Qualifications vs. Experience

I once knew a fellow student diver in my Ocean Diver (first grade) and Sports Diver (second grade) training group who did not want to do any dives without getting a skill signed off. He was adamant that there was no point in diving unless he was undergoing training, not interested in diving recreationally at all. He was always rushing about, and had little patience for other students not learning as quickly as him. We nicknamed him (any diver who is infamous within their club is usually given a nickname) 'Scout', due to the fact he always wanted to "collect badges".

He got through his training quickly, and once passed as an assistant instructor was very keen to start training new members, pass on his wisdom and do his Dive Leader (grade 3) training at the same time. While this was going on we had another member, Taff, who had been with the club several years already. He had long ago stopped at Sports Diver grade. He had logged 200 odd dives and enjoyed the technical side of diving so was always 'fiddling with his equipment'! He did not feel the need to instruct or worry about training to be a Dive Leader. Instead, he buddied up with anyone who had a full cylinder (or better, a full twinset) as long as he got to do at least three dives per day!

There are many types of diver personalities in a club, someone specialising in social studies should do some research on the types of people who like to spend time underwater, especially in the cold waters of the UK! These two divers I feel display the polar opposite ends of training attitude. Scout was enthusiastic and couldn't wait to take trainees out in their first trip to Stoney Cove. Taff went off diving with another instructor to poke around the helicopter. At the time I thought that Taff, the more experienced diver, would have been better suited to taking new people on their first trip, as Scout was so new to the process. 

Thinking about it now I realise there is another side to this. Taff may be an experienced diver, but was he more suitable as a guide and mentor than Scout, who had fresh training in his head? Whereas Taff was more interested in penetrating wrecks and looking for toys to play with underwater than looking after trainees having buoyancy issues, masks flooding, weightbelts slipping off, all of that. Scout liked to be able to pass on his own knowledge of the sport which is what club life is all about - giving back what you have learnt and sharing the enthusiasm.

Although I personally feel safer diving with Taff than Scout (as the latter does rather tend to focus on his own image), it has made me aware that even though everyone's diving attitude is different we all share the same love of the sport, and as long as everyone dives safe and respects each others limits, then we have a great club. After all, scuba diving is more than just a sport. It is a way of life.

Lesson 1

The last two Thursdays I have been instructing at the pool. I have had the pleasure of introducing two new students to the delights of scuba diving.  'OS1' is the first practical lesson for the British Sub Aqua Club Ocean Diver grade.

The objective is to build confidence in the water and introduce some basic skills. This needs to be broken down into a safe and manageable lesson. It is chock-a-block with information, some would say an information overload. Safety, lesson discipline, hand signals, finning techniques, mask and snorkel fitting, names of all the parts of equipment, buddy checks, more safety and applying each situation in the pool to a real life situation in the sea, as well as the skills and techniques of scuba diving! Confucius' proverb comes in handy when teaching such a large volume of information.

Tell me and I'll forget,

Show me and I may remember,

Involve me and I will understand.

It is important to positively encourage the students. Learning a new skill requires the student to be attentive and to want to learn, as well as clear instruction which is understandable and mimicable  Further down the line the skills get tougher and the student (unless he or she is a reincarnation of Jacques Cousteau or a diving prodigy) will inevitably make mistakes, not understand an instruction or even possibly make a dangerous error. It is no good shouting or berating a student that makes mistakes no matter how serious - intimidation is not an effective form of teaching. I find that a condensed form of the R.E.A.P. debrief is a good method of coaching in this instance. Let's say a new skill is not being understood correctly. Review the skill by demonstrating once more or breaking it down into smaller steps. On the surface, verbally Encourage the student in good aspects of the skill or their progress in general, Assess the elements of the skill that require fine-tuning and suggest how to Progress with improvements.

It doesn't take long for everything all to click into place, and you realise that everything is inter-linked and it comes naturally as if the equipment was an extension of your own body, similar to learning to  drive a car.

Becky and Ollie have been great students, and although I occasionally have to backtrack on some elements of a skill due to my temporary rustiness, they have been very patient with me. It has been a pleasure to introduce them properly to the sport, and I look forward to seeing them signed off as fully fledged Ocean Divers this summer!

Club Noticeboard

One of my tasks as publicity officer is to maintain the noticeboard at Exe Valley Leisure Centre.

Buggy not included...

A Sense of Foreboding?

I'm all for expanding our diving network by gaining followers on the TivSAC Twitter account, but our latest follower seems to know something we don't...

