Messed up my OW dive - advice for the future please?

[Doby45]

This is comical. Everyone is going on this "instructor/shop bashing" tangent when they have only gotten one partial side of the story. As an instructor I have had people that just don't get it and their view of how "it" went down is totally different than reality. So I will agree with some of this and say she should make contact with the shop she signed up to do the class with. Make sure she has her ducks in a row and figure out exactly what went wrong. I doubt seriously that you have a 5 star shop that would go along with an instructor being stupid.

 

[Doby45]

There's an old saying that there are no poor students, only poor teachers.

Thank God that is an "old" saying as it is a total lie. I have ran across "students" in numerous teaching endeavors that absolutely should not be doing what is being taught. Diving, firearms and so forth..

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I doubt seriously that you have a 5 star shop that would go along with an instructor being stupid.

We don’t live in the same world.

 

[Wtfkaratemonkey]

Question from the newbie in the back:

Many of you have honed in on the drysuit, particularly in that not only was she in one but that it was chosen over a wetsuit if I’m following along correctly.

Why is the drysuit such an issue in a new diver learning environment? Is that unsafe?

 

[Russjstewart]

A dry suit adds a level of complexity, and task loading. In a wet suit you only have a B,C. to worry about to control your buoyancy. In a dry suit you need to add enough air to stop being squeezed by the suit as pressure increases. As well as the problem of too much air resulting in a feet up head down attitude. Add in dump valves and having to carry more weight. I found my first dive in a dry suit a little challenging for all the above reasons.

 

[Wtfkaratemonkey]

10-4! Thank you

 

[Russjstewart]

Cheers

 

[Storker]

I've never used a dry suit but to me it sure seems like a LOT to add to the mix, especially for a new diver.

I'd like to respectfully disagree. If the student is going to dive at home, and the conditions are cool enough to warrant drysuit use, they might just as well take their OW dry. Yes, there's one more thing to handle, but OTOH you're so task loaded anyway, what with the breathing under water thing and controlling their buoyancy. Also, if they start out by just using the suit for buoyancy, they'll have only one bubble to manage underwater anyway. Most who keep on diving usually learn to run the suit tighter and also use their BCD for buoyancy after a while (at least that's how it seems to me), and besides, with a single tank setup and correctly weighted you basically get your buoyancy right just by keeping the squeeze away.

Up here, OW is always taught in drysuits because that's the type of suit they're going to use once they're certified. And if they go on a diving vacation in warmer climate, it's a lot easier to go from dry to wet than the other way.

 

[Storker]

I am frankly confused. It sounds as if she was in a drysuit for the first time on her first OW dive. Is this correct? If this is PADI, it is a serious standards violation.

Can you quote those standards?

When I took my PADI OWD, we did the confined water part in wetsuits and were then issued drysuits for the open water part. It seemed sensible to me, since we'd probably overheat if we did the pool sessions dry and freeze our butts off if we did the open water sessions in wetsuits. And there was always at least one divemaster plus the instructor on four students underwater when we did the open water sessions.

 

[OMANDIVER]

I'd been looking forward to doing the OW course for ages. Having snorkelled a lot in the past and as I love swimming/am a fairly decent swimmer, its something I've wanted to delve into for a long time. I'm a woman in mid-20s also and I think this is relevant to the overall story.

So I completed all the online certification and passed the 200m length/treading water no problem. I decided to do the course in cold water in the UK. This is what happened:-

- Myself and my 'buddy' had to set up the cylinder and BCD in front of the instructor 5 times in quick succession. During the 4th set up I felt a small amount of pain in my lower back which seemed to go away.
- Putting on the drysuit was difficult, it didn't fit properly but the instructor eventually said 'it'll do' and it took 2 people to literally lift me up and wriggle me in to it!
- We carried our stuff down to the shore and put on gloves, mask and hood. The dive master added 2 extra weights each side of my hips and this is when things started to go wrong. While the dive master was adding these weights/still getting me set up, the instructor was giving out important info which she then quizzed on me - I hadn't heard most of it as I was occupied with getting set up.
- She told us to kneel on the floor once in the water and that she would carry out a series of tests following this. Once in there, though, I couldn't kneel on the floor and vis was bad. I just kept floating to the top and I was all over the place. She said 'Use your leg muscles, show that cylinder whose boss' but honestly I wasn't 100% sure what I was meant to be doing.
- Eventually I seemed to have things under control, signalling ok a few times so the instructor took us out deeper. Out of nowhere I struggled with balance again, ripped off the mask and shooted to the surface. Game over, the divemaster took me in and called the dive.

Afterwards there was a 'meeting' with myself and my buddy. The company told me as we were now behind (ie. I had failed to complete the days tests) I would have to step it up tomorrow as it was important that myself and my buddy were at the same level. Initially I wanted to do this but ultimately it felt like too much pressure and I decided to shelve it this time.

Later that evening, I started my period which I think may explain the pain on my hips with the weights. I'm an average weight if it matters and they were digging in to the bones. Are there any alternatives to this?

FYI I live in Spain the rest of the year so won't ave a chance to reschedule in the UK til next year now. Just looking for suggestions on what I can do to be better equipped next time and get past this. Thanks.

Learn to dive in Spain in a wetsuit. I personally recommend Rivemar Diving just south of Alicante, google them, they have an English website. Don’t be put off by the stuff about cave and technical diving, just click on the tab that says diving school. Don’t worry about the U.K. experience, it sounds dreadful. You will be fine with these guys. diving school | Rivemar