First Certified Dive

[mac66]

I did my first dive last week after getting my OW certification in February. It was on a Caribbean cruise in St. Maarten. Went out on a dive boat with 4 other divers.

Thought I would share some notes....

When the DM came around and asked how many dives each of us had done and I answered "this is my first" the other divers rolled their eyes, particularly the one I was paired up with as my dive buddy. Oh well.

The seas were very rough. 6-8 foot waves. It was a challenge to hold onto the life line after getting into and out of the water. The waves were throwing us around quite a bit. Swallowed some sea water while being tossed around. I've never gotten seasick but got a bit woozy on the boat but was better once in the water.

The current was pretty strong under water as well. We swam against it to get to the wrecks and it was quite tiring. Easy to get back to the boat however.

I should mention that I am 64 years old, 6'2" tall and weigh 195 lbs. I only mention that because...
A..I've always wanted to dive but never got around to it until recently.
B... I lost a lot of weight about 5 years ago and have virtually no fat on my body and...
C...When I was doing my OW cert dives both in the pool and in warm Caribbean waters wearing a shorty wet suit I was very cold i.e, hypothermia cold. I subsequently bought a full length wet suit (NeoSport) and booties even though I intend to only dive in warm Caribbean water a couple times a year. The wet suit turned out to be a good investment. I was very comfortable on both dives. it was the first time I wore it in the water.

While I initially didn't have any buoyancy issues at one point near the start of the dive I just started going up. I had no air in my BCD and was wearing 10 lbs of weight. I started to take shallow breaths with long exhales to go back down which sort of worked. Later as I used up air I noticed the same thing.

I wonder now If I should have used more weight. Is it better to be negatively buoyant and then compensate by putting air into ones BCD?

I didn't have any trouble keeping up with the other divers but started running out of air at about the 30 minute mark. I signaled the DM and let him know. One other diver, I would guess about my age also ran short of air. The DM took us up while the other divers went another 15 minutes. On the second dive I got about 35 minutes on a tank before running low. Although I was pretty relaxed and didn't think I was breathing hard, apparently new divers use more air. I do quite a bit of cycling and other cardio at home so I wonder if that has anything to do with it? Which is better, slow deep breaths or shallow breaths?

I did get a chance to use my SJ6 Legend camera which took very good video. The SJ6 Legend is kinda of GoPro knockoff at a fraction of the cost. Unfortunately I had forgotten to change out the 1GB sd card that was nearly full for a fresh one. I only got 16 minutes of video on the first dive and couldn't figure out why it wasn't recording on the second.

We saw a couple wrecks on the bottom (about 50 feet) in the first dive and a shark, a turtle and some large schools of fish. Second dive was also about 50 feet and was on a wrecked barge. All in all it was a good first time out though the diving was nothing special.

 

[RyanT]

Congratulations on successfully completing your first (non-training) dives. Those were certainly challenging conditions! A couple of things...

First, never let it bother you if someone who rolls their eyes because of your experience level. We all start somewhere.

Second, yes, it's better to be a little heavy than not be able to hold your safety stop at the end of the dive when your tank is light. But, you really need to be properly weighted, which means being pretty close to neutral at the end of the dive. Being overweighted just means additional swimming exertion and fiddling to ensure that you remain neutral. This will take some practice.

As for your gas consumption, any added muscle exertion increases your gas consumption. If you are fiddling with things and kicking and hand-sculling, this can dramatically increase your gas consumption, even if you don't feel like you are breathing particularly hard. Again, this comes with practice and perhaps some additional instruction or mentoring.

So again, congratulations on completing your first dives in challenging conditions. The sport only gets better with practice!

 

[GrafCanuck]

Hi Mac66....
First congrats on getting O/W certified. I did mine 3 years ago at age 55 down in Curacao. On the bucket list as you know. Also like you my first (excluding the standard mask, fins and snorkel) scuba investment was a full length 3mm wetsuit. I did my O/W dives in a shorty and will never be in a shorty again. For me it wasn't the coldness but getting marked up on my legs. Last week I just completed my AOW down in Bonaire and had a blast. BTW - I hired a private PADI dive instructor. In my opinion this is the way to go. Personal attention and the reality is that the costs are the same - resort style or private. I would go private if available.

On the weight front, I assume you and the DMI did a weight test. You know jump in the water, let your air out of your bcd, and in 7-10 feet of water, horizontally, if you have the right weight your eyes/mask should be at water level and if you exhale you should be able to descend very slowly. For me I'm also 6'2", 210lbs, but in salt water 20 lbs is my optimum. I've tried 16 lbs and it just doesn't do it. Plus remember your tank weights around 5 lbs and will be 75-80% empty by the time you reach the surface after the ascend and safety stop. I suspect you need to be around 16 lbs. You can use the PADI weight calculator to give you a starting point but do the test in the water before heading out.

