Posted by RaiderKarl on March 09, 2001 at 10:40:57:
In Reply to: Re: Definition of Breath Holding... posted by Ken Kurtis on March 08, 2001 at 23:02:47:
Ken, thank you Sir, for your excellent explanation on this teaching point from the NAUI Instructor perspective. I remember my own NAUI scuba instructors drilling into our heads that you NEVER hold your breath on scuba. Back in 1975, when I took OW1 with NAUI, my instructors first took us on several freedives, until our class was all comfortable freediving to 20' and donning our fins, mask, and snorkel at the bottom then clearing our masks on the way back to the surface as freedivers. Then after that on our second scuba orientation dive, we had to freedive to 20' again and don all our scuba equipment at depth, all of it. I dont know if NAUI still does that, but I have not heard of anyone else doing it currently. Back to the breath-holding issue, at PADI we (the instructors and the dive masters) teach the new scuba students that you NEVER hold your breath on scuba, and we emphasize it. We dont want any accidents. Statistically, a scuba accident is going to happen primarily within the first 9 dives on scuba, vis a vis the Open Water One class (4 dives) or else one of the next 5 dives after the class. We dont want any accidents. We dont. (Get the picture?) We drill DONT HOLD YOUR BREATH. By the time a newly certified scuba diver reaches the Advanced Open Water or the Rescue Class level, we can then elaborate upon the "during ascent and in less than 20' of depth" aspect of the reality of that concept, which Ken has excellently described above. [A dive master's role is to reinforce what an instructor has explained so far. How am I doing?!]
/s/ RaiderKarl
NAUI OW1 '75, SSI AOW & Rescue '00, PADI DMC '01