Basic 6 Skills of Scuba Diving

By | Training

The Recreational Scuba Training Council (RSTC) is the training council that determines the minimum skills that need to be taught for scuba diving classes. Most of the big training agencies such as PADI, SDI, and SSI are all members of the RSTC and therefore have adopted the minimal skills required by the RSTC. In the basic open water class, there are 20 skills that students are required to master. Some of these skills are more useful than others such as regulator and mask skills that we use on every dive. There are 6 basic skills that we must master in order to lay a strong foundation for sound diving.

The basic 6 skills of diving are progressive. So as we go through the basic 6, please remember that every skill will be a small piece of the next skill. The basic 6 are the following:

1) Regulator Removal and Replacement – This skill is simply taking the regulator out of your mouth, re-inserting it in your mouth, and clearing the water out of the reg. When we take the regulator out of our mouth, we don’t want to cover the front of it with our hand. This may restrict access to the purge button when doing air shares. Remember, each skill builds upon the previous one. So let’s get into the habit of doing it right the first time. Some training agencies teach that if the regulator is out of your mouth, you should be blowing tiny bubbles. The theory behind this is that if you start to ascend while holding your breath, then the risk of rupturing a long is strongly increased. However, if you hold a normal breath and your buoyancy doesn’t change, then the risk of rupturing a lung is not high. This is simple physics. Gas expands as we ascend, but if we are neutrally buoyant, the gas doesn’t expand. Of course, if you start to ascend, start blowing those tiny bubbles.

2) Regulator Switch – This is pretty simple. We remove the regulator from our mouth and clip it off to the right chest d-ring. Then put the backup regulator in your mouth and clear it. Are you starting to see how skill #1 comes into play? If can’t put a regulator into your mouth and clear it, you can’t switch to another regulator (buddies or your own backup). We clip off the long hose to make sure it isn’t hanging down to catch on something. It also builds the muscle memory for doing a gas switch in technical diving.

3) Regulator Recovery and Replacement – If your regulator comes out of your mouth for any reason, it should not be a time to panic. Simply put the backup regulator on the bungee necklace into your mouth, clear it, and then find the primary reg. We can find the primary regulator by rolling slightly to our right. That should drop the regulator down and we should be able to find it by feeling our right shoulder with our left hand. If we cannot find it, then we can simply find the long hose as it is coming around our torso and follow it with our hands. The second stage is guaranteed to be at the end of the long hose. :) Once we find the primary regulator, remove the backup and insert the primary and clear it.

These first three skills build the foundation for even more critical skills such as doing air shares and gas switching.

4) Mask Flood and Clear – This is one that everyone should have learned in their open water class. Simply flood the mask by cracking it from the top to let the water in. To clear the mask, crack the bottom seal, exhale through the nose and look up slightly. This will fill the mask with air and force the water out of the bottom. If you try to clear by cracking the mask seal from the top, the air will force water to the bottom of the mask. Thus not getting all of the water out of the mask. This skill is where the low volume masks are a great benefit. A low volume mask doesn’t have much of an air space between the class and your face. This means that it doesn’t take a lot of air from your nose to clear the mask. Also remember never to over exhale when clearing the mask. This causes your buoyancy to change.

5) Mask Removal and Replacement – This skills is critical in the event your mask comes off and you have to switch to a backup mask. Not having a mask on, should not be a situation for panic. Situational and buddy awareness comes into play here. If you see your buddy’s mask come off, you should be right there with your backup mask out. To perform this skill, simply flood your mask as mentioned in skill #4, but do not remove the mask just yet. This allows us to get used to the cold water on our face. If we were to yank our mask off and that cold water hits us, our first response is to inhale. Many times, through our nose. That means we suck in some water. But if we keep the mask on, let it flood for a breath or two, then take it off it helps to reinforce that we need to remain calm when the colder water hits our face. Now we can take the mask off our head. When replacing the mask, first locate the nose pocket. This gives us a reference point as to the orientation of the mask. This makes sure that we are not putting on the mask up side down. Do you see the link from skill #4 to now?

