How many here were scared to death and still completed OW classes?

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Those who are saying they were nervous. How many days or hours of pool work did you guys do before you were doing this dive in which you didn’t feel at home?

 

[matt86]

I had a few moments during my open water training. I bolted while doing the mask removal in the pool, and thought about quitting. I ended up sticking it out and finishing the pool portion of the class. We did the pool in February, and the open water dives were on Lake Michigan in April. We were at a site 45 feet deep with 15 foot visibility and 42 degree water. First dive went good, other than being cold. On the second dive, I had a free flow while orally inflating the bc. I signaled to the instructor, and when he didn't react instantly I ascended while watching my tank pressure drop. Looking back on it I probably should have given him more than 2 seconds to help, but I was freaked out. I was terrified going into the second day knowing I had to do mask removal/replace. It went great, and now I do it often so that when I do somehow lose my mask I won't freak out.

 

[flyboy08]

Ok so I was just thinking back on my open water training way back in the dark ages of 15 months ago and got to thinking about the fears I faced and if those are all that common? I hear about OW classes having many students bolting to the surface and thats definitely not me but let me describe my experience and how I got through my fears.

First off ive always been a water person and in fact a few years ago I was snorkeling off a beach on Maui and I swear i must have been close to a mile out. way over half a mile easily. My friends on the beach werent even specks. I can snorkel all day long and dive down and play around in deep water.


That being said once I was on my first dive and I was about 40 feet under and just staring back up at the surface...it was cabo san lucas near pelican rock area.... and I just started feeling the weight and distance of all that water above me. On the second dive I started having I wont say mini panic attacks but just this sense of unreasonable fear. It wasnt obviously narcosis I never went deeper than 60 feet and the water was over 85 degrees. but I started having to talk to myself to get through the dive.
Ok Dale this dive is very short, wont last long, just do as the instructor says and you WILL get to swim up to the surface soon! Ok fine that all worked out.
Now the next day I walk up to the dive center realizing I have to do TWO more dives and these dives will be deeper closer to that 60ft depth.

I start rationalizing to myself, look its only a few minutes each dive, you just get these two dives completed and you dont have to EVER go under the water again! And the other friends on the cabo trip wont laugh at you for quitting! So I go on my third dive and were most of the way through it and one of my certified buddies is actually along on this one otherwise the other dives were just me and the instructor. and on this dive the entire dive ive just been talking myself through it....come on Dale you have maybe 15 more minutes under water on your next to last dive, youve got this!
And my air runs out.... now me being paranoid as a cockroach in a boot factory I have been watching my air like a dang hawk. I had about 650 psi left and we were about 40 feet heading up. I actually became quite calm at that point and swam over to the instructor, made the throat slitting gesture and waited to see what he would do.
At that point the instructor looked at me, saw I wasnt in distress and so I did it again, slit my throat with hand. He then handed me his octo, grabbed my primary, took a breath and mentally I could see him go OH WOW there is NO AIR in your tank...
We went up and I was so distracted by this I wasnt afraid any more. Until the next dive and I checked my spg on the boat and it read 3900 psi on an AL80. Noooo problem the instructor just said add 700 psi to the 700 that we would normally head up at and youll be fine. So I said at 1400 I go up. Yep its easy. I asked about four more times are you SURE im not going to run out of air? Oh no no worries amigo.

Well that fourth dive for me was the most hair raising experience of my life. The entire dive which felt about 4 hours long I had the original fear of being deep under the ocean compounded by the feeling that at ANY second my air would just stop working completely. But....its OK Dale you GOT THIS! Just dont die till you get back to shore and you will NEVER ever put a dive tank on AGAIN.

Well fast forward to a month later and girlfriend was talking about a trip to Cebu philippines and I had COMPLETELY forgotten all my fears. btw I also got some insane rash from the rented wetsuit and had to get antibiotic pills AND shots, god I hate shots... anyway I decide im going to go out and buy all my gear so I dont run out of air or get a rash and then I decide BEFORE i go to Cebu im going to get more training. Yep thats right Im a smart guy...im going to go do my AOW training....and boy was that a mistake , but I bet none of you thought that at all eh...

So fast forward to before i go to cebu ive signed up for AOW and ive only done my 4 OW check out dives. Im now in a 7 mil suit hood, gloves, etc and 4 of us including instructor are in Monterey at the breakwater.

Water is no longer about 88 degrees. Its about 52 degrees. Visibility isnt 100 or 200 feet anymore its about 15 feet and the water is dark green.

Well the other guys wade out into the water and I start wading out and get a little over waist deep and this unreasonable fear comes all rushing back times 10.... im standing there in chest deep water and going ok I just bought all my warm water scuba gear AND I bought all my cold water scuba gear and I am just going to turn around and walk back to my jeep and drive home. No WAY am I going out there! Well this instructor comes back after the other two students kept waving me to catch up and I wouldnt and says come on! Lets go lets go. Im like ah I cant go, and he says well just inflate your bcd and come out anyway.

