Question about skills that weren't easy to learn

[DukeAMO]

Hi all,

My husband and I are about halfway though getting our PADI Open Water Diver certifications. We've finished the first 4 chapters of the coursework and the first 3 confined water dives. Our checkout dives will be at the end of March in the Florida Springs.

My husband has just flown through learning his skills (lucky), but I struggled with two of them.

The first one was the one where you have to take off your mask underwater, breathe through the regulator for a minute without holding your nose (the hard part!), put the mask back on and clear it. I struggled with that one because water kept coming in through my nose when I breathed in through my mouth. I actually managed a few breaths that way, until there was too much water in my mouth to deal with. It took me 3 or 4 tries to get that one, but I did finally pass it (phew).

The second one was the one where you have to simulate a regulator free-flow by holding down the purge button, and "sip" air out of the regulator without closing your mouth around it. I struggled with that one because I kept getting water in my mouth instead of air. Again, that one took 3 or 4 tries (and some nice practice of the controlled emergency ascent from about 12 feet down, haha).

I think the trick in both cases was to look down. With the first one, looking down trapped a bubble of air in my nose. Also, maybe I just got better at really not breathing in through my nose with practice? With the regulator, I think the air was bubbling past my mouth at first, instead of into it. Once I held it below my mouth I found the air.

I got frightened (and frustrated) with both of them, though. The instructor was nice about it, saying that he really admires the students who struggle with a few things and push through it anyway. But I feel like I need to practice them some more to get my confidence back.

The good news is that I still have 2 more confined water dives, and in the last dive we'll have enough time to practice whatever we want and mostly play around. And then 2 more open water dives after that.

So my questions are, any other tips on how to practice those skills while I'm in training so I could use them in real life? And secondly, have others had experiences with getting a little freaked out in training and getting back to a good comfort level? I was much more confident before I ran into a couple of things that were difficult for me!

 

[Hawkwood]

Great that you kept going despite your frustrations!

Your eventual success might well have been due to you getting more comfortable with breathing in and out through the regulator, or it may have been due to you holding your head down - that works too. I have seen some students simply start to exhale out of their nose when the mask is off their face - they just have to remember to control which way their breaths are going.

As to the free flow, try tilting your head sideways so that the bubbles go up away from your nose and mask. You might find this a bit easier.

"little freaked out during training"....well, all my students hear this story, but I will out myself in public now. I did not want to take scuba diving lessons. I got taken to the shop with my wife and son who both wanted to learn. On CW1 I refused to take the regulator out of my mouth - it was giving me air, why would I take it out? Needless to say my instructor (who is now a good friend) and I spent a bit of time chatting at the surface. I struggled with just about everything, but managed to somehow do it.

.....Now look where I am....

I think my students appreciate hearing that I struggled at times as well.

Bill

 

[boulderjohn]

When I teach the no mask skill, I have the students leaning forward (actually nearly fully lying down) in the position they would be in while diving. The bubbles flow past the cheeks comfortably. (When do you think you would ever spend a minute without your mask while on your knees?) When you later have to do a no mask swim, simulating going after a dropped mask, you will be doing it horizontally. Ask your instructor if you can do it that way now.

The easiest way to do the free flow regulator breathing is not looking down but with the head cocked all the way to the right. The bubbles flow upward past your mouth and out of the way. If you are looking down or straight ahead, the bubbles will blast your face and mask and make it very difficult for you. If you have the purge valve completely in so that you are getting a really full blast of air, and if your lips are fully inside that blast of air, you should have no trouble.

EDIT: Bill types faster than I do.

 

[nimoh]

It's great that you pushed through these skills to the point where you passed. Don't stop there, since they gave you trouble, you should practice them more when you get a chance.

Both of these skills are unlikely to be necessary on a normal dive, but both could save your life in certain situations, like if your mask strap breaks during a dive, or your regulator malfunctions. It is important that these skills become second nature so that you are able to perform them when on the verge of panic.

As for your question on other "tricks", I don't know of any real tricks, other than just staying calm, thinking clearly and remembering what your instructor has taught you.

