Question about skills that weren't easy to learn

[DivemasterDennis]

Lots of good suggestions analyzing and offering correction of the issues. There is no substitute for repetition, however, and getting comfortable in the water with your equipment (and without it!) Mask clearing skills are used on many many dives, and removing and replacing a mask is something that can come up, so these are useful skills. Many skills are less likely to be put into actual use, but knowing you can do them if needed is a great thing toward being comfortable in the water, and in reducing the stress that ALL new divers feel to some degree. You "get it." That is clear from you post. You will continue to do better and feel more comfortable with every dive. You go girl! BTW, I have a brother who lives in Cary. Lovely place.
DivemasterDennis

 

[Thalassamania]

Dennis, don't put the cart in front of the horse, until the skill is actually mastered, repetition is not only useless, it probably makes things worse.

 

[lulubelle]

You've already gotten all of the right advice on your question, but if you need someone to meet you and practice skills, let me know. I'm in Raleigh, tons of pools around town we could use.

I remember the mask clearing skills tripping me up a bit when I was doing my OW. I can't open my eyes underwater, was slightly underweighted, and of course breathing deeply, so I was floating blind while trying to remove and replace and clear my mask.

It took me a few tries to get that one down. I think the epiphany for me on that one was when I figured out that just because I can't see doesn't mean that I can't breathe. Then on my first OW dive, I had a crappy leaky rental mask and got to clear it a zillion times.

I took rescue this past summer. The instructor was constantly having me remove my mask, removing it for me by surprise, having me do all sorts of skill without it, etc. It was all quite comfortable for me and will be for you too with practice. Good luck!

 

[oly5050user]

Easiest way to meet objective of breathing from a free flow regulator is with your right hand make a fist and have the regulator on the bottom of your fist.Now breath off the top of your hand as the air flows thru it..
for no mask breath look down look forward , DO NOT look up..Water does not go up the nose unless you inhale thru nose OR allow gravity to do its job and look up..can always exhale thru nose.

 

[kimbalabala]

And secondly, have others had experiences with getting a little freaked out in training and getting back to a good comfort level? I was much more confident before I ran into a couple of things that were difficult for me!

I ran into several things that freaked me out! Kudos to your instructor for such great encouragement. I don't think I really reached a good comfort level until my post-certification dives. (My OW cert dives were in cold water in a dry-suit - not fun for me).

Sounds like you're doing fine. Just keep doing what you're doing - don't move to the next skill until you're comfortable that you have mastered the current skill correctly. You'll be amazed at how good it feels when you know you "own" a skill.

 

[DukeAMO]

Oh, thank you so much for all of the ideas and encouragement! I feel a little better already. I'll work up to where these feel more natural this weekend. I also like the idea of trying the snorkel with no mask in the bathtub, haha. And I've been walking around all day trying to switch off my nose like a valve when I breathe in. I know I can do it; it'll just take a little more time to be confident with the "tricky" ones. There are 8 people in the class, so there's usually time to practice skills with the DM, once you've done them once for the instructor. And then we have 3 hours on Sunday to practice too.

Oh yeah, I did also have the bubbles knock off my mask while doing the free-flowing regulator skill the first time. That didn't help either, hah! The main problem was that I essentially had the regulator in front of my mouth at first, far enough for me to get mostly water instead of air. So, I'll try a combination of holding the regulator lower and closer, and tipping my head more to the side next time. Trying that without a mask on would be a good stretch/confidence builder too.

At least I wasn't the only one... there was another guy in the class who also struggled with the mask-off skill (about the same number of times - he's the one who finally told me to try looking down). And he had a hard time with the CESA, while I got that with no problem. And some things that I thought would be difficult (like the CESA, or inflating the BCD orally underwater) were fine.

And like I said, at this rate we'll be done with the required CW skills by the end of Saturday, so there's all of Sunday to practice in the pool too.

 

[DukeAMO]

Thanks for the offer lulubelle. I'm *hoping* I'll get the hang of these in the pool this weekend.

 

[DevonDiver]

any other tips on how to practice those skills while I'm in training so I could use them in real life?

