Continuing your skills?

[lottie]

Amtrosie,
that's a good piece of information and advice - I'm not talking about the DMs or the instructors as they should do those types of checks themselves as a matter of pre-checks before the start of the day (at the very least). When you mention about OOA, unconscious divers and any other type of drills that are relevant - these should be the type of exercises that the DMs/Instructors should be doing on a regular basis and continually checking and updating their skills.

but considering where I live and the other people in the group when I go diving - they are people that come over here want to dive and see what the island has to offer in the way of aquatic life (do photog or whatever etc etc) and IMHO probably don't want to go through loads of safety checks before they do the dive (well, maybe my eyes are closed or naivety getting to me, as i've never seen anyone do any type of check apart from breathing through their second stage once they've set their gear up and doing BWRAF).

just my 2 cents

[lars2923]

I agree with Amtros... Practice practice practice....
If you think of something to practice and you feel comfortable enough to
practice it (ie. at a proper depth to recover, friend standing by, etc), then
practice it. I find myself a little apprehensive when I let a skill go by for a
time being without practice. I do not want to find myself with task overload
when I need to perform a task, or asking myself questions to things that
should be intuative, natural, muscle memory, second nature, experienced,
etc...

[amtrosie]

Lottie,

These are skills and checks that are done before every dive. They are not DM or Instr. level skills. These are PRE-DIVE CHECKS. With the attitude of not wanting to do the checks before the dive, YOU are negating the very first step in diving safely. A safe dive is the responsibility of the individual diver, period. !!!!! It is not a local Dive Master or Instructor. Your safety is your responsibility.

The pre-dive check may be slow at first, but will quickly become second nature if used before every dive. This is a thread about SAFETY SKILLS, right?

The skills, such as unconscious diver recovery, are rarely practised outside of the class setting, but should be. The OOG scenarios should have been taught in your OW class and reinforced in your AOW class. These are not one time skills, these are skills that have been developed and advanced because they work!!

Diving is a wonderfully relaxing skill and hobby, but a bad dive can be, at the very least, exasperating. At it's worst it can be death inducing, and panic is it's Shepherd. One must never lose sight of that little fact. So, if we can eliminate several problems, before they become problems, we have taken a giant step to having a fun, relaxing dive.

[acelockco]

AND.........

This is where the problems with certifications are aparent. There is a MAJOR difference in what is taught at the dive shop I use vs. what is taught at other places, especially on vacation destinations/resorts, etc.

Just for comparison, Lottie, please tell me exactly what was involved in your Advanced class? How many hours of classroom? How many dives were involved? And anything else you might add.

[Finless]

Doing skills during or at the end of a dive is, to my mind, is either a good thing to do or, possibly, going too far depending on what you are doing. After all there is the adage "if it isn't broke then don't fix it'.

Obviously the learning of muscle memory skills so that finding and doing things becomes second nature is crucial in the event of an emergency. As far as removing kit under water well, OK, but only in the right circumstances. Personally, I would prefer to keep that to confined water sessions (eg pool night).

Personally, I dive with twin 12s mounted on a stainless steel back plate and with all the paraphernalia I take on a dive + usually being into some deco then I would consider in water de-kitting to be an unwise thing to practice when diving off a charter boat and drifting in the current under a DSMB. I do always make a reach for my manifold knobs and isolator and have a pat round to make sure I can find everything on every dive but that is about as far as I go.

In short, it is a very good thing to do but not every dive is right to do some skills practices?

[Papa Bear]

Ever just put on a mask and fins grab a tank with a reg and jump overboard? You should try it! The more you dive under different configurations the better diver you will be! The advantage I have with my training is we didn't have BCD's gages, and all the fancy stuff. All you need underwater is air! If you understand that the bottom is the limit!

[acelockco]

I am open to lots of ideas and trying new ways, but I would not recomend that. It just does not sound like smart diving.

Remember the stuff you learned (or was supposed to learn) in basic scuba class.

[Papa Bear]

I recommend it if you feel comfortable doing it or practice it in a pool, but it will make you realize that to be underwater all you need is air and everything else is a creature comfort! Break it down, do you NEED pockets? The do you NEED a BCD? Do you need air yes! Other than that what do you NEED?

[Tigerbeach]

Ever just put on a mask and fins grab a tank with a reg and jump overboard? You should try it!

Back in the dark ages, this is all we did; constantly practicing and inventing ways to challenge ourselves and each other underwater so that we could overcome ANYTHING!
We had a game where we could mess with each other as long as students were not in the water; we ripped each others masks off, snuck up and knocked regs out, dropping weight belts, or added weights, secretly turning off air..
All in fun, and all with the specific purpose of raising our skill levels.

Of course, as we were all lifeguards, or water polo players, or lifetime watermen it's not like we had to work on our swimming skills...

[Papa Bear]

My point exactly! Be comfortable in the water and with your gear! When you find out how little you need, then when stuff happens it is no big deal!!!! Some how I knew TB would be doing this stuff!