well I must make a confession. I did my Open Water with Big Blue in Koh Samui. They were great! I did 2 beach dives and 2 boat dives and I will say that from the moment I first jumped into a swimming pool that first day-to my last boat dive, I was anxious. The apprehension never completely left. Sure, once I was in the water I was fine and that anxiety would leave. Months later, in February, I did my Advance with Mermaid in Pattaya. I did 6 boat dives with them. I did two wreck dives at about 28 meters, a night dive at 20 meters. A Search and Recovery Dive and my Navigation dive. I was apprehenisive before all of these dives. During my night dive and a wreck dive I kept getting water in my mask which compounded my stress level. I will be doing my Rescue next. I do hope a time comes when I wont feel so apprehensive and anxious. Is this normal??? Should I still have this after 10 dives?
Still Anxious and a bit Scared
- Thread starter durian
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Sounds like all the diving you have done is for classes? Ant the 2 classes were several months apart? I would venture to say that since your anxiety dissapates once you're submerged, if you were to dive more in between classes, the pre-dive anxiety would take care of itself.durian:
Not that I know anything about anything, but if I were swimming in your fins, I would want to log more underwater time with a more skilled buddy/mentor before I took another class. Of course. I want to log more underwater time anyway
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Durian,
I agree with Snowbear.....Basically, you haven't done any diving, you've been taking scuba courses. I realize you may not own your own gear, etc. Regardless, you should take some time, with a buddy, and choose some very comfortable dive locations and begin to develop your experience level. Your confidence and lack of anxiety should make a parrallel development.
Regards,
I agree with Snowbear.....Basically, you haven't done any diving, you've been taking scuba courses. I realize you may not own your own gear, etc. Regardless, you should take some time, with a buddy, and choose some very comfortable dive locations and begin to develop your experience level. Your confidence and lack of anxiety should make a parrallel development.
Regards,
Go diving, forget the classes. Don't take rescue until you're comfortable and capable enough in the water to handle yourself very well.
H2Andy
Contributor
what these guys said
Anxiety is compounded with the normal, and at times competitive desire to learn as much as possible, and to be the best. My former buddy almost didn't finish her OW class due to this very same problem and what helped her, despite what anyone else might think, was a 2hr hypnotherapy session. After that we just dove and dove and dove. As for me, AOW, Nitrox, Rescue and now DM training started almost 2 yrs after I got my OW.
Semper Safe,
Rick
Semper Safe,
Rick
jonnythan:
I agree with what these guys are saying, mostly. While I do think it is important to be comfortable with diving yourself before doing the rescue course, the course itself will make you significantly more comfortable as a diver. I know doing rescue helped me a lot. I would do some diving outside of classes first but don't wait too long.
More diving will certainly help, but it sounds to me like there's a more basic problem that more diving won't correct.
You say, "I kept getting water in my mask which compounded my stress level."
That tells me you aren't ready to leave the pool. In fact, you aren't ready to move to the SCUBA portion of the pool work. You are operating way beyond your comfort level. That's what you need to fix. Don't panic, it can be fixed and it's not your fault. You just need to work on skills.
If you want to dive and you want to be comfortable, I have some suggestions for you.
Go to a pool. Leave your SCUBA gear in your bag. You only need 3 things at the pool at this point. 1. Mask 2. Snorkel (If you have a fancy snorkel, leave it in the bag and buy a simple J snorkel) 3. Weight belt with weight.
At no point will you leave the shallow end of the pool.
Take your snorkel off your mask and put on your weight belt. With your mask on the pool deck, your snorkel in your hand and your weight belt on, get into the shallow end of the pool. You should be where when you stand you are no deeper than chest deep, waist deep is even better. Put your snorkel in your mouth and breathe from it. Now, bend over and breathe through your snorkel while you dip your face into the water. If you are comfortable, stay awhile until you feel natural. If you have difficulty, think about drinking through a straw while you practice the excercise. Remember, you can always stand up straight to end the excercise at any time. If you need to, you can slowly build up your time until you feel comfortable.
