angelita80,
Were you taught how to snorkle and skin dive or did you just do what you saw someone else doing? When you do skindive, do you equalize your ears or just dive until your ears hurt too much to go any deeper?
Air leaking out of your nose when you are consciously holding your breath seems a bit unusual. If you have any other problems with your nose, maybe you should see an ENT to determine if there are any physical problems or deformities internally that might hinder your learning to dive.
If the ENT finds nothing wrong with you nose/nasal passages then you should not really have any problems learning to dive. Barring any physical problems, I think most of your nose holding issues are psychologically based; possibly stemming from childhood experiences or conditioning(you mentioned your mother)
To properly overcome the nose holding issues I would recommend that you learn to snorkle and skin dive from a qualified person. Many of the basic skills tranfer from skin diving to scuba diving. Skin diving is often less intimidating to learn and will let you progress at a pace that is much more individualized to your specific situation. If, or when, you decide to learn to dive, I would also recommend that you take private lessons or at least as part of a very small group for the same reasons. You need to progress at your pace with lots of time and personal attention.
jbd
Were you taught how to snorkle and skin dive or did you just do what you saw someone else doing? When you do skindive, do you equalize your ears or just dive until your ears hurt too much to go any deeper?
Air leaking out of your nose when you are consciously holding your breath seems a bit unusual. If you have any other problems with your nose, maybe you should see an ENT to determine if there are any physical problems or deformities internally that might hinder your learning to dive.
If the ENT finds nothing wrong with you nose/nasal passages then you should not really have any problems learning to dive. Barring any physical problems, I think most of your nose holding issues are psychologically based; possibly stemming from childhood experiences or conditioning(you mentioned your mother)
To properly overcome the nose holding issues I would recommend that you learn to snorkle and skin dive from a qualified person. Many of the basic skills tranfer from skin diving to scuba diving. Skin diving is often less intimidating to learn and will let you progress at a pace that is much more individualized to your specific situation. If, or when, you decide to learn to dive, I would also recommend that you take private lessons or at least as part of a very small group for the same reasons. You need to progress at your pace with lots of time and personal attention.
jbd