Newbie issues. What is your dive problems stats?

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

I was also certified in warm water (SE Asia) and did my first 100 dives there. Switching to cold water diving in Monterey, CA with big waves, cold water, kelp entanglement, limited surface support, lower vis and rough shore entries, introduced quite a few new challenges and hazards. Even with 100 logged dives there was a learning curb to adjust to the new environment. Work with cold water instructors greatly helped me adjust to the new diving. Perhaps you could consider dropping into a dive shop and joining some guided dives/classes to gain experience with the local conditions safely :).
 
In addition to drills, is there a way to calm down at the onset of panic? At my unfortunate mask flood, I realized I couldn't clear it, but telling myself that I was holding onto a regulator and still breathing didn't help much. I tried to breathe deeper, but all in all, going to the surface and taking 5 minutes to catch the breath was what helped. Would've been much more challenging on a deeper dive...

I once helped a young woman at 45 feet who would not ascend because her mask filled up halfway and she was holding the nose section closed to prevent more water from going up her nose. She couldn't clear her mask probably because it didn't fit properly, like yours. She may have tried before, and realized it was futile. She was alone though near the boat. The DM had already pulled everyone from that group out of the water. I went ahead of another group because I was having air issues and only came upon her by accident. Once I figured out what was wrong, we ascended together. It turned out she had 12 dives. She was very calm, but obviously stuck in her decision making. She refused to do the second dive.

My suggestion? (And one I should do more myself?) Practice in easy environments. Dive a lot. It sounds a little bit like you're stressing out (though I could be reading your post with the wrong tone). If you're prone to stress in every day life, that's something you'll have to figure out and deal with. If it's only when you're diving, then practice, practice, practice. If you had more experience, you might have tried different things before becoming panicked, like tightening the mask. Tightening may be a short term fix, but it may get you through the dive until you can get a better fitting mask. Or you might have just accepted that the dive was done because of equipment issues and calmly went to the surface. I don't know how many dives it may take to get to this point. It's different for different people and the environments they're diving in. Btw, some people won't be so open with their learning experiences, but just know that you are not alone.

Ultimately, you'll have to get comfortable with the equipment, and its limitations and quirks. As I will. As everyone will.

But how many dives did you say you had? 4? Plus your 4 cert dives? And all open water with lots of distractions? You're likely using new gear from what you used for certification. You're diving in new conditions which probably require a thick wetsuit compared to learning in your bathing suit or shorty? You've got a lot going on. Take it one dive at a time. There's no race to anywhere. And while I agree with the sentiment that a diver is responsible for herself, I also believe that a new diver, or a diver in a new environment, needs to dive with others who can provide guidance. Maybe even mentorship. Dive with folks who can help you when you have issues and who you trust to make good decisions. This should alleviate at least some of your stress. You'll be able to provide that same guidance and mentorship to new divers some day.

OK, I'll stop now because I'm rambling. Good luck!
 
Zero panics. A couple of stupid diver incidents early on...

My dive buddy got certified 1 year before me. So she had 13 dives before I first splashed (but who is counting?). My first warm water trip featured a few screw ups in my world: my dive belt fell off, and she had to swim down to 20fsw and retrieve it as I failed about on the surface trying to get down. It happen again a few dives later (lesson: never use a rental belt...noob!). Couple of dives later my reg hose seemed to get very short. My tank had slipped down and she popped it back into place for me. I WAS very happy to be only looking to the right and wondered what all the fuss was about...

Since then the issues have always been hers, and no panics. An inflator hose that slowly pumped up her BCD. A mouthpiece that fell off of her primary. A minor hose split on her primary. This was BEFORE I took over servicing our gear...

The funniest (strangest?) reaction was when her primary hose split and she came over to me and pointed at the huge stream of bubbles pouring out of her reg. Yep - something wrong. Ok? Ok! So I calmly pointed at her octo - swap, dummy, swap! After we surfaced she said she was still getting lots of air from her primary so there was no need to swap to her octo yet. Sigh...

Closest thing to panic is underwater arguments about which direction the boat is as she watches a bunch of morons swim off in the wrong direction. Giving her a compass has not reduced these situations. Sigh...

These experiences pale in comparison to the panic attack I recently witnessed from a fully trained and certified rescue diver in about 30 feet of warm Caribbean water. I do not understand what panic feels like. It was obviously very real to the person involved.
 
On the other one my mask kept flooding way too much, and in the end of the dive I ran out of air. In both cases I did panic, lost the regulator and gulped some sea water, but got a hold of myself

There are excuses for running out of air but there are no good excuses for running out of air. Seawater, might as well develop a taste for it, running out of air is poor form, newbie or not.

