Practicing drills may not appear to have anything to do with equipment, but owning something is all very well until the unlikely event that something should go wrong at depth, it is at that very moment that you wish you had practiced just a little bit more whilst maintaining neutral buoyancy.
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How many times has your idea of a training dive in Stoney Cove or at some other site been to just "fall in", swim about a bit and then get out? Probably too many times to count. Sometimes this is because once you are qualified, the focus moves onto newer trainees who have tests to complete and experience to gain; in other cases there may be a club culture where the more experienced divers feel they have earned their stripes, "been there, seen it, done it, got the tee-shirt!" |
All skills get a little rusty if not practiced... yet regular practice not only improves skills, but will also help to reduce the stress and breathing rate in a real situation. A further benefit is that it establishes "muscle memory" particularly for things like valve shut-downs (S-Drills) when your hand should automatically go straight to the relevant valve handle or Out Of Air scenarios when it will go straight to your regulator. If you give an Out Of Air signal to someone who hasn't practiced it for some years, you will probably get no more than a blank look and no real buoyancy control on the way up...potentially a major problem if you are into decompression!
The drills which are currently within this section are derived from the DIR (Do-It-Right) fraternity and are based on their equipment configuration. These were initially written as an aide-memoire for the author but should be readily useable by most people with little or no modification, dependent on the exact gear set up.
For your reference the DIR twinset configuration uses an isolation manifold. The right post has your primary regulator on a long hose and your wing inflation. The left post has your back up regulator, pressure gauge and suit inflation, assuming you don't use an argon set up. There is also a battery canister on the right hand waist strap.
Drills should be practised whilst neutrally buoyant and ideally horizontal if in the water...try to do them fairly shallow, say 3-6 metres deep where changes in buoyancy are exaggerated - if you can do it there, you can do it at 70 metres if you really have to! It may not be as stressful but it will use all your skill...it also does not have the risk associated with practising at those depths. Limitations of narcosis on skill performance should not be an issue provided you choose the right gasses, which may be easier said than done without a trimix certification!
The drills are as follows:
| Modified Valve Drill | Pre-dive and mid dive check | Checks that all valves are open/closed as required |
| Valve Drill | In water training drill | Establishes muscle memory and procedures for shutting down the manifold and pillar valves. The Isolation Manifold Failure Modes and Isolation Manifold Failure Flow Chart gives the protocols if a failure should occur. |
| Modified S-Drill | Pre-dive check | Checks that all hoses are correctly placed |
| S-Drill | In water training drill | Establishes gas sharing protocols in case of an incident |
| Swapping to Deco Bottle | In water procedure | Steps to follow when swapping from back gas to a decompression bottle |
The Fifth Dimension Scuba Diving Center website has a number of downloadable video clips, which you may find helpful.
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Hit
Counter Complements of http://www.digits.com.
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Diving can be
a hazardous sport and the information contained within this site is
not intended to replace formal training. |
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© Copyright H Beasley 13 March 2003
