Imagination. Adventure. Discovery. Fun.

Throughout this section, we’ve stressed that the most important aspect of any open-water training dive is the opportunity to actually go diving. The more students can practice real-life diving skills such as buoyancy control, body position, propulsion, communication, buddy awareness, etc., the better divers they will become.

What makes a great open-water training dive? One measure is that everyone surfaces with a smile on his or her face. Another is that every student can answer the question, Did you have fun? with a resounding “Yes.”

There’s a lot more to a good open-water training dive than just herding students around like cattle. The best possible open-water training dives combine elements of showmanship and magic. In this article, we’ll examine several techniques that can help you accomplish just that.

Plan to See the “Good Stuff”

Where the ocean is filled with natural beauty, freshwater training sites often need a little bit of help to make them interesting. Sites such as rock quarries and man-made lakes often have artifacts, such as mining or construction equipment, that are left over from before the site flooded. Then there are the things that find their way to the bottom through accident or intent, including cars, boats, busses, trucks and airplanes.

Most of these derelicts wouldn’t get a second glance out of the water. Put them at the bottom of a rock quarry, gravel pit or lake and, suddenly, they become as fascinating as a sunken galleon. Even the dumbest things can bring a smile to students’ faces: an old barbecue grill, a soda machine, a dentist’s chair, a playground swing set — all special because they are among the last things you expect to find while diving.

Whatever your local dive site offers in the form of “treasure,” you need to be able to find it quickly and easily, and show students enough of it so that they will want to come back to see more. And, when you take students to see these items, make certain you can tell them at least a little bit about what they saw, how it got there and its history prior to becoming part of the local underwater landscape.

Magicians Never Reveal Their Secrets

With the exception of cautioning about possible hazards, there is nothing that says you have tell students ahead of time that, “We’re going to go see a bus.” Much of the fun of underwater exploration comes when these items reveal themselves unexpectedly.

Our local dive site features a large PVC pipe construct we refer to as “the space station.” Suspended in mid-water, it’s a place divers can practice their buoyancy skills while pretending to “space walk.” I make a point to never tell students we’re on our way to visit the space station. If I did, they might be underwhelmed by what they find.

Instead, I tell students we’re going to follow the wall to a certain landmark, set our compasses for 270 degrees, then swim out ten kick cycles at a depth of 40 feet and “see what’s out there.” This way, the space station comes as a total surprise. I can’t tell you the number of times students have told me this is the best part of the dive.

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