RIght there I did some more rationalizing and said to myself ok Dale what your going to do here is inflate bcd and go out with them and just float on top of the water, under no circumstances are you going under the water!! Ok Dale great idea, no harm in that!

So I head out and watch them submerge after we get to a good spot. They are waving me down and im like OK Dale ALL you need to do is submerge about five feet maybe seven feet and look around. Ok lets do it! I head down and watch them get to the bottom at about 25 feet. very hazy cant see much lots of classes had stirred up the bottom something fierce. So I watched and waited for someone to I dont know, die or something? And they seemed to be having fun so I went down and the fear which was huge seemed to slowly melt away. And thats how I got rid of my fear of diving. Just baby step rationalizations each time I dove...
But wait it doesnt end there!!! I end up corking up to the surface during this search and recovery dive about 4 times because the instructor insisted I wear alot of extra weight. In his words better too much weight so I dont have to worry about you staying down. Well I learned much later that too much weight means more air in bcd and all the rapid transitions in the 20 to 35 foot deep areas we searched kept me popping up like the aformentioned cork. So then I had to deal with the fear at days end that I would ABSOLUTELY get the bends. It didnt help that I had to drive back over the santa cruz mtns which reach about 1700 feet high and I literally pulled over at one point in a near panic attack thinking I might just die while driving and drive off a cliff.

Later much later when doing monterey dives I now drive around those hills a different route. Just and fyi.

So anyhoo sorry for the rambling but just wondering if that is typical of most divers experiences.

and yes I completed dives 5 6 and 7 and the second day with the deep dive was postponed so I went to P.I. and did 10 tropical dives. When I came back and did the deep dive as dive 17 there was a whole new story regarding a deepwater blackout but that story is for another day. I think that I am either extremely dumb or extremely unluckily lucky at this sport. Im not sure which yet.

But I do try to keep a healthy amount of paranoia on all dives even though im no longer afraid.

I hope this is only chapter one

 

[NAUI Wowie]

Those who are saying they were nervous. How many days or hours of pool work did you guys do before you were doing this dive in which you didn’t feel at home?

zero pool work. I did my pool work in the ocean the day I did the first two dives but earlier in the day

 

[NAUI Wowie]

I hope this is only chapter one

lmao yes I have a chapter 2 named DEEPWATER BLACKOUT, AOW DEEP DIVE WILL KILL YOU!

and it may almost have

 

[Bubblesong]

Good story, have you done night dive yet?
My check out Dive (raining, New England, April day, very dim light, lively water) my buddy turned and swam back to shore from halfway to buoy line. The instructor said he’d be my new buddy, i thought about the $300 i paid for the class and descended to the sand. Then my mask fogged over except for a spot the size of a quarter, in which a monster appeared. Other instructor was trying to show me a lobster they caught. So I cleared mask and I was so thrilled to see lobsters and fish, my anxiety was gone.
I was more anxious for first night dive until i saw how many lights everyone had, lit up the area pretty well.

 

[NaCl H2O]

My main fear was doing something wrong and upsetting my instructor. He was a Navy Seal, very big and VERY serious.

I did scare the crap out of my family. Once certified, I rented a set of gear and brought it home to practice in the pool.
I was maybe 14 or 15 and my brother, sister and both parents were pool side watching the crazy kid don all this gear, we are talking horse collars and 80's and I'm just a runt.

Sooo, do the whole set up, and take the steps into the pool. Submerge under water and BOOOMMM, blow the o-ring. Pool is boiling, water spraying. I knew what was going on, and so did my dad. My sister scream Godzilla!!! and ran in the house, my brother who was thinking about diving stuck to snorkeling and it took my dad and I about 3 weeks to convince Mom to let me continue to dive.

 

[Degenerate]

I had a legit fear or the sea from as early I can remember up until the point that I did my OW course.
Going down to the bottom and seeing that there was nothing there to be afraid of was a big deal for me, pushed me on to do AOW course as well.
Only part of my AOW course that felt somewhat scary was descending into complete darkness not nowing what was below (~3m visibility night dive) but once we reached the bottom it was all fine.
Getting into diving completely cured me of my fear of open water, and I am sure it could help a lot of others who are afraid of it as well.

 

[Photo Girl]

So you ran out of air but your pressure gauge still read 650psi?

Time to get a new pressure gauge.

 

[NAUI Wowie]

Good story, have you done night dive yet?
My check out Dive (raining, New England, April day, very dim light, lively water) my buddy turned and swam back to shore from halfway to buoy line. The instructor said he’d be my new buddy, i thought about the $300 i paid for the class and descended to the sand. Then my mask fogged over except for a spot the size of a quarter, in which a monster appeared. Other instructor was trying to show me a lobster they caught. So I cleared mask and I was so thrilled to see lobsters and fish, my anxiety was gone.
I was more anxious for first night dive until i saw how many lights everyone had, lit up the area pretty well.

Yes I did the night dive for the AOW at breakwater monterey and also after in Cebu P.I. , there were several of us diving in cebu during day and I asked to do the night dive. The other tourists were like why a night dive? Yea those are pretty cool.