Advice please on student anxiety
- Thread starter Paco
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If you play a little hardball, they may be forced to do the right thing here. Tell the place you learned from the truth. That may get you some "dive time" for no additional cost to get more comfortable. Or better yet, tell the competitition and use them. Competititors love stories such as yours that they can use against the "other guy". Also, I am sure that the training agency involved would LOVE to deal with heavy handed instructors like this. But, they have to know first.
As to the one ft. vis issue, unfortunately I understand it all too well. The quarry that is used in the winter is crystal clear until too many classes get in there in the mornings. By 11:00 am or so, forget about visibility as instructors seem to be unable to keep students from kicking up the bottom. I am pretty easy-going, but if I had to learn in two ft. vis, I would be unhappy as well. This is why we use a seldom dove local lake that is generally reasonably clear unless the silty bottom is stirred up for our classes in the summer.
Our LDS runs two weekend, four class sessions (pool and classroom) to get students ready for open waters. That is our "Rush Program to save transportation". If the student doesn't feel comfortable in the pool after the two weekends, the instructors will let them swim around with another class until they do. There is not a problem in the world with this. All the instructors should want at the end of this confortable divers. That is why the "anybody can call a dive for any reason" rule is drilled into his staff. Nobody should have to endure anything similar to what DiamondVP did. That is inexcuseable.
Genesis, you and I have another (albeit small this time disagreement).
We have a good LDS here. The man that formed it in the 1970's formed it because he was an instructor and was wasting a great deal of class time with students who had unsafe gear (mainly not well maintained and ill fitting hand-me-downs). It gave him a place to correct those issues immediately so he could actually spend the student's class time teaching diving. He knows that the students have a place to get well-maintained, good fitting, and safe gear for class with the side effect of having plenty of "rental gear" for students that fits so that they don't have to have their own gear.
If he didn't offer charters and trips, most of us wouldn't have anybody to dive with out of certification. I do now, but I spent the first six to nine months of the year diving on shop trips where I was guaranteed to have other divers to dive with. After diving with people for so long, I developed a trust and found my own "regular" dive buddies for local diving. I would not have hit a hundred dives in my first year without that option. I could go on, but he combined these functions to have a central location where a diver could get all that he/she needs for a class or to go diving in "one stop".
That system works well if you have an instructor who 1) cares about divers and 2) believes in what he/she is doing. If they think that they will make a mint, then the dive shop owner is in the wrong business. Of the dive professionals that I have spoken to, their motto is that there is one way to be a millionaire in the recreational diving business.... That is start with TWO MILLION dollars.
As to the one ft. vis issue, unfortunately I understand it all too well. The quarry that is used in the winter is crystal clear until too many classes get in there in the mornings. By 11:00 am or so, forget about visibility as instructors seem to be unable to keep students from kicking up the bottom. I am pretty easy-going, but if I had to learn in two ft. vis, I would be unhappy as well. This is why we use a seldom dove local lake that is generally reasonably clear unless the silty bottom is stirred up for our classes in the summer.
Our LDS runs two weekend, four class sessions (pool and classroom) to get students ready for open waters. That is our "Rush Program to save transportation". If the student doesn't feel comfortable in the pool after the two weekends, the instructors will let them swim around with another class until they do. There is not a problem in the world with this. All the instructors should want at the end of this confortable divers. That is why the "anybody can call a dive for any reason" rule is drilled into his staff. Nobody should have to endure anything similar to what DiamondVP did. That is inexcuseable.
Genesis, you and I have another (albeit small this time disagreement).
We have a good LDS here. The man that formed it in the 1970's formed it because he was an instructor and was wasting a great deal of class time with students who had unsafe gear (mainly not well maintained and ill fitting hand-me-downs). It gave him a place to correct those issues immediately so he could actually spend the student's class time teaching diving. He knows that the students have a place to get well-maintained, good fitting, and safe gear for class with the side effect of having plenty of "rental gear" for students that fits so that they don't have to have their own gear.
