How many here were scared to death and still completed OW classes?
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My wife and I did a couple of discover scuba dives in Cozumel and we felt so comfortable and had so much fun we asked what else we could to and the instructor said his friend had a boat. An hour later we were at 60' doing a drift dive in Cozumel. Our instruction was the discover dives and what the dive master said on the boat on the way to the site.
It was amazing and we were learning to control our buoyancy with our lungs and drop down on the back side of coral heads and level off above the sand and rise back up before the next coral head and it was like flying in an aquarium full of tropical fish.
On the second dive at paradise we were starting our ascent to the safety stop. I noticed my octopus was leaking and I started fooling with it trying to get it to stop and lost awareness and started corking without knowing it. Next thing I know the DM is grabbing my fin to stop my ascent and I look up and the surface is maybe 7 feet overhead. He pulls me back down to the 5 meter depth for the safety stop and keeps hold of me until it's time to surface. I barely noticed I was so stoked by the whole experience. We saw a shark and a huge turtle and all kinds of fish we didn't recognize and lobsters and it was just amazing.
Fast forward to two weeks later and we are at home taking the written part of our certification course. We are sitting around reading and apparently we both got to the part about pulmonary barotrauma. I know they said to not hold my breath but they didn't say that if I did I could easily die. Holy crapamoly. I went in to tell my wife and she had just read the same part and her eyes were as big as mine. We both said, "We coulda died!" That's as close as I've come to being scared. There was that other time but it is for another day.
It was amazing and we were learning to control our buoyancy with our lungs and drop down on the back side of coral heads and level off above the sand and rise back up before the next coral head and it was like flying in an aquarium full of tropical fish.
On the second dive at paradise we were starting our ascent to the safety stop. I noticed my octopus was leaking and I started fooling with it trying to get it to stop and lost awareness and started corking without knowing it. Next thing I know the DM is grabbing my fin to stop my ascent and I look up and the surface is maybe 7 feet overhead. He pulls me back down to the 5 meter depth for the safety stop and keeps hold of me until it's time to surface. I barely noticed I was so stoked by the whole experience. We saw a shark and a huge turtle and all kinds of fish we didn't recognize and lobsters and it was just amazing.
Fast forward to two weeks later and we are at home taking the written part of our certification course. We are sitting around reading and apparently we both got to the part about pulmonary barotrauma. I know they said to not hold my breath but they didn't say that if I did I could easily die. Holy crapamoly. I went in to tell my wife and she had just read the same part and her eyes were as big as mine. We both said, "We coulda died!" That's as close as I've come to being scared. There was that other time but it is for another day.
Mike1967
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TL;DR
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Hmmph….yet another interesting Discover Scuba story....
stretchthepenn
Contributor
Pretty much the same here. I was halfway terrified of open water (I haaaaate not knowing what's underneath me), but seeing the sand and realizing that the rest of the ocean's bottom is much the same helped a lot.
60plus
Contributor
I got a bit nervous but it was mainly in case I failed or did something stupid. Its when I look back and start thinking about what could have happened that I get worried. On the last dive of my OW we were drifting along a wall when the instructor pointed to loo at something in a crack. I reached out to put my hand on the edge of the crack to pull myself back to look in. a Moray eels head shot out and I only just got my hand of its way. I have been bitten by European river eels before and although they can drag a bit of skin off the bite is not that bad. Having recently seen film of a diver having his thumb ripped completely off by a Moray eel I will not be putting my hand near a crack again.
I used to do some caving and at times we went into disused mines. In total I have visited a certain mine 3 times. The first time we entered a large chamber most of the floor area was flat sand. A few years later on my second visit the sand was about 5 ft lower and there were large rock outcrops showing. A few years later on my third visit the sand was almost completely gone and there was a large hole in the floor. Dropping pebbles into the hole indicated a drop of about 60 ft to water - a lower level of the mine. We lowered one of the party down into the hole, when he was about 20 to 30 ft down he called out to stop as rocks were beginning to fall onto him from where the rope was rubbing. As we got him back up we could hear increasing numbers of rocks falling into the water and the floor started to give way. We all scattered and made for ledges / short drifts extending from the chamber. The way to the exit would have been a slow difficult crawl and climb. Just as we got onto a ledge the whole lot started to collapse, filled with dust and visibility became zero. Our ledge was actually a decent sized cubby hole about 10 ft long 5 ft high and 5 ft back into solid rock. As soon a the noise of falling rocks stopped, shouting started to see who else was OK. There was no reply from some so the assumption was they were gone / dead. Fortunately this was not the case, they had managed to make the exit through the crawl and only been hit by some smaller rocks. We knew we had people on the surface who could go for help. After about 1/2 hour things had settled down and with torches we could see a few feet. I had visions of being in there for several days and my first thought were I was going to get hungry as we only had a couple of cans of Coke, a few crisps and a Mars bar between 5 of us. I knew there was mining expertise and drilling equipment less than 20 miles away but I did genuinely expect it to be 2 or 3 days, possibly longer before they got us out. About 2 hours later the dust cleared sufficiently to see right across the chamber (about 60 ft) and to the exit crawl. To get out meant crossing the chamber with the collapsed floor, crawling about 100 ft, 30 ft up a rope ladder then a further 50 ft crawl through a ventilation passage. The normal lower route having been blocked by fallen rock. Someone made the decision that we would try to get out one at a time moving carefully to avoid further collapse. We did all get out but some rocks were falling again as the final 2 got onto the rope ladder. I was 18 at the time and thats 43 years ago now but I can still remember it clearly. Surprisingly no one was scared, or at least there was no outward signs of fright and no one panicked. There was about 18 in the party but only 12 of us were experienced potholers, the rest had just come along to see something different.
