill refresher course. Your local dive shop may have one available. Note, that my dive shop (and others) have a deal that if you took you BOW or AOW training with them, that you can “resit” the class and dives any time you want for free. I recommend this highly.

Some other training we did, was completely removing our masks and completing dives and skills. You’d be amazed how hard some basic skills are without a mask.

Also, make sure you can tread water for 10 mins or so. This is not a skill most people do regularly, but if you need to work on it, you want to know that now!

Lastly, we did some “crazy” skills. My favorite is a dive to the bottom of the pool with only a mask and tank. (Yes, that’s right, just the tank, no reg or anything.) While that skill really isn’t useful in normal diving, it’s a nice skill to try once. Who knows, maybe one day it will save you.

So what other dive training do you do? What are important skill sets that we don’t practice enough?

[shadragon]

So what other dive training do you do? What are important skill sets that we don’t practice enough?

I posted a note on my local forum asking if any other rescue divers wanted to get together and practice. Not one response. Unpracticed skills are lost skills and getting together would be a great way to do it.

Sharing air, locking arms and circumnavigating the pool at 30 feet / min. would be good. Raising an unresponsive diver from the bottom and controlling the victim on the way up buoyancy wise. Well, there are two things...

[Dive_Girl]

Last night, we had a college pool to do some training. It was a lot of fun and I think everyone learned a lot of great skills and reinforced some ones we already knew.

In fact, it was a great way to nip developing bad habits in the butt! I’m sure we all know what to do if our buddy gives the “out of air” sign right? Well, when was the last time you practiced it? Are you sure you are doing every step correctly? (Like holding on to the reg you pass your buddy, and only pass a reg to him, across your body?)

I recommend that each of you try hold a skill refresher course. Your local dive shop may have one available. Note, that my dive shop (and others) have a deal that if you took you BOW or AOW training with them, that you can “resit” the class and dives any time you want for free. I recommend this highly.

This is excellent advice. Because I also agree with this, I schedule a monthly Mid-Week Tweak™ for our shop customers. There is a minimal fee for the sport club access ($5) and/or pool gear rental/tank ($5), if the diver needs it, to cover costs and there is always a shop dive professional in attendance. I find this a wonderful inexpensive way for divers to dust off their gear during the winter, or right before their next big dive vacation, or wanting to try out new gear, or wanting to work on their skills (such as you suggested)...etc.

I recommend those divers who have been out of classes for a long time actually look into a formal refresher, but a pool session or something similar to our Mid-Week Tweak™ is great for divers who have been on a few months hiatus.

I also have it set up at our shop that divers who certified with us can sit in on those classes again in the future for free. I find this most helpful in regards to Rescue Diver courses.

Great timing of a great topic Moose!

[finGrabber]

I tend to practice skills at the end of dives in open water. I've recently practiced the share air with my buddy in NC, at depth...I've done a share air with the Wench in Turks and Caicos last year on the down line; this one was interesting because the boat was swinging at a pretty good pace and we had to hold onto the line as well as each other.

I've done weight exercises, practiced backing up, neutral bouyancy, etc. I do think it's a great idea to keep your skills up to date - thanks Moose for the reminder!