If he didn't offer charters and trips, most of us wouldn't have anybody to dive with out of certification. I do now, but I spent the first six to nine months of the year diving on shop trips where I was guaranteed to have other divers to dive with. After diving with people for so long, I developed a trust and found my own "regular" dive buddies for local diving. I would not have hit a hundred dives in my first year without that option. I could go on, but he combined these functions to have a central location where a diver could get all that he/she needs for a class or to go diving in "one stop".
That system works well if you have an instructor who 1) cares about divers and 2) believes in what he/she is doing. If they think that they will make a mint, then the dive shop owner is in the wrong business. Of the dive professionals that I have spoken to, their motto is that there is one way to be a millionaire in the recreational diving business.... That is start with TWO MILLION dollars.
is that it encourages what we're complaining about here, in one form or another.
Instructors who are worth something cost money to keep employed - otherwise they will do something else.
Every layer of indirection in the system causes harm here, because it removes money from that instructor and gives it to someone who does little or nothing in furtherance of that instruction.
This is common in other lines of work, but its nowhere near as bad.
For example, if I take my boat to a yard to have it worked on, I might get charged $60/hour. Of that the actual mechanic probably only gets $20-30, the rest goes in the yard owner's pocket to cover his overhead.
But in the dive industry, you train people for what - $5/hour or less when the shop's cut is taken out? So why would you do this instead of flipping hamburgers?
What ends up happening is all kinds of cross-subsidization, and cutting of standards and training time, in a frantic attempt to provide the operating cash for both the instructor and the shop.
The problem is structural. The shops have brought this on themselves by insisting on price protection, then marketing to the lowest common denominator on the other side of the house, thereby pushing down their revenues to the point that they are forced to either cut the class like this person experienced OR force gear down new diver's throats. Either leaves a bad taste in people's mouths and results in an extremely high drop-out rate - which hurts the shop ultimately, but the owners can't see beyond the front of their nose (and the end of the current class!)
I've already pointed out in another thread that with a common class size of six students, if I was "teaching" aside from a shop (e.g. no shop cut) I could make about $30/hour teaching OW classes. Figure $200 for the class, and 40 hours of work involved. At six students I make $1200 for 40 hours, or $30/hour. That's decent money. So clearly, the ability to profit in this business exists, just not in the "current LDS environment"
Likewise, the common fee for regulator maintenance seems to hover around $60/hour. That's good money! I could easily do a first and two seconds in an hour and a half, or roughly $100 including parts. That's about what the local shop charges, but I'd keep nearly all of the $90 in labor - again, not a bad deal.
As for gas, I know what my compressor costs to run. All-up, I can fill AL80s with any EANx mix from 21 - 40 for less than $3/fill, including amortization and maintenance on the hardware (yes, this includes filters, oil, power, etc.) For air (EANx21) its about $2/fill, for EANx40 its about a buck more (the cost of the oxygen.) If I bought two sets of bank tanks and banked both EANx40 and EANx21, I could fill any combination of the two by blending those, and the O2-cleaning requirement on the tank and valve of the customer goes away, along with most of my risk of ignition on the customer side. (I pump and mix using only Hyperfiltered air; if I leave off the Hyperfilter the per-tank cost is much cheaper, but that only helps me if I'm filling air, and not Nitrox.)
I see a decent profit mix here.
So why don't I open up a shop?
Because the "industry" has essentially bamboozled the insurance industry such that I can only be insured as a "full service" dive shop, offering instruction and hardware. Once I go THERE I have all kinds of costs shoved down my throat that I don't want, including manufacturers trying to demand that I do things their way and buy their hardware, and now I'm back to the perversity that I'm trying to avoid. See, I know this industry from that standpoint has practices that are unacceptable to me - why would I get involved in a business that would leave me feeling like I was dealing with the mob on a daily basis?
Are there ways around this? Sure. There are ways to make one judgment-proof, ignore the insurance issue, and give the finger to those who sue you. Yeah, the shop might "die" at some point, but there would be no real loss to me - as they couldn't reach my personal assets (I would not have any, legally-speaking.)
