Training Perforated eardrum during OW pool session

[DunningKruger]

My wife suffered a perforated eardrum during her final descent from the surface to 16 feet on the second day of pool training for her PADI OW cert. I convinced her to consider getting certified so we could dive together. I know how much she would enjoy getting close to all of the amazing sea life we've been seeing while snorkeling. And, I was looking forward to great experiences we could share together. Getting hurt has dampened her enthusiasm. I don't think she will continue. She doesn't want to get hurt. I feel terrible about this and frustrated with the shop.

She is petit at 5'3" and 120 pounds. They had her stuffed into a 7mm wetsuit with a steel tank and 28 pounds of lead in the pockets of a Scubapro Hydros BCD. They struggled to get her neutrally buoyant and trimmed out. They had been adding and removing lead all weekend. That caused her to descend faster than she could clear her ears. She had about dozen descents that day and it was only on the last one she couldn't get ahead of clearing her ears. So close, and yet so far.

By contrast, I got re-certified in Tahiti a few months ago after a long break from diving. I had a great experience with the shop and the instructor team there (highly recommended). I wrongly assumed it would be as good or better for my wife back up here in the SF Bay Area. I was wrong. She would have been far better off not doing this referral course and instead doing all the dives in Tahiti.

Is this the state of dive training? Maybe the best course is to opt for 1:1 training and avoid the 4:1 student:instructor ratio?

It reminds me a little of flight training in the US. Most pilots earn their private pilot certificate in spite of their training not because of it.

Thanks for letting me rant to a sympathetic audience.

 

[wgw04024]

There have been countless threads on 'learn where you live, even if it's cold and miserable'. I am not one of those proponents for this exact reason. Sorry she had such a miserable experience.

 

[Sascha314]

Thats unfortunate. All the best to yourbwife. Inhope she recovers quick and gives it a second try. You should tell her kids fall all the time from their bike and yet enjoy it. Also thst was rather bad training.

Well this up and down in a pool are strenous for the ear. I find it as well hard to equalize, if I train something in the pool and have to frequently go up and down.

First they would have needed to dtermine tje amount of lead. For the trim its just about positioning that weight. To get somebody in balance by adding additional, not necessary weight to get negatively buyonz, makes no sense.

I do like the concept of refresher, as you then have a connection at home, and also do not "waste" time on your vaccation. Additionally a benefit may be, that you are tought by a native speaker in your mother tongue. Last but not least the insights of two different (good) instructors could be an advantage.


Having said this: I actually did my OWD in the bay area, open water dives at a weekend in Monterey Bay. Well almost 12 years ago, but Ibwas happy. We did the pool lessons in the dame suit as the open water dives. So the 7mm makes sense in that case I believe. But the amount of lead seems to be on the high side. If I remember correctly I was about 18 lbs - but in the ocean with an Aluminium tank and I of course was overweighted, because I was nervous and was breathing too much. But I am taller and heavier...

 

[doctormike]

There have been countless threads on 'learn where you live, even if it's cold and miserable'. I am not one of those proponents for this exact reason. Sorry she had such a miserable experience.

I don't understand this. Local dive instructors are all going to be worse than resort dive instructors?

People should spend a couple of their scarce and expensive vacation days doing pool work?

SF pools are colder than resort pools?

I mean, it's nice that the OP liked his instructor in Tahiti, but I don't see why we should conclude that the only way to get good instruction is to do it all in the tropics.

 

[gbirch]

I'm so sorry to hear about your wife's negative experience. I am a cold-water diver, and instructor, but I don't know your circumstances so I'm not going to weigh in with opinions on the training that she received, except to say that cold-water training is NOT the same as training in the tropics, that's just a fact.

12 ascents and descents is a LOT - too many - and would tax the ears of the best of us. Please remind your dear wife that training is NOT diving - it is training - and there are things to do, skills to accomplish and it is a somewhat artificial (although hopefully fun) experience. Once certified she is free to enjoy herself with actual diving at her own pace - TOTALLY different.

My wife is the same, petite woman who just learned to dive in warm water and will not dive in cold water. Take your wife somewhere like Bonaire where she can shore dive, lots to see, varied sites and she can have nice, gentle descents down sand and coral - no stress at all.

Wherever you choose to dive, encourage her not to give up - there are a lot of us on this board rooting for her!!

 

[BabyLitigator]

My wife suffered a perforated eardrum during her final descent from the surface to 16 feet on the second day of pool training for her PADI OW cert. I convinced her to consider getting certified so we could dive together. I know how much she would enjoy getting close to all of the amazing sea life we've been seeing while snorkeling. And, I was looking forward to great experiences we could share together. Getting hurt has dampened her enthusiasm. I don't think she will continue. She doesn't want to get hurt. I feel terrible about this and frustrated with the shop.

She is petit at 5'3" and 120 pounds. They had her stuffed into a 7mm wetsuit with a steel tank and 28 pounds of lead in the pockets of a Scubapro Hydros BCD. They struggled to get her neutrally buoyant and trimmed out. They had been adding and removing lead all weekend. That caused her to descend faster than she could clear her ears. She had about dozen descents that day and it was only on the last one she couldn't get ahead of clearing her ears. So close, and yet so far.

