When did you feel comfortable diving?

[freewillie]

It has has often been said that once you finish basic training that you should be able to plan your dive and dive your plan. Once you receive that C card you should be a completely self sufficient diver.

Since I was a child I have been a swimmer and competed in high school. I have always felt comfortable in the water. To me all the skills needed for scuba came very naturally. But, even I was very apprehensive on my first open water dive without my instructor.

I went out for the first time with a dive club that welcomes new divers. The weekend day and time worked well with my schedule and the club was free, just show up for a dive. The day was overcast and after a lengthy surface swim I was winded. Then I started to freak out because now I can't see the shore.

I was vaguely familiar with the direction because I took a compass reading while kicking out. But I can't see the shore, I'm with a bunch of strangers I dont know, I don't know where I am, and what if I drown?!!! All I could think of was just take a deep breath, relax, get under the water, and follow my training. After that it was easy.

But, I was 10 seconds from full panic and dumping my weights and saying f**k it I'm going home. I can only imagine the fear of someone who isn't as comfortable in the water.

So ...

1. What was your first dive like?
2. How many dives did it take to get comfortable?
3. When did you feel like a "real" diver?

 

[ajduplessis]

Comfort in the water is not a once off thing. As you progress and dive deeper, or longer, or during night, or wreck, cave, or with new kit, new team and so on there will always be a period of adjusting and getting comfortable. So IMO its an ongoing thing as you develop as a diver.

To anwser your question I become more comfortable after around 20 dives or so. Once I had my buyoancy figured out I was able to relax more, the planning was never an issue. First dives is always stressful, its something new. IMO you should feel like a "real" diver the momment you can plan and execute a dive successfully and safely.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I was comfortable on my first dive without my instructor. Weekend after my OW cert. But then I did not dive with a herd. I had a proper buddy and we planned the dive as we were taught and stayed within our comfort zone.

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Bigd2722]

I was "ok" early on, but didn't feel like a diver until I got my breathing rate under complete control. That took about 150 dives

 

[Pullmyfinger]

1. What was your first dive like?
2. How many dives did it take to get comfortable?
3. When did you feel like a "real" diver?

1.) My first boat dive I was very nervous. During the surface interval I threw up over the side of the boat. :biggrin:
It was a flat, calm day in the Gulf, I was completely nervous.
The second dive was fine.

2.) I was comfortable after completing my YMCA OW2 class, where I learned how to determine my gas consumption rate, and how to actually plan a dive. This class (and the pool work) went a very long way toward making me feel comfortable in the water. My initial short cut class didn't do much more than show how to suck on a reg.

3.) That's hard to put my finger on. I was probably after a few years of diving, traveling, and experiencing a variety of conditions. It wasn't any specific moment.....but free diving and shooting a Mahi Mahi certainly ranks up there as a awesome moment for me, because of the in the water skills I developed just learning to free dive.....a seed that was planted during my YMCA class.

If "real diver" is defined as when I gained some confidence and all-around competence, then it was a few years.
If it is defined as when I fell in love with diving...then that happened pretty early on. I dropped most of my other interests to pursue diving.

Cheers,
Mitch

 

[buddhasummer]

First dive without supervision i.e first dive after certification, I was with my mate another newly certified diver, conditions were poor, too poor to dive in but we didn't really know any better. The whole dive was bit of a cluster #%#^. We were literally out of our depth. Looking back Im surprised neither of us drowned.

it probably took around 30 dives before I started to feel more comfortable, and probably not till around 50 that I felt more confident in my buoyancy skills.

Feel like a real diver? not sure if I understand this question entirely, but maybe after I purchased my own gear, began diving every weekend during the season, learnt to navigate, started actually planning my dives and joined Scubaboard

 

[Nick A]

First dive w/o supervision was at radio island rock jetty. Vis was like 4' and a little current. I was comfortable, I had a buddy that has been diving weekly for years. Everything came to me very quickly and naturally. I think it was around dive 15, I had my bouyancy locked on and felt fully secure with myself. As far as being a real diver, I think once I experienced a wreck, went deep and shot my first fish, the feeling was comin on.

 

[chrpai]

After OW and AOW my first buddy dive was a bit of a cluster. I went to a quarry (Lake Rawlings) with former coworker/boss. It would have been my first wet suit dive (2pm 3mil) and my first fresh water murky dive.

The problem was my buddy was Mr Speedy Gonzalez with an "I lead, you follow" attitude. He was cruising right at the thermocline and I could feel myself yo-yo-ing above and below it. Warm, cold, warm, cold, sinus pressure building up... now I can see his fins, now I can't. Now I can, not I can't.

It was too much for me and it was the first time I asserted the anyone can thumb a dive rule. Mind you I don't think I'd have actually heard of that rule. I just knew I was dine.

We talked about it during the SI and I recall the second dive went much better.

I'm not exactly sure where I became a "real" diver. I'm sure the 3 trips on BlackBeard's Cruises helped as they don't put a DM / Guide in the water unless you ask for one. They expect you to be "real" divers on that boat.

 

[Storker]

My first post-cert dive was a short, modest shore dive with my son&buddy dive to check that our newly bought used gear was working as it should. Before entering the water I was fairly nervous before getting in the water, but as soon as we went under I was fine. There was no difference between my situation there and my last OW course dives, and I knew I'd done it before. After that dive, I've been feeling fairly comfortable, at least most of the time. I'm always a little bit nervous before the dive, but not uncomfortably so, just enough to help me stay out of the complacency zone. New situations like my first night dive, my AOW deep dive and my first winter dive carried a bit more nerves, but still not enough to be really uncomfortable.

The only time I've been really stressed was on my first real wall dive from a boat. New type of dive, knowing that the bottom was at 100+ meters, darkness & poor viz and probably a slight task overload caused me to misread my computer. I read my NDL as depth and vice versa during my descent, and I suddenly thought I was at 35-36 meters. That freaked me out a bit, but fortunately I had an experienced buddy I trusted. Seeing his calm behavior I was able to get my readings right and calm myself down. It took me about ten minutes to get my blood pressure really down where it belonged, though...

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I felt comfortable in the water right out of OW ... my buddies didn't feel comfortable being in the water with me till maybe 15-20 dives later ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)