Any advice please? :) New Diver

[Ghost Diver #]

It will come!! Improving your breathing seems to only come with dive experience! The more you dive, the more comfortable you get with your environment, your skills, your equipment and breathing becomes second nature underwater. I went though the same thing.....lots of anxiety before a dive, lots of analyzing my air consumption, skip breathing, the whole nine yards. After some time and a bunch of just diving (within my limits) all that stuff sorted itself out.
Keep diving and dive safe!

 

[Diver0001]

Hello!

I am a new diver, with my only experience being pool sessions and one (awesome) aquarium dive for my birthday. I recently signed up for my open water course and started on it last week. I am seeking advice if possible on the following... After every dive I've done, I get a tight chestedness feeling and slight breathlessness. I do have mild controlled astmha but was signed off by a HSE dive doctor for this. I've been checked over by numerous doctor's, had a blood test, ecg, my lungs listened to etc and all came back clear/normal. So it's thought to be down to anxiety. I have noticed that when underwater, I am so aware of my breathing that I usually try to control it so much and it ends up all over the place. I then get a little shaky and finally nauseous, but nothing major. The thought of getting my breathing wrong also gives me a less intense version of the above. It's stupid I worry about getting things perfect/ not messing up or that I really don't want to get DCI or something nasty. I realise I shouldn't be so anxious or worrying about it all, because I really do enjoy the actual feeling of diving when I'm calm and have been told I'm good. What I would like to know please is what I can do to help improve this situation? Any breathing exercises at home, tips or personal experiences anyone might be able to pass along please? I told my dive centre and the master instructor has told me he's really glad I told him and that he will go over just breathing with me soon. That I should also bring a wetsuit for the pool sessions and finally, to go into a group at a similar pace and level.
So I'll now be in a different group to who I was with.

Thank you so much everyone for your time. I think this community is really awesome I do understand it's embarrassing to have this problem but I appreciate any help you may have

Amy

To be clear, I am not a doctor but I am a (retired) diving instructor.

A feeling of being short of breath is not uncommon among new divers, particularly when stress is involved. My guess is that being specifically instructed on how to relax and breathe normally may help it clear up. If you were my student and you told me this, then I would slow things down and focus on going slow, "floating" (neutral buoyancy) and breathing over the next couple of sessions. It may ultimately mean that you spend more time getting your OW certification, but it will be time well spent.

I'm curious how your instructor approaches this. Please keep us apprised of your progression.

R..

 

[akakinder]

Well, stop doing that. Try to be as good as you can be, but don't beat yourself up when - not if - you fail somewhat at that. I mess up occasionally, but I try to be in the moment, enjoying what I can enjoy and to take every one of my mess-ups as a valuable learning experience.

I'm not particularly good at the last point, though...

For sure! I totally agree. It's been a conditioned part of me, really - but I'm up for the challenge of breaking that! I'm actually a proficient martial artist of 13 years first and foremost, and I'm always really accepting of failure/messing up in class, so I'm going to try specifically transposing this to diving. You sound like a really awesome diver thank you for taking the time out to give me your advice.

Amy

 

[Storker]

It's been a conditioned part of me, really

I recently took a somewhat advanced scuba class. The instructor was pretty clear that we should never go diving just to train. Because in the long run, that plainly sucks, and diving is supposed to be fun. So what we were advised to do was to go diving for fun, to have fun, but to look for opportunities to insert a bit of training whenever that was appropriate.

It's probably the best piece of advice I've gotten in all the different types of training I've received. Because if it isn't fun, your heart won't be in it.

 

[Andrew Dawson]

I recently took a somewhat advanced scuba class. The instructor was pretty clear that we should never go diving just to train. Because in the long run, that plainly sucks, and diving is supposed to be fun. So what we were advised to do was to go diving for fun, to have fun, but to look for opportunities to insert a bit of training whenever that was appropriate.

It's probably the best piece of advice I've gotten in all the different types of training I've received. Because if it isn't fun, your heart won't be in it.

My buddy and I used to do skills training diving all the time when tec diving. Half of the fun was doing the drills, to us. Now that I am getting back in the water...we are doing them again. About once a month we would purely do our skills dives...and on every dive we do our buddy/bubble checks and practice something...gas switches, staging a bottle, out of air situation, etc. That is fun to us

 

[akakinder]

Y

I recently took a somewhat advanced scuba class. The instructor was pretty clear that we should never go diving just to train. Because in the long run, that plainly sucks, and diving is supposed to be fun. So what we were advised to do was to go diving for fun, to have fun, but to look for opportunities to insert a bit of training whenever that was appropriate.

It's probably the best piece of advice I've gotten in all the different types of training I've received. Because if it isn't fun, your heart won't be in it.

Again, I totally agree. I think this applies to anything. I definitely do enjoy diving. I managed to achieve neutral buoyancy on my first go and was told by the instructor it's one of the hardest skills. So I know I enjoy it and am not useless. When I trust myself - I love the feeling. There's nothing like it. I'll just keep that mindset into the pool with me next time.

Amy

 

[akakinder]

Just thought I'd share this too. I'd asked DAN what they thought a while back and this is what they had to say. Seems/sounds pretty conclusive and reassuring to me. I'm really hoping I can kick this nausea feeling during pool dives and ultimately the tight chestedness after. Feeling positive with such a supportive instructor on my side, along with everyone here. I'll let you know how it goes!

 

[IncreaseMyT]

I thought I was relaxed, but then my breathing got better. I assume it will get even better with more experience. The best thing I ever did was stop worrying about it.

 

[dmaziuk]

OK, now that you have enough good advice about anxiety, here's the exercises I found useful for the actual breathing:

- Uddiyana bandha - Wikipedia -- look it up on youtube, there's any number of freedivers showing it.

- Qigong - Wikipedia -- if you're lucky to find a Tai-Chi class that does Chi-gong and standing meditation for warm-up, sign up.

- Swimming.

 

[dmaziuk]

I should probably have mentioned that I've been doing those things on and off since I was a kid, so... they work great, after a couple of decades, especially if one of those decades is your formative years.

On the flip side, tai-chi/chi-gong is good for anxiety as well, and swimming is just about the best workout out there, especially for a diver. Just don't expect miracles right away.