Weights Problem for Inexperienced Diver

[Hojo in SC]

Keep a record of your dives, what you wore, how much weight you had, salt vs fresh water, and if your body weight changes with holidays

 

[crofrog]

but now I feel very anxious about diving again in the future.

Why are you anxious? You correctly identified the problem but you failed to advocate for yourself.

 

[Rearviewmirror]

Keep a record of your dives, what you wore, how much weight you had, salt vs fresh water, and if your body weight changes with holidays

I think this is the one thing I wasn't taught well during my OW course. My instructor was amazing at the actual instruction, but filled my log book out for me for the OW dives. As a result I kept pretty lame dive notes for all those dives and didn't capture the most important things for coming back to my logbook after a few months/years (weights, exposure suit, temp/water temp, any problems, and even just what I saw!).

Now I'm a lot more detailed on my dive logging!

 

[Davisracing68]

Honestly, you may have learned more on that dive as a "refresher" than if everything had gone perfectly. Several good take-aways, and you lived - that's a win! As a new diver, I've had a couple of those lessons. Ultimately, if something doesn't seem right to me, it's my responsibility... Unless I can somehow blame my dive buddy (wife).

If it's been 10 years, it might be worth investing in a used copy of the OW manual too. There could be some value in revisiting theory and procedures that might not have been extensively covered on the refresh dive. It seems like most refresh dives are aimed at divers out of the water 6-24 months, so I wouldn't necessarily expect them to be several hour mini-OW courses. Unless that's what you paid for?

Let me know if you find any good dive spots in Nebraska. I'll head over.

Honestly, you may have learned more on that dive as a "refresher" than if everything had gone perfectly. Several good take-aways, and you lived - that's a win! As a new diver, I've had a couple of those lessons. Ultimately, if something doesn't seem right to me, it's my responsibility... Unless I can somehow blame my dive buddy (wife).

If it's been 10 years, it might be worth investing in a used copy of the OW manual too. There could be some value in revisiting theory and procedures that might not have been extensively covered on the refresh dive. It seems like most refresh dives are aimed at divers out of the water 6-24 months, so I wouldn't necessarily expect them to be several hour mini-OW courses. Unless that's what you paid for?

Let me know if you find any good dive spots in Nebraska. I'll head over. I'm in Iowa.

If you ever n the

Honestly, you may have learned more on that dive as a "refresher" than if everything had gone perfectly. Several good take-aways, and you lived - that's a win! As a new diver, I've had a couple of those lessons. Ultimately, if something doesn't seem right to me, it's my responsibility... Unless I can somehow blame my dive buddy (wife).

If it's been 10 years, it might be worth investing in a used copy of the OW manual too. There could be some value in revisiting theory and procedures that might not have been extensively covered on the refresh dive. It seems like most refresh dives are aimed at divers out of the water 6-24 months, so I wouldn't necessarily expect them to be several hour mini-OW courses. Unless that's what you paid for?

Let me know if you find any good dive spots in Nebraska. I'll head over. I'm in Iowa.

Could always come check out Sandy Channel in Nebraska if you have never been there. This Little-Known Recreation Area In Nebraska Is Stunning

 

[Subcooled]

I had a bad and potentially dangerous experience on my first dive in almost 10 years, which I did in Roatan, Honduras, with a supposedly reputable dive shop. Before the dive, I took a refresher course with the shop, which included figuring out my weighting. I cautioned the instructor that I appear to weigh a lot less than I actually do and that I had not been given enough weight initially in past diving experiences. Low and behold, the instructor initially guessed I needed much less weight than I did, and she needed to keep adding weights (in the shallow water where we did the refresher) to get things right. I made a mistake by not myself noting the amount of weight we finally figured out that I needed.

When I went to gear up for my first dive after the refresher, things did not look right. My girlfriend (who was diving with me) was given a BCD other than the one she used in the training course, and I thought there was not as much weight on me as we had determined I needed. The dive shop workers insisted that everything was exactly as it should be. I proceeded with the dive, assuming I was just overly anxious and being overcautious, as a result of not having dived for so long.

From there, everything unraveled. I could not get myself to sink after fully deflating the BCD. The divemaster told me to use a tow line to pull myself down and continue to try to drain the BCD, which did not give me a free hand with which to equalize. Once near the bottom, I could not swim forward without floating upwards, and I had to exert a lot of effort to try to "push" the water up and myself down. Eventually, as a result of all this strain, I began to experience fatigue. I also got to a point where I could no longer equalize after going up and down so much, and I was too busy trying to stay down to continually clear my mask. I signaled to the divemaster that I wanted to go to the surface, after showing him that I was floating upward even while staying completely still underwater. At the surface, I told him I wanted to abort the dive. At this point, I was completely fatigued and it was difficult for me, who am typically a strong surface swimmer, to get myself to the boat.

I recounted what happened to the dive shop manager upon my return. She and I checked my records against the weight on my belt and found I had been given four pound less than I needed. I am safe and fine, and all is well that ends well, but now I feel very anxious about diving again in the future. I am going to Indonesia this summer, and I was hoping to dive at some of its wonderful sites, but I feel considerable trepidation about the prospect of this. Has anyone been through something similar to this with an inexperienced diver? What are the best ways to address it? Where would be the best places in Indonesia to repeatedly do guided easy dives in calm conditions to get used to diving safely again, without spending a ton of money?

Thanks,
Tim

You have to demand enough weights and refuse to dive unless you have the weights you need. You pay for the trip and thus you have the right to sufficient weights.