Bad OW experience (Warning: Really long post!)

[Wendy]

Sounds like LDS-1 isn't very helpful. Maybe you need to end up with a LDS-3.

If you are being pushed face first at the surface maybe you are overfilling your BC. You don't have to have it fully inflated to stay bouyant at the surface. Also maybe your tank is too high, pushing you forward and also that might explain the floating feet. 40 lbs of lead does sound like a lot. What kinda suit are you wearing and what's your build (if you don't mind me asking). You will find over time that as you relax and get comfortable in the water that you will need less weight.

Keep us posted on what happens.

 

[metridium]

Originally posted by ScubaFishee

Sorry to disappoint you WreckWriter. You are wrong. The LDS does not allow any equipment in their pool unless it was either it is either bought or rented from them.

Anything to herd people toward buying ever more useless but highly profitable gear.

So what brands does this LDS push?

 

[flyingsherpa]

We weren't allowed to use any gear not bought or rented from them for the OW dives or pool sessions (mask, fins, and snorkel being the only exceptions). They claimed it was for safety reasons so they 'knew' the gear was good, but they way they 'encouraged' all the students to buy ALL their gear before the class had barely started made me think otherwise. I was the only one who didn't buy all my gear and I kind of got the feeling that they resented me for that. But maybe that was in my head...

Anyway, that was one of the reasons why I don't frequent that LDS anymore.

chris

 

[WreckWriter]

Equipment sales are where almost all shops make their profit. Everything else, training, trips, etc. is a vehicle for equipment sales.

Tom

 

[landlocked]

It sounds to me like everything is going great. Having been through the same process recently, I would say that you are right on schedule. I think you handled the situation very well.

Too many things at once. It happened to me and I had a bad experience also. In fact mine centered around a new back inflate bc also. Your new bc needs some time to get the trim weight/face down thing worked out. When you add weight due to neoprene etc. the configuration, front to back, may need adjusting. That alone is a big bite to try and accomplish in one dive. Add a bad snorkel and you were doomed. As they say, no dive is a bad dive, we learn from them all.

The end result is worth the effort.

 

[Uncle Pug]

ScubaFishee
You will realize your dream... hang in there!
Yes... you were seriously overweighted... you should be floating at eye level with no air in the BC and 1/2 lung full...

Shame on LDS1... shame on LDS2 instructor... and I want to say shame on some others too... but I'll stop here.

You have already learned some very valuable lessons and expressed them quite well in your posts.

 

[large_diver]

Wow -- sounds like it was a harrowing experience. Kudos to you for not giving up yet.

Echoing Walter's suggestion, perhaps some practice is what you need.

Once you get the new snorkel, try to get some pool (or bathtub) time with the snorkel -- although make sure the shower curtain is closed when purging ;-) Ideally this would be in an environment where there is no/low stress, hopefully in a pool and with nothing on except your bathing suit/mask/fins. This will allow you to focus on using/purging your snorkel without worrying about the other stuff that can stress you out during check-out dives.

Good luck -- and come back and report how things go!

 

[chrispete]

I think she's been trying to tell us that she has a pretty standard snorkle as most snorkles sold in LDS's today have the "vents" that she spoke of, whether they vent sideways or down. It doesn't sound like she's trying to use a high-tech-neato-gadget snorkle (i.e. toy.)

I'm surprised that only on person said to check the purge valve (curled valve, I believe, no one even mentioned the valve being held up with debris), which is most likely the suspect in this failure. This would have taught ScubaFishee and many other newbies lurking through these forums that this particular failure is possible and how to solve the problem in the future.

I have learned a lot, I mean a lot, from reading these boards in the past month or so, but I have to tell those experienced divers out there - assume nothing and don't jump us for elementary mistakes or questions - at least we're asking and not assuming the answers - teach us.

 

[WreckWriter]

Originally posted by chrispete
I think she's been trying to tell us that she has a pretty standard snorkle as most snorkles sold in LDS's today have the "vents" that she spoke of, whether they vent sideways or down. It doesn't sound like she's trying to use a high-tech-neato-gadget snorkle (i.e. toy.)

I'm surprised that only on person said to check the purge valve (curled valve, I believe, no one even mentioned the valve being held up with debris), which is most likely the suspect in this failure. This would have taught ScubaFishee and many other newbies lurking through these forums that this particular failure is possible and how to solve the problem in the future.

I have learned a lot, I mean a lot, from reading these boards in the past month or so, but I have to tell those experienced divers out there - assume nothing and don't jump us for elementary mistakes or questions - at least we're asking and not assuming the answers - teach us.

Well Chris, I think you and I have different definitions of what constitues a toy.

As for your second point, I did attempt to tell her how to fix a leaking snorkle (only works 90% of the time though). The same method also fixes the problem you describe.

A lot of folks are clearly pissed off at me for my original response to this thread. OK, that's cool, I admit it was a bit harsh. I do tend to look from the instructor viewpoint and I suspect there are things tthat we weren't told.

Tom

 

[Uncle Pug]

Tom...
Just say, "I'm sorry.... I was a totally insensitive bellicose stupidhead.... please forgive me."





(they'll love you for it... they eat that stuff up! )