Think back a little...what were you like as a new diver??

[ajtoady]

I was and still am like a little kid at Christmas when it comes to diving. The only difference being that now I feel that I am more in control and have settled down a little under water. It's amazing how as you do more diving you become more relaxed and more at ease. I still do all of my drills and practice at regular intervals when diving. Wish I had started diving at an earlier age.

 

[melissawest]

My Oh my don't get me started on this famous subject because it makes me laugh when I look back what a mess I was when I took my OW course. To start of, I'm not a good swimmer (but atleast I can swim)! During my first open water dive I was holding my instructors hand as if we were lovers strolling underwater, mind you my husband is just 5 feet away watching us On my second OW dive I had trouble clearing my mask!!! I was brilliant in all skills during my confine water class except hovering. Third OW session I was terrible and bolted to the surface because I can't dump air and can't control my ascent. When it was time to do the CESA in the open water I did the controlled ascent fairly well but always forgot to inflate my BC orally so I had to repeat the skill thrice. I am all that but nervous, thank God. I was so determined to learn and be better that's why I never even once thought of giving up! My husband/buddy was ever so supportive of me in the learning process, so after I got certified I craved to dive almost every week to polish my skills.

I consider myself forever a student of life in general and scuba diving especially I will never stop learning (even reading Scubaboard during my break time at work).

 

[EFB]

Thanks for all the replies!

Noody was nervous? Just me?:shocked2:

Tomorrow we are headed back to quarry where we were certified. To be honest, there's not much to see (heck the visability is not so great), but we are going to just work on buoyancy control and descending without hurting my ear. I am not a fan of the place as I have seen everything there that is within my limits (60ft), but this is just to get more used to everything. Heck, boring would be great if it helps me get better with diving.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I was fortunate in that I had an instructor that did his best to make sure I was ready for ow. Along with feeling at home the first time I took a breath off of a reg in the pool. Yet I look back now and see that there was quite a bit more info I should have had. That's why I put it in my classes. My first two checkout dives ended up being just me and the instructor one on one after another person in the class had to cancel for lack of a dog sitter.

I'm still excited whenever I get in the water. Even in a quarry or lake I've been in numerous times. I try to pass on to my students that sense of discovery. I seriously doubt that you have seen everything there is too see in your local spot. Have you found the nesting areas for the fish? Have you seen the fry no more than 1/2 an inch long in schools of dozens moving as one through the thicker weeds? Have you had any freshwater jelly fish on your thumbnail? The only time I do not see SOMETHING new in the water is when I don't want to. Even in 2 ft of vis. Thankfully that has only happened once. For about 5 minutes. Then I opened my mind as well as my eyes and its never happened again.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9550 using Tapatalk

 

[DMDavid]

Dare I admit that on one of my first dives after becoming a newly minted diver I jumped in and kicked my fins as fast as they could get me to the bottom, when I reached the bottom I felt a strange force.
That force was stronger than anything I had experience before in my life.
It was as if a giant magnet was pulling at all the metal on my gear, I felt powerless and vulnerable as this great magical force pulled me back to the surface.

Once I was back on the surface one of the DMs asked if I needed more weight, I then realized I had no weights on me at all.

So much for the great mistery behind the magical pulling force.

As a pilot I have always known that a good pilot is always learning and I believe the same applies to diving.


FB-Florida Scuba Diver

 

[tstocum]

I guess thinking back to the years following my certification, I think it's safe to say that I thought I was better then than I actually was and thought I knew more than I actually did.

It wasn't until last year when I returned to the sport after a lengthy absence that I slowly began to realize (due largely to SB) that I knew absolutely nothing about diving and that my skills were severely lacking. I remembered what I was taught from my open water course back in 1995, but I had never heard the terms gas management, SAC, or rock bottom. I didn't know what it truly meant to have good buoyancy and trim, let alone how to really get it right. But I've read great posts from a lot of people here, I've read NWGratefulDiver's article on gas management, I've read Jim Lapenta's book, and am currently reading books recommended in posts by TS&M and others here on SB and I've been working diligently on my skills, buoyancy and trim especially.

I still don't consider myself the world's best diver with tons of knowledge to share with my fellow divers, but at least now I know more than I did and know there is still more that I don't know.

 

[ScubaSteve]

I think I did alright overall however I was a little nervous about the usual suspects (skills). The funny think is, I was a fish in the pool with every skill. As soon as I got into open water, the mask flood/remove was a bigger challenge for me to do. I was not aware of exactly why but I am sure it had to do with 7' vs. 35' depth. I was able to perform the required skills fairly quickly but "comfortable with mask off breathing" is NOT what I would have classified myself as. I did not panic but I was not comfortable when it was required.

