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Ocean Optics Precision Buoyancy Workshop
Next to breathing, the most important skill in scuba diving is buoyancy control. It is also the most neglected. The major point is, entry level divers in general do not have the ability to execute the precise buoyancy control that is necessary to execute ascent procedures prescribed in dive tables and computers. It is apparent that entry level divers need more instruction and training in buoyancy control. Butch Hendricks speaking in 1989 at the American Academy of Underwater Sciences Biomechanics of Safe Ascents Workshop
Outline
Good buoyancy control is indivisible from safe, comfortable and easy diving. And it is because good buoyancy skills are so fundamental, but seemingly poorly taught, that so many qualified scuba divers feel that they don't really have it together in the water. On every dive they're a little more nervous than they should be, a bit more worried about losing control on a wall and dropping, or about not being able to hover at the safety stop in front of their buddies. They are heavy on their air, so their dives are short. They are simply not as comfortable diving as they would like to be. Many underwater photographers find they are fighting to keep their camera trained on their subject or struggling to shoot smooth video sequences. A well run buoyancy workshop addresses these concerns, improves your watermanship and makes diving much more enjoyable - which is how it's supposed to be.
The Diamond Reef Program - The Key To Relaxed Diving
Diamonds, rather than hoops, are more effective as teaching aids. Their shape better approximates that of a diver with the head and tank passing through the top, shoulders through the sides and knees,fins and any trailing hoses passing through the base.
An Ocean Optics Precision Buoyancy Workshop is a thorough course that's designed to develop crucial buoyancy skills and explain the concepts behind them. We've put the Diamond Reef System at the heart of our precision buoyancy control course. The Diamond Reef is a purpose- designed program for training divers in precision buoyancy control and pre-dates the specialty buoyancy courses introduced by major training agencies. Created in the late eighties, it was ahead of its time then and we believe it still provides, in the hands of a good instructor, the best learning system available for helping divers develop consummate buoyancy control skills. It's a cross between an underwater obstacle course and an artificial reef. And it's going to help you learn a great deal, attain superb buoyancy skills, and have lots of fun doing so.
As with Ocean Optics INON UK Level One underwater photography courses, we mix theory with practice. We believe it is important to understand the reasons you are learning and applying a skill. The course was developed by Ocean Optics owner Steve Warren, former "Dive Magazine " technical editor Matt Crowther and Andrew "AJ" Pugsley, former presenter for "The Underwater Channel". All are multi agency qualified instructors. PBC lead instructor Steve is quoted in the book The Art of Diving on precision buoyancy control using the Diamond Reef and Matt Crowther's teaching of it featured in The Independent. AJ and Steve designed the "Diver Magazine Buoyancy Challenge" and, with Sean Eaton, wrote up the findings for "Diver" and presented the results of the event at the London International Dive Show. Steve and Sam Read will work really hard with you to ensure you leave this one-day course feeling that you've had a really good time and that you've really improved your personal diving skills.
Safety First
Because Poor Buoyancy Control Can Hurt You The HSE has noted an increase in diving incidents in British waters. Lessons learned from the investigation of some of these incidents are described as 'key elements'. Many of the incidents include loss of buoyancy control and pressure-related problems Frank Murray, HM Inspector Diving, Scotland
Safety stops are an essential skill for any diver. The Ocean Optics Precision Buoyancy Course helps make these easy.
We'll go over the reasons that poor buoyancy skills and lack of awareness contribute and cause diving accidents. You'll look at how incidents develop and get out of control and how to stop them in their tracks before they can endanger you. By examining in detail real diving incidents, including fatalities, which involved lack of proper buoyancy control, you'll begin to understand how to recognise the signs of a buoyancy problem. Most serious diving incidents are not the result of a single event. Instead, a number of seemingly small problems that can normally be handled comparatively easily in isolation build upon one another and combine to become insurmountable. The British Sub- Aqua Club describes this as the incident pit. At Ocean Optics we believe that recreational diving is an adventure sport with inherent risks. They can usually be managed, but never eliminated. We think it is wrong and misleading to gloss over the risks and this is why we discuss safety in detail during your precision buoyancy workshop.
