Frustrating Confined Water Training - Need experienced advice

[bergersau]

Hi Lylii,
Firstly, don't give up.

Buoyancy control is one of the trickiest things for new divers, especially during the BCD doff/don confined water exercise. As has been mentioned, moving some of your weight onto a traditional weight belt may assist with that.

Positioning your ballast almost as important as finding the correct overall ballast needed.
When I was learning to use my new (2nd hand) drysuit, I spent several shallow pier dives adjusting weights each dive to try to get things right. One dive I moved a couple of blocks from my weight belt up into pouches mounted on the cam band for my tank before hitting the water. I promptly spent the next several minutes struggling not to do a handstand until my buddy helped me pull the blocks from the pouches and transferred them to thigh pockets. Suddenly my trim was near perfect.

Once you acquire your own gear you can progressively fine tune your ballast and trim and then you'll know it's right every dive. It's one of the things that makes more experienced divers look so comfortable under water. New divers training with hire gear ALL struggle with this issue, so don't let your instructors short change you on getting your weighting right, make sure they allow enough time to help you to get this right at the start of each dive day.

 

[HantsDiver]

The Hologram sticker is not used in the United States for PADI Open Water certification processing. It is used in other parts of the world to show that the educational materials were purchased. I would not expect a PADI OpenWater crew pack sold by a PADI shop in San Antonio, TX to have the hologram.

Which parts of the world have decals for open water? They are used for DM and instructor crew packs. I've never heard of them for anything else.

 

[Sevenrider860]

The PIC with Hologram can still be ordered for use in Anguilla, Belize, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Monserrat, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. I suspect they are rarely used anymore, but they can still be ordered and used just like the non-hologram PICs.

The key point is that a hologram sticker for Open Water certification would not have been used by a dive shop in San Antonio, Texas.

 

[blac86]

Fire that instructor ASAP. If you don't mind please report him to the training agency (PADI, NAUI, SSI, etc...) as he is clearly violating standards and safety.

 

[JamesBon92007]

The PIC with Hologram can still be ordered for use in Anguilla, Belize, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Monserrat, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. I suspect they are rarely used anymore, but they can still be ordered and used just like the non-hologram PICs.

The key point is that a hologram sticker for Open Water certification would not have been used by a dive shop in San Antonio, Texas.

Ah yes, the instructor in Mexico described it as having a hologram. Is there some kind of "proof-of-purchase" if the materials are bought in the USA? I can see why PADI would not want someone using second-hand educational materials.

 

[Aviyes]

Ah yes, the instructor in Mexico described it as having a hologram. Is there some kind of "proof-of-purchase" if the materials are bought in the USA? I can see why PADI would not want someone using second-hand educational materials.

E-learning is becoming quite popular for some of the agencies, such as PADI and SDI in the USA. So no hard copies of books required.

 

[Neilwood]

Just wanting to add my comments to those earlier - the course, while relatively physical, should be fun and safe.

If you don't feel it at any time, speak to the instructor or the shop.

 

[Diver0001]

Hello, I had my confined water training this last weekend. It was enough to make me reconsider the open water dives. We didn't do the recommended buoyancy check before getting started - if we couldn't sink the instructor just stuck more weight on us until we could stay on the bottom. My weights were put mostly in the back so I spent a lot of time flailing around on my back till the divemaster finally pulled me aside and moved my weights around. Our BCDs had the incorporated weight pockets so when we had to remove our gear and put it back on, the same thing happened to all the students - gear stayed on bottom of pool, student rocketed toward surface until grabbed and pulled back down and wrestled into gear by instructor or divemaster. Do not understand the point of that horrifying exercise. There were several points in the training where I was seriously afraid I would die. None of us developed any buoyancy control and certainly didn't make any attempts at "trim". Now we are supposed to go to open water this weekend. I don't feel safe and am scared to death. Is this the typical experience?

Lylii, a couple of follow up questions. I read later in the thread that you said it was a PADI course.

I'm curious. Was this done in a swimming pool? How much time the the instructor spend with you under water in total? Do you remember any of the other skills you did? Did you recognise the skills you were doing from the DVD you got with the book? Were the skills briefed and demonstrated by the instructor before you had to do them? How many students were there?

I have other questions as well but we'll start with that.

To me it's hard to get a clear picture of what the instructor actually did based on what you said. On the surface of it, it sounds very rushed and superficial. Clearly the fact that you don't feel safe speaks volumes about the quality and I believe you should follow your intuition . It's good for you to complain and/or get your money back but out of professional curiosity I'd like to know some more details.

R..