The greater question is "do I want to"?
So far, the answer is "no". But it may not remain "no". At some point I may decide that the answer is "yes" - it just hasn't happened yet. Don't think, though, that I have not and am not rolling around business plans on a rather continual basis in this (and many other) industries.... 'cause I am....
Instructors who are worth something cost money to keep employed - otherwise they will do something else.
Every layer of indirection in the system causes harm here, because it removes money from that instructor and gives it to someone who does little or nothing in furtherance of that instruction.
This is common in other lines of work, but its nowhere near as bad.
For example, if I take my boat to a yard to have it worked on, I might get charged $60/hour. Of that the actual mechanic probably only gets $20-30, the rest goes in the yard owner's pocket to cover his overhead.
But in the dive industry, you train people for what - $5/hour or less when the shop's cut is taken out? So why would you do this instead of flipping hamburgers?
What ends up happening is all kinds of cross-subsidization, and cutting of standards and training time, in a frantic attempt to provide the operating cash for both the instructor and the shop.
The problem is structural. The shops have brought this on themselves by insisting on price protection, then marketing to the lowest common denominator on the other side of the house, thereby pushing down their revenues to the point that they are forced to either cut the class like this person experienced OR force gear down new diver's throats. Either leaves a bad taste in people's mouths and results in an extremely high drop-out rate - which hurts the shop ultimately, but the owners can't see beyond the front of their nose (and the end of the current class!)
I've already pointed out in another thread that with a common class size of six students, if I was "teaching" aside from a shop (e.g. no shop cut) I could make about $30/hour teaching OW classes. Figure $200 for the class, and 40 hours of work involved. At six students I make $1200 for 40 hours, or $30/hour. That's decent money. So clearly, the ability to profit in this business exists, just not in the "current LDS environment"
Likewise, the common fee for regulator maintenance seems to hover around $60/hour. That's good money! I could easily do a first and two seconds in an hour and a half, or roughly $100 including parts. That's about what the local shop charges, but I'd keep nearly all of the $90 in labor - again, not a bad deal.
As for gas, I know what my compressor costs to run. All-up, I can fill AL80s with any EANx mix from 21 - 40 for less than $3/fill, including amortization and maintenance on the hardware (yes, this includes filters, oil, power, etc.) For air (EANx21) its about $2/fill, for EANx40 its about a buck more (the cost of the oxygen.) If I bought two sets of bank tanks and banked both EANx40 and EANx21, I could fill any combination of the two by blending those, and the O2-cleaning requirement on the tank and valve of the customer goes away, along with most of my risk of ignition on the customer side. (I pump and mix using only Hyperfiltered air; if I leave off the Hyperfilter the per-tank cost is much cheaper, but that only helps me if I'm filling air, and not Nitrox.)
I see a decent profit mix here.
So why don't I open up a shop?
Because the "industry" has essentially bamboozled the insurance industry such that I can only be insured as a "full service" dive shop, offering instruction and hardware. Once I go THERE I have all kinds of costs shoved down my throat that I don't want, including manufacturers trying to demand that I do things their way and buy their hardware, and now I'm back to the perversity that I'm trying to avoid. See, I know this industry from that standpoint has practices that are unacceptable to me - why would I get involved in a business that would leave me feeling like I was dealing with the mob on a daily basis?
Are there ways around this? Sure. There are ways to make one judgment-proof, ignore the insurance issue, and give the finger to those who sue you. Yeah, the shop might "die" at some point, but there would be no real loss to me - as they couldn't reach my personal assets (I would not have any, legally-speaking.)
The greater question is "do I want to"?
So far, the answer is "no". But it may not remain "no". At some point I may decide that the answer is "yes" - it just hasn't happened yet. Don't think, though, that I have not and am not rolling around business plans on a rather continual basis in this (and many other) industries.... 'cause I am....
diamondvp,
PADI does now issue Jr. certs to 10 year olds but I'm with walter. I won't teach them.
