underwater and breathing fears

[TSandM]

You sound as though you might need some additional time to get through your class. It is very important that you reach a point of feeling comfortable and relaxed while using a regulator, before you end up in open water on one. This might require a whole pool session spent in shallow water. You could begin with using the regulator like a snorkel (in other words, floating on the surface of the water, breathing through the reg, so you aren't even underwater, and all you have to do is lift your head to be breathing ambient air). Or you could even stand up in the water and just put your face in it with the regulator, until you are convinced it is going to work and deliver gas.

What's critical is that you not push through while there's still significant anxiety. Scuba is an amazingly safe sport for something that's carried out underwater, but what is very often involved in accidents and deaths is panic, which is anxiety spiralled out of control. It may be that nereas's approach of freediving first would be a good one for you, although a lot of very confident and competent divers don't ever free dive. Maybe watching some dive videos and visualizing yourself as the diver, floating through beauty, might help allay your worries. But somehow, you've got to get past the anxiety, because it, itself, is dangerous.

 

[TNdiver6387]

Scuba gear is nothing more than a tank of air, the same kind of air that you breathe on the surface, when you are freediving and you come up for fresh new air. On scuba, the fresh new air is simply inside the tank on your back. So you simply exhale underwater (which you never do while freediving -- in freediving you always wait until you return to the surface to exhale thru your snorkel), and then on scuba you get to take another breath from the scuba regulator (which in freediving you must wait to do until you have returned to the surface and have exhaled on the surface before you can inhale thru your snorkel again at the surface). The scuba gear simply saves you from having to take the trip back to the surface. This way you can stay down longer and see more stuff. Whales and rays, hammerheads and giant sea bass, sea turtles and sea lions, anemonies and corals, wild aquarium fishes of many bright colours!

You might want to do a little research into freediving before you start giving information as such absolutes. Most serious freedivers at the least take their snorkel out of their mouth before actually diving. Some dont even use one. It is a pretty bad idea to keep your snorkel in, because if something goes wrong, it gives the water an easy and direct path into your lungs, with your mouth closed, its a little harder to accidently suck water. As far as never exhaling underwater, thats not quite the case either. If you do lung packing, your lungs are already pretty stretched out, and then, if its a rather long deep dive, there is a certian amount of fluid shift, which limits the volume of your lungs as you return to the surface, so in some instances not exhaling in the last few feet of your accent, you can cause an over expansion injury.

 

[gmhicks5867]

JZdiver,

I would have to agree with the two board staffers here. Anxiety is perfectly normal as is the fear. You are doing something unnatural and your mind and body are letting you know that. The best option is to just take it easy and talk to your instructor about your fears. Possibly go to an extra pool session or two and work through them before you go to your open water checkout dives.

As for the gear issues, that is two-fold. One is that your just not used to it yet and it feels awkward. Two is your anxiety with compounds the first.

So in summary I would just say to talk with your instructor and slowly build up your comfort level even if it takes more time to finish the course.

Gary Hicks
SDI Instructor

 

[smankolio]

I've been an avid swimmer and snorkeler most of my 46 years, and I finally got around to signing up for scuba, which I've always wanted to try. I bailed out of my PADI open-water course halfway through the confined-water section. I tried and tried, but I could not get over the overwhelming sense of dread while breathing under water. At the bottom of the 15-foot pool, trying to complete the skills, all I could think about was the fact that I was in a naturally hostile environment, with a life-support system strapped to my back, and that if I'm this panicked in a swimming pool, surrounded by well-trained, patient instructors, what kind of trainwreck will I be 60 feet under the ocean, surrounded by other divers who assume I've got my act together? The instructors were patient and did everything they could to help me out, but I finally made it clear to them that scuba isn't for me.

My 10-year-old daughter, on the other hand, went with me, and participated in a junior program. She absolutely loved it and wants to go back for more. She cleared her mask, maintained neutral buouyancy -- the works. I was very proud of her.

Moral of the story: I'm glad I can say I tried scuba, and I'm comfortbale with the fact that I'll be sticking to snorkeling.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Not many babies go straight from crawling to sprinting. There is a natural progression; crawling, walking, jogging, running, then sprinting. Many prospective divers would be better off following a similar progression; floating, swimming, snorkeling, freediving, then scubadiving. At the very least, canidates should have successfull snorkeling experience.

