Day 4

Confined water training.

Todays training began with proper weighting for minimal thermal protection to be used in skin diving ditch and recover skill. Each diver wearing a shorty wet suit or similar equivalent, weighted themselves for neutral buoyancy.

Once this was accomplished all divers performed a scuba bailout.

Divers assembled and went over the basic open water skill sets with a buddy. Alternating and working on Demonstration Quality skill performance.

At the end of the demonstration task, the divers were asked to remove their mask and put on their stored extra mask kept in the BC pocket. Only one diver had the stored mask available to them.

Divers next ditched their scuba unit and swam to the surface with mask, fins and snorkel.

Verbal review of skills performed was done in the shallow water. This was a critical review.

Next task was demonstration of surface skin dives, pike and feet first.

Scuba bailout was demonstrated to the instructor candidates. The candidates watched and did a critical review of the skill.

Divers next ditched their scuba unit, turning air off each time, and surfaced on mask, fins and snorkel.

A breath holding skill was next introduced. The divers would one at a time dive down to the bottom of the pool and place a hand on a rubber brick. That diver could not leave until the next diver relieved him at the brick. The idea was to complete 5 minutes of continuous breath hold diving, divided between 5 divers. This skill requires precise timing and a cool head.

Lets just say, a lot was learned in the next 5 minutes.

As fatigue set in from the constant surface diving, the actions became more erratic. Leaving some down to long on the brick.

One hand on the brick will be done again, with variations as the divers become more competent and confident.

Last task was a surface skin dive to recover and replace scuba unit. All attempted to do at demonstration quality. There was room for improvement!

Divers did a critical review of each others performance. After exiting the pool with gear, all divers returned for endurance building swim. Most completed 200m, some 400m.

It was noted this session had divers with stressors, including self-imposed stress. More will be discussed on that topic later.