Vent: The dive school in Corpus Christi is still teaching that old 'equalize every 2 feet' rule

I was down there last spring checking out a potential job and got talking to some new grads. They all swore by the 'equalize every 2 feet on the way down' method they were taught. Look, I get it's a safe starting point, but telling everyone to stick to that rigid schedule is setting them up for failure on real jobs. On my last bridge inspection, we had to drop 80 feet in under a minute to catch a tidal window. If I'd stopped every 2 feet, I'd have been useless. We need to teach new divers how to listen to their bodies and clear on demand, not just follow a textbook count. Anyone else think dive schools are too slow to update their core skills training?

3 comments

3 Comments

tessagibson21d ago

Imagine getting to a job site and asking the foreman to wait while you clear your ears 40 times... that school is training underwater elevator operators, not divers.

emmam9821d ago

Lol @tessagibson it's just ear clearing, not like they're rebuilding the engine mid-dive.

henry5972d ago

Right? Like @emmam98 said it's just ear clearing, but that school is basically teaching people to be human submarines with a broken ballast system. I saw a new guy on a job last month who actually tried to stop every two feet during a descent. The current swept him fifty yards past the work site before he even hit bottom. At that point you're not a diver, you're just expensive driftwood with a tank. Schools need to stop making this so complicated.