Novice divers - next trip, next steps?

[Neilwood]

@gryffin glad you made it through the other side and weren't put off by your issues.

With regards to the mask, it can be hard to find the right one but it looks like you have - good plan trying it with the reg as this is what causes a lot of problems as your face shape is completely different without it so a perfectly fitting mask without the reg can quickly become a poor fit with it.

Equalisation - the most important thing to take from this is equalise early and often. By that I mean start by equalising on the surface before you dive and as you ascend equalise before you feel any discomfort. If you wait until it is uncomfortable or painful, you are getting into the possibility of barotrauma.

 

[Bubblesong]

I like Bermuda because it is an easy flight from Boston. We went to Fantasy Divers on Snorkel Beach for easy entries exits and got our Rescue certification there. There is controversy on how soon to get Rescue Certification, but it is also described as a self rescue class, and I wish I had done it sooner. so both practicing and safety training there may help your anxiety turn into "cautiously alert". Plus Bermuda is fun for other activities.

 

[dmaziuk]

I don't know why people here recommend Bonaire for new divers with all the difficult entries there, the longer. more convoluted flights from anywhere except the SE U.S. and a lot less to do when you're not diving. Curacao was actually a cheaper overall trip also.

It's the stairs from GoWest appts down to the beach, that's why. Is it twice as high as Bonaire's 1000 steps, or more?

 

[drrich2]

What I do (not advising anybody else) is use Flonase nightly, take a 24 hour Sedafed in the morning on dive days, and from time-to-time when I'm not on dive vacations & think about it, equalize my ears several times, since I've read of people reporting it getting easier for them over time, and I figure that's a way of trying to improve my ability. I've had reverse block twice, and that's two times too many. It's painful and can put you in quite a fix. I also use Claritin, but I have seasonal (like all 4 seasons) allergies.

Richard.

 

[Wah]

My first post-certification dives were done with Ocean Encounters in Curacao. I thought they were very good about following procedures and helping out the newer divers. I recently dove with Dressel Divers in Puerto Aventuras (Riviera Maya) and I thought they were also really good about making sure divemasters were watching the divers that seemed a little less experienced. On our dives we had more than 1 DM per group, and the lead would watch us all and signal to the other DM who to really keep an eye on. Both ops made sure everybody was buddied up, with full briefings and had a lead and a DM in the back of the group.

Not all places work like this... sometimes, its just one guy that leads without even looking back and its up to everybody else to make sure they are good on their own. Generally, I prefer this type of dive, but if it were my kids out there, then I'm sure it would be a shop like the two I mentioned.

This was just my experience, as I'm sure it can vary based on the number of people diving that day.

 

[ScubaDadThree]

Hi all:

My husband and I are recently certified. We did our OW in the Carribean in the spring and just completed our AOW, again in the Caribbean. We each have about 18 dives now, including our training dives.

After our OW, I felt that there were gaps in our training- and that we were not as self-sufficient as I thought we should be. During most of the dives, I struggled with the following issues: equalization problems/ear discomfort, mask filling, difficulty descending.

We enjoyed it though, and we planned another dive trip to the Caribbean in the fall. We managed to go on only one dive locally between the two trips- and during that dive, I again struggled with my mask filling and with equalization. I spent some time in the pool the following weekend to try to address these issues and thought I had them figured out.

The shop we booked in the Caribbean recommended that we do our AOW on our trip so that we could get more diving in under the supervision of an instructor. I also figured it would help fill in any gaps in our OW training. We did a refresher shore dive on our first day and then did two, 2-tank boat dives to complete the firsts 4 dives of our AOW (Buoyancy, Fish ID, Deep and Navigation). The first dive each day was deeper: 80-90 ft, the second each day was shallower: 40-60 ft. Unfortunately, I continued to have trouble with my mask filling and equalization during all of these dives. I also had trouble descending. I also started to develop a bit of anxiety about whether I could really deal with an unexpected problem under water. I did, however, manage to enjoy the diving despite these issues. Our last AOW was to be a night shore dive. I was a bit anxious about it, but willing to try it and planned to abort if I didn't feel comfortable. I ended up not being able to equalize- with every attempt my mask would fill- and I inhaled some seawater at 20ft- panicked a little and finally aborted.

The next day was a planned rest day, which was to be followed by two more days of 2-tank boat dives. After the aborted night dive, my ears had been bothering me and I had some anxiety about possibly panicking again. I wasn't sure whether I should continue to dive on this trip.

On the following day- I was able to equalize on the surface, so I decided that I would skip the first deeper dive of the trip, but that I would attempt the second shallower dive and try to complete my AOW with a boat dive. I borrowed a mask from the dive shop since mine was clearly not fitting correctly. The dive ended up being the best so far of the trip. I asked for a little more weight to help with descent, surface swam to the mooring buoy and used the mooring line as a reference so I could go slowly to help with equalization. (On the previous dives, we had been asked to descend to 15-20 ft right after entering the water from the stern and then swim underwater to the mooring line at the bow- this hadn't worked well for me since I was struggling to stay down and having trouble with equalizing). I finally had no equalization issues and only an occasional slow leak from the side of the mask- easy enough to deal with.

I spent the afternoon mask shopping to find a better fit than the prior masks I had tried. I also switched to a smaller mouthpiece for my regulator.

The next day, I followed the same plan- I skipped the deeper dive and did the shallower dive with my updated equipment- it was again a very successful experience- no mask filling, perfect equalization and a comfortable descent/ascent along the mooring line.

While everything worked out well in the end, and overall, we had a good time, I feel like the most of the diving we have done- including our training dives, have been more "trust-me" dives than real training. For example, we did the peak performance bouyancy dive as part of AOW, but we never did the weight check part, though we did do a hover exercise. Most of the dive was just following the instructor on a tour of the reef. The shop we used is very highly rated- maybe most people prefer to maximize the playtime.

