$159 and how I learned that diving is not for me.

[CWMurf]

Congratulations on your good decisionmaking skills. If you don't feel safe, by all means, change something until you do feel safe. I am new to this myself. In fact, I just did my ow dives last weekend.

When I first started the class (I took, it at the comunity college) It seemed to be screaming past me at lightning speed and I felt like I couldn't keep up. I was starting to get aprehensive. Then I thought to myself, "I payed good money to be taught these skills! It's too bad if I'm slower than this guy would like but he's already got my money and he's just going to have to wait for me." Once I politely let him know that I intended to do whatever it took on my part to safely and skillfully complete the course with confidence, his attitude softened and he gave me the room and time to work on each skill until I felt comforable and safe.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience! This diving thing is supposed to be fun. Do what you think is best for you and don't worry about what any instructor or other student thinks.

MRF

 

[Hertz2much]

I crindged when I read you post.


Diving is an enjoyable experience and must be Instructed the same way. Sounds like your Dive Tranning instructors clearly forgot about procedures and having fun. More like acting like a drill instructor.

I am still in trainning so I will tell you how our school is going

I am trainning using SSI
Items we received prior to trainning
a. A dive DVD which was about 2 hours long (great info)
b. a dive trainning book ( not from the 1960's LOL) it was actually up to date
c. A dive table and a cool dive sticker
d. each class is 3hours long and total trainning time is 18hours of Pool and class + 4 OW cert dives

1st during our first class we had to do the 6 lap swim test and the 10 minute tred water test ( not as easy as it sounds when you do one after the other) We learned how to use the snorkle items and do 3 different styles of kicks

2nd. Book material and learned how to use the scuba equiptment and what each does

3rd. Put on scuba gear. Stay in shallow water and learn how to breath. did Mask clearing in shallow water first. did mask Off skills in shallow water also

4th. boyancy above water and learned how to decend to 12ft
did 12 ft mask clear and off....learned how to kick with gear on

5th. Safty and Emergency procedures. Book and pool class.
Learned how to share air in the shallow. then in 12 ft.
did emergency assends with no air and low air


First OW Dive

6th fine tune boyancy and emergency skills

not done yet!


Now mind you during this whole procedure the Instructor is making sure everyone is having FUN and making sure everyone is SAFE. (HOLDING your BC So you cannot assend IS NOT SAFE) In our class we cannot go onto the next procedure unless everyone/buddy is Ready. They are patient and kept us RELAXED.

I dont sugest you quit. I sugest you go somewere else. What I Did was go too 2 classes just to see what he did before I signed up. Our instructor at MaxSports Aaron O'neal is great.


Jeff
St pete FL

 

[cat]

HKMP5N once bubbled...
Two things my instructor told me raced though my head as I reached up to pull my mask off in twelve feet of water 1) I wear contacts, so keep your eyes closed. 2) His students do not dart for the surface if in trouble. In class he told us with bravado how he forcefully held students down from bolting. He now signaled for me to take my mask off, as he held tightly to my BCD. I closed my eyes, pulled of the mask and for the first time ever experienced breathing without the mask. In the darkness I went into immediate sensory overload and stress.

I qualified this past year so the memories are still fresh. Like you, I wear contac lenses and was concerned about being "blind" and banging my head into the wall/other students during the UW maskless swim (maskless stuff seems to be worse for me in the in the pool - chlorine and I don't get along so well). My instructor taught us a trick for keeping our eyes open but with the lids narrowed to slits while wearing the lenses. I admit - I was skeptical, and wore an older pair of "disposable" lenses to the class. Guess what - it worked. If you have a pair of lenses that you don't mind losing (disposables are handy for this - wear a pair you're about to chuck anyways), this is worth trying.

Now the two stresses of "water up the nose" and darkness ("blind" is not a big stressor for me but was an issue for most of the other lens wearers in the class) can be handled seperately. I'll admit that pool chlorine and contac lenses aren't the most comfortable combination (take some lens-wearer's Visine or " bottled tears" and another pair and switch when you leave the pool). The third stress - that of someone holding you down while you have the mask off was *NOT* part of my SSI course - my instructor hovered at a short distance and watched me to make sure I could do the mask clears and maskless swim (and this was after letting us get comfortable with it by practicing on our own, starting in much shallower water).

