Disturbing trend in diving?

[Charles casey]

I dived with New England divers in the sixties frank sanger worked for them he had been in an accident as a kid and was missing leg and arm he was our dive master in those days great fun back then

 

[therookie]

I'd recommend the mask/snorkel skills that are derived from what @Peter Guy taught me.

Thank you for that link. Maybe that's the same info that is in the link about teaching neutrally buoyant in your signature, which I have seen many times and never taken the time to click on? I especially appreciated the graphic illustrating the difference between the centre of mass and the centre of volume - that's a concept I had never really thought through before.

I found the subsequent post with the details of the mask and snorkel exercises and think they are great! Stand in chest deep water with just a snorkel and lower yourself down until your eyes are above water and your nose is submerged and just breathe through the snorkel - that's brilliant! So simple, and so easy to recover from if it doesn't go well at first... I think that exercise alone would do a lot for my wife's confidence with a snorkel. And truth be told I probably would fail that exercise myself the first couple of times I tried it - I'm thinking I try to breathe through my nose a lot more than I realize when I'm diving.

For the people that had the worst time with it I had a system.

This is a great system to teach that skill. I can do the R&R (obviously, since I'm certified) but it was then and still is a "let's get this over with as quickly as possible", never something that I do in a "relaxed" fashion. I know I'm tense the whole time. So I need to work on this with this system myself, frankly...

So thanks to you both for your responses to my questions. When I posted them, regarding the confidence in water thing prior to getting certified, I said something to the effect that at our age my wife's comfort level in the water "is what it is". I am now reconsidering that somewhat "fatalistic" attitude, and I think I'm not giving her enough credit for her ability to learn new skills. I believe I was misconstruing "being comfortable in the water" (in the context of learning to dive) and thinking of it more like "being a really good swimmer", when the two aren't necessarily interchangeable. Even a really good swimmer could have trouble initially when presented with a mask and snorkel or regulator...

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Thank you for that link. Maybe that's the same info that is in the link about teaching neutrally buoyant in your signature, which I have seen many times and never taken the time to click on? I especially appreciated the graphic illustrating the difference between the centre of mass and the centre of volume - that's a concept I had never really thought through before.

I found the subsequent post with the details of the mask and snorkel exercises and think they are great! Stand in chest deep water with just a snorkel and lower yourself down until your eyes are above water and your nose is submerged and just breathe through the snorkel - that's brilliant! So simple, and so easy to recover from if it doesn't go well at first... I think that exercise alone would do a lot for my wife's confidence with a snorkel. And truth be told I probably would fail that exercise myself the first couple of times I tried it - I'm thinking I try to breathe through my nose a lot more than I realize when I'm diving.

Sorry, I should have pointed you to the second blog post. But I'm glad you got something out of the first one.

So here's an offer. Come to the Greek island of Chios the first two weeks of August. I'll be there with my family for my nephew's baptism. We'll be staying at the Golden Sand Hotel in Karfas, right on the beach. I'd be happy to teach your wife right off beach. I may also teach my cousins and their wives. Chios is a less touristic island, so the Greek experience is more authentic. Plus having family there by marriage (my cousin's wife), you and your wife would have a unique experience, guaranteed. Look up Pyrgi, Mesta, and if you go, you'll become as addicted to masticha producs (especially the liquor) as me. My friend Manos who runs a shop in Pyrgi will give you great prices.

 

[therookie]

So here's an offer. Come to the Greek island of Chios the first two weeks of August.

Oh man, I tell you what, if we were casting about looking for a destination for a European vacation this summer, we would absolutely take you up on that! Gorgeous beach (judging from Google "street" view), beautiful architecture (judging from photos found online this morning), fascinating culture and history. And connections to the local community for an authentic experience and great prices at a dive shop. Checks far too many boxes but too many commitments (and already planned vacation times) to do it though...

