OW course confined dives...

[WileEDiver]

I applaud your enthuiasm and anxiousness to get started, but I'd like to suggest that you wait to practice in-water skills until your class. That's what you are paying an instructor for. He or she will explain the skill (performance objective and value) and demonstrate it first. This way you'll hear the description and see it performed before before you do it yourself. This may prevent wrong techniques or habits that have to be unlearned.

Good luck and have fun!

 

[ScubaSarus]

One piece of advice I would like to give for the drill is to go slow and do them in a calm fashion. Although I could never and still can reach my tank knob after 5 years. So you toss the regulator away you calmly loop with your arm. If you do it too fast you may miss it or start groping. Let your body flow with the water.

As for as clearing the mask. Unless the chlorine is strong in the pool neither salt water or pool water will hurt the eyes too much and act like a fish - become one with the water and love being under the water for it will be your playground for years to come.

To breath with the regulator without the mask I made sure to let small amounts of air out the nose to prevent the water from coming into the nose while breathing.

Best of luck

 

[Walter]

You might consider taking a course that gives you more time in the water to learn skills. You are right to be concerned about a 4 day course.

 

[Zoe83]

Well I tried some things with the snorkel, it wasnt very good conditions, it was at night with not much light...lucky i tried though, because i flipped out when i tried to swim without the mask & breath with the snorkel. at first i kept thinking i cant breathe because i usually hold my breath swimming with no mask, and i flailed around. it would have been really embarrassing if i did something like that in front of the class! i got used to it though when my husband held me under because it was more like diving. my main concern was making sure my snorkel was above the water, and i also didnt like the darkness..so in the day with a regulator and instructors helping me i should be fine.
I tried to fill & clear my mask, it went alright, i didnt breathe in with my nose at all and i was breathing normally through my snorkel, but when i went to clear it, most of the water was out except a little bit in the nose part of my mask..is this normal or does it ALL have to be out? or was my mask a bit loose perhaps?
All in all i think i did well for it being at night & mostly with no help. i kept my eyes open no worries, i didnt ingest any water & i had no problem not breathing in with my nose which i thought would be a challenge. I reckon with an instructor i will be fine, i feel a lot more confident now

 

[Stirling]

I tried to fill & clear my mask, it went alright, i didnt breathe in with my nose at all and i was breathing normally through my snorkel, but when i went to clear it, most of the water was out except a little bit in the nose part of my mask..is this normal or does it ALL have to be out? or was my mask a bit loose perhaps?

It sounds like you're getting it figured out all right, and will be fine. That little bit of water in the bottom of the mask bothers some people, but not others. It isn't hard to get rid of all of it when you have a little more experience with the mask clearing drill. But there's no rule that says there can't be any water in your mask, so whether you drive it all out or leave a little bit in the mask is not very important to anybody else. If it bothers you, you'll learn to get rid of it all pretty quickly.

If my mask is fogging up a little bit, I will happily swim around with a little bit of water in the bottom of the mask that I can occasionally wash over the inside of the lens to clear away the fog.

 

[spectrum]

most of the water was out except a little bit in the nose part of my mask.

Great session! It sounds like you got past your road blocks. I'm a lot like you, I like to deal with these sort of things ahead of time, sort of like a pre-flight check.

The little bit of water is hard to get rid of with a snorkel. With the regularor under water you will have the freedom to tip your head back a bit more and the rest will be driven out more easilly.

When clearing you don't have to blow like old faithful. If you go too fast the air will just blast out, you want it to rise into the mask to displace the water. I'm still training myself to remember this one.

Have fun,
Pete