As for the rest of your class, I think you should call/write the agency and complain. I don't know that any standards were broken so there may not be any punitive action but they need to know what's going on. The fact is that the standards don't prevent an instructor from running a class like this and maybe they should.
The standards do require the instructor to allow the student to "master" each set of skills before moving on to the other. The term "master" is defined in the standards but it seems it's too complex for many to understand.
Give em hell.
PADI does now issue Jr. certs to 10 year olds but I'm with walter. I won't teach them.
As for the rest of your class, I think you should call/write the agency and complain. I don't know that any standards were broken so there may not be any punitive action but they need to know what's going on. The fact is that the standards don't prevent an instructor from running a class like this and maybe they should.
The standards do require the instructor to allow the student to "master" each set of skills before moving on to the other. The term "master" is defined in the standards but it seems it's too complex for many to understand.
Give em hell.
BTW, Genesis if she has such a friend, that would be the best option. However, not all of us have friends with pools and the local pools for swimming (ie. our communtity center) will not let people in with scuba gear unless it is with certified dive professionals around as their lifeguards are not equipped to pull someone in full gear out of a pool who may have an unanticipated problem. And the dive professionals are the people who carry the liability for such accidents. And for most of us, the only way to get tanks filled is from the LDS (as I don't have and never will deal with maintenance and filtering issues on a compressor that I seldom use for this purpose) and that wouldn't be a huge issue for her to get tanks filled there if that is the case. Believe me, these people are not making their living filling tanks. They make their living selling gear and ADVANCED LESSONS. I know for a fact that I have paid far more for my advanced training than I have for my open water training.And the local LDS here probably couldn't stay in business and live comfortably if his wife wasn't high up in one of the automotive companies in the area. He makes a profit, but just enough of one to support the shop and himself if he kept life basic.
Her best option may be to have another LDS make it right. We really don't know quite enough to say. For instance, for all we know, the LDS may not have sold her any gear. Many of our students buy after the lessons are over and they have been diving in rental gear in the Caribbean or elsewhere. Then, for some mysterious reason, they seem to want their own gear. There is no rip-off on our LDS's part there from my point of view.
The rip-off here is on the lack of time spent in training by the LDS of some of the people in this thread and that is correctable.
Windwalker
Contributor
When I hear of the training of some shops I am amazed. There seems to be A LOT of variation in the Dive industry.
For those people thinking of learning to dive, I would recommend checking the Local colleges. Classes can be Very cheap ($50 for my class, $50 for books, and $100 for Equipment rental for 8 weeks) and they have to follow certian safety standards.
I took my Classes through a Community College. It lasted a term. Each Wednesday we had one hour of Lecture and three hours of Pool time. While in the pool we had one instructor for every two students, and one master instructor. Even though couples took the class, we were broken up every time with someone new. Each class was taught at a level. Three hours to learn Mask and Snorkel skills. The next class was Putting the gear together/Maintaining the Gear and Basic Boyancy control. No under water stuff yet.
Each class after that was progressivly harder and included about 20-30 minutes of Pool play time where students could just "Get the Feel" of what they were doing.
Each class made us do the skills practiced in all the previous classes.
We had several people in the class, one person could not swim and was instructed to take a swimming course (the person was then allowed back at no additional charge)
When someone had a problem, one of the backup instructors would take as much time as necessary to help the person.
Our open water was done off the Dive shops boat (the course was sponsored by a local shop) in about 3-5 foot of visibility in 48 degree water. Half the class were men, the other half were women. No one had any problems passing.
I am convinced that it was the diligence and patience of the instructors during class that made us all so comfortible in the water.
I remember practicing Mask removals in the pool, I would rip the mask of and sit there waiting for the tap on my head. The instructor tapped me on my head and then motioned that I should surface. He gave me some sage advice. Flood the mask Slooooooooowly... he warned. When we get to "the sound" the water is going to shock you.
Well. he was right. When I had to do the mask removal at 60 feet that water was COLD! I am glad I listened to him.
Rememer, There is NO race to flood your mask.. Do it at your pace. If the instructor thinks your doing it too slowly.. Then you need another instructor.