Hope this helps and be safe and keep diving.

 

[TerryC]

Well done, challenging conditions for a new diver.
People who roll their eyes? Forget them, not worth your time.
Stay warm, wear what keeps you warm, I wear full suit at this time of year in St Kitts (next island south of St Martin.)
Weighting needs to be correct, this has already been mentioned.
Right now you are very new to diving, you need to "perfect the art".
By that I mean your buoyancy, trim, body position, fin action, all need perfecting. If you get these correct then your air consumption will improve dramatically.
Now is not the time to be carrying a camera, you need to be thinking about everything else with regard to your diving.
Get some dive experience under your belt, be 100% competent, then learn your photography.

 

[scubadada]

Hi @mac66

Welcome to diving. 6-8 foot seas are quite big, over estimation is very common.

You didn't tell us the thickness of your full suit, difficult to predict your weight requirement. The only proper weight check is at the end of the dive with around 500 psi left in your cylinder. With no air in your BC, you should be able to hold your safety stop and make a nice, controlled ascent to the surface.

You did not mention the size of your cylinder, I assume it was a rental AL80. Without your depth, it is difficult to comment on you gas consumption. 50 feet is quite shallow if that was your max. The fact that others did significantly more time leads me to think your consumption was high. Relaxing, moving slowly, having good buoyancy and trim, and more experience, will improve your consumption.

I wish new divers would work on their dive skills for a while before increasing task loading with a camera or video recorder. Digital imaging has just made it too easy.

Very best and good diving

 

[chillyinCanada]

I'm going to chime in here too with regard to the camera. Do yourself a favour and leave the camera behind until you have much better control and experience.

You said that you do a lot of bicycling. That's something that want to be sure that you aren't doing whilst diving. You want your body flat in the water; try to ensure that you are fully horizontal during the dive. If your body is vertical or at an angle, you'll be what some of us call "bicycling" through the water, using up much more air than necessary.

New divers also often use their hands/arms to propel themselves through the water and/or in an attempt to balance themselves. This too uses up considerably more air than necessary.

Diving is a very zen experience for the most part. If you do yoga and/or relaxation breathing, that's what you will want to achieve underwater.

My recommendation is that you not only set aside your camera but that you concentrate on keeping your arms and hands tucked and still, with your body horizontal in the water column. Concentrate on your breathing.

It is indeed unfortunate that it was necessary to swim against the current to get to the target of the planned dive. I call that a bad drop. It happens.

 

[Kimela]

You have a lot to be proud of! Congrats!! Too bad you had rough conditions - it really will cause you to suck down the air due to extra exertion and the anxiety that goes with knowing you have much to compensate for at the beginning and end of the dive. You'll be perfecting your buoyancy and air consumption for the rest of your diving career. I agree that being overweighted is best, especially at this point and in those conditions. Popping up at the end of the dive is nerve wracking. Oh, and feel free to internally roll your eyes back at the eye rollers! They were you at one time. When I think of the hand sculling and bicycling I have done I roll my own eyes at myself!!

Stay at it - hope my 64 year old husband and I see you on a dive boat someday!

 

[chillyinCanada]

Oh, and if you enjoy diving and wish to get better, there's nothing like a dedicated dive trip. Treat yourself and forget about cruise ship dives.

 

[mac66]

Thanks all for the comments.

Some answers to some comments.

When they rolled their eyes I just said "well, everybody's got to start sometime". And "I will try to keep up".

Wanted to document my first dive but I agree, the camera was too much, too soon. That's why I didn't even try to fix the unknown (at the time) problem for the second dive.

I'm probably over estimating the seas. Probably not 6-8 foot seas but the waves were high and rough particularly motoring back to the bay. I sail on the great lakes and know a bit about rough water. It was rough.

My wet suit was a 3 mm.

No weight test, We were being tossed around on the surface so much that as soon as everyone was in the water we descended. I asked the DM before the dive what he recommended. He asked me my weight and said to start with 12 lbs. (I thought I remembered it being 10 lbs but I just checked my written "dive log" and I have the weight listed as 12 lbs.).

I (as did the other divers) rented all the equipment except for my wet suit/boots so the air was an 80.

As for air consumption...looking at my video, I was kind of herky-jerky, hand sculling and moving around a lot, so I kind of get the over exertion thing now. Will consider it a training video of what not to do, LOL.

As for a dive trip, I may evolve into doing that but the reason I got certified was because we (my wife and I) cruise and wanted to see the many Caribbean ports we've been to from a different perspective. So for the time being, cruise diving is all I plan on doing. Next cruise is in December but I may get the bug to go diving before that.

