Greetings from cold Iowa

[Angie S]

DiverBuoy once bubbled...
Welcome to the scubaboard. Can you elaborate on what specific aspect is causing so much trouble. My wife for example has an almost claustrophobic sensitivity to water over her nose and mouth. Even in the shower if a stream creeps over her face anywhere near her nose or mouth she steps foward and rapidly brushes the water away. Others have difficulty with keeping their lips sealed tightly around the mouthpiece of the regulator thus causing too much air to escape through the mouth and too little air from the nose to displace the water. Others don't tilt their heads back to create the right angle or pull the mask skirt below the nose too far from their face thus filling it right back up again. Finally there are the ones that blow all the air out of their nose in one rapid blast that barely clears any water out at all - it just splashes the water around and creates bubbles and foam. Do you have any or all of these issues?

Hi DiverBuoy,

The first several times I tried flooding the mask, I panicked because I felt like I couldn't breathe with the mask full of water (even though I still had the snorkel/regulator in my mouth). Just mental I think. Also, and this seems silly in retrospect, I don't think I was consciously taking a breath before flooding the mask. After one of the instructors mentioned this to me and I started doing it, it seemed to make a big difference in relaxing me. I've since been able to clear the mask without problems, and take the mask off underwater. I still get a little nervous about it, but I'm only halfway through the class and I'm thinking/hoping that it will continue to get easier the more I practice it. (??) I've been wanting to be a diver for a long time so I'm planning to just keep working through the uneasy stuff!

Thanks!
Angie

 

[DiverBuoy]

Angie, glad to hear you have no plans to give up! You sound driven to be a diver, and if you so you will be!

 

[scuba_katt]

I promise you that in a couple months you will be sitting back relaxing after a dive in the Caribbean, having seen some beautiful coral with the most amazing marine critters, and you will pause, and realise how lucky you are to have become one of the people who have had the courage to venture BENEATH the shallows.

Like you said, it is fun to snorkel, but to scuba dive and really feel that you are a part of that aquatic haven is priceless (holy cow I sound like one of those corny Amex commercials!).

But I mean every word of it.

Happy diving!

 

[gemma]

Hello and welcome to this wonderfully u/w world and to scubaboard.

Greetings from Spain

Josep & gemma
www.oceansub.com

:hi: :hi: