Posted by Jason on September 26, 2000 at 22:38:38:
In Reply to: More questions posted by Gerry Smith on September 26, 2000 at 13:42:11:
If you want to take pieces of it to stress to the OW
students (I know people hate to see DIR taken not holistically,
but it can be beneficial):
1) The long hose primary with the short hose around the neck
should be demonstrated to every student. It troubles
me to see them doing OOA drills where they take 30 or 40
seconds just to find the octo to donate. Nevermind how
troubling it is to see poorly secured octos dragging along
the bottom.
2) The notion of team diving. as opposed to merely diving
together could be more strongly instilled in most OW divers.
3) Keeping gear carried to a reasonable and controllable
minimum. Shifting weight off the belt onto the BP
leads to safer weight belt drops, planned or not.
4) Physical conditioning is highly desirable.
There's much more to it, and none of this is exclusive
to their domain. But these are a powerful start, and
hopefully lead to the OW student thinking when other
choices are made.