Teaching on a CCR ?

[Chardy]

I was at an inland site over the weekend and two divers were completing their Ocean Diver qualification. The instructor was on a CCR, is this normal practice ? It seemed the novices appeared a little confused by the BOX and worried about what to do in the event of an underwater emergency.

[Keith Lawrence(BSAC)]

I was at an inland site over the weekend and two divers were completing their Ocean Diver qualification. The instructor was on a CCR, is this normal practice ? It seemed the novices appeared a little confused by the BOX and worried about what to do in the event of an underwater emergency.

No, it is certainly not normal practice for the reasons that you state (it confuses people) and are echoed in the recommendations in the link below. I would hope that the instructor involved would have noted the concern and confusion of their students, all of our instructors are trained to assess themselves and learn whilst they teach. So we do ask our instructors not to use CCR's at basic training level for the very reasons that originated this post.

Regards

Keith Lawrence
BSAC Council Member

[Lindsey Doyle]

As SD is the MINIMUM qual to buddy a rebreather diver, then NO.........it shouldn't be happening.
Rebreathers can be used for some training of new DTP, ie certain DL lessons, nothing below SD grade.
HTH.

[ric morte]

I was at an inland site over the weekend and two divers were completing their Ocean Diver qualification. The instructor was on a CCR, is this normal practice ? It seemed the novices appeared a little confused by the BOX and worried about what to do in the event of an underwater emergency.

When I did my IFC we were positively encouraged to simplify our kit: no pony, no dangly bits and a standard configuration that was little different from the type of kit a typical student might start of with. Initially I can see the benefit of this - the student has enough to deal with without the additional overhead of getting his or her head round an instructor's different configuration.

Since then I can also see some benefit of the student seeing an instructor using a pony if only to bring home the idea of safety and a completely redundant air supply. Perhaps progression is the key as a student moves through the diver grades from O/D onwards to S/D and D/L: basic kit, basic kit + pony, leading to the student diving with an instructor with wing/twin sets at some point. This would allow real world practical discussion of kit and configurations and maybe help the student decide the kind of configuration that would eventually suit his or her style of diving.

Whatever is used I think the student should be encouraged to try out different configurations as soon as they are ready for it. No point in the student carrying bail out if a) they haven't practised switching regs and b) configured their kit so that the regs are effectively located.