By contrast, I got re-certified in Tahiti a few months ago after a long break from diving. I had a great experience with the shop and the instructor team there (highly recommended). I wrongly assumed it would be as good or better for my wife back up here in the SF Bay Area. I was wrong. She would have been far better off not doing this referral course and instead doing all the dives in Tahiti.

Is this the state of dive training? Maybe the best course is to opt for 1:1 training and avoid the 4:1 student:instructor ratio?

It reminds me a little of flight training in the US. Most pilots earn their private pilot certificate in spite of their training not because of it.

Thanks for letting me rant to a sympathetic audience.

28 pounds AND a steel tank? I'm much bigger than that and that's more than I had even as an OW diver. Had a friend (also a petite woman) who had a very similar experience in the pool. Overweighted, ups and down, messed up ear after.

 

[Seaweed Doc]

I'm confused by this. Was this pool training? Was a wetsuit necessary? It may be, especially for a smaller person or in an unheated pool. But a 7 mm suit? I'd overheat I think.

Was this salt water or fresh? (We have both salt water and freshwater pools where I live.)

If it's a salt water pool and a full 7 mm suit with hood, boots, gloves and a double layer on the torso, then 28 pounds seems a bit much but not completely out of line for a 120 pound person. I'd not have thought she'd needed it, but I've taken people out into open water that I didn't think needed that much but apparently they did even after verifying a fully drained BCD.

 

[hiker11]

My wife suffered a perforated eardrum during her final descent from the surface to 16 feet on the second day of pool training for her PADI OW cert. I convinced her to consider getting certified so we could dive together. I know how much she would enjoy getting close to all of the amazing sea life we've been seeing while snorkeling. And, I was looking forward to great experiences we could share together. Getting hurt has dampened her enthusiasm. I don't think she will continue. She doesn't want to get hurt. I feel terrible about this and frustrated with the shop.

She is petit at 5'3" and 120 pounds. They had her stuffed into a 7mm wetsuit with a steel tank and 28 pounds of lead in the pockets of a Scubapro Hydros BCD. They struggled to get her neutrally buoyant and trimmed out. They had been adding and removing lead all weekend. That caused her to descend faster than she could clear her ears. She had about dozen descents that day and it was only on the last one she couldn't get ahead of clearing her ears. So close, and yet so far.

By contrast, I got re-certified in Tahiti a few months ago after a long break from diving. I had a great experience with the shop and the instructor team there (highly recommended). I wrongly assumed it would be as good or better for my wife back up here in the SF Bay Area. I was wrong. She would have been far better off not doing this referral course and instead doing all the dives in Tahiti.

Is this the state of dive training? Maybe the best course is to opt for 1:1 training and avoid the 4:1 student:instructor ratio?

It reminds me a little of flight training in the US. Most pilots earn their private pilot certificate in spite of their training not because of it.

Thanks for letting me rant to a sympathetic audience.

In answer to your question -- yes, pay for private 1:1 training. I was a timid/ nervous diver when I started out. I did my closed water dives at a local pool in the SF East Bay, 1:1 (Anchor Shack, now out of business). So I could avoid cold Monterey water, I did a referral in Perth for my open water dives, also 1 on 1. Probably the first 50 dives I did, including my AOW dives in Grand Cayman, I was wildly nervous. But my husband was so patient with me-- always hiring private DMs so we could go at my pace. He knew that if I was scared or cold or unhappy, I wasn't going to continue diving. It's now 250 dives later and we dive regularly all over the world. Five big international dive trips this year alone. I'm comfortable diving in groups now, but my husband got spoiled so he still prefers private DMs and we hire them whenever we can.

On a LOB trip to Raja Ampat last year, I perforated my ear drum on my 6th dive (2nd day of a 5 week dive trip). I had just gotten complacent about my ears and didn't descend slowly enough or equalize often enough. My perforation was small so I got the go-ahead to dive again 8 weeks later and we immediately booked a trip to Maui to test my ear. Maui has lots of shore diving, so I knew we could descend at a super slow pace. We hired a private DM and went out day after day on shore dives. After building confidence that my ear was not going to be a problem, we went back to boat diving.

So perhaps your wife can complete her closed water locally 1:1, then do a referral to someplace warm, also 1:1. Depending on how she feels at that point, you can continue to hire private DMs to build her confidence.

I think the shop does matter a lot. We really like the shop we go to in Marin, although I've never taken classes with them. Hopefully you can get her through this.

 

[boulderjohn]

She is petit at 5'3" and 120 pounds. They had her stuffed into a 7mm wetsuit with a steel tank and 28 pounds of lead in the pockets of a Scubapro Hydros BCD.

I cannot imagine she would need anything remotely close to that.

It reminds me of a student situation I had years ago. The student was a male about 5-7 and 150 pounds. He had decided to use a 7mm suit for his pool sessions so he could get his weight dialed in for the (fresh water) OW sessions. The instructor doing the pool work got him to 22 pounds with an aluminum tank. When He came to me for the OW dives and told me that, I told him there was no way he needed that much weight. He insisted, but I got him to give 18 pounds a try. He was clearly overweighted with that much. By the time we finished with the OW dives, he was absolutely bubbling with excitement because the diving was so very much easier with the 10 pounds he had used for the last dive (7mm suit, aluminum tank, Oceanic jacket BCD).

 

[Wedgie34]

I perforated my eardrum many years ago, after an infection, went to get certified and blew it on my third dive. Really sucked as I was doing it with two of my kids.