Teufelhunden
Registered
First time poster, but after reading many of the near misses and accident threads, wanted to offer an experience from my weekend taking my wife on her first post-cert dives...
She passed her PADI OW cert on Saturday. On Sunday we dove off the S.C. Coast on an artificial reef at 60'. Eight minuted into the dive, in limited visability, she had a problem with the rental BC - mostly from unfamiliarity/poor design and inflated, rather than deflated her BC, sending her rocketing off the bottom. With low-vis (less than 10'), she lost sight of me, and the bottom before she could correct. As a brand new diver, on her first ocean dive and 11 miles from shore, she was split from her buddy (me) and without references under water. Rather than freak out, or swim around in circles, she followed lost buddy/off-wreck procedure and did a controlled ascent. (I popped up about 90 seconds behind)
Two days later, we went on another dive, this time a Civil War era blockade runner wreck at 55'. On the first dive descent, 25' down, her weight belt fell off. Thankfully she was going hand over hand on the line.
Again, rather than panic, she held on with one hand and began banging her tank to get my attention. I returned to her, saw the problem, signalled I would retrieve the belt and did so. On my return, she calmly took the weight belt and put it back on (something that absolutly drove her nuts doing in the pool).
I know none of these things are major events, but several posting have alluded to how new divers don't really know how to handle themselves/need training and offer this as an example of the great job some instructors are doing at preparing their students for the moment when the dive won't go according to plan.
Ironically, my wife feels more comfortable diving now that she has had issues on two of her first four dives. As she puts it, "Now I know that things happen at depth. it is part of the experience. if something serious happens on a future dive, I will not be afraid of it, because I will always be expecting something to "go wrong".
She passed her PADI OW cert on Saturday. On Sunday we dove off the S.C. Coast on an artificial reef at 60'. Eight minuted into the dive, in limited visability, she had a problem with the rental BC - mostly from unfamiliarity/poor design and inflated, rather than deflated her BC, sending her rocketing off the bottom. With low-vis (less than 10'), she lost sight of me, and the bottom before she could correct. As a brand new diver, on her first ocean dive and 11 miles from shore, she was split from her buddy (me) and without references under water. Rather than freak out, or swim around in circles, she followed lost buddy/off-wreck procedure and did a controlled ascent. (I popped up about 90 seconds behind)
Two days later, we went on another dive, this time a Civil War era blockade runner wreck at 55'. On the first dive descent, 25' down, her weight belt fell off. Thankfully she was going hand over hand on the line.
Again, rather than panic, she held on with one hand and began banging her tank to get my attention. I returned to her, saw the problem, signalled I would retrieve the belt and did so. On my return, she calmly took the weight belt and put it back on (something that absolutly drove her nuts doing in the pool).
I know none of these things are major events, but several posting have alluded to how new divers don't really know how to handle themselves/need training and offer this as an example of the great job some instructors are doing at preparing their students for the moment when the dive won't go according to plan.
Ironically, my wife feels more comfortable diving now that she has had issues on two of her first four dives. As she puts it, "Now I know that things happen at depth. it is part of the experience. if something serious happens on a future dive, I will not be afraid of it, because I will always be expecting something to "go wrong".
(sorry for the sidetrack)