I worked through the issues I was having on my own, the dive instructor we were working with didn't seem to be able/willing to give me suggestions (though they were aware of the issues).

I continue to feel like there are real gaps in our training that I need to rectify to be a more confident diver. I tend to be an anxious person, and diving definitely pushes me out of my comfort zone. I enjoy touring underwater when everything is going well, but I do worry that if something unexpected happened, I would panic and not be able to deal with the situation. I think that training and experience will help with this, but I'm struggling to figure out how to get that training and experience.

We would like to plan another dive trip for the spring, and I'm looking for suggestions on a good place in the Caribbean for a novice/beginner diver to get more experience doing easy dives. I'd also be interested in any other ideas for helping to increase my skills/improve my confidence.

Thanks!

Do you have any allergies? Cold water (anything below 98.6 will trigger your sinuses). Your Eustachian Tubes have to be clear to equalize. Your instructor should have told you that. Scuba courses are typically weeks long purposefully so you get familiar with the equipment, and so repetition has a chance to imprint on your brain. Find a local shop wherever you live , take the full course, and only use the Caribbean shops for refreshers.

 

[ScubaDadThree]

The Dive shops around here and at the coast, all recommend Advanced training or better before you dive the Ocean. Advanced dive training is generally recommended anywhere you can go below 20 ft. Given where we live Wreck Diving is also heavily recommended. So much training, so little time

 

[Scuba Legends]

Dear Griffin...

I would like to give you my oppinion.

First of all... as i allways say to my students, i gave you the tools, now you need the experience. Many times those gasps you talk about are there just because lack of experience.

Other times, unfortunatelly, they are there because the courses are pushed to be finished on time and not on tje needs of the student. This happen often on the big destinations of diving.

I don't know what is your case.

Second, i might have missunderstood it but is it that you did only 4 dives for.your advanced course? It is supposed to be 5. Anyway, as an instructor, i would have never recommended you to.do the Advance under the circumstances that you explain.

Now. About your mask. There is many reasons why you could be getting constantly water in it.

- Too tight: Mistake done very often by non experienced divers.
-strap in.the wrong position: wich mixed with the tight one makes the mask move either upwards or downwards
-hair inside
-you breath out trought your nose: so when the bubbles exit the mask open the celling
-you push too much your nose while equalizing

There could be few more but those are the main ones.

If the mask fits you outside the water. There is no reason why it shouldn't fit you underwater.

About your fear to panic. I would say is a common fear in many begginers. It is a psicologycal thing.

What cluld go wrong? Keep yourself under your limits and remmember that so far you are 50 bars there is nothing that obligates you to be there, just signal your buddy and ascend.

What could go wrong? You loose your mask? U are one minute away from the surface... you can deal with an aacend without masc for a minhte. You run out of air? Keep yout buddy close... if you are 1 second away from your buddy you are 1 second away from your closest air source.

I would recommend you to relax. Breath slowly and when this thoughts come into your brain understand that is your brain playong tricks to you. Accept them. Tell your brain to shut up and enjoy the dive.

For diving destinations and other dive tips i recommend you to visit this page:

http://www.scubalegends.wordpress.com

Happy Bubbles

Gery

 

[gryffin]

I definitely feel like I missed out on most of the benefits of the AOW class (we did do 5 dives as part of the course). I did finally get the equalization sorted out on the last two dives-once I had the mask fitting properly. I started equalizing on the surface and that seemed to help. I do have allergies and I am often a little congested when I wake up in the morning. Before the last two dives, I checked on the boat to make sure I could clear both ears before I got in the water.

I also agree that I was underweighted for most of the dives- I was in a full 3mm wet suit and had only 8 pounds. At the end of most of my dives, I couldn’t stay neutral for my safety stop and had to hold onto the mooring line- and once I let go, I ascended pretty quickly. I finally asked for 2 more pounds and that helped both with my initial descent and during my safety stop.

We do want to try to go on a trip with the LDS where we bought our equipment, but so far, the timing just hasn’t worked out for us. We may be able to do their fall 2017 trip.

I would definitely prefer to make sure we dive with a shop that is pretty strict on safety and attentive- at least until we get more experience/confidence. The shop we went with had just one guide in the water- in front- and the guide “buddied” with anyone who didn’t have a buddy- which was usually only one or two people, but one time, it was three people and that bother me. For us, it didn’t matter because we had a private instructor for AOW, and then hired a private instructor for our last two days. Then again- there were only 6-8 divers on the boat, including my husband and I, so it might have been overkill for them to have two guides in the water. I don’t have enough experience to know what is generally expected/done.

One problem I think is that we did PADI elearning, pool work with LDS, and then the OW dives 1-4 with shop in the Caribbean. We bought our equipment from a different local dive shop. We didn’t really develop any kind of relationship with any one shop or instructor. We like the people who run the shop where we bought our equipment and they seem to take instruction and safety pretty seriously. I am going to do a refresher class with them in the pool in a couple of weeks to try to get more confidence in some of the skills that I feel were rushed during my initial OW training. I figure it can’t hurt and it will give me more underwater time before our next trip.

Curacao, Bonaire and Roatan all sound like great choices. For February, we will be visiting family in Florida, so a plus would be somewhere that was only one hop from Florida- Curacao would work for this. Grand Cayman is another option and also direct from Boston. If anyone has thoughts about operators to consider in Grand Cayman or Curacao, I’d love to hear them.

I really appreciate all the advice about mask fit, filling, equalization, training, confidence, dive trip ideas, etc.

Thank you!

 

[dmaziuk]

On Curacao we went with GoWest dive op and their affiliated apartments a couple of years ago and were very happy with them. Apart from those stairs down to the beach.