I've never heard of this island before reading that post - likely a testament to low-quality geography education in junior and senior high school! My Spanish-English speaking brain instinctively wants to pronounce it something like "Cheetos" but without the "t" - is that even close to correct? What would be the pronunciation that would be the least "grating" on the ears of someone who lived there if we ever visited? (There I go possibly hijacking this thread again with yet another off-topic question)

 

[therookie]

I now have some questions.

A huge thank-you to everyone that responded to my questions - you have confirmed my own thinking about some things, changed my opinions about others, and given us lots to think about in areas that deserve further thought before we make decisions about my wife's participation in scuba.

There is no doubt that if she goes down this road, it will be a process that will take time. But from your responses I definitely get the impression that whatever degree of competence she decides to attempt to acquire, we'll have the support of the dive community.

And also special thanks to @Eric Sedletzky the OP (and the moderators!) for graciously allowing me to extend this thread for a few more pages yet with my questions.

 

[Allen-1]

Very good point. Actually now that I think about it after your post my wife has specifically commented on this as being something that concerns her - water up the nose if something happens with the mask (and why she is so quick to try to clear it when snorkeling if even a relatively small amount of water gets in).

I have always been very comfortable in the water, swimming on the surface, or below it. Even done a little bit of snorkeling. It came as a distinct, very unpleasant surprise that my subconscious knew that I couldn't breathe under water, no matter what my conscious mind said about regulators, etc.

While sorting through this I found out that I'm a nose-breather, which of course leads to mask leaks/floods.

Couple things that helped. My instructor lent me his spare mask which has a nose purge valve; (I promptly bought two of them when I came home from that trip). I spent literally hours sitting outside the water with mask and snorkel, trying to teach my subconscious mind that I could get plenty of air breathing through my mouth. When I got comfortable doing that, I stood in the shower with mask/snorkel.

Silly as it sounds - it helped.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Oh man, I tell you what, if we were casting about looking for a destination for a European vacation this summer, we would absolutely take you up on that!

if you change your mind, let me know.

I've never heard of this island before reading that post - likely a testament to low-quality geography education in junior and senior high school!

Chios is not a touristic island. Plus it is pretty far from Athens. As opposed to the Kyklades where you can take a ferry that lasts just a few hours, the boat to Chios is an overnighter (or an hour flight). Also, many of the Greek shipping magnate families are from Chios. I don't know the history of why so much of the merchant marine came from that island.

My Spanish-English speaking brain instinctively wants to pronounce it something like "Cheetos" but without the "t" - is that even close to correct?

It is hard to type the proper pronunciation. I guess the closest would be "HEE-os" where the H is much stronger than the English language. But since you mentioned Spanish, it would be more like the Spanish j.

Don't worry, the way gyros is mispronounced is of great national concern for Greece!

Anyway, I hope you will try the exercises with your wife and give me feedback on how they can be improved, as nothing I teach is set in stone. I'm always looking to do better.

 

[dmaziuk]

- Can I have hummus please?
- ??? Oh, you mean "ahmm-as"?
- No, I mean "khoo-moo-s", thank you.

 

[MB NZ]

if you change your mind, let me know.

Chios is not a touristic island. Plus it is pretty far from Athens. As opposed to the Kyklades where you can take a ferry that lasts just a few hours, the boat to Chios is an overnighter (or an hour flight). Also, many of the Greek shipping magnate families are from Chios. I don't know the history of why so much of the merchant marine came from that island.

It is hard to type the proper pronunciation. I guess the closest would be "HEE-os" where the H is much stronger than the English language. But since you mentioned Spanish, it would be more like the Spanish j.

Don't worry, the way gyros is mispronounced is of great national concern for Greece!

Anyway, I hope you will try the exercises with your wife and give me feedback on how they can be improved, as nothing I teach is set in stone. I'm always looking to do better.

Interesting posts. Spending part of my childhood in Cyprus, I never remember seeing gyros. It was always souvlaki and souvla. Souvlaki remains my favourite meal.

 

[happy-diver]

Couple things that helped.

SCUBA - just another expensive hobby​

What about having a look at this and putting something self affirming for all of us in there