Comfortability In The Water

[FinnMom]

Lots of people have trouble with the mask replacement, and just generally with having their bare face exposed to water. If you can make this go away, get them comfortable underwater with bare faces, their general anxiety level might be reduced. Try playing with sinking rings, standing on your hands ect. even without a mask. You can also taking the mask off, letting a friend hide it and let the other person search for by touch alone.
Obviously if you can find the equipment to play a little underwater hockey or rugby that would be exceptionally great.

 

[Diver0001]

Are there other suggestions or general advice I can pass along to them about getting more comfortable? Thanks.

Slow down.

I've seen one or two cases of people who never seem to get comfortable on scuba but the remedy is usually to slow down. focusing on breathing and swimming around helps and if it's in the pool adding a mind-focusing task like swimming around the pool with a golf ball balanced on a spoon will help people forget about being nervous.

Time is the secret. A lot of diving courses have a high tempo and the reality is that it's quite common for people to be a little nervous on the first day, especially if something like the mask skill isn't as easy as they thought.

R..

 

[Neilwood]

Slow down.

I've seen one or two cases of people who never seem to get comfortable on scuba but the remedy is usually to slow down. focusing on breathing and swimming around helps and if it's in the pool adding a mind-focusing task like swimming around the pool with a golf ball balanced on a spoon will help people forget about being nervous.

Time is the secret. A lot of diving courses have a high tempo and the reality is that it's quite common for people to be a little nervous on the first day, especially if something like the mask skill isn't as easy as they thought.

R..

A very good suggestion - slow down. The oceans are huge and you are not going to see all of them at once so why try to rush around. Slow & methodical means you actually get to see what is in front of you rather than glancing at a blur while having the wonderful side effect of lowering your air consumption and therefore extending the dive.

I was lucky in that I had a DSD (a long time before I did my OW) where we were pretty much allowed to swim around at our own pace so I was able to get very comfortable with it before the stress of a course environment.

 

[Rich Keller]

Teach them drown proofing. Drownproofing This will make them more confident in the water in general and they can use this technique later wearing a full set of gear to do their weight check. This allows you to get to the minimum amount of weight needed and makes you less reliant on the bcd.

 

[TMHeimer]

Teach them drown proofing. Drownproofing This will make them more confident in the water in general and they can use this technique later wearing a full set of gear to do their weight check. This allows you to get to the minimum amount of weight needed and makes you less reliant on the bcd.

Yeah, and good for acing "float" tests if you're a sinker. May aid also in donning fins, depending on what your preferred in-water method it.