Seasoned instructors: Advice for helping an adult learn to go underwater without holding their nose?

[UofMI_Divegeek]

I wonder if that was the source of the mask/snorkel breathing exercises I received from @Peter Guy, a it was being used at a dive shop in my area called Bubbles Below. The owner was a volunteer on the King County Marine Patrol. He passed away about 5 years ago, but he had been at it a looooong time.

Who knows ... this article was written in the early 2000's.
If so, then at least one person read my stuff (g)

 

[dmaziuk]

Yes, it seems like soft palette closing could be key. I'm trying to understand exactly what that is.

I don't know, let's say you're exhaling through the nose and then flex that bit in the back of your throat to interrupt the exhale?

Snorkel and swimming goggles (not the diving mask that covers the nose) may be the exercise to try in the pool. If you can do it without the nose clip, that should probably do it.

 

[Angelo Farina]

She needs to learn how to close her soft palate. Most people know how to do that automatically, but a lot don't. There's quite a few videos on youtube on how to practice it.

Exactly.
Better to start at home, not in the pool.
The first excercise is filling balloons with the mouth. This forces the soft palate to close.
Second exercise is with a short pipe, pushing out air and making bubbles in a glass of water.
Third exercise is breathing through the snorkel, being sure not exhaling or inhlaing with the nose.
After mastering the snorkel in air, the student should repeat the exercise in the bathroom, progressively submerging the face while breathing from the snorkel. This can be done both in the basin or in the bath thub.
After completing correctly these four exercises at home, the student is ready for the pool.
There the first exercise is swimming with fins, mask and snorkel and breathing through the snorkel.
Then the mask should be removed, and the student must breath through the snorkel without mask, with eyes open and without pinching the nose.
Only when this is mastered properly the student is ready for a tank and regulator...

 

[Katie L]

Thanks everyone for your tips! We did our first practice session today and made good progress.

She started by just dipping her nose/face in the water while holding her breath, then hummed while dipping her nose and mouth to blow steady bubbles, then was able to submerge/dip repetitively in the shallow end with no mask or snorkel. Then, she tried breathing with a mask and snorkel, then with no mask, just the snorkel.

It’s all still a little panic inducing, but a LOT less than before, so I’m very pleased. We also did 200m backstroke, kickboard laps and treaded water, and she’s feeling a lot more confident and prepared.

We’ll keep practicing and maybe even do mask clearing before the OW class.

(Also: I know it can seem surprising for some people why someone who doesn’t swim often would learn to dive, but I think it’s worth mentioning that a lot of people don’t have convenient or affordable access to a pool or other body of water with much regularity, especially if you live in an expensive city. (Maybe you had easy community pool or lake access as a kid, but now the most water time you get is on vacation, or whatever) We both had to sign up for new gym memberships just to do a few practice swims. It’s worth it for safety and preparation, of course, but it does add a lot of extra expense and time management and it’s not surprising that people would just wait til the OW class to reintroduce themselves.)

 

[TMHeimer]

Thanks everyone for your tips! We did our first practice session today and made good progress.

She started by just dipping her nose/face in the water while holding her breath, then hummed while dipping her nose and mouth to blow steady bubbles, then was able to submerge/dip repetitively in the shallow end with no mask or snorkel. Then, she tried breathing with a mask and snorkel, then with no mask, just the snorkel.

It’s all still a little panic inducing, but a LOT less than before, so I’m very pleased. We also did 200m backstroke, kickboard laps and treaded water, and she’s feeling a lot more confident and prepared.

We’ll keep practicing and maybe even do mask clearing before the OW class.

(Also: I know it can seem surprising for some people why someone who doesn’t swim often would learn to dive, but I think it’s worth mentioning that a lot of people don’t have convenient or affordable access to a pool or other body of water with much regularity, especially if you live in an expensive city. (Maybe you had easy community pool or lake access as a kid, but now the most water time you get is on vacation, or whatever) We both had to sign up for new gym memberships just to do a few practice swims. It’s worth it for safety and preparation, of course, but it does add a lot of extra expense and time management and it’s not surprising that people would just wait til the OW class to reintroduce themselves.)

I see what you're saying. For sure, some folks live in Kansas, etc. I still feel one has to be logical about starting scuba with almost no water experience. You mentioned that the most water time some people may have is on vacation. This gets into the much discussed area concerning the apparent multitude of "vacation" divers who wreck the reefs with their poor buoyancy control. Having grown up near you (Yonkers) and my family having a boat on the Sound, I was doing water stuff as a kid all the time. But spending the majority of my adult life in the center of Canada, I didn't consider scuba at all. -- Until we moved to the coast in Nova Scotia. Something inside me said I don't think it's the best idea to get certified and dive once or twice yearly in the tropics. That is also why I passed on a DSD experience on a cruise ship. When we moved here in '05 I immediately got my OW. having said all that, I guess you do what you have to do if you have little access to water and really want to do Scuba. Having said all that, as a DM assisting on OW courses here I saw many students who weren't very "comfortable" in water sign up-- wouldn't seem the lack of access to water would be an excuse here.

