When are you ready to learn diving?

[Schwob]

I wish I knew someone in the Chicago area to help you find a great swim coach, but I'm sure a thorough Google search could assist you since I did a quick check & saw some options come up.

I also hope that you & your wife find the best solution....& that you don't drive yourself crazy in the process. lol Good luck!

Thanks. Not yet. Today looked encouraging actually.

 

[Schwob]

You know, Judy might have been where I discovered above water flooded mask exercises. In fact, I'm sure of it and it's a standard part of my OW course. Go into a kiddie pool... no deeper than her waist... with only a mask. No snorkel, no fins or other complications: just the mask. Have her bend over an put on her mask in the water so that the mask is full of water and then stand right up. She can keep her eyes closed. She can sit on the steps. She can do anything to make herself comfortable. Now ask her about her day. Ask her about little Timmy's performance in school. Hold a conversation with her. Hold her hand, if it helps. Repeat a few times, keeping the flooded mask on her face but her mouth in air. In my OW classes it's usually only after two or three minutes as they learn how to breathe and speak with a face full of water. Yes, I've had to spread this over two/three pool sessions and in that case, I keep it to five minutes or less per session. No need to stress them out. When you're sure that she is comfortable, tell her a joke. I tell the mermaid joke: Why does a mermaid wear seashells? B shells are too small. Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk. Almost every adult 'snorts' through their nose at this joke and they inadvertently clear their mask. If the eyes are closed, tell them to open their eyes. Walla. We keep repeating until they are comfortable talking with a flooded mask and can then clear it with a single try. During this exercise, I watch how the water comes out of the mask. You really can't see it easily under water. I can see if the mask is too tight, if they will need to press on the top of their mask or use another strategy. It's also the time to get them to look slightly up as they clear their mask. Once they are comfortable with that, we continue while floating on the surface. I don't care if the top of the mask breaches the surface. Once they can do this with little or no effort, I graduate them to the big pool and we start on trim and neutral buoyancy.

Why does this work? For a number of nervous Nellies, putting them on Scuba or even a snorkel with a mask full of water is simply too much too fast. Putting a flooded mask on their face with all the air in the world to breathe reduces their task loading to just one thing: not breathing water in through their nose. Just one. They don't have to deal with breathing through a tube... just through their mask without sucking in any through their nose by closing their soft palette. Since I can't always spot the diver who's going to have this issue, I put everyone through this exercise before we get on Scuba. No need to traumatize anyone, and this actually speeds up the entire class when we start clearing masks under water. Since I've gone to this I've never had a single person bolt to the surface on their first UW mask clear. Not one.

It has been tried today.
In a shallow pool.
Success. Sort of.
The Joke bombed.
(I like it)
Cultural differences and no knowledge about terms related to water ... otherwise her English is quite good...And I knew it too..., but wanted to try.
Me: "So, why do mermaids"
Her:"what???"
Me: "Do you know what a mermaid is?"
Her: "Oh like a women with a fishtail?"
Me: "exactly. So, why do mermaids wear sea shells ?"
Her: "What?"
And so on.
By time I tried to explain how bra size measurements relate to the joke I got a red card for speaking about such a topic in a public place...
Yep totally bombed.
But she by that time filled and emptied her mask a good number of times.
So there you go.
And then she even (after some trying and showing) cleared it with the face in the water (standing, bending knees and midsection, me pushing her shoulder down (she slowly realizes how floaty she is).
So, there.
And at the end after snorkling (w. fins) 40 lanes, she even tried to dive under a pool lane divider. She just can't pull herself under yet at all (no weights), but in her case, swimming under the divider, face in water in a pseudo sort of dive counts.
Proud hubby today.
Enjoyed listening to the post bragging about not even being tired...
Now, deeper water..., we'll find out in time...

 

[Marie13]

Yay!

 

[The Chairman]

And then she even (after some trying and showing) cleared it with the face in the water (standing, bending knees and midsection, me pushing her shoulder down (she slowly realizes how floaty she is).