6) Modified S-Drill – The S-Drill is also known as the safety drill. The full safety drill, simply put, is the air sharing drill. The modified s-drill is the mechanics of donating the long hose, switching to your backup, and re-stowing the long hose when done. The modified s-drill, you donate the primary regulator with your right hand, by grabbing the hose, and “unwrapping” the hose from around your head. When you grab the hose, your palm is facing your. To donate, remove the regulator from your mouth, raise your hand straight up then in front of you. While doing this, rotate your hand such that your palm is no facing away from you. This will put the regulator into the correct position such that the out of gas diver just has to open up, insert the regulator, and clear it. Remember to keep the mouthpiece facing down as to prevent free flow. So once you have donated the primary and extended it in front of you, switch to your backup and clear it. No move the regulator to your left hand, while keeping it extended in front of you. With your right hand, form an “O” with your thumb and index fingers around the hose. Trace the hose back to your right hip. If you have a canister light, un-tuck the hose from under it. If your hose is tucked into your waist belt, pull it out. Then windmill your right arm up and to the front of you while holding onto the hose. This will clear the long hose from behind the wing. Now the long hose is fully deployed. To re-stow the long hose, trace the hose with your right hand, windmill the hose back behind you so that it is behind the wing, tuck the hose under your canister light or into your waist belt. Now you form a small bend in the hose, with the reg in your right hand now, such that it is just big enough to go over your head and not get caught on your valves behind you. Loop the hose over your head and switch from your backup to the primary and clear it. Finally, trace the long hose so that you can verify it is in the correct position. Don’t forget to turn your head to the left. If the reg feels like it wants to come out, then somewhere the long hose is too tight and needs a little more slack so you can turn your head comfortably.

Here is video clip showing the modified s-drill:

These are the basic 6 skills of diving that form the foundation for many other skills. As you can see, each build upon previous skills. The modified s-drill now uses skills 1-3 as part of the drill. As with all skills, these should be done while neutrally buoyant and with good trim.

Please feel free to ask any questions or post any comments.

Dive Safe,
Duane Johnson
Precision Diving

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Stage Bottle S-Drill Procedure

By | Knowledge Base

One aspect of any technical diving class should be the use of bottom stages. Bottom stages are used either when a diver’s doubles are not big enough for the dive and additional bottom gas is needed to perform the dive or when a diver would like to do multiple tech dives in one day. This saves backgas to be used on the second dive. To perform the safety drill, or S-drill, is very similar to that with the long hose, but there is a couple added steps. This article will try to clear up the steps used to perform a S-drill with a bottom stage.

In theory, one should never go out of gas in a bottom stage and backgas. Prior to getting into the water, the team should verify gas and deploy the stage regulator. Bottom stages are used at the beginning of a dive. Once the bottom stage is spent, the diver switches to backgas. It is possible for the diver to have a leak somewhere in the doubles and when the bottom stage is spent, finds no gas left in the doubles. Thus, needing to share gas with a buddy. The DIR method of sharing gas is to always donate the regulator from the mouth. This ensures the OOG diver is getting a regulator that works, has gas, and is breathable. We do not waste precious seconds searching around for a regulator in a pocket or clipped off somewhere.

When practicing s-drills with bottom stages, the procedure is the following:

1- The OOG diver signals out of gas. The donor donates the stage regulator from the mouth to the OOG diver.
2- The donor diver then switches to the necklace regulator.
3- At this point, we must make sure the OOG diver is OK and sort out the problem. In a real OOG emergency, when there is no gas in the stage or doubles, the team needs to determine the exit strategy. When practicing the stage s-drill, we assume the OOG diver does not have any gas remaining.
4- Once the OOG diver has signaled OK, the donor diver then unclips the long hose and donates the long hose to the OOG diver. Clearing the long hose from the canister light, making the long hose fully deployed.
5- The OOG diver switches from the stage regulator to the donors long hose and gives the stage regulator back to the donor.
6- The OOG diver is now on the long hose. The OOG diver and the donor stow their respective stage regulators back on the stage bottle.
7- At this point, we can cut the s-drill, assuming this is not a real OOG situation. The team can then go back onto the bottom stages. The OOG diver then signals “watch me, gas switch” and switches to the bottom stage. Then gives the long hose back to the donor.
8- The donor then replaces and clips off the long hose. Once the OOG diver switches to his/her bottom stage, the donor can then switch to his/her bottom stage.
9- Continue the dive

The primary focus should be on slowing things down and looking at the big picture. When slowing down each step, the divers can then make well-thought out decisions. The procedure to switch to a stage or deco bottle has already been discussed in a previous article, Gas Switching Procedures. If you are planning on doing dives with bottom stages, you should practice the s-drill with stage bottles frequently. This drill should most certainly be taught as part of any technical diving class.

This article should not replace sound dive training. If you are not properly trained in gas switching procedures, you should avoid using bottom stages.

Dive Safe,
Duane
Precision Diving