Please please PLEASE don't let them put you off! They have decided to follow tens of thousands of other accounts after all.

I'm sorry but I don't feel that I would be doing the club any favours by 'following' them back!

Maiden Dive

Okay, so this entry is backdated a few months, but this was my first dive with TivSAC and my only dive in 2012. However, it does deserve an entry for two reasons: number one, it was a good dive; number two, it bulks out the blog a bit.

Date: Sunday 9th September 2012          Dive Number: 166
Place: Babbacombe Bay near Torquay     Buddy: Steve Gooding
Time Down: 1030                                  Dive Time: 60:00
Time Up: 1130                                      Max Depth: 8.5m
Visibility: 5m                                       Water Speed: 1.2kn
Weather: 5000M BR SCT001                  Entry: Shore

The last place I dived was Lundy Island in 2010 with some university alumni and after all the problems I was having with leaking drysuits and an aching back, I was in two minds whether to carry on or not. So I had been out of the game for a little over two years, and I decided to launch myself into club life once more with my local club. After all, I was experienced, qualified and had spent a fortune on kit in the past. It would be a shame to waste it all!

I spend several hours checking my equipment over, re-reading some of the diving books I had and going over all the notes I had made in the many theory lessons that I had. I was a little nervous about it, so I asked Steve for a nice gentle dive. No wrecks at 45m for instance. Steve, the dive manager for this particular trip, agreed that a nice sheltered shore dive would ease me back in, which I was more than happy with.

We drove down at a civilised time in the morning, 9am (divers usually find themselves getting up before sunrise to get a good spot, at least they are my frequent memories) and the carpark was only just starting to fill with day-trippers. We casually kitted up, my undersuit and drysuit must have shrunk in the past two years as I struggled to fit in them! I suuspect my cylinder and weightbelt must have also gained weight as well... I managed to remember the B.A.R (Buoyancy, Air, Releases) Buddy check routine, one of the subjects I had revised the evening before! We yomped over the rocks to the entry point, which required scramble over due to the tide level and general orography of the site. By the time I managed to heave myself into the water is was sweating buckets and gasping for breath. Steve watching me all the while,  silently chuckling to himself. Once the chilly water was supporting me and took the weight off my equipment I had cooled down sufficiently to be able to gather myself and look like a competent diver ready to sink.

We signalled a thumbs down for descent. The sea bed appeared three meters down like an old familiar friend, rocks riddled with anemone, coral, seaweed and dead crabs. Paradise rediscovered.  Steve obviously knew the area well, as seemingly without a visual reference point or compass he signalled 'That Way' and off we finned. We observed several cuttlefish on the way past the submerged South Devon flora. We think there were six, but it could have been the same pair of cuttlefish swimming around us. We swam for about half an hour in Steve's direction before deciding time was getting on and our air supply was getting to the end of the first 'third'.

We saw much of the same on the way back, seaweed, rocks, limpets and cuttlefish. Towards the end of the dive we found a mass graveyard of spidercrabs at the base of the breakwater/pier. It was just after this that Steve signalled 'thumbs up' to surface, and finding ourselves in the middle of the bay. I thought Steve had planned this all along as we could easily return up the shelving shore, but Steve had got a little lost on the way back to the original entry point!

We hauled ourselves back up the beach and up into the carpark to debrief. I had had a great dive and was happy to have gotten wet once more. Not long after the debrief Steve went to get us a lovely cup of tea from the nearby cafe while I was distracted by Babbacombe's resident seal, which was in the bay snuffling towards a dog called Johnson barking at it from the pier edge.

On balance, I would say it was the best day's dive I had had all year.

Personal Accumulated Time Underwater: 3 Days, 7 Hours, 49 Minutes.

Hello and Welcome!

Hello!

My name is Tony and I am a scubaholic.

I am a 28 year old Dive Leader. I have been diving for nine years and been an Open Water Instructor for four years (I also could do with losing a couple of stone in weight!).

I joined Tiverton branch of BSAC last year after a couple of years diving hiatus due to getting married, buying houses, having children... not great excuses I know - sorry. Before that I was a member of Kingston University Sub Aqua Club, where I did all of my training. I still dive with them if they invite me!

I hope you find my BLog Book enlightening and entertaining. If you live in Devon and would like to join in with the fun, we welcome all new and experienced people alike! We meet at Tiverton swimming pool every Thursday at 8.30pm. Otherwise, do follow us on Twitter and Facebook, which I also maintain.

:-)

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