Posted by AADIVER on June 11, 2001 at 19:10:27:
In Reply to: Re: Teachers and Fundamentals posted by MHK on June 11, 2001 at 18:00:33:
I understand doffing and donning gear in the pool is no longer a basic requirement. The misguided reason being that no one doffs and dons in a real diving situation. So what? For me it did two things: sharpened my gear handling skills and bolstered my confidence. I wish they'd reinstate the drill, only blindfolded.
I have no problem with basic skills being taught "by the numbers", but those skills should be sharpened via real time scenarios, i.e., having the mask pulled off, reg pulled from mouth, etc., when least expected, first in the pool, then in a shallow, sheltered ocean situation. That's not even done in the so called "advanced" classes.
Bottom line: teach self-reliance because even the best of buddy teams will become separated and when that happens each buddy is the only human being in the entire ocean.