Recently was talking to a Technical Diving Instructor about skills that would be needed for technical courses in particular the cavern and intro to cave diving courses, here are some ‘advanced skills’ he recommended you practice before commencing such a course.
1. Buoyancy and trim Skills
a) work on your position and buoyancy. The position of your body during whole dive is parallel to the floor and there should be a straight line between shoulders and knees, then 90 up to your fins to avoid silting.
b) practice sending up SMB in this position to simulate tying in a spool or reel
2. Propulsion techniques
a) frog kick
b) modified frog kick (fins up 90)
c) modified flutter (fins up 90)
d) helicopter turn (keeping your body parallel to the floor turn 360 on yourself without moving)
e) back kick
3. Valve drills
a) valve shut downs in parallel to floor position
4. Out of Gas
a) out of gas drills (position parallel to floor)
I am now off to practice my helicopter turns 🙂