Fear of Deep/Open Water

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fiveupstove

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Location
Bay Area, CA
# of dives
50 - 99
I just finished my PADI OW last month and decided to try a boat dive recently. Besides feeling somewhat sick on the ride out, I also had some problems freaking out with suddenly going down into the ocean 60-75 feet with 10-15' of vis, when the OW was only a shore dive of about 30' max depth. Aside from Dramamine for the motion sickness, anyone have any advice on getting over this fear?
 
Get experience diving
 
Dramamine definately helps. I puked on my first boat dive, a most impressive job of chumming the water through the regulator. As for the rest, make sure that you talk to the divemaster about your concerns. They don't want to lose anybody anymore than you want to be lost, so at the very least they'll make sure that you have an experienced buddy. I was lucky in that the divemaster kind of took me under his wing for the first few dives.
 
Everyone has a certain limit with their comfort zone. Being underwater, especially in bad viz, can really push some people to the edge of their comfort zone. The great news is that increasing experience leads to understanding and confidence - which extends that comfort zone.

It's understandable that you would experience some apprehension as a newly qualified scuba diver, so don't beat yourself up about that, or feel that you are an exception. As you dive more, you will learn to trust your equipment, trust your training and over time, the 'scary unknown' will begin to become the 'comforting known'.

You may want to consider taking the Advanced Open Water (AOW) course. Don't be put off by the word 'advanced'... this course is a progression of your OW training, with an emphasis on having fun and learning about the range of activities and interests that you can get involved in underwater. Many novice divers find it very reassuring to take this course, as they get to enjoy more time underwater under the supervision of a dive professional.

Acknowledge that your current apprehension is natural, keep diving...and look forward to the inevitable expansion of your comfort zone. :D
 
Work up to that type of dive trip, maybe starting with easy shallow tropical boat dives, then slightly deeper tropical boat dives, then perhaps tropical wreck dives in the 100' bottom depth range.

Your brain may feel a lot better when you can see the bottom from the boat and you can see the boat from the bottom. :idk:

 
Where do you live / dive?
 
In the beginning, here is what worked for me and I have used it on others also. It may work for you also. Its pretty simple but it worked quite well.

First off, get permission to use a local swimming pool. Preferably one with a "deep" end.

Take your gear to the pool, dress out, and go to the bottom of the deep end. Now that you are there, spend a LOT of time (or as much as needed) to get use to being underwater. Sit down, lay down, roll over, stand up, play around. You may need to use two tanks. You may need to come back a second or third time. The point is you need to get use to using the gear and being underwater.

Another "tactic" that I have used for years and still do to this day is upon reaching the bottom, I will lay on my stomach for a few minutes and adjust my gear, check my gages, etc. I noticed many years ago, while river diving, that laying flat on your stomach, on the bottom, calms the nerves tremendously. Its amazing how well this works. Try it and I am sure you will agree.

A mental thought process that may help is this: You have a straight shot to the surface. Given even the most extreme emergency there is nothing in the world that can keep you from going straight to the surface and surviving.
 
Dramanine is good. Don't believe the package when it tells you to take it a few hours prior to traveling. Take it at least six hours prior to heading out.

Recently I discovered scopolamine patches - WAY better than dramamine. Start them a day before diving. They rock.

Stress is your normal reaction to being in an abnormal situation (such as underwater). Panic is what happens when you cannot break out of the stress cycle. If you are feeling apprehensive about the dive, tell your DM and express it clearly to them. You may or may not want to do the dive - it all depends upon your level of pre-dive stress.

I personally find that being at 0 feet with 80 feet of water beneath me in 20 foot vis is much more stressful than being within 10 feet of the bottom in 20 foot vis at an 80 foot depth. Humans seem to like to see the bottom so that they know that the fall is not infinite. (For me) once you get to the bottom, it isn't that scary. I also find that being at 50 feet in 20 foot vis is more stressful than being at 90 feet in 100 foot vis.

The paragraph, above, is just a very wordy way of reiterating halemanō's response, above.

If you are a new diver who can handle being at 70 feet in 15 foot vis, you are doing very well. If you are doing this in a thick wetsuit, which can feel very restrictive (I can't tell your location), you are even better. When you next visit tropical waters, gin-blue with 100 foot vis and dive in your T-shirt, you will be a rock star.

Read halemanō's post, above. Start slow. Go at your own pace. When you get there, you will find that it is very cool.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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