Failed Open Water Cert Dive - Panicked and Bolted for the Surface - Confidence gone!

[lowviz]

So become an informed consumer and shop around first...

---------- Post added May 21st, 2013 at 09:02 PM ----------

-and if you don't find what you want, compromise, but make your concerns explicitly known at the outset.

 

[CamG]

nny8666 Stop before you go any further or make a decision and RELAX!
Calm down breath go to your happy place and regain your composer.
This bolt to the surface is nothing more than a hiccup in your training indicating you need a bit more work to gain comfort.
Rewind, relax, you can overcome this issue.
I to was in a OW class with two college students and my wife who had no troubles at all.
I was like the 4th wheel of disfunction yet my instructor and dm took the time to put extra pool time and much effort to work me through the skills.
When we got to OW I completed the skills but needed much work to gain mastery.

In the coming months I was determined to master them and gain comfort with my new gear.
It took time and determination but the efforts were rewarded with something very different than what I expected.
The process recharged my entire life as well as empowered me to strive for more than just good enough.
YOU CAN DO THIS!
If you are close to my local quarry ever look me up or if you wish to work on skills PM me.
You and your husband come and dive with us we train all the time to keep are skills sharp.

Good luck and stick to your training you can over come this.

CamG

 

[lowviz]

-and take a 'Canadian' approach to life. They don't seem to take much of anything on 'faith'...

 

[spectrum]

NNY8666,

Heck don't stop now, you were out in the ocean diving for heavens sake!

Sometimes things just don't come together the way you expect and it makes it tough. My wife's first night in the pool was like that, new job, time of the month, class anxiety and 1 or 2 other things I can't recall. A week later she took another bite at the apple and got back on track. You're not the first to get knocked off course.

Too bad about the buddy switch but at this point the buddy is just a buddy for you to be paired with while you demonstrate for the instructor. Maybe you can hook up with her next time. Otherwise just go diving with whoever they pair you with.

The big crime was that you got into heavy gear for the first time that day. If not the full suit your should have been in hood and gloves after the first pool session. Cold water gear is actually perfectly comfortable but it needs to fit and it takes a little bit of acclimation. Lacking acclimation and not knowing about fit I can see where you had tough sledding.

It does not sound like you had any big issues with the actual skills which is great news.

It is true that to a great extent we can all look alike down there. One buddy skill is to learn unique identifiers. He has the blue fins, she as the pink cylinder......... These are the sort of things they don't usually bother to mention in class. Watching your buddy like a hawk is also an option but getting in the water for the first time your senses were already on overload. Live and learn.

You mention wanting to borrow gear to do a "dry run" with your husband. There is a current thread about that going to heck. Just say no.

What I do suggest you do is rent a full wetsuit set and a little bit of weight, take your mask, snorkel and fins and go snorkeling/skindiving with your husband. Find a peaceful cove and run the perimeter over a depth where you can still see the bottom. It will acclimate you to the world you will soon be visiting, get you used to the suit, oral breathing with a wet face, nearly the real deal. Come check-out time just add cylinder, BC and regulator and you are good to go.

If you can get all of the gear into the pool and do a proper weight check and adjust for the ocean that's icing on the cake but get out there for a few skin-diving sessions. An hour+ can go by real fast doing so. This will also let you get used to a little surge, wave action, the salinity and a host of factors that will ease your transition all with a simple safe activity.

I hope you will read the 3 links I provided, they tell the whole story behind this post.

We know you can do this because you already have. just get acclimated and bring it home. Trust me it will be worth it.

Pete

Oh and don't wory about not being athletic. This sport is all about relaxing, being skilled and understanding the situation. Handling the gear can be a little work but once you learn the dance it a mere shadow of what it seems like at first. Just take your time and you will find that you have what it takes. When you are going diving you will have the coice of picking an easy site when it's calm and the tide is right. Very often shops go at their convenience ignoring all of the above. Consider it a stress test!

 

[LowDrag]

I know how you feel. On my third dive of my OW certification in January 2012 I bolted for the surface as well. My story is about wearing a farmer john wetsuit that was way too tight causing me to feel like I could not get a breath. I completed my skills with only one issue. As I was replacing my main second stage after switching from my AirII, I got a bit anxious and inhaled some water when I did not clear my reg well enough. With the anxiety building, the inhaling the water was the straw that broke the camels back. I hit the surface faster than you can say oh $hit!!! After my finishing our skills tests we were supposed to go out on a tour of the surrounding area and then back to the stairs. Not once was I comfortable enough to make the tour part of the dive. After hitting the surface my instructor told me I was done and that I should come back another time. I knew he was right, I was too strung out from the anxiety to go on. The following June my wife and I went back and brought my son with us. The water was so murky that I could barely see the instructor a foot away from me. To ease the stress of remembering my first attempt at certification I made a joke of being nervous and would do like Will Smith & Martin Lawrence did in Bad Boys (the movie) and I would rub my ears and say "oooosawwww". One time I was getting a bit nervous and so I did the ear rub thing in front of our DiveCon. I thought he was going to blow his reg out of his mouth he started to laugh so hard. Anyway, my point to this is to let you know that the advice you have been given so far is good advice. These people here on SB gave me pretty much the same advice as they have given you. I continued to dive a few dives after OW and took a break over the winter due to my wife having spinal/cervical surgery in October. Now that she is released back to dive status we are starting our AOW classes. Don't stop because of your first experience, it was not good but you can overcome if you really want to. I know I did and I love diving.