In the above progression, freediving is begining freediving. There are plenty of fairly good freedivers who keep the snorkle in their mouth the whole time. I have dove beyond 100' twice and deeper than 70' hundreds of times, with snorkel in the whole time and without exhaling until reaching the surface (there he blows).

This is the New Divers and Those Considering Diving forum. Competitive breathhold nitpickery hardly contributes to this particular discussion. With snorkle in the mouth, equalizing the mask air space requires closing the airway without closing the mouth, which is one of the top three toughest skills for many beginning divers.

I try very hard not to take my resort guests on the discover dive if they have no snorkeling experience, although my employer claims there is no resort diving operation in the world that operates that way.

To the origional poster; where are you from, have you ever snorkled, have you completed the swim/snorkel requirement of the OW class??? What is your state of fitness, do you ever use stairs or just elevators, what kind of fins are you using and do they fit comfortably???

 

[beester]

Alot of very good advice has been given... most of it relates to starting slow. Take babysteps instead of giant leaps.

Don't let yourselve get pressured into doing this right away... not by outside influences (peer pressure, instructor pressure, economical pressure... etc) but certainly also not by inside influences (I need to get my certification NOW).

In my club... there is a rescuediver who started out without being able to swim.. and now he's a rescuediver with more then 400 dives under his belt (in low vis, cold, tidal waters). All it took was time and not giving up... more then a year of pool practice and exercise before he got his 1st cert.

So no worries... but give yourself the time to get used to all these new experiences and don' t force yourself.

Cheers and good luck!

 

[Teamcasa]

Anxiety and the subsequent fears, cramps along with the fear of ear pain all contribute to the maybe “this is not for me feeling”.
Trust an old time diver when I tell you, you can get over it. All it takes is a little practice with a competent, patient, instructor.

If you are female, get a female instructor. Hire him or her for a one-on-one class. Many times all it takes is some extended pool time. No drills, no peer pressure, just you and the instructor spending time together underwater. You will soon discover that using scuba gear is simple and can be very comfortable and most of all fun!

Lesson by way of short story. I recently took some of my gear to a relatives home to do some in-pool filming of the kids. Before I could even get geared up, my nephews, 8 and 9 yrs old, wanted to try it out. I geared up, went in and one by one they took turns breathing off my octo. After a few minutes all they wanted to do is swim around underwater. However, their parents were terrified of trying it. After some reassurance and “just duck your head under and breath” practice, they too began to relax and have fun.

Remember, diving is about having fun, never forget that.

Dave

 

[tceylan]

As far as never exhaling underwater, thats not quite the case either. If you do lung packing, your lungs are already pretty stretched out, and then, if its a rather long deep dive, there is a certian amount of fluid shift, which limits the volume of your lungs as you return to the surface, so in some instances not exhaling in the last few feet of your accent, you can cause an over expansion injury.

"exhaling in the last few feet" is not safe. Let's not promote this practice in anyway.
Especially beginners might misinterpret your posting and adopt this exhaling practice.

As you return to the surface, the blood shift returns back to normal, doesn't it?
Can you please state which resource you are using to get this information? (about
lung overexpansion in freediving and having to exhale to avoid this?)

 

[diver_pirate]

The cramps when kneeling can be a pain. The bananas thing may help but some physical stretching will help a lot just prior to entering the pool. Also wear boots, a 3 mill will keep ther fins from binding and will be warm that is if you can get them on. Do a pool dive just to practice. When you start noticing the hair, bandaids and bottom sludge in your favorite indoor pool you are already getting comfortable. When you start your first Open Water dives on your own select clear warm waters at 20-30 ft or less and get a good buddy. You will have a lot of fun as your concerns abate. After a week or so of diving your confidence levels will be significantly improved.
DP

 

[nereas]

You might want to do a little research into freediving before you start giving information as such absolutes. Most serious freedivers at the least take their snorkel out of their mouth before actually diving. Some dont even use one. It is a pretty bad idea to keep your snorkel in, because if something goes wrong, it gives the water an easy and direct path into your lungs, with your mouth closed, its a little harder to accidently suck water. As far as never exhaling underwater, thats not quite the case either. If you do lung packing, your lungs are already pretty stretched out, and then, if its a rather long deep dive, there is a certian amount of fluid shift, which limits the volume of your lungs as you return to the surface, so in some instances not exhaling in the last few feet of your accent, you can cause an over expansion injury.

I was only trying to get him/her to freedive comfortably to 15 or 20 ft.

Not 500 to 650!

I will therefore stand by my statements.