My first pool session

[jepuskar]

This was only my second time in the pool with SCUBA gear on..the first was the Discover SCUBA class.

My girlfriend and I are taking private lessons and it was just her, me and 2 instructors in the pool. Pretty good setup if you ask me. We finished all the skills required for the first 3 confined dives..we just flew through the skills. I only had a problem with mask clearing...I practiced this numerous times in my pool without a problem, but for some reason with a regulator in my mouth, as I blew out of my nose to clear the water I would inhale ever so slightly through my nose and then..well you all know. :/ My instructor watched me and pointed out what I was doing and all is well now...just got to concentrate on it until it becomes natural.

Overall, it was excellent and we had a lot of fun...the instructor was very patient and explained the skills before we did them...then demonstrated them and then had us do them. We just moved from skill to skill...

He had us do this neat game called the nickles game....he would toss a bunch of nickles on the pool bottom and we had to go retrieve them one by one..and then put it in our mask through the skirt..obviously it was a mask clearing game..he said if we were clearing our mask right then the nickles would stay in the mask. The person with the most nickles..wins.

Anyway, just wanted to share my experience..next class is Friday.

Jason

 

[Scubamedicjoe]

yes this is a fairly new game allot of the instructors I know are doing by you clearing the mask so many time after times it becomes a habit and you remember it more and since this is one of the basic skills you must learn and a very important one at that !! practice make perfact good job keep at it and listen and learn them skills they are kinda your life savers !!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Ranz]

Glad to see you enjoy your instructor!
Have fun with the rest of your lesson!

Ranz

 

[art.chick]

I don't know any scuba instructors who can afford to loose all their parking meter money in the pool like that!

Sounds like the private lesson idea has been a good choice for you. I love hearing how others are teaching mask clearing. For some reason, it trips up so many OW students! Keep up the enthusiasm.

 

[Kaffphine]

Do you get to keep the nickels?? :question: If ya do you're luckly, all I got was a tap on my sholder when it time to put the mask back on.

 

[Scubamedicjoe]

no you dont get to keep them and yes its a very good learning tool first it build confidence , second the more times you clear your mask the more you will be confidant if you have to do it

 

[jbd]

your class is going well. Neat idea about the nickels. Keep us posted on your progress.

 

[redseal]

Is that considered a "change" in attitude? Sounds like the instructors you have are terrific at making learning the important skills easy. And you will need to be able to clear your mask; they all leak.

 

[jepuskar]

I think my problem was tiliting my head back and then exhaling...now, I start to exhale and then tilt my head back while gently pushing my mask in and down. This works great for me and my mask doesnt start to leak again when im done.

Im gonna practice this all week in my pool...although its hard to do this in 4 feet of water...i should bring some of my lifting weights in the pool.

 

[mtdivegirl]

You dont say? Thats an interesting technique that I will have to pass along to my instructor. I found most of my help with mask clearing on this board..mastered the skill..and passed along the techniques i learned from everyone so that he will hopefully be better prepared to teach students with trouble in the future!
Glad you are having such a great time..wish i had had a private instructor.