Ocean Diver Training

Over the past eight weeks I have had the honour and privilege of introducing new club members to scuba diving.

We have three new young scuba diving members: Becky, Ollie and Elliot.All three have taken to pool sessions really well. From my memory of Ocean Diver training (only ten years ago!) the first theory and pool lessons feels like an information overload. You want to impress your instructor and appear to be a natural, especially in the pool sessions where you sometimes only have an hour to kit up, get in, complete a series of exercises, exit the pool, de-kit and debrief... Besides, everyone else is making it look easy! I remember glazing over when our pool instructor started to explain regulator stages, high pressure hoses, A-clamps, DIN valves, ponies... for a first timer this is all too much to take in. Fortunately I realise now that I was not in the wrong. The delivery of information available for a lesson is ranked in order of importance. They are as follows:

Need to Know

Should Know

Could Know   

The first time you see diving equipment is in the classroom during the theory lesson. They can be annotated diagrams, or the instructor may even bring in some for a dry practical and let you play with the valves! Setting equipment up at the poolside is another level up from this - in the back of your mind you know that the wrong configuration could slow down the lesson, annoy your instructor or even worse fail completely while underwater - and it would be all your fault! For some anxious people this may compound any reservations they have about going diving at all. 

http://www.bsac.com

I try to keep in mind the Need/Should/Could hierarchy. I have had to stop myself a few times from waffling on and going off on a technical tangent, instead of emphasising the important information relevant to the lesson. I am still quite new to instructing and find that I sometimes have to double back on things I've said because I haven't thought them through. One example is the emergency controlled buoyant lift, and explaining very carefully why the rescuer should inflate their own jacket and not the casualty's, before realising it should be the other way round. That example I felt particularly unprofessional, but my mistake was made during safely contained training session and the only person who suffered was myself from my own mild embarrassment!

You also need to understand the needs of the student and the requirements of the lesson. You can never assume anything. All throughout history lives have been lost where people assume the wrong things. Last Thursday I was asked to run Elliot through a full kit lesson. This came at very short notice, it was in fact my wife who took the phone call just as I was leaving the house. I assumed that I had to use full kit as well, as a good instructor leads by example. On arrival, Elliot was ready in his semi-dry while I kitted myself up in my drysuit. The swimming pool is warm enough without having to sweat buckets in a full body neoprene outfit. Just as we were about to get in the water, Andy our training officer leaned in and whispered, "You do realise that only the student needs to wear full kit?"

I briefly considered getting out of it, but time was getting on. So I chose instead to make progress with the lesson, even if I did look like a sweaty tomato. Sometimes I think that my learning curve as an instructor is as steep as my students!

http://www.ndiver.com

Becky, Ollie and Elliot are very patient with me and I like to think that I am patient with them. Although some exercise drills need a couple of attempts to refine the skill all three seem comfortable and confident in the water.   It is a testament to Andy and Paul and their effective delivery of the theory lessons that all three passed their theory exam with flying colours, and with their pool training drawing to a close the next step will be sheltered open water training in our very own British waters.

As instructors with the British Sub Aqua Club we volunteer our time and do not get paid. The broad smiles after a fun pool session and the feeling that you just may have started someone on their life-long love of diving makes instructing an absolute pleasure. No amount of money can buy that.

The Importance of Log Books

If you are one of these divers who are flush with cash (or rely on their credit card a little too much) you may be the proud owner of a swanky dive computer which records your dive to the n'th degree of accuracy - impressive dive profiles, undisputed accumulated time underwater, an unlimited space to write your account of the dive, you can even give your dive up to five stars.  

http://subsurface.hohndel.org/

Aside from being a technophobe and unable to find the USB cable for my Suunto Vyper, I find a certain satisfaction from the discipline of writing my dive account after every dive in my red BSAC log book. I find an annotated picture or silly sketch is easier to remember than a written account, and they're also more fun to do and look back on. I am on my 5th red book, it feels good to carry my experience around in my hand. 

The red log books are also rather resilient. In my early days I accidently left a few choice items in my drysuit pocket and went for a dive in Wraysbury. I emerged from the water searching for my log book, only to wake to a sobering realisation my soggy logbook was sloshing around my drysuit pocket along with the electronic minibus keys, which had to be dried out in the compressor room (they worked after a while, which was a relief). I managed to pull my logbook out of my pocket intact and lovingly took it home, carefully separated the pages and left it on the radiator. In the end it was stained, but the writing on all pages was still readable. The Neptune motif on the front had worn away, only to be redrawn by one of my buddies as Bart Simpson. Even though I know now how sturdy these books are I'd still rather not risk it again though!  

Returning to the point. Computer logs are clearer and more accurate than hand written log books. I feel the benefits end there, as I believe that log books exceed computers in this capacity several ways:

• Low maintenance, no printing, no cables, no electricity is required
• The more dives you log, the more books you collect, the more impressive it looks
• A certain nostalgia, especially for the early rustic log books
• Easy to carry around your whole experience with you
• More personal
• You can't stamp a dive computer with the site logo
• Your Buddy can't verify the log unless it's printed
• More satisfying to fill out
• Freestyle method of dive logging - pictures, diagrams, text, photos, there are no rules!

So keep your fancy computer logs, but also love your log books :-)

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.

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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