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THE WAY OF THE TORTOISE
NIGEL EATON, EDITOR
A RECENT DIVE WITH MY 18-YEAR-OLD SON led me to reflect on the diving tuition he had received to date. This, I decided, revealed the best and worst aspects of the club training system.
Having joined the sub-aqua club run by his school at the age of 13, Jack attended most of the weekly meetings, progressed comfortably through the theory work, and practised the usual poolside and underwater drills.
He seemed to find the activity quite engaging in a laid-back sort of way but, as the months passed, whenever he was pressed about exactly what his diving programme involved, he talked about repeated rigging and de-rigging of kit and finning interminable lengths of the school's indoor pool.
Progress was slow and open-water experience limited. When he did finally go diving for real, his logbook recorded a solid lack of enthusiasm for the weedy shallows of Horsea Island and the solitary crabs encountered on gale-blown November dives in Bovisand Harbour.
To be fair, Jack admitted that he got lazy at times. He (and I) could have followed through a bit more, and it was understandable that the school didn't want to push things too quickly. But in the end it took a holiday course at a commercial dive centre in the Mediterranean to get him qualified.
He was 15, delighted to have taken the biggest single step in his diving career, but left with a feeling of disappointment with his school club and trepidation at the prospect of more evenings of pool work.
On subsequent dives with Jack, however, it became clear that a number of serious benefits had arisen from his distinctly slow-track style of training.
Although his open-water experience was limited, constant repetition of the basic skills meant that he was extremely confident handling and rigging his kit. Whatever the sea and weather conditions, he was usually the first one on the dive boat kitted up, ready to go, and able to lend a hand to others.
Under water, he was comfortable with his buoyancy and predictable in his air consumption - and on long surface swims he proved, unsurprisingly, to be a strong and tireless finner. Overall, he was a very able diver.
The message, of course, is that diving clubs should speed up training in line with modern expectations, or offer convenient alternatives through commercial dive centres at home or abroad. Meanwhile, the centres should encourage access to a club-type environment in which trainees can hone their skills and build fitness levels.
Often this is exactly what happens. But it doesn't always work out that way.
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