Posted by Bob3 on May 29, 2002 at 12:41:55:
In Reply to: Re: Training w/out a BC posted by Ken Kurtis on May 29, 2002 at 11:27:14:
You pretty much made my point where you mentioned the part about divers being grossly overweighted.
All too often the BC has become an "elevator device" for pushbutton diving. Push this button to go up, push this one to go down.
Overweighting is actually being promoted, thinking the BC will compensate for it, while proper weighting is mostly bypassed.
In this context the BC actually becomes a safety hazard.
This shop has the students in the pool w/o BCs only for the first couple of sessions, mostly to have them get started on the basic skills without picking up the bad habits right away. In that context, they ARE teaching buoyancy control, starting off with the #1 item, proper weighting.
As you know, in the quickie courses far too many instructors have the tendency to paste the student on the bottom so they don't go floating off. That gets the student started off on the wrong flipper right off the bat, and it sticks with them.