Comfortability In The Water

[icechip]

Two friends are currently getting certified and confided in me they felt pretty anxious in their first pool session and asked me how they can get more "comfortable" in the water. I know it takes time, time and more time in the water. But I don't want them to bail on the course so I've been working with them in our local high school pool with just mask, fins, and snorkel. We've been practicing different kicks, doing laps, turning around, keeping one's hands from flailing, etc. We just slow everything down and work on breathing control and so on. We dive for golf balls in the deep end and collect as many as we can on one breath of air. We did that in my YMCA class back in '79 and I feel it made me more comfortable and confident in the water. In fact, we did not even move on to scuba gear until a couple weeks into the course and spent the water time swimming, snorkeling, floating, diving down to retrieve things, etc all just to get comfortable. Are there other suggestions or general advice I can pass along to them about getting more comfortable? Thanks.

 

[diver0008]

Anxious in a pool is a little worrisome when getting into scuba. I'd surmise that most people who get into scuba are already comfortable in the water, and have at least been snorkeling. They need to get out into open water to see if they can deal with that. Not everyone can.

 

[RandomGuy1]

I had a similar issue when I tried getting my wife into diving. She just never could develop the in water comfort where I was comfortable putting her on scuba. I didn't press the issue so my wife doesn't dive. I came to the conclusion that some folks just weren't meant to scuba.

 

[tkaelin]

I think you are doing it right. The way to get comfortable in the water is to spend time in the water, even in the pool. For some, building confidence takes time. Take it slow and slowly build upon the experience and confidence will grow.

 

[undrwater]

Teasing out the source of the discomfort, and working with that should help. If it's getting water in the nose for instance, it's probably best to work without the mask until they've gotten over that barrier.

 

[AdivingBel]

It's an "at your own speed" kind of thing. Some people are more comfortable in the water, whether it's nature or nurture. My wife didn't dive for several years after I started. She wanted to. Tried and failed at a couple DSDs along the way. We happened to move (not for diving) to a locale near water and she acclimated over time. Now she's my main dive buddy and we love to dive travel. You can get there, if you want it bad enough, but it can be tough to rush it.

 

[ScubaJill]

I think you're doing it the right way. I've always been a desert dweller, so taking a big stride off a boat in the middle of the ocean was a huge deal for me. I didn't have any friends who dive or were interested in learning. I spent a lot of time over 2-3 months with a great instructor and dove with dive guides who became friends. They would make suggestions here and there to help me improve, but they always kept it light and fun. I learned at my own pace and it really helped having solid divers who modeled great practices. In new environments or when I've not been diving for awhile, I like to take it slow and proceed one task at a time. But the key for me was spending a lot of time in the water, and that my first dives were so awesome that I wanted to continue diving.

 

[TMHeimer]

Anxious in a pool is a little worrisome when getting into scuba. I'd surmise that most people who get into scuba are already comfortable in the water, and have at least been snorkeling. They need to get out into open water to see if they can deal with that. Not everyone can.

Agree, but I have seen a fair number (more than you'd think) take OW courses who appeared to have very little experience doing ANYTHING in water.
As underwater says--- may have a good point in doing stuff without mask.
Maybe checking out how they actually swim would mean something (proper stroke, or all over the place just to get from point A to B? This has been discussed ad-nauseum on SB (probably mostly by ME....).
But it sounds like you are a good friend doing with the right approach.
Any kind of snorkeling improves airway control and should help a lot with scuba. Diving down & up, blast clearing the snorkel with head still in water, etc.
It's hard to exactly define "Comfortability in Water". I hadn't done any swimming in 39 years since HS Swim Team and my mechanics were way off. But, I still considered myself extremely comfortable then, having snorkelled an awful lot all those in between years.

 

[diver0008]

I have seen a fair number (more than you'd think) take OW courses who appeared to have very little experience doing ANYTHING in water

Surprising, but glad that the activity is attracting land-lubbers.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Different people have different comfort levels obviously. Swimming pools are so uninteresting there isn't much to distract from the discomfort.

It took me quite some time after I started diving to get comfortable with putting my face in the water without a reg in my mouth! You may find the thread about it worth a read. Confessions of an unlikely diver This clip from that thread may explain

The reason I am an Unlikely Diver... my greatest struggle was to PUT MY FACE IN THE WATER! (This was probably related to nearly drowning as a child before I learned to swim.) There I have said it *whew* it feels good to get that off my chest. I never told anyone for a long time (including fish) what a real struggle it was! All the way to the dive site I would do this self talk... "You can do it.. just put your face in the water and breathe!" When we geared up the self talk would continue.. "Just get your face in the water and breathe and you will be ok!" I would try to get to the water as quick as I could so I could get my face in the water before I "chickened out!" Once I was in the water and breathing.. I settled pretty quickly. The crazy thing is that in spite of my discomfort I always had a reasonable SAC.:shocked2:

I think I had 50 or more dives up before I realized as we were driving to the site that I wasn't dreading the face in the water thing. It took me over 100 before I realized I hadn't even thought about it for I don't know how long.

Now the thing that scared me so much is the thing that relaxes me the most. When the water closes over my head and I enter that magical place the weight of the world falls away. I live in the moment, revel in the sounds, marvel at the sights. I am so thankful that I get to experience what so few are privileged to do!

...

I didn't really get comfortable snorkeling until I had over 300 bottom hours. I still wouldn't call myself a snorkeler.

I now have over 800 bottom hours and in spite of my initial struggles I have never been in a situation where my personal safety was under threat. The key IMHO is to build skills slowly, dive with appropriate buddys, know your limits and never let anyone pressure you into something that is too far out of your skill set.

Finally I would like to say they are lucky to have a good friend helping them as you are. Please do be careful that the dangers of holding your breath as you surface are made clear and regularly. Skills that make a person a good freediver (snorkeler) may contradict what is safe for a scuba diver. The other thing is that it seems people sometimes focus on "Breathing control" without understanding what "Normal breathing" is.