TEACHING INSTRUCTORS
TO TEACH BUOYANCY
By UTD Instructor Trainer Jeff Seckendorf
One of the great things about teaching an Instructor Development Courses is that the IDC is not about
teaching diving, it’s about the teaching the teaching of the diving.
The basis for all good diving practice is proper buoyancy control. Without that, there is no control over
your body in the water. It’s also been said that the number one cause of decompression illness is diver skill
– a botched ascent, a runaway ascent, a distracted ascent, etc.
It is paramount to all UTD training that every student can perform a blue water ascent, making all necessary stops. In other words, excellent buoyancy control. This means both UTD Open Water students with
four dives, and UTD Tech 2 students with hundreds of dives. And, of course, UTD instructors.
Five minutes into an IDC, I put my cards on the table:
1. This is a zero-tolerance class when
it comes to buoyancy.
2. Basic-6 Number 1, regulator remove and replace, is the hardest
skill you will do in this class.
This is usually followed by silence
from the instructor candidates. “Who
can’t take a regulator out of their mouth
and stick it back in? It’s the simplest
skill.”
UTD education is about providing all
students with the tools they need to perform any skill prior to expecting a demonstration. So 10 minutes into the same IDC, we start a discussion
about buoyancy control. Here are the points:
1. Lungs are primary for buoyancy control.
2. The BC carries the weight of the gas. It is not used for buoyancy control (it’s a buoyancy ‘compensator,’ not ‘controller’).
3. The dry suit has nothing to do with buoyancy – the dry suit inflation system is only to maintain the suit
at the same buoyancy throughout the dive.
4. The breathing cycle continues regardless of whether there is a regulator in your mouth.