This is how I feel a Dive class should be taught. I could not imagine a better way. I know there are lots of instructors here who will disagree but.. Hey! This is my experience and my opinion!
For those people thinking of learning to dive, I would recommend checking the Local colleges. Classes can be Very cheap ($50 for my class, $50 for books, and $100 for Equipment rental for 8 weeks) and they have to follow certian safety standards.
I took my Classes through a Community College. It lasted a term. Each Wednesday we had one hour of Lecture and three hours of Pool time. While in the pool we had one instructor for every two students, and one master instructor. Even though couples took the class, we were broken up every time with someone new. Each class was taught at a level. Three hours to learn Mask and Snorkel skills. The next class was Putting the gear together/Maintaining the Gear and Basic Boyancy control. No under water stuff yet.
Each class after that was progressivly harder and included about 20-30 minutes of Pool play time where students could just "Get the Feel" of what they were doing.
Each class made us do the skills practiced in all the previous classes.
We had several people in the class, one person could not swim and was instructed to take a swimming course (the person was then allowed back at no additional charge)
When someone had a problem, one of the backup instructors would take as much time as necessary to help the person.
Our open water was done off the Dive shops boat (the course was sponsored by a local shop) in about 3-5 foot of visibility in 48 degree water. Half the class were men, the other half were women. No one had any problems passing.
I am convinced that it was the diligence and patience of the instructors during class that made us all so comfortible in the water.
I remember practicing Mask removals in the pool, I would rip the mask of and sit there waiting for the tap on my head. The instructor tapped me on my head and then motioned that I should surface. He gave me some sage advice. Flood the mask Slooooooooowly... he warned. When we get to "the sound" the water is going to shock you.
Well. he was right. When I had to do the mask removal at 60 feet that water was COLD! I am glad I listened to him.
Rememer, There is NO race to flood your mask.. Do it at your pace. If the instructor thinks your doing it too slowly.. Then you need another instructor.
This is how I feel a Dive class should be taught. I could not imagine a better way. I know there are lots of instructors here who will disagree but.. Hey! This is my experience and my opinion!
Paco,
Good news here!
It's not over yet. Sounds like she enjoyed the rest of the diving. Don't push, don't force, rather, casually encourage her to go again. Tell her it's not necessary yet to do her mask clears. Arrange with her instructor for her to attend another day just like THAT one, at the very same place with the same conditions. It may even take a few times. I don't know an instructor that would say no to this request. Don't let her feel bad about it, rather, minimalize the whole thing with a shrug, tell her it's no big deal, lots of people feel that way at first. Then, insert some encouragement that she do it again, remind her how she liked the rest of the diving that day. Make it no pressure though.
If she had fun with the other past of the dives, watch her amazement when she sees it's her turn to do mask clears again, and she says "Oh what the hell" and clears it. I find women are often prone to confronting ANY fear in due time. Once again, offer gentle encouragement, don't push, let it be her decision, and watch her take it from there. Nothing wrong with remediation. In fact, think of it as a plus, she got in some extra training dives.
Good news here!
It's not over yet. Sounds like she enjoyed the rest of the diving. Don't push, don't force, rather, casually encourage her to go again. Tell her it's not necessary yet to do her mask clears. Arrange with her instructor for her to attend another day just like THAT one, at the very same place with the same conditions. It may even take a few times. I don't know an instructor that would say no to this request. Don't let her feel bad about it, rather, minimalize the whole thing with a shrug, tell her it's no big deal, lots of people feel that way at first. Then, insert some encouragement that she do it again, remind her how she liked the rest of the diving that day. Make it no pressure though.
If she had fun with the other past of the dives, watch her amazement when she sees it's her turn to do mask clears again, and she says "Oh what the hell" and clears it. I find women are often prone to confronting ANY fear in due time. Once again, offer gentle encouragement, don't push, let it be her decision, and watch her take it from there. Nothing wrong with remediation. In fact, think of it as a plus, she got in some extra training dives.
