SCUBA-Skills Refresher Training: Preparing for the Unexpected

Let's turn back the clock for a moment to the day you first received your diving certification. Back then, you completed academic requirements and demonstrated a variety of essential skills, all focusing on one important thing: safety. More specifically, your safety and the safety of those you support as a dive buddy.

So what exactly did you learn from open water training? Oh, I know, you covered the basics; things like equipment assembly, water entries, exits, and regulator clearing and retrieval methodologies to name a few. You also learned other pretty important skills such as how to perform shared air and emergency swimming ascents. But tell me, how long has it been since you last practiced these skills? Would you remember what to do if you had to depend on them? Would you, for example, know what to do to help a buddy (or yourself for that matter) recover from a low-air emergency? What if either one or both of you had an inflator-integrated alternate air source, would that influence your decision on how to handle a shared air approach? The short answer to this is; yes, it would.

OK computer users (yes, you know who you are...) when was the last time you picked up a set of dive tables and used them on a dive? Hmmm... I thought so; would you remember how to plan a simple no decompression dive? Could you determine the correct repetitive group designation to safely account for your residual nitrogen load when planning a subsequent dive?

All of us, regardless of where we fall on the diving education and experience scale, share common responsibilities each and every time we dive. We need to be in excellent physical condition and health, we need to dive with equipment that works and is in good shape; and, we need to have and be able to perform essential skills in support of ourselves or others should the need arise. Needless to say, all of this has to be done without panicking or missing a beat.

If you find yourself deep underwater with a leg cramp and out of reach of your dive buddy, you need to know how to fix it. If you're underwater approach brings you too close to another diver and your mask is kicked off or regulator is pulled from your mouth you need to recover quickly. In the underwater environment, timing for such a recovery may be critical. Can you do what needs to be done? Better yet, can you afford not to? If you haven't practiced the very skills that could save your life or that of your dive buddy, you should consider doing so on a regular and formally recognized basis. Before each dive and in fact during each dive, anticipate the unexpected and review in your mind how you might react in response to various situational mishaps. In other words, consider what actions you might take in the event of an unforeseen underwater incident. Problems underwater, although uncommon, aren't something that just happens to the other guy, they have happened to me from time-to-time and they could also happen to you - - that's why we were initially trained in skills that would help us cope with the unexpected. But, like anything else, we all can get a bit rusty over time or forget things; especially if we don't regularly practice and reacquaint ourselves with what we've learned. Perhaps we become a little complacent about the importance these skills present; nonetheless, our ability to perform them in a responsive manner is essential and should be second nature to divers of all experience levels.

Recognizing the importance of continuing education and its impact on diver safety, many dive agencies have established SCUBA refresher programs that can best be described as quick tune-ups for certified divers of all education and experience levels. Such programs are typically recommended as an annual update and are designed to reinforce the basic open water skills and associated knowledge prerequisites already learned in basic open water class.

When you earned your dive certification you unquestionably succeeded in reaching an important milestone along the path toward becoming a good and responsible diver. But as I've discovered over the years, it doesn't end there. Your certification doesn't just signify your accomplishment as a diver, it serves as a license from which to learn and in doing so, opens the door for advancing to new specialties that can make you a better and safer diver. Specialty courses can help to reduce risk by introducing you to environmental considerations and associated coping skills not typically covered in a basic open water class; in short, they can open up your eyes to a whole new world of diving. Night and Limited Visibility diving, Deep diving, Search and Rescue, these are but of few of the many courses offered by your local dive retailer to broaden your level of dive knowledge.

It's a fact, continuing education can boost your level of self-confidence, increase your underwater safety, and improve your ability to manage and recover from unforeseen circumstances that may unexpectedly arise during the course of a dive. Your certification card serves as a basis from which to review and refresh your existing skill set or tackle new educational challenges. The next step toward safe exciting underwater fun and adventure is up to you... Are you up to the challenge?