Lost Confidence in diving

[jd950]

FWIW, I think a person should have more dives and more experience under their belt before becoming a DM/instructor. More time and more dives means more opportunities to experience problems and issues and learn your own abilities, strengths and weaknesses.

One year and 70 dives isn't enough for most people.

I am sure some would disagree with that, but it is my opinion, both in general and in your case. There are many activities, both sporting and professional where a person would not even be eligible to train as a "professional" without substantial experience. No offense, but the panic at the time and hesitation now should sugget you wait before pursuing the DM thing. You are not ready to have other people depending on you as a "dive professional." I am not slamming you...just slow down and the time will come. Or it won't. Nothing wrong with being a recreational diver.

You have years ahead of you to become a DM, if that is what you want. Take it slow and take the pressure off of yourself to reach some goal and you will be able to enjoy diving again.

 

[soltari675]

I understand how you feel completely. I didn't have a complete emergency, but I dealt with getting nervous of diving just a couple days ago.

I am a new diver. I just certified about 4 weeks ago. I've done 9 dives since. The other day we go out on our first dive in a quarry. No problem. We talk out our dive plan, and then descend. At about 10 feet I feel like I can't get enough air. I am practically gasping. Since we hadn't gone far, I went to the surface. Buddy stayed with me. I take a few deep breaths. I check my regulator to make sure it's turned up and not set to all minimums. Everything is ok. So I try again. Same thing. 10-15ft I can't breath. Mask is flooding and I panic and go to the surface. After the third time, I decided to sit out. Buddy went with another person with us.

The entire time they were down there I beat myself up. I don't panic in water. I usually think very logically about everything. The problem was small too. I had my hair up too high, which caused the mast to sit odd. I didn't feel a difference but as I started to feel pressure descending, it was siphoning water into the mask and straight at my nose. I did a panic response and tried to get air any way I could, which meant breathing through mouth AND nose which obviously created my no air problem.

I fixed the issue, but I had a hard time going back out. It made me nervous everytime I stepped into the water. I kept telling myself it was silly, but there it was. What I did is I went under a couple times where I could stand and just breathed underwater. Let my brain accept I could get air. Then we actually descended onto one of the 20ft training platforms. Again, it was a "safe" spot where I could adjust and just breathe. After I did that, no problem. I made 3 dives that day without thinking twice.

So my best suggestion is to go back to what feels safe, even if it feels like it's for beginners. Go back to the platforms, the pool, wherever you need to. Just let yourself breathe, move around and let your brain accept you are ok. And go from there.

 

[aftershock109]

Hey Folks

Really sorry i haven't been on in a long time kinde knocked the diving on the head for the winter months and took me a while to get back in. Anyway i was in for my first dive back on Monday and did two dives and they went well first dive was 57min at 11 meters and second was 30 minutes at the same depth. On the first dive i was very nervous for the first 10 minutes or so and found it hard to get enough air but when i settled down and just enjoyed the dive i really did enjoy it i can happily say it was great to get back in the water and i wil be back to regular diving gonna stay in the reasonably shallow depths for a while and not exceed about 15 meters till i feel really comfortable bouyancy control was alright but needs a little more practice but it was a very strong point before the accident so shouldnt take long to get back right.
Thanks for all your kind words and glad to be a DIVER again