First OW dive after getting certified...

[SNorman]

So, I got my OW cert last month, and just went out yesterday to dive at Alki Beach (Puget Sound) yesterday. I went with a couple of other friends who have been certified for a while.

The first one had only been diving in warm water recently. After getting all the gear on, she decided not to dive! She could not feel the BCD inflator/deflator buttons with her gloves and got scared. This was after waiting reeealy long for her to get suited up, we were getting so hot we had to go get in the water while her husband helped her get her gear on.

I convinced her to come on in the water and get her fins on. Then we did a buddy check, we adjusted her BCD a bit and put the velcro strap around the inflator hose (since it previously wasn't) so she could at least find the inflator hose easier. Then I just had her swim on the surface for a bit, and convinced her to descend in about 6' of water, then come back up and she could bail then if she wanted to. She ended up doing the whole dive with us, she did good but had some problems with buoyancy. I had to reach over and grab her a couple times as she started to run away to the surface while ascending up along the bottom toward the shore, until she dumped some air.

Halfway through the dive, my other friend's tank came loose from his BCD, so I went over and re-secured it. It was hard, I finally dumped the air from my BCD so I could kneel securely at the bottom, rested the tank on my knee and got it strapped in tight.

So, wow, far from an uneventful first dive - but all in all, we had a lot of fun and ended up going to 45 feet, not as much as the 60' we had planned but at least we did it. *And* I won a bet from another friend of mine who said I would never go diving again after the class.

Can't wait til next time!

 

[spectrum]

You are either a real natural or your intructor deserves a big hug, tip or ather gratuity. It sounds like you had an amazing command of the situation for being on your first independent dive.

I would be careful about overly encouraging reluctant, rusty divers into the water. You could find yourself assuming more than you are prepared for.

Dive safe,dive often and have fun!
Pete

 

[nolatom]

Ditto the above. You handled two problems, not of your own making, very well, and kept a cool head.

Keep at it.

 

[ScubaCatgirl]

Yes, I agree with the other 2. For just being newly certified you handled the problems very well. You have a great head for diving & I'm impressed!! You already sound like a pro!

 

[Lake Mead Tony]

That's it, you're hooked!!!

 

[SNorman]

Thanks guys, I myself was not sure about how hard to get her into the water. She had just done 6 dives in Mexico so I figured she was probably going to be OK, just had to get used to having gloves on and all. And, I had a similar situation convincing her to go skiing with us and she did great I just had her try everything in little steps. We hovered at around 3 or 4' under at first, just looking around and finned around a bit. She said once we were under the water she started feeling a lot better. I stayed shoulder to shoulder with her the entire time.

The other guy is a pretty good diver, just hasn't been out in a while. He's done a lot of drills in the Marines to simulate stuff like a helicopter crash in water, at night (I guess with some kind of breathing apparatus), and they have to get out of the rig (he says they suffered a simulated near 100% death rate). Anyway he was a cool as a cucumber while I was restrapping his tank. He didn't wet his strap first, I did recommend it but I guess he forgot.

One cool thing, when we got down there I saw my scuba instructor coming back from a dive, so I got to chat with him for a bit.

 

[Stormbringer]

Great work...a little encouragement goes a long way. I'm glad to see you gave her enough encouragement and a way out of the situation should she truely feel uncomfortable and decide not to dive.