I know the above is not diving and I have had a few close escapes in my life and what could be concluded for all of them is that the hazard came completely unexpectedly. Problems that are apparent and result in fear usually enable you to plan to avoid them.
I used to do some caving and at times we went into disused mines. In total I have visited a certain mine 3 times. The first time we entered a large chamber most of the floor area was flat sand. A few years later on my second visit the sand was about 5 ft lower and there were large rock outcrops showing. A few years later on my third visit the sand was almost completely gone and there was a large hole in the floor. Dropping pebbles into the hole indicated a drop of about 60 ft to water - a lower level of the mine. We lowered one of the party down into the hole, when he was about 20 to 30 ft down he called out to stop as rocks were beginning to fall onto him from where the rope was rubbing. As we got him back up we could hear increasing numbers of rocks falling into the water and the floor started to give way. We all scattered and made for ledges / short drifts extending from the chamber. The way to the exit would have been a slow difficult crawl and climb. Just as we got onto a ledge the whole lot started to collapse, filled with dust and visibility became zero. Our ledge was actually a decent sized cubby hole about 10 ft long 5 ft high and 5 ft back into solid rock. As soon a the noise of falling rocks stopped, shouting started to see who else was OK. There was no reply from some so the assumption was they were gone / dead. Fortunately this was not the case, they had managed to make the exit through the crawl and only been hit by some smaller rocks. We knew we had people on the surface who could go for help. After about 1/2 hour things had settled down and with torches we could see a few feet. I had visions of being in there for several days and my first thought were I was going to get hungry as we only had a couple of cans of Coke, a few crisps and a Mars bar between 5 of us. I knew there was mining expertise and drilling equipment less than 20 miles away but I did genuinely expect it to be 2 or 3 days, possibly longer before they got us out. About 2 hours later the dust cleared sufficiently to see right across the chamber (about 60 ft) and to the exit crawl. To get out meant crossing the chamber with the collapsed floor, crawling about 100 ft, 30 ft up a rope ladder then a further 50 ft crawl through a ventilation passage. The normal lower route having been blocked by fallen rock. Someone made the decision that we would try to get out one at a time moving carefully to avoid further collapse. We did all get out but some rocks were falling again as the final 2 got onto the rope ladder. I was 18 at the time and thats 43 years ago now but I can still remember it clearly. Surprisingly no one was scared, or at least there was no outward signs of fright and no one panicked. There was about 18 in the party but only 12 of us were experienced potholers, the rest had just come along to see something different.
I know the above is not diving and I have had a few close escapes in my life and what could be concluded for all of them is that the hazard came completely unexpectedly. Problems that are apparent and result in fear usually enable you to plan to avoid them.
Barnaby'sDad
Contributor
A few things:
-Get in the habit early on (while you're still doing the pool dives) of checking your air pressure gauge early and often. If you get in the habit early on of checking your air pressure every few minutes, it will be something that you just do out of habit.
-Once you get through training...if something isn't going right during a dive (ex. Your buddy is not even remotely adhering to the agreed upon dive plan)..."thumb" / call the dive and surface. At the end of the day, regardless of how experienced you are and how experienced your buddy might be...you are responsible for your own safety.
-Prevent task saturation. Limit the amount of tasks that you take on so as not to cause task saturation. ex. Taking notes on a dive slate, taking pictures, etc. Your first few dives you should be focused on diving...not tinkering with new toys.
On the wet suit thing...I'm not going to lie...that's why I ran out and bought my own wet suit prior to my OW dives. The thought of wearing something that dozens of people had pissed it did not appeal to me. Wet suits aren't too pricey for average sized people. If you can swing it...pick one up.
Think safety first and you'll be fine.
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Good ideas. I have OCD about checking my air, even though with my usual 30' or less diving I could probably check it every 10 minutes and have no problems. I think we should have one set of symbols for indicating how much air you have. I know you have to take into consideration gloves, mitts, etc.--I just got tired of different instructors having different methods and me having to remember which one we're doing.A few things:
-Get in the habit early on (while you're still doing the pool dives) of checking your air pressure gauge early and often. If you get in the habit early on of checking your air pressure every few minutes, it will be something that you just do out of habit.
-Once you get through training...if something isn't going right during a dive (ex. Your buddy is not even remotely adhering to the agreed upon dive plan)..."thumb" / call the dive and surface. At the end of the day, regardless of how experienced you are and how experienced your buddy might be...you are responsible for your own safety.
-Prevent task saturation. Limit the amount of tasks that you take on so as not to cause task saturation. ex. Taking notes on a dive slate, taking pictures, etc. Your first few dives you should be focused on diving...not tinkering with new toys.
On the wet suit thing...I'm not going to lie...that's why I ran out and bought my own wet suit prior to my OW dives. The thought of wearing something that dozens of people had pissed it did not appeal to me. Wet suits aren't too pricey for average sized people. If you can swing it...pick one up.
Think safety first and you'll be fine.
I didn't say my fear is/was logical!! I realize I can swim in any direction and get out from under it - but with bad visibility (silt-out conditions with bunches of training divers), the totally unrealistic fear that I'll have SOOOO much air in my BC that I'll be basically GLUED to the underside of the platform ... seriously, I'm describing a nightmare and not a reality (I know this). But this is what unrealistic fears are made of, and it's one of the many things that induce diver panic. Our anxiety overrides our ability to think logically and creatively. I've had a panic moment (or two) since then, and learned that I can best take care of myself by staying calm, breathing and asking myself 'what is the next right thing to do?'. But as a diver-in-training I wasn't there yet - and I can still feel that anxiety. (I have other, more important issues, to work on in therapy - this is waaaaay down the list!!!!!!).
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