 

[Angelo Farina]

In some places, as here in Italy, there are pre-diving courses in the pool called "aquaticity" ot "water confidence".
These do not focus specifically on swimming, which is just one part of the program.
In these courses the focus is to make the student to feel "at home" in water, both at the surface and under. And to get the basis of free diving, first with no equipment, and then using fins, mask and snorkel.
Typically these aquaticity courses are organised by no-profit diving clubs.
Competitive swimming clubs usually hate these courses and speak badly of them, as they steal students from their swimming courses.
Instead I think that these aquaticity courses are great, they create confident people who do not risk to drown in difficult conditions.
I have seen good competitive swimmers to have severe difficulties in a rough sea, as they could not swim head-up, nor thread water carrying a weight.
Here an example of these aquaticity courses (although not the same you find in many pools here in Italy): Learn ‘Aquaticity’ at Soneva Fushi’s Freediving Courses

Here an Italian course in a local pool here in Parma (use Google Translate, if needed):

CORSO DI ACQUATICITA’ – Fias Parma

www.fiasparma.it

 

[Katie L]

In some places, as here in Italy, there are pre-diving courses in the pool called "aquaticity" ot "water confidence".
These do not focus specifically on swimming, which is just one part of the program.
In these courses the focus is to make the student to feel "at home" in water, both at the surface and under. And to get the basis of free diving, first with no equipment, and then using fins, mask and snorkel.
Typically these aquaticity courses are organised by no-profit diving clubs.
Competitive swimming clubs usually hate these courses and speak badly of them, as they steal students from their swimming courses.
Instead I think that these aquaticity courses are great, they create confident people who do not risk to drown in difficult conditions.
I have seen good competitive swimmers to have severe difficulties in a rough sea, as they could not swim head-up, nor thread water carrying a weight.
Here an example of these aquaticity courses (although not the same you find in many pools here in Italy): Learn ‘Aquaticity’ at Soneva Fushi’s Freediving Courses

Here an Italian course in a local pool here in Parma (use Google Translate, if needed):

CORSO DI ACQUATICITA’ – Fias Parma

www.fiasparma.it

That's so cool! I got swimming lessons in my public school physical education classes in the midwestern US, and we also got boating safety classes (not on a boat, just in a classroom) because boating is common in my home state.

Of course, not everyone left those required public school swimming classes with a lot of water confidence, and most of the people who would likely grow up to be the most comfortable in water already had the privilege of swimming lessons and water access when they were very young, long before those courses were offered. Since I almost always had access to water (for recreation or competition) as a child, I took it for granted. Then I moved away and realized that it's fairly difficult to find ways to regularly submerge yourself in a body water as a young, broke person in NYC! (I have since found ways) But many years ago, I was honestly surprised at how easy it is for people to reach adulthood without having snorkeled in an ocean or lake or something. I thought everyone did it. I have since learned that there are many barriers to access, financial and otherwise.

But anyway, I'm getting very off topic. The person I'm helping is from a costal region and spent tons of time in the ocean, just has a little barrier to overcome!

 

[TMHeimer]

In some places, as here in Italy, there are pre-diving courses in the pool called "aquaticity" ot "water confidence".
These do not focus specifically on swimming, which is just one part of the program.
In these courses the focus is to make the student to feel "at home" in water, both at the surface and under. And to get the basis of free diving, first with no equipment, and then using fins, mask and snorkel.
Typically these aquaticity courses are organised by no-profit diving clubs.
Competitive swimming clubs usually hate these courses and speak badly of them, as they steal students from their swimming courses.
Instead I think that these aquaticity courses are great, they create confident people who do not risk to drown in difficult conditions.
I have seen good competitive swimmers to have severe difficulties in a rough sea, as they could not swim head-up, nor thread water carrying a weight.
Here an example of these aquaticity courses (although not the same you find in many pools here in Italy): Learn ‘Aquaticity’ at Soneva Fushi’s Freediving Courses

Here an Italian course in a local pool here in Parma (use Google Translate, if needed):

CORSO DI ACQUATICITA’ – Fias Parma

www.fiasparma.it

YES ! This would seem to be an answer to my question of why "non-water" people decide to take the OW course. We could use this on this side of the Atlantic.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

..... my question of why "non-water" people decide to take the OW course.....

Cuz there's really cool stuff to see!

 

[TMHeimer]

Cuz there's really cool stuff to see!

Yeah that's the reason. And they see it advertised on the LDS billboard.