Good luck!!!

 

[Darol]

The very idea of taking someone out on a certification dive, and that being their first time in a wetsuit with a hood that's too tight, seems wrong.
The very idea of yelling at someone for any reason, when you are paying them to teach you a skill, seems just wrong as well. Instructor, my A$$.
You, or anyone else, deserve better.

 

[Wingy]

I was the only female student, most were young, athletic men and I was very intimidated by that.


I can relate to this - Dr Lector with due respect unless you are a middle aged woman it does have an impact when you are undertaking a new experience and especially with unfamiliar people. An example - I went for a dive with a dive club, none of whom I had ever met before. I rock up to find its shore diving and the access to the dive site is on a main road and as it was a night dive peak hour traffic. Im 47 now, think I must have been about 45 then. So there I am struggling into a 7mm bending over in a bathing suit with cars honking their horns from behind (from behind, they couldnt see my face ) and I look up at a guy talking to me to realise he is looking down talking to me while im trying to gear up and I caught his eyes where they shouldnt have been. I have breastfed twins.....so i am never going to look amazing from that angle. Confidence BLOWN. And im an experienced diver with quite a few dives in quite a few countries under my belt. Have I ever gone back to that dive site with that dive club? NO. Did I enjoy or do well on that dive? NO. The cars honking their horns, the guy copping an eyeful, the entire experience before I even got in the water put me right off my game. Did I lose confidence in my diving - no, because i examined what went wrong and why and decided that particular diving experience is not for me. Do I consider diving with guys a problem - no, it was just that combined experience of the situation and the location and the guy younger than my sons staring down my bathing suit while i was gearing up.

You are far from the first or last person to bolt to the surface. There are really great instructors and really dismal ones. Some have egos which would suggest they are neurosurgeons not dive instructors - if someone is yelling that they are going to have to save you before you even start or yelling Ive had 2000 dives (yeah, at koh lanta..doesnt make you the world authority on diving anywhere but koh lanta) to me, thats their ego problem not your learning problem. If I dont click with someone (as you said you did not care for the wife before you even tried OW) I dont dive with them. Simple as that. You had so much going against you before you even set out (non familiar buddy, new environment, unsuitable or uncomfortable gear) concentrate on the things you did right (you didnt rip your reg out and scream underwater and turn into the flailing ball of panic) and give yourself a pat on the back.

Take a bit of time to put things in perspective and ask around about other instructors. So what if some people breeze through their certification without any problems and some people take a bit longer to find their fins. You may look back at this in years to come and say..im glad i got that experience early on, i know now how to say no, I know when to call it, I know I once panicked and lived through that so I know if it happens again I will be able to work through it. You can ask the LDS you are using for a referral. Finish your OW course somewhere else with people you feel more comfortable with. Can you contact the girl you did your pool work with and see where she is now? perhaps she may be able to meet you for some pool sessions at another shop.

I see this on Facebook often regarding women's bodies changes as we get older and bring new humans into this world , You are a tiger and you've earned those stripes. As far as not feeling comfy in your swim suit around younger guys remember your tiger stripes.

 

[DCBC]

Our students are in an 84 degree pool, and their wetsuits are 14 mm of neoprene. I honestly don't know if they would really overheat, but it doesn't matter, because the shop owner doesn't want his expensive open water wetsuits damaged by the chlorine.

Yes, profit often takes precedence over education in Diver training. When I owned a LDS, I washed and rinsed all wet suits once they were returned. You're correct that Chlorine can attack the fabric of wet suits over time, but this just isn't a factor if the suit is washed. If he doesn't wash them, Chlorine would be a factor, but so would urine...

I do understand that "he's the owner" and you have to do things his way. Owners do however affect the training that students receive; this is just one example.

Saying that you don't do this for student safety reasons is just unwarranted and is an idea that needs to be debunked. As I understand it, the real reason is that this is a particular Shop's policy.

 

[sbtag]

Your experience is not particularly uncommon. One of the best divers I know, now diving for about ten years, failed his first OW certification for the same reason (panicked and shooting for the surface).

The dive shop you trained with should have had you do some work in the pool with ALL of the equipment you'd be using on your checkout dives. Diving in cold water with a hooded wetsuit for the first time on the day of your checkout is quite a bit of additional stress, not to mention the fact that this would have required you to adjust your weight. Don't be too hard on yourself; the dive shop here owns the lionshare of the blame for this.

I encourage you to try again. Lots of people 'fail' their first OW certification dives for any number of reasons. Just think of it as a lesson learned and a valuable learning experience rather than a failure.

 

[btw2459]

My wife was OW certified a couple of weeks ago. The instructor allowed me to blow some bubbles and watch what she was doing during the class. She like you was stressed during the course. I think she took a little comfort in me being around. Maybe your husband can go along for morale support?