Hi! A few words from a fellow newbie diver (I am closing on my first year diving anniversary and have 43 dives). Here is a list of the issues I encountered this year, hoping it can help you.
Main issue is that my buddy, with whom I got certified, tends to panics on her first immersion of a dive trip. She's perfectly fine after that, but the first time going down is difficult. We learned that the hard way during our first confined water session, when she panicked and threw out her regulator. Thankfully, our instructor was super quick to react and dealt perfectly well with the situation (apparently, it's not that uncommon). Since then, she went from full blown panick to just nervousness for the first dive, so we both hope that it might get better with more experience and getting more used to being under water. We also both learned to go even slower and be extra careful on that first descent.
On a more personal point of view, here are a few mistakes I did this year:
- dive 7 (so n° 3 post OW certification), I lost control of buoyancy at the safety stop and just popped-up to the surface. Slightly hurt my ear. I stopped diving for a few days until it got better (thankfully, hotel and tours I booked were super nice and accepted to change around my itinerary for that trip, so that I could do all the inland activities first and more diving after, without any surchage). Since then, I have been extra-obsessed with my weighting (I have to have it just right or I'm not happy) and I learned to be extra careful with my buoyancy (went for a peak performance buoyancy class as soon as I could), especially at the safety stop. To the point that on one of my previous trips, the instructor/divemaster diving with us mentionned how I had no issue with holding my stop (which was nice, but quite surprised me - I didn't think being able to hold the stop would be something worth mentionning, more the opposite).
- around dive 30, I rolled back into the water without my regulator in my mouth (-_-'). My first thought when I realized I couldn't breath was "how stupid am I", then I grabbed my regulator and put it in my mouth. I didn't panicked, just had a quick moment of surprise. Lesson learned: do not talk just before you drop into the water. And if there is something you feel you absolutely have to tell your buddy, don't be too eager to get into the water, take a few seconds to redo your check. But I don't think my buddy is ever going to let me forget that one and forget my regulator a second time.
- in the same style, I regularly forget to add air to my BCD before dropping into the water either. Not much of an issue until now, since as mentionned previously, I try to get my weights as right as possible and usually can get to/stay at the surface pretty easily even with an empty BCD, and have always dived in rather calm waters. When I notice that, I just grab the inflator hose and add air. Lesson (not quite yet) learned: when you've checked that your BCD and especially the dumps are in working order, don't forget to add air again in it before dropping into the water.
- last dive: at the end of the dive, when surfacing, I bumped under the boat (-_-'). It was a dive with very poor visibility, almost a night dive even if during day time, so I wasn't surprised at the darkness when surfacing. The boat was stopped, no propeller sound, which is usually how I know there's a boat around, so I didn't think to check that. Lesson learned: always check what's above you when going up. Especially when visibility is poor and you can't count on shadows and sounds to tell you that.
I've also had a few LP hose and regulators leaking, but those were usually noticed at the surface, so dealt with quickly. I dived once with a slightly leaking inflator hose. The leak was very small, I mentionned it to the DM and he mentionned that it was not a big problem, so I continued the dive (I just kept extra attention to it it case it would get worse, and at my SPG for the rest of the dive, but it actually didn't influence much on my usual air consumption). The bubbles tickling my chin were annoying though, so I told it again to the DM at the end of the dive, and he took care of it during the SI.
My main issue though, and that I haven't quite solved, is that I'm always too cold. I think that more than half of my logbook entries mention "too cold" at somepoint. Short trips in places with different temperatures doesn't really help me dial in what exposure suit I need in which conditions (I don't really have time to fully adjust). Depending on the equipment available at the dive shops doesn't really help too. I probably should buy my own wetsuit for a better fit (and that was what I was recommended by my instructors when they saw me shivering after the end of dives), but I haven't found the right solution yet, especially since I haven't decided yet in which temperatures I would dive the most in the future (my current answer, "diving everywhere and trying everything" doesn't really help). So for now, I just bought a Sharkskin to layer under the rental wetsuits, while deciding what I really want and need.
Sorry for the long post, I do have a tendency to get too much into the details and extend "a few words" into long paragraphs...
As a conclusion, I can say that during this year, I learned that:
- I am slowly learning to deal with a panicking diver, or at least one panicking diver. Which, I admit, for now, still mostly amounts to warning the DM of what might happen and keeping a really close watch, but I am learning (I think that a rescue course might be interesting as the next step to deal with that).
- I don't really have a tendency to panick (under or above water), but I haven't really encountered any major issues yet myself, and made most of my dives in rather good conditions, so that doesn't mean much. But based on the very different reactions I can observe between my buddy and I, and what I gathered through discussions with different divemasters/instructors, panic can happen, but it gets better with experience. It also depends on the character of the person.
- buddy checks are there for a reason, and useful. One should do them properly. And continue to pay attention until you get into the water (well, in the water too, but I think I don't need remembering for that).
- one should keep one's buoyancy and weighting under control. It helps. A lot. I'm still trying to improve that. But basically, I find that if that is under control, all other issues are much easier to deal with.
And I'm going to stop here. I'm afraid I could go on and on on all types of tiny details of my dives (you should see the length of my entries on my logbook), but I've already said enough here ^^.
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