New Diver -- Lessons Learned -- Nassau

[soltari675]

It gets all too easy to see something you SHOULD do, but in order to not look like the new guy, you think just this one time won't hurt. Don't let that happen. That's when bad things happen. It's awesome you see your mistakes though and are taking them to heart and learning. You and your son will make excellent divers with practice. Keep diving!

 

[TSandM]

Thank you for coming here and posting this. These are exactly the kind of lessons that people learn as they dive, and you've drawn some very good conclusions.

One of the things I see people jettison almost immediately after their classes is a buddy check. A good buddy check will pick up a lot of problems with equipment before you get in the water -- and you're totally right; if you think something is not quite as it should be with your gear, don't experiment with it in the water!

With respect to your problem with popping up during your 15 foot stop, I wonder if you weren't a fair bit overweighted. We put the amount of lead you are describing on our OW students, who are wearing 7 mil suits with 7 mill core warmers; in a 5 mil suit, I use eight pounds in fresh water, which would be about 11 pounds in salt. Of course, if you are a very large person, you could need more. But if you are overweighted, that means you have a lot of gas in your BC, and when you are that shallow, the proportional pressure changes are huge. Very small deviations off stop depth are going to make big changes in your buoyancy, at that point. Next time you go, see if you can get an opportunity to do a formal weight check. It may help.

 

[ScubAtlanta]

TSandM -- thanks. I believe I WAS a few pounds overweighted, and I probably didn't fully empty my BCD on the way up to my safety stop for that reason. For the first 30 secs at 15', I checked my depth, and I was concentrating on using my breathing to stay there. Then, it was "hey, look at all those pretty fish!" which caused me to draw a few full breaths, and without further paying attention, up I popped. A good lesson learned.

 

[flots am]

DM did something to my regulator which loosened it up a little (CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHAT?), and back down I went . .

If he reached behind you and it got easier, he turned your tank on. If he turned a multi-turn knob on your second stage, he adjusted the cracking pressure (makes it easier to breathe). If he turned a 1/4 turn plastic knob on your second stage, he opened the "venturi" setting, which is designed to keep the reg from freeflowing on the surface.

flots

 

[brrrandi]

Not sure where his buddy was at.

Every time I hear this I just get a sinking feeling in my stomach. I just watched a video about a near miss which began when the diver lost his buddy. Next stop, solo certification.

 

[ScubaInChicago]

Just another note, a good quality dive light works well for communication in water as well as bringing the true colors of things to life at depth. When you need to get your buddies attention you can shine it where his light is focused and wig wag yours to alert him you need his attention. People sometimes look at the wife and I on Caribbean vacations for diving a long hose and HID lights, but soon realize that we are hyper aware of each others position in the water. Plus it's cool to signal when you see something that both people will rember for a lifetime. Happy diving....

 

[dumpsterDiver]

A good learning experience. The biggest error the OP made was endangering her son! She needs to remember that he is also (probably) using cheap, poorly maintianed rental gear that may fail at any time. If his gage was wrong or something happened, and they had to share her 300 psi.. they might have had a problem. she needs to save enough air for BOTH to get to the surface!

The other no-no she described was staying just above and behind the dive master. This is the one and only place the DM (or a buddy) can not watch you.

If you and your son are going to be a buddy team (in clear water) ..sometimes it is more important to maintain the proper POSITION rather than just X feet away. If the two buddies are swimming in a straight line and one is to the left and one to the right, they don't have to be super close to find each other. But they should not change their relative positions (ascend or descend / break laterally away) or even stop, without making sure that the change in navigation has been noted. Remember: If you buddy always stays where you think he is, it only takes a quick glance to confirm. This is much easier than knowing that your buddy is somewhere within a 360 degree sphere from you. It takes forever to roll around look all over and especialy to have to look up into the glare of the sun (and ruin your dive vision)

 

[scubadada]

You made a couple of dives, you made few mistakes. you learned from them and will not make them again. Welcome to scuba diving. Pretty soon, you'll make a few more mistakes, learn from those, and become a better and better diver. You'll never be done making a few errors and learning from them. I'm at 700 dives now and I make a few mistakes, learn from them, and move on. Someday, I will be a really good diver.

Good diving, Craig

---------- Post added March 17th, 2013 at 07:23 PM ----------

I've been diving with my son for 15 years. We now have a diving connection that makes it very easy to dive together. I'm always aware of where he is even if out of site and vice versa. This has only developed over time and allows each of us to dive relatively free but maintain the buddy relatonship.

 

[Quero]

Thanks for sharing your experiences, ScubAtlanta. I remember learning to dive with my daughter and the learning curve the two of us had on our first non-training dives without an instructor to guide our behavior. Air consumption was a challenge, buoyancy was a challenge, situational awareness was a challenge, but we were determined to learn together and help one another, and it worked! She's still my favorite dive buddy after all these years and the professional ratings I now hold. I expect you'll enjoy many more dives with your son and that you'll continue to grow as divers and as dive buddies as long as you continue to reflect on your dives--the good and the not-so-good--as you develop. Kudos to both of you for putting into practice the incremental lessons you're learning as a result of small screw-ups.

 

[Prostardiver]

Self teaching lessons are the best.