Getting Back to First Principles
Because Some Courses Miss These Out
During your scuba buoyancy workshop we'll challenge some myths and misinformation commonly held by divers. You'll learn the principles of buoyancy. A basic understanding of how your buoyancy changes during descents and ascents will help you calculate how to properly weight yourself and let you work out need-to-know information such as does your BCD provide adequate lift for the dives you make, for example.
You'll work on lots of practical skills all designed to help you thoroughly master buoyancy control. We'll begin by showing you how by weighting yourself properly you can actually dive without any air in your BCD. In entry level classes it's common to overweight students to help them stay in one place (on the pool bottom) and not drift around. Unfortunately, this is often not explained and divers leave the course thinking that it's okay and normal to be overweighted in open water. It really isn't. Many experienced divers still get it wrong. Steve and Sam will show you how to get this basic requirement absolutely right.
Good buoyancy skills enable you to get closer to wildlife and avoid stirring up the visibility
- essential skills for the underwater photographer
It's Not Just About Neutral Buoyancy
You Need Trim Control Too
Water is 800 times more dense than air - that's why you can float on it. It's also why it creates such resistance to moving through it. Our Ocean Optics Precision Buoyancy Course will teach you how to achieve neutral trim to make you streamlined and help you move through the water with minimum effort. You'll practice distributing your weight to achieve exactly the trim you want in the water. By moving your weights around your body, you'll find out how you can easily change your attitude in the water. Being properly trimmed makes you much more streamlined and will significantly decrease your air consumption leading to longer dives.
Ascents, Descents and Hovering Essential Skills On Every Dive You Make
The average diver today cannot control his rate of ascent. We have confirmed this from several sources here today. The average diver cannot learn how to control his rate of ascent because there is no mechanism or method within the field for them to acquire this training or education or to practice this skill. It simply isn't there. Dick Long, American Academy of Underwater Sciences Biomechanics of Safe Ascents Workshop, 1989.
Ascents and descents are part of any dive - and also prone to problems. In open water you could be on a wall or in the blue with thousands of metres between you and the seafloor and you really want to stay in the top bit. When ascending without a line, you'll also want to be able to precisely control your ascent speed. You'll practice using breath control and your BCD to achieve safe ascent rates and descent rates without kicking.You'll also work on your hovering skills, vital to making safety and decompression stops. You'll learn to pause and hover at any point to halt a descent or ascent. These skills are valuable for protecting your ears if they stick on the way down and for reducing the risk of decompression illness and lung expansion injuries on the way up. We'll throw in mid-water delayed marker buoy deployment as well if you ask us- if you haven't learned how to do this previously, it's a very useful added value of the Ocean Optics Precision Buoyancy Control workshop.
Spatial Awareness
Learning To Be a Friend of the Reef and Not a Reef Wrecker
Divers develop spatial awareness through completing skills like "the airstrip". Students learn how to drop inbetween the skittles, then rise away from them without knocking them over using breath control.
Good buoyancy control is a combination of knowledge, attitude, skills and equipment. All of these are taught during an Ocean Optics Precision Buoyancy Control Workshop. Another essential part of your course is developing spatial awareness. Your fin tips have no nerve endings, so if you kick a one hundred year old hard coral, you're likely to kill it in an instant and you won't even know you've done it. A careless fin kick inside a wreck or cavern can turn good visibility to absolute zero in seconds. A stray pressure gauge or alternative air source can drag along the reef like a wrecking ball damaging both it and the coral. So we'll put a lot of time into developing your awareness of your own profile, your surroundings and your possible impact on them. Good spatial awareness and perfected buoyancy skills mean that you can safely get very close to your subject with a camera, for instance, yet exit the water with super images and leave the marine environment undamaged.
Manoeuvrability
Putting You In Complete Control
Dolphins can't swim backwards. Scuba divers can. Sometimes. Being able to move backwards is a great skill to have. It can let you back out of a hole you shouldn't have entered or move safely away from a delicate fan coral while holding your camera and framing the shot. You'll also practice hand sculling techniques that let you subtly change your position in the water column with minimal effort and little thrust. These skills are less disturbing to fish and you are more likely to be accepted by them and allowed closer for observation and photography using them.
Good buoyancy skills make marine life much more approachable. Fish move smoothly through water. A diver struggling to control their buoyancy sends out erratic vibrations that disturb wildlife.
