OW failure, advice?

[Edward3c]

A few weeks ago I was taking a Sports Diver Student (2nd level course) on a navigation dive. All week the vis had been around 10m, on the day I briefed the student we would leave the surface about 15m from the cliff and navigate by compass to the wall.

As we got under the water and stabilised at 5m the vis had deteriorated to less than 3m. At this point I took the student's hand and guided them to the cliff (the bottom was over 25m (5m greater than I'm permitted to take a SD student).

After the dive they thanked me for holding their hand as it was the first time, in 40 dives, they had been to hold a depth in mid-water.

 

[MyEarHurts]

So does anyone know if the OP has updated that he’s taken any steps to continue with a private instructor, etc?

Hi,

I talked with the dive shop owner (he was not the one running the OW portion of the course) and he invited me to come to the pool to practice and also re-take the confined water once my ear heals. I told him some of my concerns and he said he would work with me as much as I needed to feel comfortable. I'll take him up on that and see where I'm at after a couple pool sessions. Privates are an option, so I'll see how it goes in the pool. I'm confident that I can be safe and learn at my own pace in the environment offered.

I learned the hard way that one size does not fit all, that I need to learn slowly and repetitiously and figure out my own ears and buoyancy. It sucks to admit that I'm a slow learner at this, but I need to embrace my suckage and use it as motivation.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Hi,

I talked with the dive shop owner (he was not the one running the OW portion of the course) and he invited me to come to the pool to practice and also re-take the confined water once my ear heals. I told him some of my concerns and he said he would work with me as much as I needed to feel comfortable. I'll take him up on that and see where I'm at after a couple pool sessions. Privates are an option, so I'll see how it goes in the pool. I'm confident that I can be safe and learn at my own pace in the environment offered.

I learned the hard way that one size does not fit all, that I need to learn slowly and repetitiously and figure out my own ears and buoyancy. It sucks to admit that I'm a slow learner at this, but I need to embrace my suckage and use it as motivation.

There is no shame in admitting your limits and working with them. Divers have died when they tried to go too far too fast. I'd prefer a student who acknowledges they need extra time over one that tries to fake their way through. The longest class I have taught was a 64 yr old who didn't learn to swim until he was 62. We worked the actual class for 9 weeks and he then came to the pool on his own a few more times to practice on his own with me in the water just watching him do what he wanted to do before his OW dives. Where he then proceeded to nail everything. I wasn't going to tell him not to do the prep work he thought he needed and the pool was at the shop and no one was in it on the nights he came so why not?

 

[Marie13]

@MyEarHurts

Good to hear and thanks for the update. I’m a slow scuba learner myself. Just grit your teeth and keep going. Be vwey, vwey stubborn (channeling Elmer Fudd).