How would you have helped this guy?

[tparrent]

TSandM - first, like others have said, thank you for taking out a newbie. After I am no longer a newbie I will try and do the same.

One other thing I think you could have done (and perhaps you did) would be to tell the guy the story of your own bouyancy shenanigans when YOU were a newbie. I recall from reading your log that you had sever problems at the start that you quickly figured out. Might give him a boost to see it's not just him. Then he looks up to you even more

 

[marydiver]

I am so glad someone mentioned the problems one can have with new gear....Last time i was in the diving mode, it was cool water and I upped from a 3mm to a 6mm wetsuit. I had considerable problems with the extra weight i needed to add and the increased compression I felt on my body, even tho the suit I bought was on the "loose" side, so the folks in the store stated. Then to complicate matters I changed from al tanks to steel. I was so confused adding and subtracting weights I spent a few dives moving weights from waist to pockets, picking up bottom weight, adding and subtracting bc air, then I added in a hood and had some problems with mask filling with water. Previous to this I had around 50 dives with no problems using my 3mm suit/al tanks. I was a wreck with gear changes. Through all of this I had a lot of kind and generous folks, beach divers, boat divers, that gave recommendations and suggestions, and most importantly, put up with my flounderings. Only one person slammed me to the beach, so to speak. I am so glad to read these posts here and respect the mercy extended. I think the Doc did a great job and has my utmost respect. Her friend maintained self esteem and signed up for the class. Every dive is a learning experience. Fortunate for her buddy, he had a fine mentor. No sense in making someone feel dumb
when empowerment is an option....
Newbie Diver,
Mary

 

[TSandM]

tparrent, believe me, I did share those stories! In fact, I told him the story of my horrible night dive the other night where I got out of the water almost in tears. I'm big on moral support

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

You've dove with two new divers, lately. I think it's awesome that you are helping new folks! Way to go!!

 

[stevetim]

Sounds more like some scuba instructors should take up teaching golf instead of diving. Can you honestly blame the students 100%?

 

[JeffG]

Can you honestly blame the students 100%?

Yes, the buck has to stop somewhere. It always easier to blame someone else.

 

[jmps]

From my recent experience I would say that putting a newer diver in a 7mm suit and trying to dive at about 15-20 feet is really tough. As one diver stated diving in warm water is SO much easier for a newbie or anyone. Throw on top of that being overweighted and not knowing how to dump air fast. It sounds like you handled it very very well. Wow you sound like a GREAT buddy!

In my case the learning experience was over weighting to carve pumpkins and having a new BC and a 7mm suit. I had fin pivot instruction (with PADI) and could do it very well. I also had NO bouancy problems in Roatan but I sure did learn something.

I would also recommend that if they have the cash to go to someplace warm and get some bounancy practice there and then try the thick suit at shallow depth. It is so much more usefull than in a pool.

I think cold water diving is like learning to ski in the midwest. You really learn to ski well because you learn on solid ICE. That is if you make it through learning...

 

[TSandM]

It really is a good point about the shallow depth . . . I know it made things harder for him, in terms of a narrower tolerance for just the right amount of air in the BC to be neutral and not positive. But this is the second time I've done this, and it seems to me it's better to make it harder and keep it safer than make it easier (take him down to 40 or 50 feet) and then if he makes a big buoyancy mistake, he or both of us could get hurt. This dive site is nice, because it's like a big salt water pool (huge areas of 10 to 15 feet depth) but if things are going well, you can head out into deeper water where there are more things to see. If not, you can head in.

 

[Diver0001]

A couple of weeks ago, a man sent a message out on our LDS e-group, asking for a dive buddy. He said he was a fairly new diver and wanted somebody to go out with who had a little more experience and knew the local sites.

I went out with him today, and it didn't go very well. He was able to descend without problems (I think he was somewhat overweighted) but he could not ever get neutral enough to swim forward. He had never been taught fin pivots, and I explained them and eventually demonstrated them, but he couldn't seem to get the hang of them. When he did get enough air in the BC to get off the bottom, he went vertical and kicked himself up to the surface.

I'm not an instructor, and I ran out of tricks pretty early. I finally told him I thought he needed to go do a refresher course in the pool and get this sorted out.

Anybody have any ideas as to any way I could have helped this nice man sort himself out better? He was very willing to listen and try. I just didn't have any ideas.

Well...I'm not an instructor either but I have a couple of thoughts.

I think you probably tried too hard. Chances are showing him the fin pivot, while maybe the right way to start with it in a pool, might not have been the best idea in this situation. You can't teach someone who doesn't know how to dive how to do it in an hour.

You did, however, give him good advice.

Faced with a similar situation I would *probably* (having not been there it's hard to say for sure) *probably* have controlled his BCD myself (after asking him if it was ok) and gotten him neutral and off the bottom. Once neutral, I would *probably* have been able to keep him that way by holding his tank valve and just swimming along beside him. Amazingly, some divers are so stunned to be neutral and swimming that they don't even notice that you're doing this...LOL

This is how we start on dive 1 (or preferably in the intro dive) in the pool. Control their BCD, get them neutral. Lay them down by holding the valve with one hand and bottom of the tank with the other and swim them forward like a shark-tamer until they start to adjust to the feeling and they take over swimming themselves. The fin pivot comes later. First the feeling and adjusting to being under water. Most students I've seen started like this can swim neutral in about 2 hours.

Chances are that he's never been neutral before and needs to go right back to square one.

R..

 

[Diver0001]

she will make a great mentor, because she has an aptitude for teaching and a willingness to help out less experienced divers.

I'm not at all sure that you should be talking in the future tense here. She's out there doing it today. All she'll do from here is get better at it.

R..