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Where does everyone else practice simple skills?

Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2014 2:13 pm
by kr2y5
Do you know any diver-friendly swimming pool, or do you have any ideas for where one can go to practice things like valve drills, propulsion techniques, etc.? This is not stuff that would be convenient to practice during a regular dive (hard to get lots of back-kicks and helicopter turns done when buddy might want to go forward and see octopus). I am looking for some place where I could stay in one place in shallow water and do all the mundane drills for an hour... or does anyone want to buddy up, and practice the drills in Alki 2 together sometime?

Re: Where does everyone else practice simple skills?

Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2014 4:10 pm
by CaptnJack
I'll go with you. I will warn you, I have a whole bunch of foreign looking crap on TOP of a full sidemount rig! And my back kick in sidemount with a rebreather on top is terrible.

Evergreen has a diver friendly pool, and there are a few others around, but none are as convenient as Cove 1/2/3. And pools tend to be too warm for drysuits plus even in a drysuit with thin undies the weighting is drastically different. Lake Washington at Madison Park (just south of the swimming beach) is also a good spot.

Re: Where does everyone else practice simple skills?

Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2014 7:27 pm
by kr2y5
Oh, wonderful, thanks very much! Replying to the PM... looking forward to it!

Re: Where does everyone else practice simple skills?

Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2014 12:52 pm
by nwbobber
Richard are you talking about the pool in Olympia? How does one arrange to use that pool. We are making our first warm water trip this spring, and I wanted to play with bouyancy stuff before we go. I'm not going to try my 2.5 mil wetsuit at Sund rock, I won't do it!

Re: Where does everyone else practice simple skills?

Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 1:28 pm
by CaptnJack
nwbobber wrote:Richard are you talking about the pool in Olympia? How does one arrange to use that pool. We are making our first warm water trip this spring, and I wanted to play with bouyancy stuff before we go. I'm not going to try my 2.5 mil wetsuit at Sund rock, I won't do it!
http://www.evergreen.edu/reccenter/directions.htm

Try calling them, I only used it for my CCR MOD1 class and wasn't responsible for reserving it. Its 12ft deep. $2? for parking plus $6 for entry I think.

They have various high school and college swim events so you need to work around those. Make sure they understand you are a scuba diver not practicing diving (not jumping off a diving board).

Personally I would just wing it weight-wise for a 3mm suit, 12lbs is close enough. Add of subtract 1 or 2lbs after the first dive which is never that deep anyway.

Re: Where does everyone else practice simple skills?

Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 1:38 pm
by PlayingInJeans
Tukwila pool. Don't call. Just show up and say you are practicing skills, otherwise someone who doesn't know wassup is just going to say no.

Re: Where does everyone else practice simple skills?

Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 4:11 pm
by Norris
Ill work on skills with ya if you want to schedule an early morning dive on Sat or Sun at the Muk or near there. Probably should do it in all your gear anyhow as valve drills and what not are much different donning PNW gear. Just send me a PM.

Re: Where does everyone else practice simple skills?

Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 5:37 pm
by kr2y5
Thank you, Norris. I cannot make it this week, but would love to buddy up some other time... I am still new, so my enthusiasm for local diving is unlimited, and I am not discouraged by bad weather. Sent you a PM.

Re: Where does everyone else practice simple skills?

Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2015 7:38 am
by Jcraig
I'm 58 yrs old . Ive been diving for a year, I have less than 10 dives under my belt. I'm land locked in Spokane and I need a dive buddy to practice and sharpen skills with.
I do own quite a bit of my own gear. but still have to rent a wetsuit and tank.

I would love to hook up with some local divers and plan a bunch of spring summer and fall dives in the greater Spokane area. Pooling funds can make an expensive trip, not hurt so much, and a big bonus is I have family on the coast near the sound.

JC