Annoyed with myself! Should I be?

[FJUK1]

Hello,

Just had my latest pool session and it went well. We had 30mins to spare at the end and my instructor decided to play a fun game with us to burn our leftover time.... This involved de-kitting entirely and chucking our fins, mask, reg set (connected to tank with gas on), bcd and weights into the pool away from one another. Our task was to reassemble this without touching the sides of the pool (again this was meant as a fun activity at the end of a teaching session). Is it strange to be pissed off with myself for not being able to complete this? Just put a dampener on it for me although it was meant to be fun... (This was in 2M water).

 

[Bazzathemammoth]

No you should be ashamed. Your worth as a human being is to be determined by your ability to don scuba gear that has been randomly thrown in a pool. Failure to satisfactorily complete this task shows that you have no right to breathe under water

Seriously, you’re fine. Although I’m quite competitive and I would have felt a little disappointed if I were in the same situation.

 

[Wookie]

Hello,

Just had my latest pool session and it went well. We had 30mins to spare at the end and my instructor decided to play a fun game with us to burn our leftover time.... This involved de-kitting entirely and chucking our fins, mask, reg set (connected to tank with gas on), bcd and weights into the pool away from one another. Our task was to reassemble this without touching the sides of the pool (again this was meant as a fun activity at the end of a teaching session). Is it strange to be pissed off with myself for not being able to complete this? Just put a dampener on it for me although it was meant to be fun... (This was in 2M water).

No. I don't know what agency you are taking lessons with, but for most, this is called a ditch and don, and it is beyond the scope of Open Water instruction. Do not be annoyed, I didn't do my first ditch and don until Trimix training, although I am cnfident I could have accomplished it much sooner, but not during OW.

 

[icechip]

Don't sweat the "fun" activities. In my 1979 scuba instruction, a "fun" activity was to swim the pool length in one breath and collect as many golf balls as possible from the deep end. In a way good practice, but it proved wicked tough for me. Grrrr.

 

[FJUK1]

No. I don't know what agency you are taking lessons with, but for most, this is called a ditch and don, and it is beyond the scope of Open Water instruction. Do not be annoyed, I didn't do my first ditch and don until Trimix training, although I am cnfident I could have accomplished it much sooner, but not during OW.

Hi! I thought ditch and don was bcd removal with all stuff attached... This was literally tank 15metres away from the bcd, mask 15m from that etc. Luckily I was told afterwards this wasn't a skill we'd ever need to learn lol, however now I want to be able to do it !

 

[Doc]

I was told afterwards this wasn't a skill we'd ever need to learn lol, however now I want to be able to do it !

Now, after you were told that— let me tell you what it really is ….

it’s an exercise to make you uncomfortable and stretch your limitations to show you that you can overcome physical & mental obstacles.

It has nothing to do with real life — it has everything to do with getting your brain in order and have you sort stuff out in a stressful environment

it’s called task loading.

Good stuff!

 

[BlueTrin]

Don’t stress about small stuff.

It was meant to be a game. Just use it as a learning experience and have fun

Like @Doc said, it was only meant to kill time while stretching your abilities.

 

[FJUK1]

Now, after you were told that— let me tell you what it really is ….

it’s an exercise to make you uncomfortable and stretch your limitations to show you that you can overcome physical & mental obstacles.

It has nothing to do with real life — it has everything to do with getting your brain in order and have you sort stuff out in a stressful environment

it’s called task loading.

Good stuff!

Just a shame because it's the first time I felt some level of "panic" in the water, swimming down to 2m without a mask and trying to find it... stuck a 2nd stage in my mouth and was flooded even after purging once, the panic was only for .5secs but ashamed that I even panicked. Pretty humbling.

 

[BlueTrin]

Just a shame because it's the first time I felt some level of "panic" in the water, swimming down to 2m without a mask and trying to find it... stuck a 2nd stage in my mouth and was flooded even after purging once, the panic was only for .5secs but ashamed that I even panicked. Pretty humbling.

I think everyone had small panic moments.

I had one when an insta buddy kicked my face and the reg up and away and it somehow got stuck behind me before to swim away.

I tried to grab the reg for a while unsuccessfully until I remembered I should just take my backup necklaced around my neck

Another one happened when, on holidays, someone closed my tank and did a “quarter turn” enough so I could breathe and it happened to be harder to breathe only at 15m deep during the dive. Was wondering if I should continue to fin towards the guide to tell him to open my tank or just abort …

I think there is value to learn to try to control your panic and slow down in a controlled environment.

 

[tbone1004]

If the instructor did not adequately prepare you for that drill, then you should not feel ashamed. If I was asked to do that and couldn't, then I would certainly feel ashamed but that is a drill that we teach at the advanced open water level to our students *university program where they get 3hrs/week of in-water time for 16 weeks but they are trained to do it with small skills leading up to a full equipment ditch and don.

If the instructions to the instructor were "go fetch" then shame on him for setting the class up for failure with the drill. If he chucked everything in and advised you on how to approach the skill and you still panicked, then still shame on him because it's open water and he didn't prepare you enough for that drill. Setting students up for failure is at best rude, but wrong on so many more levels.

Shake it @Jfinch and learn from the experience. It slapped you in the face but gave you a healthy respect for what's going on in the water and now you can process why that happened and what you need to do to mitigate the risk of it happening again, if you need help with going through that, some of us are quite good at it and are more than happy to help guide you.

Where in the UK are you? I'll be in Leeds Wednesday-Saturday if you are anywhere close to there and want to grab a pint to go through it