I once had a student who did her 200 yard swim with a beautiful relaxed crawl stroke the whole way. She looked like she might have been a competitive swimmer in the past. The reality is that less than a year before she was a near non-swimmer. She had taken a discover scuba class and nearly drowned. She cried all the way back to the shore and decided she would make a change. It took only a few lessons to make her a competent swimmer, but she stayed with it a little longer and became a beautiful swimmer. I agree with those who say you will enjoy scuba better if you improve your swimming skills a little.Thanks guys ! Somehow, I doubt I ever will be able to swim 200m on the surface (don't know why, may be my buoyancy is not good, but I just can't). But I am very comfortable swimming with a snorkel, mask, and fins, for 300m; I thought that the open water test states that this is enough ?
I don't see anything else you mention that gives me immediate cause for concern, but you will need to have a doctor sign off before you take the class.
A friend of mine tried to learn diving, and, according to him, the deeper you are, the more uncomfortable it feels. He managed 30ft, but diving to 60ft ended in an some kind of accident (I'll ask him what exactly happened that discouraged him from scuba diving for life. So I figured out that I'll be happy with 10-15ft, there are plenty of reefs at that depth. Does it make sense ?
Your friend must have had an unusual experience. The reality is just the opposite. Because of the way buoyancy changes with depth (which you will learn in class), diving in 10-15 feet of water well requires more skill than diving at 100 feet. At the shallow depths, small changes in depth (and therefore in water pressure) have a bigger impact on the compression of air in your ears, lungs, and your equipment. (I am not saying it is not more dangerous to dive in deep water; I am saying that most people should find the physical act of diving easier when they are deeper.)