I am not an instructor, but divemaster regularly and notice that quite a few students after they have the first couple of dives under their belt tend to descend too quickly. They forget to add air to their BC and don't realize that they are dropping like a rock. The ascent tends not to be as much of an issue since a slow ascent is drilled into them much more effectively.

 

[Hawkwood]

EDIT: Bill types faster than I do.

Nope, just retired.

 

[spectrum]

Duke AMO,

Your scenario is common and reads a lot like that of my wife and I. In spite of a lot of skin-diving, scuba was very alien to her and it took a full night to convince herself she could do it. The instructor was a prince and after night 2 she had largely caught up and we were back to drilling as a pair. Our class have 4 pool evenings and we were early in the season. That let us catch a few more pool nights with the next class. In those sessions we were on our own and entered pool with an intensive game plan of skills to cover and get truly comfortable with. OW dives in June /Maine waters, probably 45-50F went without a hitch.

Diving is an adapatation to a situation that is not natural. Certain things are instinctively difficult until you reprogram your head a little. Also, you mentioned "learning the trick" there ceretainly are subtle points of technique that make it all work and that's what training is all about. Just keep being patient with yourself and your sucess will continue.

Pete

 

[lowviz]

...//....have others had experiences with getting a little freaked out in training ...//....

Don't forget that divers are a self-selected lot. Many reasonable people would never consider subjecting themselves to what you do for fun. A dear, intelligent, friend of mine once said that she would just "rip the mask off and get it over with" if she were ever forced to be at depth. There is also the issue of relying on your gear. It is life support equipment that you need to have time with before you really begin to trust it. It all takes time, your concerns are normal and quite typical. I was no different.

Edit: Pete and I posted pretty much at the same time, look how similar...

 

[Thalassamania]

Your problem with both skills stems, IMHO, from not mastering the ability to independently manage your nose and mouth. I suspect that you will solve both these issues, and some others that you've yet to come across, were you to learn to do so. It is not hard, on the surface, take a deep breath and alternately exhale short bursts through your nose and mouth. Now take another and do the same thing with just your mouth under the water, now do it with both your nose and mouth submerged, now try it with your regulator in your mouth and your mask on, flood your mask and try again, clear your mask, then take it off, try it again, if you're still comfortable (and I expect that you will be) push the purge button (yes I know that your mask is off) and sip air off it. Try this and let us know how it goes, diving is much more fun when these little fears go away.

 

[TSandM]

I'm with Thal . . . what you need is something called airway management. You need to learn how to route the air you exhale through either your nose or your mouth, whichever you choose, without having to think about it. Most people can do this off the bat, but some folks are obligate nose-breathers, and have to learn how to breathe through their mouth alone.

Try this exercise on land: Put your hand over your mouth; now, exhale against your hand until your cheeks puff out. Still holding pressure against your cheeks, let the pressure out through your nose. Repeat this several times, until you are quite sure what the change is that you have to make, to go back and forth between blowing your cheeks up and letting them collapse. This is exactly the same change you have to make when using a regulator or snorkel, in order to keep water from going up your nose.

If you have access to a swimming pool, you can easily practice this by practicing snorkeling without a mask on. This requires exactly the same airway control. If you don't have access to a pool or hot tub, you can even do this in a bathtub, or worst case, in the kitchen sink. Just put your unmasked face in the water with a snorkel, and practice breathing.

I had a LOT of trouble learning mask skills when I started, but quite a bit of it was being in the wrong position when I did them. If you are sitting upright, and tilt your head back as the instructions say you should do, you orient the base of your nose in just the right way to make water run down it by gravity. If you were finding that looking down a little made the skill easier, this was probably your issue. It will not be present if you are doing the skill in a horizontal or near-horizontal position.

 

[Kilili]

Things that have helped me.
1) Whilst out of the water, think thru all your concerns, and how you intend to handle in the water.
2) Meditation for achieving a relaxed state.
3) Think before taking action.
4) Practice
5) Practice
6) Practice

In an emergency, you will respond with your conditioning, not with what you have learned.