Bummer on OW Certification

[Diversauras]

DiveRoper once bubbled...
I totaly agree. My question is what or how is the best way to practice buoyancy control, while swiming, is such a confined space?

Swimming hides the problem, if you can select a depth and stay there completely still then you've got it. Obviously being able to change dept and reacquire neutral is the real test...

 

[MikeFerrara]

Diversauras once bubbled...


Swimming hides the problem, if you can select a depth and stay there completely still then you've got it. Obviously being able to change dept and reacquire neutral is the real test...

Agreed 100%. Swimming can mask not being neutral. Hover horizontally and practice finning technique by going a little and stopping, backing and turning (pivoting).

 

[divebuddydale]

You know what stinks about this. The LDS where I took my AOW, would allow any person who failed OW to redo any pool training (no charge for use of equipment) until they feel comfortable doing skills in a pool. (if they made it to the OW dives, the instructor rates them fairly strictly in the pool sessions before the checkouts, to see if they are ready for OW dives).

So any good shop would allow the same, let their students continue to practice in the pool, give extra tips, then send them out for OW cert again.

This other practice that you mention seems a bit fishy.

Dale

 

[diverbrian]

DiveRoper once bubbled...

Both of us had buoyancy control while at the platform, could easily hover but when asked to swim around the platform at a particular depth, either we went to high or to deep.

My wife even did a "free fall", thought that was in sky diving.

I just noticed something in this post. If you could hover (normally meaning stop and hold level), why where you having problems when swimming.? The swimming normally hides buoyancy control issues. Hovering is generally more difficult due to the lack of movement to cover up a person's problems.

I would say that your instructor in the pool failed you more than the open water instructor. Your pool instructor should have had this stuff squared away to begin with before passing you on. At least you got an open water instructor who cared about not seeing students hurt.

 

[MikeFerrara]

diverbrian once bubbled...


I just noticed something in this post. If you could hover (normally meaning stop and hold level), why where you having problems when swimming.? The swimming normally hides buoyancy control issues. Hovering is generally more difficult due to the lack of movement to cover up a person's problems.

My guess is trim. If you're head up you need to be negative to move foreward without going up also. When you stop swimming you sink. Then...you add air but when you start to swim again you go up so you dump air. The moment you stp paying attention or get behind you fing yourself in the bottom or at the surface or just working real hard to avoid it.

 

[JohnF]

but it sounds like you got caught up in assemblyline diver manufacturing. Even if you really really sucked (and I'm not saying that's the case), your class instructor should have recognized your needs and dealt with them. No two people adjust to the requirements of diving with the same degree of ease and any good instructor should and will make allowances and not send you away from a lesson without either helping you out or suggesting you need extra tutelage or perhaps explain diplomatically to you that you're just a klutz and shouldn't risk your life in the ocean. 8)

I can remember our instructor giving some extra time to some students in the pool while his assistants took some of us off to play with a few more esoteric skills or just have fun in the water.

We were also lucky in that we got to do our open water dives with the same instructor and assistants who taught us in the pool. Divers tend to quickly forget how nervous we were when we headed out for those OW dives. Having familiar faces to guide us along is a bonus as it eliminates some of the discomfort, and Heaven knows there's enough of that on your first venture to open water.

Having lousy equipment only compounds the problem, and should get you some kind of compensation in the form of extra instruction time. One piece of rental may fail, but to have the mess that you describe suggests crap gear. Perhaps it's an indication of the quality of the instruction as well.

I'd be going back to my instructor and saying that the checkout guy says you weren't adequately prepared, and politely suggest that you want your money's worth, and you want better equipment for the OW checkouts.

If they can't deal with that in a businesslike way, then write off your money spent as a bad investment, say so to the instructor and/or shop, and go find a competent and obliging source for training. Diving ain't rocket science, but it sometimes takes some patience to master to the point where one is at least a reasonably competent beginner diver. You paid the money and should be entitled to the service, or at least an honest assessment. And don't forget the name of the shop and the instructor when you become a diver, because others will be asking for recommendations. You want to make sure no one gets treated like you did.

JF

 

[lordoftheOrings]

i have never in the history of my diving have heard that your confined water instructor is different to your o/w instructor it seems strange to me ...what instructor gets the certs?? do they go halfs ?

where lds that i got my certs will come give people more time in the pool if needed ..no extra charge and if you dont get your o/w cert first time round they take you diving until you do ...no extra charge.

remember when you swim you tend to go where you look if you look down you will start going down if you look up you go up pretty simple huh

if you can hover ok and you arnt playing with low pressure inflator hose while you are swimming (remember only little bits of air is needed then let your lungs do the rest ) try to pick out points where you want to go and swim to them keeping neutral you will get the hang of it the pool size doesnt matter just go round and round till you are confident and get your cert not every one gets it straight away so dont think your the only one

good luck and come back with some results im sure all of us here will be interested

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

I suppose it's good that your ow instructor failed you if you aren't ready but...

Usually you aren't sent off to do the tests until you're ready. For the instructor to test you before you are ready is wrong.

Private lessons? The dive shops in my area will keep training you until you are ready. No extra charge. Is this really an honest instructor or someone pading the bill? Are these private lessons free or an extra?

 

[Phish-phood]

I had a diferent instructor for both my CW and OW sections of the course aswell. The Instructor who does the OW section is the one who signs you off.
The reason they did it like that here is because our OW dive site was more than two hours away so the shop/school owner did the CW sections but then had another instructor contracted to do the OW weekends for him so he could stay run his business.

Couple of points firstly was this a PADI course? If so it clearly states in the manual that there is no such thing as failing the course only that you may need more practice or longer in the water than others so by telling you to go get private lessons the instructor was wrong. If you've paid the money to do the course then you are entitled to get the time it takes with your instructor until you/they are happy with your skills. The only problem that I can see is if your OW was actually a referral so in essence you are paying two different instructors for the two sections of the course.

Secondly if you are doing your finpivots and hovers with no problems and hitting the bouyancy there then can I suggest just relax when it comes to swimming. I am a newbie to diving so I could be way wrong with this but I was always told that once you hit the neutral on a fin pivot/hover you shouldn't need to be playing aorund with adding/dumping air during a dive, you should be using your breathing to control where you are in the water. For example when I dive if I want to move down closer to something I position myself towards it and gently exhale until I am where I want to be at which point I start breathing normally again. Likewise if I want to move up in the water I gently inhale until I am where I want to be.

I can't stay exactly at one fixed depth but when I am neutral I go maybe 25-50cm each side of the depth because when you breathe in rise and when you breathe out you drop but in a controlled and relaxed manner, exactly what I was thought should happen.

It sounds like you are having the same problems I had and still have on occasions, you need to relax, trust that when your fin pivot is right you don't need to play with air much more and become aware of your breathing. What helped me once I had done the fin pivot I would spend a few minutes playing with my breathing, learning about my own breathing and how it affected my movements, how much I would need to breathe in to get so high stuff like that.

 

[diverbrian]

It is routine for the LDS that I frequent to have different instructors for pool (SCUBA I) and OW (SCUBA II). All of our OW sites are two hours away or better and whichever of the four recreational instructors that the shop has free will do the OW course.

Also, it could be two months or more between SCUBA I and whenever the shop can get a large enough class together to make having a SCUBA II worth it. On our college SCUBA I's that I have assisted on, I have seen three different instructors over the course of the seven week program because of vacations or whatnot. As far as who gets credit, our instructors really don't seem to care.

If they do a referral, the instructor who did the SCUBA I gets the credit as he is the one who signs the card in the end.