Annoyed with myself! Should I be?

[jonhall]

Doing a surface dive to the bottom of a 14 foot pool, putting on a mask and snorkel, clearing the mask, and having enough air to clear the snorkel upon surfacing was one of the "fun" things I did with advanced swimmers - can't remember if I added something extra like bringing up a 10 lb rubber brick or putting on fins at the surface with that one, although it seems like something I would have done.

Interesting fun game the OP did. What's the correct order? Think I would have gone mask, fins, weights (assuming it's a weight belt), and then the reg/bcd (assuming they are already together.) You wouldn't have a student take a reg off of a tank to slip on a BCD and then attach the reg again while in the water, would you?

Found that I really liked putting on my BCD while in the water - a dive op on the Big Island did it this way. Glad the water was pretty calm for those 10 dives!

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

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 !

sounds like the scuba equivalent of the scarecrow from Wizard of Oz.

 

[The Chairman]

Is it strange to be pissed off with myself for not being able to complete this?

Don't get mad. Now you have a clear objective to master. Go get busy.

 

[johndiver999]

Cheers for the input everyone, not as bothered by it anymore after some thinking lol, only have around 3hrs in the pool at the moment (for scuba anyway) so plenty of time to improve

Yes, some people spend hundreds of hours underwater and still fail to attain a good level of comfort. As I think you are beginning to realize, you need to be humble around dangerous things like the water (and not feel ashamed). This requires a discovery of, a healthy respect for, and an acknowledgement of your own weaknesses and vulnerabilities, especially psychological ones. 3 hours is nothing in terms of time to acclimate.

Just keep practicing and push yourself to expand your comfort zone. You are not going to be good after 30 hours underwater, it just takes time and various challenges to reach your capacity for dealing with problems underwater. Personally, I feel, the more time you spend scuba diving without a mask, the better off you will be.

 

[kaylee_ann]

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).

Oh, I would’ve hated this. Only for the fact that I wear contacts and probably couldn’t find the mask with my eyes closed. I’m blind as a bat without them if they come out in the water

 

[kaylee_ann]

I had to remove and put on my BC, which was quite annoying, but I was super calm the whole time. Which gave me a lot of confidence, actually, that I can be very stressed yet hold it together.

 

[MacDuyver]

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).

That’s kinda a dive game akin to stuff SEALs are expected to do to pass BUDS. Lighter version but it’s nothing to be pissed about for not accomplishing. It's not part of any basic curriculum and at no point will you become a gear explosion under-water or have to freedive to recover all of your gear that fell off the boat in random places.

Sounds like a tasks prioritization game, like to teach candidates how to stop, realize they arent going to die immediately and solve problems in the most efficient/important order.

 

[Doc]

…. I wear contacts … I’m blind as a bat without them if they come out in the water

So- take out your contacts, go diving. Take off the mask, open your eyes, figure out how that’s going to work when it inevitably happens.

It is better to face a difficult situation in a controlled setting. No, Kaylee Ann, it will not just sort itself out “when it happens”.

This OP is all about just that one thing: “experience the unexpected while it is expected”!

As blind as you may believe yourself to be- it’s better to intentionally experiment with this on a warm-water-pretty-fish (WWPF) easy dive- you might be quite surprised at your acuity.

If nothing else, you will have experienced the stimulus under a controlled situation. This is the best learning environment.

 

[Rilelen]

I wear contacts - you CAN actually open your eyes underwater with contacts in. Yes, you risk them floating out (and you are definitely going to want to disinfect them ASAP), but they usually don't. I've tried this in the ocean, pools, Florida springs, etc....vision is SUPER blurry, and eyes are a bit uncomfortable at first when you've got the mask back in place, but it's doable. I've never actually lost my contacts opening my eyes underwater with them in.

Worst case: the contacts float out, and have a very blurry ascent to the surface after you grab your mask & abort the dive.

If you have monthlies like me, just try it near the end of the month when you're planning to replace them soon anyway (and bring a new pair with you to the dive, just in case you do lose them). My vision's atrocious (20/200 last time I checked); blurry diving isn't fun but it's good to know you can do it - I have had times where I've NEEDED to open my eyes underwater without my mask, and I wouldn't have wanted those times to be my first time doing so.

 

[yucatandivecrew]

Definetly not. It's all practice and if you were to try again tomorrow you'd be 1% better at doing it. Regarding the panic - it's normal. Remembering to stay calm and remembering to just breathe is key.

Cheers!