Bad Experience During Training

[Doc Harry]

Do you keep a dive logbook?

I use my logbook to keep track of the weight that I use with different wetsuits and tanks.

 

[OMyMyOHellYes]

Something is amiss with those low PSIs.

I don't think they are PSIs. I think they are BARs. I don't believe Cuba uses the Imperialist measurement system. Which would be hugely different.

(edit: I see I'm late to the party).

 

[steinbil]

One on one, and there was another instructor with me as well. On the way back from the reef I was at the very back of a 3 person line and had to try kind of hard to catch up with the two of them, but the instructor was looking back regularly to see if i was following.

I'm no instructor, but again this sounds off to me. Whenever there is an incident, it's common practice to put the diver with issues in the middle of a team or in the front of a two man team, to make sure the weakest link is as protected as possible. Also in a class setting, I don't understand why not at least one instructor would be behind you to observe you on the dive. I don't see the educational value of having the student behind.

We never had a pool session, on my very first dive we just went in the water while staying kind of close to the shore. By my 4th dive I had assembled my equipment 3 times (during the first 3 dives).

It's not required to be a pool dive, a confined, shallow area close to shore is perfectly ok.

For where we went, I just remember us going over what looked like a cliff of coral that dropped off really deep, and everything got super blue and open. It was my first time doing this and I was kind of nervous because if I sunk there it would be really bad (even though I was maintaining buoyancy).

Very normal to get nervous on your first time in blue water, and when we're nervous or uncomfortable gas consumption goes up. This should be covered in class, and shouldn't come as a surprise to your instructor. Sounds like bad gas planning on their part.

He took my regulator out of my mouth when he started giving me his octo, not during the switch back to my regulator.

While I don't necessarily think some stress training is bad, if you are prepared and trained for it, again it seems unnecessary in this situation. I would offer my reg right in front of your mouth, so you could switch yourself. No need to increase stress and possibly cause a panic if you happen to be inhaling when he pulls your reg out. Maybe he waited until he saw you exhaled, but I don't understand why he wouldn't let you switch in your own time.

 

[Germie]

Diving in Cuba sometimes means you get on 1 dive steeltanks and on the next dive an ali tank. Maybe this was the same with the TS?
Where did you dive? Bahia de cochinos? There the divesites are very easy with nice reefs and most times no current. A great place to learn. A pool is not needed there.

 

[boulderjohn]

What is the certifying agency being used? It is common to use ACUC in Cuba, and their standards and procedures are different from what is found in some other agencies.

 

[KeelsonGraham]

Your instructor’s attitude sucks. Learning to SCUBA is supposed to be fun and enjoyable. The first rule of all instruction is to put your student at ease. Nobody learns well when they’re anxious or stressed. Give him the boot, find someone decent. You are the client so you decide who to give your hard earned bucks to.

 

[Outbound]

What is the certifying agency being used? It is common to use ACUC in Cuba, and their standards and procedures are different from what is found in some other agencies.

Good question. I'd never heard of ACUC and just looked it up.

But OP said they went out to a "deep reef." Even leaving some wiggle room for a new diver's definition of "deep," I doubt anyone would confuse a confined water session (even in the ocean) for an open water session. ACUC standards define confined water as a swimming pool or a "body of water that offers similar conditions (maximum depth 6m)." Sounds to me like the instructor likely broke standards by taking a confined water student too deep. Unless somehow OP thought 6m was "deep."

EDIT: Nevermind. I read OP's second follow-up post and this was definitely an open water certification dive.

 

[Belzelbub]

I agree. Definitely some red flags with the instructor.

I could almost understand the "use common sense" instruction with the gear setup. If, it was done with patience. But, it sounds like that was not the case. The rest of it just seems bizarre. I definitely don't get the practice of using the instructor's octo to conserve some of the student's supply. Bad practice, especially for a new diver.

The removal of the regulator by the instructor is just way out there. I've actually had this happen to me once. It was actually during a Stress & Rescue course. The DM "Victim" misunderstood the instructor's directions. He was supposed to act panicked and out of air but wasn't supposed to actually remove my reg. I was fine with the way it was done, but I had a lot more dives done at that point. Doing that on an OW checkout dive is crazy.

 

[Allen-1]

I'm fairly new to scuba; I've got 83 dives, all done with the same instructor/buddy.

When we started, I ran into some really unexpected mental issues. I'm extremely comfortable in the water, been swimming in pools, lakes, rivers since I was a kid. Very relaxed swimming underwater with my eyes open.

So, it was a serious shock to find out that my subconcious didn't believe that I could sit underwater in shallow depth and breathe from my regulator. I was close to panic. I'd drop down, start gasping, and surface so that I could breathe.

My instructor was just as surprised as I was - but he was patient and worked me through it. One of the exercises that I did was sitting on dry land, with mask and snorkle on, just breathing. Then same exercise in the shower.

Got past it, and my subconcious mind seems to have accepted that I can breathe underwater if I have the gear on.

I could not have worked through this with an instructor like the one that the OP described. I probably would have walked away from scuba as a failed experience.

Because my instructor was top-notch I've got my AOW and Enriched Air certs and reservations made for July/August. Surgeon who did my rotator cuff surgery has cleared me to dive by that time, otherwise I'd be going sooner.

 

[boulderjohn]

I'm fairly new to scuba; I've got 83 dives, all done with the same instructor/buddy.

When we started, I ran into some really unexpected mental issues. I'm extremely comfortable in the water, been swimming in pools, lakes, rivers since I was a kid. Very relaxed swimming underwater with my eyes open.

So, it was a serious shock to find out that my subconcious didn't believe that I could sit underwater in shallow depth and breathe from my regulator. I was close to panic. I'd drop down, start gasping, and surface so that I could breathe.

My instructor was just as surprised as I was - but he was patient and worked me through it. One of the exercises that I did was sitting on dry land, with mask and snorkle on, just breathing. Then same exercise in the shower.

Got past it, and my subconcious mind seems to have accepted that I can breathe underwater if I have the gear on.

I could not have worked through this with an instructor like the one that the OP described. I probably would have walked away from scuba as a failed experience.

Because my instructor was top-notch I've got my AOW and Enriched Air certs and reservations made for July/August. Surgeon who did my rotator cuff surgery has cleared me to dive by that time, otherwise I'd be going sooner.

This shows the proper instructor attitude. "It is my job to get this student to succeed, so I will find the best instructional strategy to solve the problems that are preventing that."

This contrasts with the instructional philosophy common in the earliest scuba instruction and still found occasionally today. "It is my job to evaluate student performance to ensure that unqualified people are not certified."

In the end, both instructors should certify fully qualified divers, but one of them loses a lot of candidates along the way.