 

[NAUI Wowie]

I did my first dive last week after getting my OW certification in February. It was on a Caribbean cruise in St. Maarten. Went out on a dive boat with 4 other divers.

Thought I would share some notes....

When the DM came around and asked how many dives each of us had done and I answered "this is my first" the other divers rolled their eyes, particularly the one I was paired up with as my dive buddy. Oh well.

The seas were very rough. 6-8 foot waves. It was a challenge to hold onto the life line after getting into and out of the water. The waves were throwing us around quite a bit. Swallowed some sea water while being tossed around. I've never gotten seasick but got a bit woozy on the boat but was better once in the water.

The current was pretty strong under water as well. We swam against it to get to the wrecks and it was quite tiring. Easy to get back to the boat however.

I should mention that I am 64 years old, 6'2" tall and weigh 195 lbs. I only mention that because...
A..I've always wanted to dive but never got around to it until recently.
B... I lost a lot of weight about 5 years ago and have virtually no fat on my body and...
C...When I was doing my OW cert dives both in the pool and in warm Caribbean waters wearing a shorty wet suit I was very cold i.e, hypothermia cold. I subsequently bought a full length wet suit (NeoSport) and booties even though I intend to only dive in warm Caribbean water a couple times a year. The wet suit turned out to be a good investment. I was very comfortable on both dives. it was the first time I wore it in the water.

While I initially didn't have any buoyancy issues at one point near the start of the dive I just started going up. I had no air in my BCD and was wearing 10 lbs of weight. I started to take shallow breaths with long exhales to go back down which sort of worked. Later as I used up air I noticed the same thing.

I wonder now If I should have used more weight. Is it better to be negatively buoyant and then compensate by putting air into ones BCD?

I didn't have any trouble keeping up with the other divers but started running out of air at about the 30 minute mark. I signaled the DM and let him know. One other diver, I would guess about my age also ran short of air. The DM took us up while the other divers went another 15 minutes. On the second dive I got about 35 minutes on a tank before running low. Although I was pretty relaxed and didn't think I was breathing hard, apparently new divers use more air. I do quite a bit of cycling and other cardio at home so I wonder if that has anything to do with it? Which is better, slow deep breaths or shallow breaths?

I did get a chance to use my SJ6 Legend camera which took very good video. The SJ6 Legend is kinda of GoPro knockoff at a fraction of the cost. Unfortunately I had forgotten to change out the 1GB sd card that was nearly full for a fresh one. I only got 16 minutes of video on the first dive and couldn't figure out why it wasn't recording on the second.

We saw a couple wrecks on the bottom (about 50 feet) in the first dive and a shark, a turtle and some large schools of fish. Second dive was also about 50 feet and was on a wrecked barge. All in all it was a good first time out though the diving was nothing special.

Hello and congrats, I am also 6ft 2 and 192 pds. When weight training etc im 182. I have 50 dives and with a full 3 mil wetsuit I can get by with 8 pounds of weight. On my first dive id never be able to stay under with just 10 pounds. Id say you need at least 12 to be comfortable for the next 10 to 15 dives. The more diving you do the less weight you need.

Btw taller leaner guys like you and I tend to get colder easier. I use a full 3 mil wetsuit even in 85 degree water. Our internal temp is 13 degrees higher than that after all. Many people have much more insulation and or are more tolerant of cold temps.

As for air consumption ill just say that i track that on my dive computer and from dive 25 to dive 50 i have HALVED my air consumption. But that is 50 dives in a year and a half. if you do 5 dives a year you may always have higher air consumption than others. but if you dive alot you will eventually be using a third of the air you do now. As others have said, learning to GO SLOW, no finning for no reason, let currents do the work moving you, not using your hands or arms ever....i.e. learning good boyancy and locking arms and keeping them locked together helps, not putting air in bcd then taking out then putting back in...i.e. less weight will help you not use air for bcd all dive long, learning to breath very deep in and long slow out breaths helps too...thats a big thing as quick shallow breathing is inefficient and will make you feel like you are not getting enough air when diving deep later....

So recap
dial in boyancy for least weight you can get by with. You need a couple more pounds currently I think
learn to move and turn by using fins instead of hands and arms
try not to always be adding and subtracting air from bcd
breath slow and deep in and slow and long out
and just dive alot more
this will all help alot to conserve air

and for now always request a larger tank. most use 80cf tanks. always try to reserve an aluminum or steel 100cf tank.

I set my dive computer for sac rate so i can watch how much air im breathing and how my breathing rate changes DURING the dive. this somehow dramatically cut down my air usage as im always aware what im doing to be using more air than normal.

hope you can take a tidbit of the book i just wrote lol