Next, practice dropping underwater, allowing the snorkel to flood and coming up to blast it clear, leaving your face in the water. Continue until you are comfortable
At this point, you have accomplished three important things.
1. You lowered your anxiety level by working in a no risk (shallow) environment.
2. You became an expert in no mask breathing.
3. You know you can breathe with a flooded mask.
This will give you confidence for those times when your mask floods. For more confidence, get better at clearing your mask.
Now, put your snorkel down and pick up your mask. Put it on and drop down to your knees. Break the seal just enough to allow a small amount of water in. Clear the mask. Do not pull out on the bottom, merely push in on the top while looking up. The biggest mistake most people make is not looking up. The second most common mistake people make is not exhaling through their nose. Keep your mouth closed. Repeat this until you are comfortable. Don't forget to stand up and catch your breath between clearings. Now, increase the amount of water you allow into the mask to about ¼ flooded. When you are comfortable with that level, move to ½, then to a fully flooded mask. When you've reached the point you can clear it easily every time, see how many times you can clear it on one breath. After you are at this point, clearing your mask will be easy. You will have reached it in a step by step manner that was easy to accomplish.
Remember, you can always stand up if you feel uncomfortable.
This should help. Good luck and let me know how you're doing.
You say, "I kept getting water in my mask which compounded my stress level."
That tells me you aren't ready to leave the pool. In fact, you aren't ready to move to the SCUBA portion of the pool work. You are operating way beyond your comfort level. That's what you need to fix. Don't panic, it can be fixed and it's not your fault. You just need to work on skills.
If you want to dive and you want to be comfortable, I have some suggestions for you.
Go to a pool. Leave your SCUBA gear in your bag. You only need 3 things at the pool at this point. 1. Mask 2. Snorkel (If you have a fancy snorkel, leave it in the bag and buy a simple J snorkel) 3. Weight belt with weight.
At no point will you leave the shallow end of the pool.
Take your snorkel off your mask and put on your weight belt. With your mask on the pool deck, your snorkel in your hand and your weight belt on, get into the shallow end of the pool. You should be where when you stand you are no deeper than chest deep, waist deep is even better. Put your snorkel in your mouth and breathe from it. Now, bend over and breathe through your snorkel while you dip your face into the water. If you are comfortable, stay awhile until you feel natural. If you have difficulty, think about drinking through a straw while you practice the excercise. Remember, you can always stand up straight to end the excercise at any time. If you need to, you can slowly build up your time until you feel comfortable.
Next, practice dropping underwater, allowing the snorkel to flood and coming up to blast it clear, leaving your face in the water. Continue until you are comfortable
At this point, you have accomplished three important things.
1. You lowered your anxiety level by working in a no risk (shallow) environment.
2. You became an expert in no mask breathing.
3. You know you can breathe with a flooded mask.
This will give you confidence for those times when your mask floods. For more confidence, get better at clearing your mask.
Now, put your snorkel down and pick up your mask. Put it on and drop down to your knees. Break the seal just enough to allow a small amount of water in. Clear the mask. Do not pull out on the bottom, merely push in on the top while looking up. The biggest mistake most people make is not looking up. The second most common mistake people make is not exhaling through their nose. Keep your mouth closed. Repeat this until you are comfortable. Don't forget to stand up and catch your breath between clearings. Now, increase the amount of water you allow into the mask to about ¼ flooded. When you are comfortable with that level, move to ½, then to a fully flooded mask. When you've reached the point you can clear it easily every time, see how many times you can clear it on one breath. After you are at this point, clearing your mask will be easy. You will have reached it in a step by step manner that was easy to accomplish.
Remember, you can always stand up if you feel uncomfortable.
This should help. Good luck and let me know how you're doing.
Walter:
This seems a little excessiveto me. It's certainly true to say that more practise is a good thing. Water kept getting in the mask on those two particular dives, perhaps it was a poor fitting mask or a damaged one. It sounds like a little bit of independent diving (outside of classes that is, not without a buddy) would increase confidence and reduce anxiety.
"This seems a little excessiveto me."
Maybe, but it'll work.
Maybe, but it'll work.
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