To overcome this, I did laps in a pool with only a snorkel. Then I wore a mask and would remove it mid stroke until I did it without really flinching. Then I took gear into the pool and removed the mask and sat there and breathed. Then I got to swimming in the open water. Now I do this and ask my buddy to watch my buoyancy and trim to see if I can keep in trip while removing and replacing the mask. I have to work on that still (especially early in the dive season each year) but I consider it ongoing improvement that is always needed.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

I think this is a great thread, and its not only fun, but useful, to reflect back on the start of our lives as divers. I was certified at the age of 47, book and pool in Colorado, open waters in Maui. I loved diving the minute I got in the pool. In fact even before. I bought a full set of equipment, including a Sherwood courier computer ( computers were just coming into broad use then). I think owning and being familiar with my own equipment, that fit me (prescription mask included) made me comfortable in a way I would not otherwise have been. I jumped in with both feet, as they say, and had no special problems. What I remember most was my third open water dive, day 2. About 10 minutes in I started "playing" - doing barrel rolls and headstands to look under ledges, copying the instructor, course director Bill Hannan. Diving suited me and I was suited to diving. Now, more than 500 dives and 12 years later, my only regret is not starting 30 years earlier!
DivemasterDennis

 

[fjpatrum]

I'm not much further along, as far as number of dives go. Myself and one other guy were arguably the most comfortable and most prepared students in my OW class. The ten students in our class ran the gamut as far as initial comfort and skill but the two of us were clearly the most motivated. I suspect it's that way with most classes, some really motivated, some less so, and a wide range of "innate" skills to go with those varying motivation levels. We had one wash out into our class and one wash out from our class, but everyone else did reasonably well and passed.

During my OW dives I had one semi-runaway ascent but there was no air in my BC... it was primarily rebound from my 14mm of wetsuit and a less than horizontal trim that had me pushing slightly upward without realizing it. I've had one other incident like that in Rainbow River FL, when I got over one of the springs and got vertigo and ascended about 12 feet or so before I recovered my balance.

I'm essentially fresh out of OW. I've done a dozen dives or so since class in various conditions from low 40s temperature water to high 70s water and viz from 5 feet to infinity. Depth from 15 feet to about 75 feet. I've always been very comfortable with all the skills presented in OW, though I'm not "strong" on them yet. Some are essentially second nature because I do them so much, others definitely need deliberate practice occasionally. I know how to handle emergencies of equipment and not panic but that skill comes from previous experience and just carries over to diving pretty well so far. The few incidents I've been involved with were very easily remedied and not panic-inducing in the slightest sense. My skills in the water certainly have infinite room for improvement but my buoyancy is decent and I think my trim is coming along reasonably well also. There are some self-rescue skills I certainly want to practice and I'd like to find a consistent buddy to practice all skills with, but so far that hasn't happened.

I think the only thing to do is just dive as much as possible, practice your weak skills as much as possible and remember to enjoy it all. If it's not fun, it's not worth doing as a recreational activity, right?

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

What was I like as a new diver?

Hmmmm .... perpetually enthusiastic, way more confident than I had a right to be, and basically clueless. I can't blame my instructor ... he was great, he was patient. But it was like trying to teach a puppy ... you take one look at that happy, enthusiastic face and just can't get mad at him for peeing all over the floor.

That was me ... Mr. Puppy.

Some things about me in general that definitely affected me as a new diver. I'm adventuresome ... I just don't get nervous ... although I think I did a very good job of making my instructor nervous. I learn by trying things, making mistakes, and beating myself up for not getting it right the first time ... that can be just a bit frustrating for the instructor. Thank God my instructor was patient ... he had to be. I don't usually learn anything easily ... the struggle seems to be half the "fun" of learning ... but I'm nothing if not persistent. I'll keep beating my head against a brick wall until the damn thing falls apart ... and that basically describes how I got through my OW class ... persistently making mistakes and kicking myself until I got it right. If it weren't for the perpetual grin on my face while I was doing it, I think the instructor would've been worried.

As a new diver, I was waaaay too confident. I could breathe a tank dry in record time ... my buddies used to tease me that they could see the sides of the tank cavitate when I inhaled ... but it didn't stop me from wanting to go deeper than a prudent diver should go ... particularly on those oversize beer cans I was diving at the time. I "bagged" my 130+ foot dive quite early on ... a depth I didn't reach again until several years later, when I took my first tech class ... mostly because I realized on that dive that running out of air is a good thing to avoid doing. My buoyancy control sucked ... despite my instructor's best efforts to teach me better ... like most things, this was just something I'd have to teach myself. It wasn't until a group of us were going down to see an octopus and the group leader pointed at me and said "you go last, you kick up too much silt" that I decided I needed to learn better finning techniques.

Basically I was everything that the more experienced divers like to complain about ... which is why, when I eventually became an instructor, I set a goal for myself to help people like me do better.

But one thing I've had from the beginning ... a serious passion for being underwater. In 10+ years and 2800+ dives, it's only gotten stronger. Nowadays I couldn't even conceive of my life without scuba diving as a central part of it ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)