Okay, let me clarify some things. The amount of money I paid was for 3 people to get certified plus purchase 3 snorkels, fins, masks, booties (if that's what their called), weight belt & weights and 1 wetsuit for myself. My gear came to $1100, the class was $447 for 3, my open water dives were $200 for 3. The dive class knocked $100 off the open water dive plus gave us 20% off our gear. I thought it seemed reasonable. I did compare prices to other dive shops which were the same. I do not have a BCD and all that stuff to even practice with.
I have my own swimming pool but it is only a 5 ft deep above ground. I do know someone w/ a pool w/ a depth of 10 ft. however, the closest place to rent tanks is 2 hrs. away. If I had my own I don't know if there would even be a place close by to fill it.
I did finish my class and did everything I was suppose to during my 4 dives for my certification and I will get my card. I think I just need more pool time to get comfortable swimming without a mask and doing emergency ascends. I do not feel confident doing those because I had to take a breath twice from 12 ft. I don't understand how I'm running out of air since the air in my lungs is suppose to expand. Maybe I'm letting too much air out when I'm saying ahhh. I don't know. I only did it twice in class and both times didn't do it right. If I ever had to do an emergency ascend on a dive I might as well drown because I don't think I'll make it to the top and the fact doing it scares me I might panic trying. There is zero comfort there. The mask removal is scary but I was comfortable the 2nd day in the pool. In fact I swam around with no mask, eyes shut and was fine until I got kicked in the face w/ a fin 3 times. It was an exercise we were doing and I wasn't suppose to surface but I did because I was kicked in the face. The open water lake is a whole different story. I was terrified of that lake and going deep. The pool was only 12 ft. so I knew I'd be fine there. The first day I didn't want to go to the lake. I told the owner I didn't feel like I was ready to go to the lake. She asked why, told me all I was going to do was go under for 20 min. at 25-30 ft, no skills and I said I still didn't want to. She said that was fine and scheduled me for next weekend. Then I get to class, told the instructor and he sat there forever trying to convince me I should go. I finally just gave in and said okay. They didn't "make" me go, I went on my own free will but enough pressure was put on me until I said okay. Then I told the owner they talked me into going and she said just said okay I'll take you off next weekend. I still had zero comfort in the lake the first day, went maybe 4 ft under w/ my class and came back up and said I couldn't do it. The other instructor talked w/ me, tried to make me feel more comfortable and instead of following the rope at an incline took me out to 10 ft and we went under together. Then we went to 21 ft and went under together. I was scared and holding on to him for dear life but I did it. I only stayed under 15 min because I slowly kicked my way to the top. The 2nd day was the same. I was still scared and didn't want to do it. I went under and did my 2nd dive and did my pivots and everything. Then the 2rd dive had to remove my mask. I was just starting to feel better about being in the lake and was not ready for that. That's when I panicked started to ascend and my instructor pulled me down and held me there. Maybe if I could have went under a few more times just sitting there getting a feel of being deeper than 12 ft then I would have been more comfortable. I think it made a difference as to which instructor I was with. One of them (we'll call him Alex) was very persistant, pushy, impatient. The other one (we'll call him Chad) was very laid back, understanding and let me take my time on stuff. The problem is that Alex was the main instructor running the class. My last dive I flat out asked Chad to take me because I knew I couldn't do it with Alex after he held me under when I was about to panic. Part of it could be that I just didn't trust Alex and he made me feel uncomfortable all the time. I was so much calmer w/ Chad. I'm sure Alex just wanted to calm me down, maybe he thought I would catch my breath and feel better but I'm not like that. Once I'm freaked out I have to go back to a comfortable place (the surface) and relax a bit. Later the more I thought about him holding me there the more I thought I should have kicked him in the groin, swam to the top and calmed myself down. Either that or turn his tank off and let him know how it feels to sit there gasping for air and panicking.
Honestly I think I can dive once I'm comfortable and master my skills. I am not trying to be a pro just want to be able to do it with full comfort and no fear.
