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This is a valid point, and my first two questions above both are the results of posts not directly related to the original post. I am going to report my own post to ask the mods if they think they should be moved to their own thread to not further contribute to...
I think in your wife's case, she would need to work in the water a lot to gain comfort and take control, initially just getting in a pool and swimming/ treading water, starting in the shallow end and working on being able float at the deep end and eventually swim some laps face down. Comfort in the water is 99% a mental game and the rest is technique.Reading through this thread again, and in the spirit of the forum it is posted in ("Basic Scuba" - a Learning Zone with special rules), I have three questions specific to my situation. I'm not trying to, nor hijack the thread - I think they are in line with the original post (but mods, please correct me if I'm wrong):
First some background: My wife is a non-diver. Loves marine life (to the point where she admirably tolerates my amateurish, below-average-quality videos of the marine life I interact with on my dives). However, she has a phobia about water (not the surface, she's amazing in a canoe!) but being face-down in it. It is the result of falling off of a dock as a toddler at a lake in northern Canada where she grew up. The only reason she did not drown is because her aunt happened to see her fall and was able to grab one foot before she descended further. It seems it was sufficiently traumatic that even snorkeling for her is a real challenge - and as soon as she is in water over her head a familiar panic begins to set in, and she quickly retreats to a "safer" area.
So, when our sister-in-law decided she wanted to get scuba certified a few years and asked me if I would accompany her so she wouldn't be doing it alone, my wife emphatically refused to entertain our offer to have her join us. We didn't push it - we know better.
Fast forward to a few months ago, and seeing how much we love diving she is actually beginning to consider a Discover Scuba Dive as envisioned and implemented by a certain professional association of dive instructors. I was... shocked. And overjoyed. And trying to reign in my enthusiasm for that idea so I don't push her away...
... but ...
I now have some questions.
If you choose to answer any of these questions, be honest - you won't offend me. And I genuinely want to hear the opinions of those more experienced than I am on the topic. Which, I think, is almost every single poster to this thread so far...
- Is scuba diving really only for those already comfortable in the water beforehand? I don't recall that as a requirement for certification, but is it unwise for those who are not already competent swimmers to take it up? At our age, my wife's comfort level in the water is what it is, it isn't going to change anytime soon. My personal opinion is that if she can learn to dive and the underwater environment is really not as scary as it was to that three-year-old that fell off a dock, it might improve her comfort level considerably. Am I wrong to think that?
- My own experience with a DSD was probably non-standard. Boat dive (rolling off the side) and we went down a mooring line to a depth of ~25 feet. Well, I went down. The instructor and my sister-in-law stayed at the surface working out a couple of issues. When I got to the bottom I realized (for the first time - my situational awareness was zero at the time) that I was by myself, and looked up. The instructor, from 25 feet above (decent vis in Roatan at the time!) signaled if I was OK. I signaled back that I was, so he signaled to stay there, kneel in the sand (GASP!), and wait for them. So I did. And discovered the truth of what he had already taught us - that when you breathe in, you go up (in my case, knees lifting off the bottom), and when you breathe out, you go down (knees hit sand, check!). So I experimented more with that and discovered (it really was a DSD!) that you breathe in more, you go up more, and breathe out more, you go down more. Buoyancy 101, on the DSD, on my own. And then I got distracted by a southern stingray a few feet away (situational awareness improved, check!), and that was the end of the experimentation and the beginning of the discovery of what scuba is really all about for me. Shortly afterward I was joined by the instructor and my dive buddy and off we went what was to me exploring a wonderful world for the first time, and just another day at the office for our instructor.
But - is the DSD really so dangerous that there is considerable risk of it only adding to my wife's trauma? I understand that there is some risk of that, and so does she. But realistically and objectively, is that risk considerable? If so, I likely need to abandon the idea of my wife ever joining me on a dive - and I can certainly accept that over putting her at risk.
- In my ideal world, my wife does a DSD and loves it 1/10 as much as I did mine and so decides it is worth the time, expense, and mental effort to work at overcoming her phobia to enough of an extent that she can be certified by the aforementioned professional association of dive instructors as an open water diver. And she accomplishes that. However, she is then very likely to decide that she doesn't want to deal with a computer or NDL limits or any of the more technical aspects of diving and will rely on me for those "details" (can't imagine her not using an SPG though, she'd never go that far).
By many standards, even the one that I myself expressed a few posts back, in that case my wife would not be considered a "competent" diver. But I was dead wrong in that post. If she actually got to that point, I would consider her not only competent but "masterful", considering where she came from. And since I have no idea what the circumstances are of anyone else in my dive group that I am not previously acquainted with, I need to avoid judging their competence at all.
My third question is this: My wife and I would be, now knowingly, contributing to what may be a "distrubing trend in diving". Are we considered to be wrong to even consider her starting down this path? And as a followup - if we did it anway, would we still be welcome as members of the diving community?
The challenge we have is there really aren't great options for swimming in pools where we live, nor the professional coaches. So we are a bit constrained in that regard.
How about doing some snorkeling? Just face down with mask on and breathing through a snorkel does wonders.The challenge we have is there really aren't great options for swimming in pools where we live, nor the professional coaches. So we are a bit constrained in that regard.
Your point is very well taken about someone else taking out her mask or regulator, though. A DSD for her would be her, the instructor, me and possibly our two dive buddies visiting if we did it at the time of year they usually come (likely not - there is better weather on Roatan at other times of year for my wife to do a DSD...) That could possibly cost extra, depending on how busy the shop was. I wouldn't care
Yes, absolutely - we do that now. She's all good until she gets into "deep" (aka the bottom is farther down than she is tall) water. Or a leg cramp. Or a leaky mask. Stuff that of course we need to know how to deal with as divers too - so there is definitely the Roatan West Bay equivalent of "pool work" that we can (and will) do before getting too serious about her as a diver. Which is partly why the DSD - personally I find it easier to clear a leg muscle cramp at 60 feet than I do on the surface...
