Looking for Advice for training progression.

[Dogbowl]

Oh, too bad. Was it just a mismatch between you and the instructor or to total clash of paradigms?

At this early stage, I'm going to say it was neither. I think it was just me. Actually, I'm pretty sure it was me... Although I'd like to blame the gear.

I'm not giving up. I just need more time to work things out, mentally and physically!

 

[KevinNM]

I remember flailing around in Blue Grotto trying to get stable and my dry suit under control while Mer was calmly hovering in place watching as I tried to do what she had just demonstrated. It was very frustrating, as I had about 30 dives in the dry suit and I was not expecting primer to be this darn hard.

 

[Dogbowl]

I remember flailing around in Blue Grotto trying to get stable and my dry suit under control while Mer was calmly hovering in place watching as I tried to do what she had just demonstrated. It was very frustrating, as I had about 30 dives in the dry suit and I was not expecting primer to be this darn hard.

Boy, do I know what that feels like x 100.

 

[sea_otter]

Hey, @Dogbowl, have you been in the water since your class? I remember being super frustrated during the class, and I thought I was a pretty terrible diver. It wasn't until the first fun dive after that I realized how much I had actually learned.

 

[taimen]

taimen has mentioned before how Fundies was not hard for him, and I respect that. We're all different.

Don't get me wrong. I don't mean it was easy like a walk in a park or something. It was definitely hard enough to put all of us ride the steepest part of our learning curve for 5 days and six (looong) dives.
I just want to encourage people not to hesitate taking fundies. It is counterproductive to try to learn on your own for some arbitrary 100 dives before taking the class.

I doubt anyone has ever done that, so it's hypothetical, but I do know that people have learned to dive in a BP/W without prior experience with a traditional BC, and they apparently thought nothing of it, while for me, getting used to a BP/W was hard in itself.

This may have something to do with it. I did my open water training in a drysuit and bp/w, like almost everybody in my area these days. It is also not uncommon to buy doubles as your first set after having relatively few dives with rental/club equipment. But yeah, owd training is done with a single tank.
This seems to be quite usual in areas where you have only cold water and relatively deep diving available (nordics, scotland etc.). It makes a lot of sense to train in configuration most suitable for the type of diving locally available.
If taking this path made fundies "easy" it only emphasises my idea to start diving dry and doubles as soon as possible (if planning to go tech early).

 

[Dan_P]

You can do e.g. Essentials of Rec in single-tank, then add doubles/drysuit along the way after and return for Essentials of Tech (with your doubles) when ready. Guessing it's much the same with Fundies Rec/Tech-pass (?).

The downside to starting out in doubles, is that you have so much more weight, not least (unnecessary?) gas weight, which makes the gear more difficult for a new-ish diver to manage. Not impossible, but I usually advise to start out in single-tank and then develop into doubles when needed, mainly for that reason.

I wouldn’t advise to swap over to sidemount if you already have a single-tank BP/W config;
You can use the backplate and webbing all on a different doubles-wing and with a twinset (might even recycle your present tank(s) into that), so if you have a BP/W, I don't think there's a strong reason to discard it.
Besides, you'll need to go far before you’re cave diving, and cave dive far before you’re squeezing.

In either case, I hope you have a good time and enjoy whichever path you opt for

 

[kensuf]

@taimen your lack of experience helped you in that course more than hurt you because your habits were not ingrained that deeply. The instructor was able to mold you into the finished product a lot easier than someone who has many more dives and is set in their ways.

And how many dives / experience does the OP have?

 

[Lorenzoid]

I remember flailing around in Blue Grotto trying to get stable and my dry suit under control while Mer was calmly hovering in place watching as I tried to do what she had just demonstrated. It was very frustrating, as I had about 30 dives in the dry suit and I was not expecting primer to be this darn hard.

Was that in doubles? As Dan_P mentioned, the weight of doubles ... you go from being able in an Al 80 to make depth adjustments with just breath control, etc., being able to whip around and check on your teammate--heck, do backflips if you want--to feeling like you're trying to turn an aircraft carrier. I agree with those who have said that doubles are actually more stable than a single tank in a certain sense--and that is when you're perfectly still and calm--but the air in the drysuit and the momentum of the tanks conspire to send you beyond the point of no return where you can no longer make corrections with breath alone. Then you're flailing around adding dumping adding dumping wing drysuit wing drysuit .... I have had multiple coaching sessions from multiple instructors on buoyancy control in the doubles and drysuit--and that's post-Drysuit and Doubles Primer--and it is still my nemesis. I suppose this is the result of having been SO accustomed to diving Al 80 and wetsuit.

 

[MichaelMc]

A small thought, tiny LP50 doubles, dove as if a single tank, might let you start with better stability. Instead of struggling with less stable single tank. Without miss learning doubles procedures - due to treating it as a single tank. And my current read on tiny doubles is that normal US 8.5 c-t-c manifold separation is more stable than narrower manifold separation, so maybe do not go down the rabbit hole of trying to find narrower doubles, as I did.

 

[KevinNM]

Was that in doubles? As Dan_P mentioned, the weight of doubles ... you go from being able in an Al 80 to make depth adjustments with just breath control, etc., being able to whip around and check on your teammate--heck, do backflips if you want--to feeling like you're trying to turn an aircraft carrier. I agree with those who have said that doubles are actually more stable than a single tank in a certain sense--and that is when you're perfectly still and calm--but the air in the drysuit and the momentum of the tanks conspire to send you beyond the point of no return where you can no longer make corrections with breath alone. Then you're flailing around adding dumping adding dumping wing drysuit wing drysuit .... I have had multiple coaching sessions from multiple instructors on buoyancy control in the doubles and drysuit--and that's post-Drysuit and Doubles Primer--and it is still my nemesis. I suppose this is the result of having been SO accustomed to diving Al 80 and wetsuit.

No, that was a single. Mer was in doubles.