Dealt with the "water up the nose" aspect by getting used to breathing out through the nose while the mask was still on (had to - the first mask I tried developed a leak halfway through the pool session). Don't know if this is an official approved way of dealing with the problem but I sure got a lot of mask clearing practice in that way Found that both the vision and water-up-nose aspects were eased considerably in the (4 degree!) lakewater as compared to the chlorinated poolwater. Your results may vary.

Hope Net Doc can undo the damage - while I agree with those who say this sport isn't for everyone, it doesn't sound like you had much of a chance to find out. :-( cat

 

[narcT]

When my wife and I went through NAUI training she had the same problem in the pool. The first time the mask came off she freaked and shot to the surface of the pool...not a good start!

This concerned our instructor who then had her relax while he completed this part of the pool training with the rest of us. Then he took her back in the pool and spent extra time getting her to relax.

When we did our OW dives he made her do several extra removals of her mask and gear in the water. By the time we were done she was removing her mask (and second stage to stick her tongoe out at me) before putting her mask back on!

Moral of the story, everyone on this board is correct...HAVING A GOOD INSTRUCTOR MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD. Doesn't matter if its PADI, NAUI, etc.

Hope you try again, if not, enjoy the snorkeling

 

[Blue Space]

You guys had me worried there for a moment. With all the stories about problems in mask clearing and removal. I'm just starting my classes for my ow cert (PADI) and i have not done the mask clearing or removal yet until I started reading these post. I immediately grabed my snorkle and mask and headed for the pool. To my suprise I had no trouble from the first time till about the last which was about an hour later. I want to make damn sure I master this skill before I descend 1foot or 60ft. Thanks to all who posted I have one more fear behind me.

This forum has already proved invaluable to me!!

 

[Irishdiver]

Hi Bluespace! I've only just found this thread and I've read the whole way through it...and I gotta say that there is so much good advice here that if you were to pay for it you could be in debt the rest of your life! That kind of support is one of the great things about this board.

I'm thrilled you seem to have worked through your difficulty (it's not a 'problem'). Your attitude is 100 per cent spot-on. I'm not an instructor like many of the people who posted here, but I have no doubt from your intelligent post that you're the kind of guy who will overcome this problem and make a great diver - one who recognises his own limitations and those of his buddy. That's something that could save a life some day.

Keep up the good work. We were all scared some time in our training - or our diving - but that's what makes us want to keep learning and be better divers! Remember that at the end of the day, you're the guy who makes the call on what you will or will not do. No-one else can take that responsibility...and calling a dive - or a dive course - is not about letting your buddy down. It's about keeping you both alive. This stuff is too serious to play with.

Keep us posted. ut:

 

[narcT]

Well, I won't tell you what they made us do in 1975 to get OW certified!!!

I'm sure glad NAUI changed the requirements, I was a little (ok more than a little) worried when I retook the class last year with my wife.

Its a lot more resonable now (civilianized?). You should have no problems, good luck!!!

 

[cgrace12]

I had to learn to breath with my mask off. I can't even exhale while doing the crawl... I really suck at it. The only way I can do it for any period of time is to keep my chin tucked to my chest. As long as my chin is down I can exhale. Once my chin comes up I can't exhale. Figure that one out... I can inhale all I want but once the lungs are full I can't inhale anymore... Scared the cr*p out of me the second night of class. I have to thank my instructor, she gave me the chin tuck tip. Might want to give it a try.

 

[DiverBuoy]

It would close off your airway? Are you making an effort to close your nose by pressing it against your BC? Clearly the point of the excercise is to make you comfortable breathing through your mouth while at the same time not sucking any water into your nose. That is why they don't allow you to pinch your nose or wear the mask, of course.

 

[cgrace12]

You're telling me it's strange? The only thing I can figure out is this... If you tuck your head down to your chest it is much more difficult to breath though your nose. It must change the air passage enough to cause some blocking of the sinuses. Not sure why but it works for me. Just makes me breath though my mouth and it feels almost natural. I can sit with my mask off almost completely relax in that position, as soon as I lift my chin I start to inhale through my nose and I have to put great effort into forced mouth breathing.