Cool! Might I suggest that you encourage her to just float face down? Get her off her feet. She doesn't have to be immersed to get the mechanics down, and this helps her start to get comfortable being horizontal. When floaty people look up slightly, it's not unusual for their mask to come out of the water a bit and that's way OK. The physics doesn't change a bit. Pushing them down might make them feel out of control and not as safe. That would defeat the purpose of this exercise.

Repeat a number of times... get her to do some laps without fins as well.

 

[Neilwood]

It has been tried today.
In a shallow pool.
Success. Sort of.../snip

Definitely progress though - give it time and a bit of persistence and I think you will have a good diver there.

The key I think is to work on the comfort level bit by bit.

 

[Schwob]

Cool! Might I suggest that you encourage her to just float face down? Get her off her feet. She doesn't have to be immersed to get the mechanics down, and this helps her start to get comfortable being horizontal. When floaty people look up slightly, it's not unusual for their mask to come out of the water a bit and that's way OK. The physics doesn't change a bit. Pushing them down might make them feel out of control and not as safe. That would defeat the purpose of this exercise.

Repeat a number of times... get her to do some laps without fins as well.

Yes, you may.
We'll get there. Tried already a few weeks ago and then (before the interim mask out of water but full of it step) it was with mixed result. Now that she learned it works indeed she'll try again.

Aahh those fins. She loves them now. She is giddy about how far she can go w/o even getting tired. It will be hard to convince her to take them off for that cumbersome, tiring battle of swimming w/o. But it will be done....

Maybe at first with mask and snorkel on. Face down. So all that head lifting to breathe and "related added inefficiencies" don't completely frustrate her right away (compared to with fins). And then just plain, boring, cumbersome, swimming too. AND then, come June, the plan is to also try in a lake. Standing depth at first, but lots of space to swim into. And deep pool (I am sure she'll already manage with wall in sight). And then deep lake with fins at first and then the same with me not immediately next to her...(and I think she can handle that now, but why rush... and the lake is cold...) and then, then I think she may be ready to try deep w/o fins... maybe with a neoprene suit or shorty at first... the little extra floatation there (as someone also suggested) actually makes a huge difference.

 

[Schwob]

Definitely progress though - give it time and a bit of persistence and I think you will have a good diver there.

The key I think is to work on the comfort level bit by bit.

Yep. Thanks.

 

[The Chairman]

It will be hard to convince her to take them off for that cumbersome, tiring battle of swimming w/o.

Remember: it's her time schedule. It's ALWAYS her time schedule. I have three rules for diving.

1. Never hold your breath: BOYLES really stands Breathe Or Your Lungs Explode, Stupid!
2. The rule of fun: You can call a dive at any time for any reason with no questions and no repercusion
   • If you're not having fun, stop and figure out why?
3. Stay within 15 seconds of touching your buddy

What many people don't realize is that number 2 applies to training as well as regular diving. There is no law requiring people to dive: it's optional. A student can call a session or even the entire class if they want. However, if the class isn't fun, odds are the instructor is teaching it wrong.

 

[TMHeimer]

Pete, I rarely disagree with you, but here on some days being 15 seconds away from a buddy means you lost sight of him like 7 seconds ago. Not always, of course. Today I had 30' viz. Doesn't ever get any better.

 

[The Chairman]

Pete, I rarely disagree with you, but here on some days being 15 seconds away from a buddy means you lost sight of him like 7 seconds ago. Not always, of course. Today I had 30' viz. Doesn't ever get any better.

I use this as a way to re-enforce the idea of keeping track of your buddy. When I give them the "Where is your *&*^% Buddy?" sign, they have 15 seconds to locate and touch their buddy. Crappy vis means you better stick closer. I also teach that you should be able to hear your buddy breathing at all times. An increased rate of respiration is the first sign of distress. It's not unusual for buddies to sync their breathing and you'll see one stop breathing for a sec if they don't hear those comforting bubbles.