Self Rescue
Buoyant Ascents Can Save Your Life
Many divers are concerned that a buoyant ascent, achieved by dropping weights or inflating BCDs is highly dangerous. At Ocean Optics we'll explain some of the issues surrounding this self-rescue technique and why fast, buoyant ascents are a proven way to reach the safety of the surface. And we'll demonstrate them in the pool for you to see.
Additional Skills
Personal precision buoyancy control skills and a properly trimmed camera system make it east to hold position and shoot tightly cropped images like this snake eel. Photo Steve Warren
Once you've cracked the basics, it's on to practice more advanced skills. We want you to fully appreciate how seemingly subtle changes to your weighting can have a huge impact on your buoyancy. So we'll get you mask clearing while hovering, picking up items of different mass and swimming them through the diamonds as well as playing pass the weight around..... Every game is intended to refine your abilities.
You'll try some different finning techniques, learn finger walking and deploy reels and lines through a tunnel of diamonds. Learning's best when it's fun! An Ocean Optics Precision Buoyancy Workshop is much more comprehensive than many other similar sounding programs. We include many more extras - they might sound small but on your future dives they'll make a big - and positive - difference.If you have more questions, then please get in touch with Steve. He'll be happy to discuss the course in more detail with you.
Other Information
Maximum class size is four. Steve and Sam co -teach allowing for personalized coaching of each student. The success of our buoyancy course depends upon providing maximum attention to each diver.
We teach using underwater radiophones. As with our INON UK underwater camera courses, we are teaching complex skills. You would not expect to be taught to drive a car by an instructor using very basic hand signals instead of speaking to you. Being able to talk to you underwater in real time makes our coaching sessions much more productive for our clients.
Do we have a buoyancy course specifically for underwater photographers? No. The skills needed and used are the same for both ordinary recreational scuba divers and underwater photographers. However mos underwater camera systems have very poor buoyancy characteristics. These make both diving and taking pictures or shooting video very much harder than it needs to be. Ocean Optics offers solutions to these problems that can make your camera neutrally buoyant and improve the trim. Mark Koekemoer or Steve Warren can discuss these issues and solutions in detail with you.
Prerequisites:
Qualifications: entry level diving qualification from any agency (including NAUI, PADI, BSAC, CMAS, SAA, SSAC, etc.)Experience level: none Minimum age: 12
Diving medical: self assessment acceptable
Equipment:
If you own your personal diving equipment, it's best to take the workshop using this. If not, you will need to arrange rental. Many problems with buoyancy control are caused by ill fitting and unfamiliar BCDs. Ocean Optics does not provide rental scuba equipment other than cylinders and weights which are included in the price. You will need your own bathing costume and a towel.
Duration:
One day - expect to spend around four to five hours in the water split åbetween two dives and around two to three hours iån the classroom. This usually makes for a ten hour day, once you include kitting up and dekitting time.
Dates & availability:
These Precision Buoyancy Control workshops are only run occasionally. Our main training courses are for underwater photographers. The PBC is a unique scuba course and the only diving one Ocean Optics offers. The next course dates are posted here
What people say about PBW
Hi Steve,
First of all, a very big "thank you" for a most interesting and helpful clinic yesterday. To be honest, when we arrived we were not sure what we had let ourselves in for, but by the end of the day we were delighted that we had! ... We would thoroughly recommend the course to anyone who is thinking about it. Money very well worth spent! Look forward to seeing you again soon.
Regards
Nicky & Barry
The Precision Buoyancy Workshop is a must for every diver at any level. I have never before experienced such individual and personal tuition on a diving course. The pool facilities are second to none, the depth being a huge advantage over other venues! During the day Steve watches and reviews your performance and offers advise and support that will improve your diving ability. I have definitely come away with skills that will make me a better and safer diver. Many thanks again to Steve and co for an excellent day.
James Aquilina
It's An Ocean Optics Course - We're Not Finished Yet My thanks to AJ for a very interesting, enjoyable, knackering and instructive day. I really feel that I gained a great deal and I'm sure the opportunity to practice the skills will make me a better and, more importantly, a safer diver. Best regards
Jeff
Hi Steve,
Really glad that I did the buoyancy course with you a few weeks back. Just spent a week in the Red Sea and was able to go on 3 canyon dives the longest lasting 30 minutes - all your skills came into play and I really started to feel comfortable in those tight places.
Karl Thomas