Repetition, repetition, repetition.

Experience breeds confidence and capability. On most Open Water courses, there is limited time for adequate repetition and reinforcement of individual skills. With that reality comes the need to accept that further practice and refinement is required post-qualification. Far too few dive educators stress that reality.

You might want to arrange some further access to a swimming pool, or shallow water environment, so that you and your husband can spend some quality time working to perfect and ingrain the skills that you have learned in training. Alternatively, or in addition, you can normally find time to practice specific skills during some phase of a scuba dive (for instance, on the safety stop). Make a habit of using those available moments to rehearse one, or more, skills that you learned on the Open Water course.

As you practice, take it in turns - one person practices a skill, whilst the other supervises. Make sure to stay well within your comfort zones, to ensure that you don't get stressed during the practice. You have plenty of time to progress slowly and comfortably - and it's better to reinforce a positive association with the skills rather than push things and develop a negative connection to those scenarios.

There's a lot of skill demonstration videos available to view on YouTube: access and review these as a reminder of the key functional points you need to perfect.

And secondly, have others had experiences with getting a little freaked out in training and getting back to a good comfort level? I was much more confident before I ran into a couple of things that were difficult for me!

It's quite common for students to experience some anxiety or stress with basic scuba skills; especially the mask remove/replace. Allow for the fact that Open Water training can be quite intensive, given that being underwater is a quite overwhelming situation for the brain to comprehend. If you felt anxiety at some point in training, then you are probably in the majority of divers. That's nothing to feel bad about.

In fact, you have one major benefit from encountering those fears at an early stage - namely, that you get a head-start with developing your psychological control to stress underwater. Those who find the training undemanding have no opportunity to develop any self-control against instinctive stress-driven responses. Panic is the biggest danger to divers underwater - you've experienced that... and have started formulating a resistance against it. Understand it for what it is... address it... and you'll be a much safer diver in the long-run.

 

[Griffo]

Repetition, repetition, repetition.
...
You might want to arrange some further access to a swimming pool, or shallow water environment, so that you and your husband can spend some quality time working to perfect and ingrain the skills that you have learned in training. Alternatively, or in addition, you can normally find time to practice specific skills during some phase of a scuba dive (for instance, on the safety stop). Make a habit of using those available moments to rehearse one, or more, skills that you learned on the Open Water course.

Great advice. Keep practicing till it is second nature. Last weekend I found myself being grabbed by another diver just at the bottom of our descent. He was a little bit panicky and for a moment I thought he was OOA as there were no bubbles. I'd pulled out my reg to donate to him but he didn't seem to want it, just wanted to hold onto me.

In fact what had happened was he had deliberately removed his mask, and suddenly found himself unable to breath. His body simply wouldn't let him inhale. He was grabbing onto me so he had a point of reference while he calmed himself down, put the mask back on and cleared. All was OK. It was a simple thing that he hadn't practiced since his initial OW course, and couldn't do when needed. Now he had a heap more dives than me, so it should have been a simple activity, but he had never turned the knowledge from his courses into ingrained behavior.

 

[nimoh]

Great advice. Keep practicing till it is second nature. Last weekend I found myself being grabbed by another diver just at the bottom of our descent. He was a little bit panicky and for a moment I thought he was OOA as there were no bubbles. I'd pulled out my reg to donate to him but he didn't seem to want it, just wanted to hold onto me.

In fact what had happened was he had deliberately removed his mask, and suddenly found himself unable to breath. His body simply wouldn't let him inhale. He was grabbing onto me so he had a point of reference while he calmed himself down, put the mask back on and cleared. All was OK. It was a simple thing that he hadn't practiced since his initial OW course, and couldn't do when needed. Now he had a heap more dives than me, so it should have been a simple activity, but he had never turned the knowledge from his courses into ingrained behavior.

I hope he learned his lesson, I have seen many people and have read many threads with regards to getting a certification level just so boats will let them dive. Everything that is taught in OW (with the possible exception of fin pivots) is either required knowledge or a required skill for a diver.