I have my own swimming pool but it is only a 5 ft deep above ground. I do know someone w/ a pool w/ a depth of 10 ft. however, the closest place to rent tanks is 2 hrs. away. If I had my own I don't know if there would even be a place close by to fill it.
I did finish my class and did everything I was suppose to during my 4 dives for my certification and I will get my card. I think I just need more pool time to get comfortable swimming without a mask and doing emergency ascends. I do not feel confident doing those because I had to take a breath twice from 12 ft. I don't understand how I'm running out of air since the air in my lungs is suppose to expand. Maybe I'm letting too much air out when I'm saying ahhh. I don't know. I only did it twice in class and both times didn't do it right. If I ever had to do an emergency ascend on a dive I might as well drown because I don't think I'll make it to the top and the fact doing it scares me I might panic trying. There is zero comfort there. The mask removal is scary but I was comfortable the 2nd day in the pool. In fact I swam around with no mask, eyes shut and was fine until I got kicked in the face w/ a fin 3 times. It was an exercise we were doing and I wasn't suppose to surface but I did because I was kicked in the face. The open water lake is a whole different story. I was terrified of that lake and going deep. The pool was only 12 ft. so I knew I'd be fine there. The first day I didn't want to go to the lake. I told the owner I didn't feel like I was ready to go to the lake. She asked why, told me all I was going to do was go under for 20 min. at 25-30 ft, no skills and I said I still didn't want to. She said that was fine and scheduled me for next weekend. Then I get to class, told the instructor and he sat there forever trying to convince me I should go. I finally just gave in and said okay. They didn't "make" me go, I went on my own free will but enough pressure was put on me until I said okay. Then I told the owner they talked me into going and she said just said okay I'll take you off next weekend. I still had zero comfort in the lake the first day, went maybe 4 ft under w/ my class and came back up and said I couldn't do it. The other instructor talked w/ me, tried to make me feel more comfortable and instead of following the rope at an incline took me out to 10 ft and we went under together. Then we went to 21 ft and went under together. I was scared and holding on to him for dear life but I did it. I only stayed under 15 min because I slowly kicked my way to the top. The 2nd day was the same. I was still scared and didn't want to do it. I went under and did my 2nd dive and did my pivots and everything. Then the 2rd dive had to remove my mask. I was just starting to feel better about being in the lake and was not ready for that. That's when I panicked started to ascend and my instructor pulled me down and held me there. Maybe if I could have went under a few more times just sitting there getting a feel of being deeper than 12 ft then I would have been more comfortable. I think it made a difference as to which instructor I was with. One of them (we'll call him Alex) was very persistant, pushy, impatient. The other one (we'll call him Chad) was very laid back, understanding and let me take my time on stuff. The problem is that Alex was the main instructor running the class. My last dive I flat out asked Chad to take me because I knew I couldn't do it with Alex after he held me under when I was about to panic. Part of it could be that I just didn't trust Alex and he made me feel uncomfortable all the time. I was so much calmer w/ Chad. I'm sure Alex just wanted to calm me down, maybe he thought I would catch my breath and feel better but I'm not like that. Once I'm freaked out I have to go back to a comfortable place (the surface) and relax a bit. Later the more I thought about him holding me there the more I thought I should have kicked him in the groin, swam to the top and calmed myself down. Either that or turn his tank off and let him know how it feels to sit there gasping for air and panicking.
Honestly I think I can dive once I'm comfortable and master my skills. I am not trying to be a pro just want to be able to do it with full comfort and no fear.
OP
It was Sunday when she had her panic situation. On Monday I took her to a pool and we practiced all the skills we could think of until she was comfortable, first in the shallow end, then the deep end. On Tuesday we went back to the lake and she joined another part 2 group and did fine. Today (Wednesday) she completed the OW training confidently and with fun. She admitted that she is the type that needs to "study before the test" meaning she only needed more practice. She's excited and said the check out dives (this second time around) were fun.
We intend to improve all her diving skills with frequent dives together. Hooray!
We intend to improve all her diving skills with frequent dives together. Hooray!
Conor
Guest
Congatulations
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