N
 
Three incidents come to mind. One was near panic after a difficult entry with so much chop that I couldn't decend without adding weight, so lost the group initially, back the boat for more lead, and then back down with one of the DMs who came with me. Hyperventilated my way through half a tank in 10 minutes after that. Not pleasant.

The first dive after that was months later, in cold water, very poor vis, first time with that particular buddy and first time diving without any guide (i.e. drop 10ft in broad daylight and it's practically a night dive) and felt the slight panic creeping in upon initial ascent. Thumbed it within 10ft, floated a little on the surface to compose myself and then breathed through it. I was fine as soon as I saw the bottom, and it taught me to relax, trust the training, and know my limits. Other than the vis and cold, the dive was incredibly easy (shallow, protected waters, easy shore entry and exit). And built a good bit of confidence. In a sense, that was the first 'real' fully independent dive I did.

I ran out of air once, but knew it was more or less guaranteed to happen - we were finishing a 90 minute dive at around 3 meters of water just off the shore on Bonaire, and I decided to see what sucking on an empty tank felt like. Buddy was right next to me and knew (and had more air) so while it wasn't the smartest thing I've done, it was fairly controlled.
 
Probably not very wise of of me, but I assumed he knew what he was doing (we were also swimming through kelp and he was trying to navigate us back to the entry point, so surfacing too early could've promised a long surface crawl, which we ended up doing anyways). I wasn't panicking at all, but realized we have to go up real soon, as the gauge got to the red zone. I wasn't sure he understood what I was communicating, so I was showing him the gauge in addition to hand signals starting at 1000.

At 500 he finally showed thumbs up, we started ascending and he offered me his octo. I initially didn't take it since we were going up in shallow waters, I could breathe normally and see the surface 1-1.5 meters up. At that point I was surprised about share air, assuming that if he wasn't looking alarmed that I had 500psi, then it could be a normal thing and we could go up as planned.
You're right, that's not the way to do it. One very common error for newbies is to rely on their buddy or their guide instead of realizing that you are the only person responsible for yourself. What you're describing is pretty much what's called a "trust me" dive, and those can easily go bad.

Who is responsible for what?
 
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 ^^.
 
Some of these comments are funny and I think miss the mark. Please, please don't slow down. It doesn't appear that you are pushing your limits that hard. The more you dive, the more you learn to deal with these issues unemotionally. Personally, I think you've done admirably well when you consider the equipment issues your have. Bad reg and horribly fitting mask? Been there, done that, got the t shirt. Did you have fun? Not as much as you would have liked, but you're still excited about diving, so it couldn't be all that bad.

My second rule of diving is what I call the rule of fun. "You can call a dive at any time, for any reason, no questions asked and no repercussions." That means if you're not having fun, you need to stop and correct that. We dive to have fun, so anything that might interfere with that has to go. It sounds like you're already taking steps to do that, like buying your own gear. Good for you!

As for panic, I bet a large part of that is from simply being in an alien environment. I get kind of anxious when I first visit a foriegn country, even if I speak the language. It's understandable to be a bit more anxious when you have to bring your own breathing gas just to survive. Relax. Rely on your training. Stop letting others make decisions for you. Especially, don't let them intimidate you into not calling a dive. If you're not having fun, simply get out of the water.
 
If I feel stressed, I ask myself three questions:
1. Breathing. Do I have safe gas to breathe?
2. Buoyancy. Am I naturally buoyant?
3. Buddy. Is my buddy near?

If the answer to any is no, I have something to sort out. If all three questions are good, then slowing down and relaxing will sort things out.
 
I had a learning experience at dive 12. You can read about it in the A& I area " let's do an easy dive".

Going from warm to cold water is a big deal, i started in cold water, when I went to Hawaii it was such easy diving without the cold water gear. So, you have to consider all the changes you have, extra gear, les viz, new gear... My dive yesterday was with a different type tank and my weighting was off. I was able to correct but it was a chore and distracting through the dive. I've always been able to fin up easily at the end of the dive and it took a few seconds to realize I had to add air. Just one change in gear and boom!

This might sound hokey, but for the panic perhaps try visualizing how you would deal with different issues. Go as far as gearing up with gloves and all and add air, vent air, remove weights, clip and unclip things. Find this, find that....It's hard with gloves and 7 ml! Now close your eyes and do it. Repeat underwater. Your mind and muscles will remember.

diving in cold water is not easy. It can become familiar, but I'm not kidding myself that it's easy. What you want diving to be is fun, exciting, and filled with wonderous sights and experiences.

Keep diving! You came out ok with lessons learned, and a whole lot of advice from people with way more experience than I. Some will really resonate with you, some might seem silly, but read it all, think about it, and use what's useful to you.

Dive safe.
 

Back
Top Bottom