frog_kick_&_buoyancy_skills_mission

"LOOK .... NO HANDS!"
SCULLING is the signature of Poor Buoyancy Skills!

Welcome to BuoyancyQuest ______ the "Original Scull Free Zone."

WE KNOW: that others usually genuflect to Archimedes and then list everything that they know about buoyancy including all of the details about the relationship between your weights, your physical composition, your breathing and your equipment (especially your equipment)! They incorperate that info into advertising for their buoyancy "certification" programs.

BUT HOW MANY OF THEM OFFER MOVING IMAGES OF THEMSELVES UNDERWATER?

We know all of the same stuff that they know. The same details that get listed or repeated or copied by every expert and every tutorial, so we do not feel the need to list everything that we know about buoyancy skills here and now. The facts are the facts but quoting facts is nothing but "lip service" unless those details can be supported by examples!
BY VISUAL EXAMPLES!

WE ALSO KNOW: that you can learn a lot about frog kick by watching our videos. Especially by tracing the path of Maureen's long black fins. Most other frog kick videos that we have seen feature some sort of tech diver in short jet fins using a jerky kick that seems to be going nowhere fast. That's because they are demonstrating what they do in a cave; in a restriction! We want you to see that you can substitute frog kick for flutter kick and not sacrifice progress in open water diving. If watching our videos is all that you need in order to learn to frog kick, you are welcome to do so with our blessings. IF you want more you can attend our workshop but we want you to do that; to join us in Cozumel, because you like the way we look underwater, not because you like our course description or our impressive list of credits, i.e. how we look on paper. And not because you are looking to score another C-CARD!

Unless you're looking for noticable improvement of your skills:
BuoyancyQuest is NOT FOR YOU!
If you have nothing to learn about fundamentals:
BuoyancyQuest is certainly the WRONG PLACE!

Our Mission Statement....more or less?

Noticeably absent from our bios is any numerical reference to a particular training agency. We list no instructor numbers. Neither have we made a list of prolific credits as evidence of our standing within the SCUBA Training Community. That omission is intentional. Our workshop is not agency authored. We think that our videos testify to our ability to demonstrate the skills that we promise to mentor. We hope you will consider diving with us because of the way we look underwater rather than because of the way we look on paper.

We have been offering our workshops as guided dive trips since 1995. They were shop trips, prior to 2004, and we included the buoyancy training as a bonus. Now we promise the buoyancy mentoring as well as the introduction to frog kick. This is our "only" claim to excellence. We think we have reduced our message and our product to the lowest common denominator; to what we do best. We have not dressed it up to appeal to the aspirant tech diver. We have made no attempt to represent ourselves as more than we are.* Our message is stripped down to offer only the few skills that are missing from most divers. We compare it to “first base” because we believe that most divers, in their haste to collect more cool toys and more c-cards, fail to linger on first base long enough to acquire anything reminiscent of remarkable fundamental dive skills.

Many of our direct competitors began adopting and adapting Hogarthian BP&W values and fundamentals to open water diving after we did. We began to emphasize exceptional buoyancy skills: our "LOOK .... NO HANDS!" approach in 1995. While some may represent Goliath to our David today, a few were not even diving in 1995. That is not to say that years diving or even the number of dives should be considered a credential. We do not believe that "many years and many dives" automatically equals a good diver. Likewise we do not believe the competition to be better than us because they offer more. They offer a more equipment intensive , equipment dominated program. We don’t believe that more is more.

We believe that less is more!

We also have a perspective on tech diving . John has been cave diver certified since 1995. Not a cave instructor, just a cave diver. Even in only that role, he has been privy to some really sorry performances from many open water instructors who showed up for cave training. The percentage of cave diver candidates, that he has personally observed, who were not ready to begin a cave course was astounding. He concluded this must be a trend that has a greater reach and must include similar percentages. BuoyancyQuest emerged from the realization that a capable first base coach, is missing from recreational diving.

Including fundamentals, as part of a tech diver preparatory course may be just the ticket for some divers. But for many, eager divers, who focus more on the equipment and less on the skills the result may be more of the same. More and bigger egos and more over equipped but less skilled divers. If your goal is to be pulled by a scooter, and we see many scooter images among the tech oriented agencies, then it might be more important to have $3000 of disposible income, provided you have a Plan B ready for when the battery dies. The many levels of training offered by some fundamentalists are also reminiscent of the policies of the huge training agencies where the primary goal appears to be; retain the “customer” by offering more training and more stuff.

We offer an alternative to the fundamentals training that is cloaked in so many tech diver images. Some of the tech biased entities offer no certifications for their intro to fundamentals programs. We also offer no certification upon completion of our workshop. We promise only to mentor better buoyancy skills and an alternative propulsion method: "frog kick". We do this before, during and after a thirteen dive experience in Cozumel, Mexico. We are not selling plastic cards! We promise that your reward will be noticeable improvement of your basic skills. We are a one time, one stop service. Think of us as only “your first base coach”!

The mainstream certification agencies have dropped the ball. Where buoyancy control is concerned, they deserve more responsibility for what is wrong and less credit for improving skills. Listening to a dive leader read from a prepared outline followed by two open water dives and a plastic card is, we believe, too little, too late. It is like allowing the fox to stand guard over the chicken coup.
We believe that to include any reference to an affiliation with such a training agency or to include an instructor number from that agency would only erode our own credibility with regard to frog kick & buoyancy skills and defeat our efforts to market those fundamentals. We bid farewell to arms long ago. You will find no examples of sculling here! In fact, "LOOK....NO HANDS!" has always been our motto and the foundation of our message. We offer quality mentoring! Seeing is believing; please judge us by how we look underwater. We promise not to sell you more levels of training and more material stuff that you may not need. With us "more" is about developing solid skills while placing "less" emphasis on equipment. We believe that a diver is defined by skills not by toys and that Less can truely be More!

Judge us by how we look underwater not by how we look on paper!

"LOOK....NO HANDS!" 4:41 "What it looks like!" 9:37 "FROG KICK" 3:21

We promote learning in an atmosphere of camaraderie.....not competition!

maureen miller photo

Thirteen dives may not be enough to devote to buoyancy skills but it is six times greater than most programs offer and we promise you it is possible, with the correct attitude and the right coach, to see real improvement in that time. If you don't have anything to learn, our workshop will be a waste of your time and money. If you do, this is about real achievement, not about earning, or perhaps not really earning, another card.

IF the promise was CERTIFICATION....

.... and you recieved a C-CARD ....

.... you probably got what you paid for!

* It would be a mistake to think that because we avoid the tech diver images that we fail to offer tech diver worthy skills or have in some way dumbed them down. An example of dumbing down would be a deep tech wreck diver course where skills are demonstrated and performed while kneeling on the bottom like beginners. A dress up in doubles and stage bottle course with no shortage of sculling & negative buoyancy. This same agency offers a two dive certification course for buoyancy control. A buoyancy clinic that consists of reading from an agency authored outline followed by two less than memorable dives conducted by an instructor who may not even be a good diver. Once more; there is no shortage of phony experts among the Status Quo!

"WATCH THEIR HANDS!"

(Instructors who scull .... set a poor example!)

BuoyancyQuest

is a SCULL FREE ZONE!

We bid farewell to arms from the very beginning! Sculling is not a technique; SCULLING IS A FLAW!

"WE NEVER USE OUR HANDS!"

FAQ & FYI
Workshop dates & prices.

CONTACT: BuoyancyQuest@comcast.net

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