Lotus Night Club Waikiki
Lotus Night Club Waikiki
Most instructors will gently push the new diver to do the Peak Performance Buoyancy before the deep dive in the Advanced Open Water Course. This makes perfect sense as you will need to do a safety stop after the deep dive trainig dive and you will need to add some air at depth to remain neutrally buoyant. The coral, wildlife and the new diver will all appreciate it as the diver will not be so much of a bobbing top or a bottom crushing juggernaut after learning the skills.
Another benefit of the PPB is that your air consumption, especially for the big guys will drop a lot as you are more comfortable in the water and as you are neutral in the water you will be not fighting to stay where you want in the water column. This is a very important skill when you are doing your mandatory safety stop after the deep dive. As a PADI instructor, currently a Master Scuba Diver Trainer (MSDT) I have seen divers improve 15 to 20% on their air consumption, nobody wants to the air hog that ends the dive because they sucked up their air in record time.
Peak Performance Buoyancy is probably the most entertaining of the dives despite its boring sounding name, for instructors it is always a lot of fun to teach most dive schools will have some float toys that you can swim through. Everybody gets a kick out of sitting in the lotus position moving gently up and down in rhythm with their breathing. Advanced techniques will have you lying perfectly flat to the bottom and looking like you are levitating; then the really fun standing on your head with the bottom six inches above the sand. Which sounds silly but is a very useful skill for looking under bommies large corals that house cool and interesting critters including everyone’s favorite blue spotted rays? Groupers like to hide in their holes as well, and you might see something almost as big as you starring out.
Another benefit of the PPB is that most divers will shed some of the weights that they need to stay down, your instructor will work with you to get you weight distribution correct and to get you to the proper weight that you need. Amazingly after sometime most divers will be able to shed a little more weight as they become more comfortable in the water, when you are relaxed you need less weight. Less weight means less fatigue and as you are dragging less through the water as a added benefit you will get more bottom time before you empty your tank. Instructors many times are limited by their nitrogen or oxygen loading than the air in their tanks, some get so efficient that they can do two dives on the same tank when leading newer divers around and still have the recommended tank pressure at the end of the dive.
Summing up almost all dive pro’s will recommend that you do the PPB before you do the Deep Dive in the Advanced Open Water Course and that the Peak Performance Buoyancy is one of the most entertaining scuba diving instruction that you will do. After you have completed expect to see better air consumption as well as being more efficient in the water! Being more in control is safer for you as well as better for the environment as you will be less likely to hit the bottom or get a nick name like pig pen for all the silt you stir up! As I like to say “Get in over your head and smile, smile, smile!”
Fred’s new project http://www.CheapCharliesHotels.com/ where he reviews cheap hotels , budget guesthouses, discount accommodations and cheap international flights, but is really an excuse to go scuba diving on vacation more, Fred is in Bali Indonesia getting ready to do the PADI Staff IDC with http:/www.baliocean.com Check both websites for more pictures and videos of the great scuba diving on Bali.
Fred Tittle has lived and worked in holiday vacation resorts his entire life, from Lake Geneva’s Playboy Club, as a rock jock for KSPN FM in Aspen Colorado, he became a PADI Pro Scuba Diver in Hawaii, diving on Maui, Kauai, Kona on the big island, and Waikiki on Oahu. He founded Eco Adventures South East Asia in Sihanoukville Cambodia. he still teaches SSI and PADI scuba diving courses and runs liveaboards in the gulf of Thailand and Asia adventure tours.
zeebra performing at lotus night club 2
