hydration and nutrition, used equipment

[Yoopidou]

I passed my OWC a week ago. It was a two days diving after the online learning part.
I am wondering about a few things.

1. Is it usual to have small problems like tiny leaks on the first stage or a BCD that inflates slowly by itself or the button to inflate the BCD getting stuck and having to blow in it?
I'd like to know if it happens all the time and I have to be ready to deal with this.

2. Shouldn't divers eat lunch and drink water?
After the start of the class at 9 am, the instructor told the students to go eat breakfast if they hadn't already. We never got to eat after that until almost 5 in the evening. There was one stop to change tanks when we were able to drink at the water fountain. My husband, who wasn't in the class, having seen two friends fainting from lack of nutrition while doing sports on the land is adamant that I should do something about it. What do you think?

 

[mac.calder]

Eating is a fairly typical part of diving - on a double (or tripple or quadruple) dive day, normally the day goes something like this:
1. Wake up
2. eat
3. prep gear
4. dive
5. change tank
6. eat
Repeat steps 4->6 as often as required
9. pack up gear
10. sleep

That said, you have completed your OW - the only suggestion I have is talk to the dive shop, give some feedback to the shop about how you felt the SI should have contained a quick bite to eat etc. If you don't like their response then vote with your feet and find a new LDS to be your "regular".

That said, in regards to equipment issues - I would expect most LDS's to ensure all equipment is in fairly good working order - especially for OW classes - although not all do. Did you flag your equipment issues to your instructor? Many places replace their student gear every year - others replace items as they start to get to the point that repair is not cutting it any more - and others seem to want to get 10 years out of their gear. Whilst too late now for your OW course, if you are planning on renting gear for a while, asking questions of the store about the maintenance of their equipment is always a good idea (do you have qualified maintenance technicians on site, or do they send their gear away for repairs, are all of their regulators regularly services etc) - after all, your life will be depending on it.

 

[Scuba Cobra]

I would have called the dive if my buttom got stuck. I got faulty gear from a LDS (bad depth gauge) and Called them right after the dive ended. They opted to credit me or rent one from the dive site for me to use to finish my dive.

I bought all my own gear that night.


When I dive, I pack two or three sammiches and keep them in a small bag with ice to keep them cool in my bag, and eat them when I change tanks. wait for the next dive.

 

[TSandM]

Small malfunctions with dive gear are not uncommon, but they won't occur terribly often if the gear is properly maintained. I think this is more difficult with rental/shop class gear, because it's used often and hard. I know on any given day, we often find some kind of problem with a piece of shop gear, even though our shop really does try to maintain their stuff.

But autoinflating BCs and leaking bladders and sticking buttons CAN happen, which is why you're taught in your OW class how to disconnect the LP inflator hose from your BC.

Small leaks from the yoke o-ring are not at all uncommon. They can occur from any small bit of grit or sand that gets into the fitting, or sometimes just from the o-ring not seating perfectly. Sometimes you can fix them by reseating the regulator, and sometimes by cleaning or blowing out the tank valve, but sometimes you just put up with a very small leak, especially if the dive is shallow. Although I suppose it can happen, I have never seen one of these "champagne bubble" leaks develop into anything really bad.

Dive classes take a great deal of time. We often start ours at 7:30 in the morning, and wrap up around 3. There used to be a small restaurant at the dive site, but it's currently closed, and we warn students to bring food and drink with them. Did your instructor not give you that information? We don't normally have a formal meal break, but just let the students eat and drink while debriefing or setting up the next dive.

I don't think you need to "do anything" about that, except perhaps to mention to your instructor that maybe he forgot to warn you to bring food and drink with you. Diving isn't like marathon running or mountain biking -- it's not such a heavy exertion sport that one has to worry about keeping one's blood sugar up. Hydration is a good idea, but if you had a normal breakfast with fluids, it's unlike you were significant dehydrated after two shallow dives, unless the day was very hot.

 

[gcbryan]

If the first stages are Sherwood they are supposed to bubble like that. If not then you're right it's a small leak.

OW classes typically have a lot of down time for the students but not for the instructor so students not in the water but waiting for their turn can eat at that point. Maybe that is what your instructor intended to have happen?

 

[Yoopidou]

Thank you for the answers.

No, the instructor never mentioned that there would not be eating until the end of the class. I had brought snacks anyway but I didn't realize it was so late, I just wondered why I felt more and more tired, cold...I never asked to go back to the van to get the snacks. I am not complaining about that as it was a minor inconvenience to me. What I was thinking was if a future student faints and drowns because of that, maybe I could have saved his life by bringing up the issue. Glad to know it can not happen.

 

[weitodive]

There are times when we (instructors) get focused on the training tha we forget to tell you to have a snack. Being a fatty, I rarely forget to tell my students to eat. I did have a class that we did 3 dives to include a night dive. There was enough time to stop in between dives but I can't remember why one person didn't. That student felt nauseous after the second dive so I told her not to do the last dive and try to drink something and try to get something to eat while we did our last dive.

 

[kokanee]

You brought snacks, right? So you did the right thing by bringing your own food. However if you felt that you needed a break to eat I'm sure your instructor would have understood....as the last thing he/she wants is a hypoglycemic student! As for doing something about it; next time something is bothering you SPEAK UP!

 

[JahJahwarrior]

Gear wears out, but shops do typically, and should, stay on top of keeping it in shape. After working at a shop for a while, it's amazing how fast the gear can get beat up by students! Never hesitate to ask for gear that works, and it's easy to hook the regulator up at the shop to check it out.

It's easy to forget the tiny details like food, especially if the instructor is new to teaching. There are hundreds of tiny details they should communicate to you, and I've never seen a shop communicate everything 100% correctly and efficiently.

In other words, no shop is perfect, but you should hold them to a reasonably high standard. It's a fine line, and it's hard for new divers to tell sometimes when a shop slips from having gear that's safe but does need some minor maintenance, to gear that is not well taken care of, and from a shop that forgets a few details to a shop that doesn't have its ducks in a row.

 

[Kitty_Kat]

Leaks on the first stage are fairly common on student gear (at least based on the number of bubbles that I'm used to seeing) but I've never really seen one have a major impact on the dive. Any serious leaks are usually obvious before you get in the water, and the minor ones usually don't use up too much air. Just get into a good habit of monitoring air. The leaking inflator is less common, but as already mentioned, you are taught to deal with it in your OW class since it can have more serious consequences. Mention it to the shop the next time it happens! All the shops i've had experiences with would definitely consider that to be a serious enough issue for a replacement/refund!