My wife has decided she would like to get certified. She had her first pool skills the other night. When she came home she told me there was no way she could clear her mask/take it off etc. It "freaked" her out.
I told her, this is the most basic skill and for sure you have to have it. Suggested if having a mask off under water disturbs her, submerge with it off and then put it on when you are on the bottom of the pool. She will see all is okay. She is at round two tonight so we'll see if that helps her.
Has anyone else dealt with this, and have any advice I could give her? I told her it is fine if she doesn't get certified, so there is not big pressure. It would actually save me a lot lugging heavy equipment to places if she doesn't!
JJ
There are usually only two issues involved. One is "mechanical" (for lack of a better word) and the other emotional.
The mechanical issue, if she has this is that many people start out without the dexterity to inhale through the mouth and then exhale via ONLY the nose. This can lead to a couple of knock on effects, the most obvious being that the mask with either not clear or the diver will get water in their nose, which can be a very uncomfortable feeling.
The emotional issues, if she has this, normally has to do with confidence. What I normally see is that once a diver is confident that they can clear the mask to their own satisfaction, that the emotional issues clear up. In rare cases I've had students who took a long time to get there because of previous traumas. In order to really break down what is necessary to do for your wife about these panicky feelings, I'd really need to see her in person. The good news is that it usually doesn't take long to get over that if you have decent assistance.
For the short term she can try dealing with both of these by taking a step back before taking a step forward. What I would suggest is that she STAND in shallow water with a regulator (or snorkel) in the mouth with
no mask on and then to simply bend over and breathe with her face in the water. This is how I start out every OW course and since I've been doing this the number of "mask issues" I've had has dropped by at at least 90%.
The breathing is in through the mouth and out through the nose until it feels comfortable. This helps the diver adjust to the feeling of the nose being in contact with water while they can still breathe and builds up a tolerance for this feeling while at the same time teaching them an important lesson, which is that when the mask is flooded you have all the time in the world to deal with it. This exercise pays huge dividends once you start trying this skill under water.
So start with that and don't be afraid to spend 1/2 hour or more on it if that's what she needs to become comfortable because like I said, everything else after that needs to build on this foundation of getting the mechanics of the breathing right and to learn to tolerate the nose being exposed to water while you breathe.
Good luck
R..
