HELP!!! Newbie cant get used to the breathing

[devolution365]

The friend I was certified with 7-8 years ago had a hard time with breathing underwater as well. It took him at least twice as long as the rest of the class to be able to do the drills while fighting the urge to surface. It took him awhile, but he kept practicing and he's got at least 5 times as many dives as I do under his belt now (I had no problems at all in class). So, don't worry. If you're willing to work at it, you'll do fine. (As a side note, don't compare your progress to anyone else's. Everyone is different. It's quite possible that this will all click for you one day and you'll surpass the people you thought were so far ahead of you!)

Also, whenever I get a cold I get kinda weird about breathing on land when in confined spaces, in crowds, or during periods of high heat and humidity. It's not uncommon to feel like that when you're sick -even above water. Add the dry air and being new to scuba and it's no suprise at all that you had problems. Forget about your past problems, relax, and go breathe underwater again. It's so neat when it becomes second nature!

 

[RonFrank]

Practice... but WAIT UNTIL you are over your Flu!

I agree that the instructors should have NOT put you in the water with a cold. It's a new experience, and you need to focus on the task at hand. To do that you need to be in good health, not thinking about a sore throat, or getting ready to hack a lung into the regulator during your first UW experience.

It's less healthy for all those who were around you in close quarters as well. I'm sure the individual who had the pleasure of sharing your regulator during buddy breathing was thrilled.

I think all you need is more time in the pool underwater. Make SURE you are comfortable sitting at the bottom of the pool for 30 minutes at a time before you do your OW checkout dives. You should be able to maintain reasonable buoyancy, and feel relaxed. IMO diving is VERY relaxing :05:

This may take some additional pool sessions especially as it sounds like your first was somewhat less than it could have been. Any good LDS should offer the new OW student additional pool time at a nominal fee or free. Ours offered weekly pool sessions for new OW students between our education, and checkout dives which in my case were about a month apart.

Good Luck, and no worries yet, you should be OK once you get some more time UW.

 

[DandyDon]

Yeah, the air is dry coming out of the tank - has to be. You'll get used to it, but you probably need to hydrate more. The rest you'll work out.

 

[azrint]

Dunno 'bout the rest but visualization helps me a lot. The best piece of advice I got was to imagine as if you are smoking when inhaling through the regulator. Regulator in mouth=lighter lighting up the ciggaratte. And the rest is smoking i.e. long deep breath and exhale.

It works for me. Pretend I'm smoking, relaxed and enjoy the scenery.Come to think of it smoking also isn't fun when u having flu.

 

[PaulChristenson]

Hi Guys,

Im a newbie and my first confined 'dive' on my PADI OW course has been a disaster. I was ill on the day with a flu virus/heavy cold/temperature which I dont suppose helped much. I couldnt relax with the breathing at all, as soon as I was under water for more than a few minutes I felt the urge to surface.

Geez...you probably couldn't relax with breathing on the surface, before you got in the water...never mind adding scuba equipment...:-(

Get well...then go have fun

Paul in VT

 

[spectrum]

As somebody that got certified in September, I remember that feeling also. One thing that helped me was practicing in my own pool with a snorkel. Many of the folks that were getting certified had much more experience snorkeling than me. (None.) The idea of breathing "underwater" is simulated with the snorkel, and it really helped me get used to the regulator.

Ding Ding Ding, a winning answer IMO.

I assume you own you basic gear so get your booties and fins, mask and snorkel to your local Y ow whatever water you can find and begin doing skin-dive laps, just surface swimming for openers. Messing aroundin Rec lanes is good too. You can work up to duck dives when you are ready.

As mentioned your are adpating and for some it's easier than others. Primal instncts are going TILT when you put your face in the water and try to breathe. Just start kicking slowly with your hands by your side and relax. You will grow accunstomed to sustained oral breathing. Instictively the dead volume of the snorkel will get you into a nice slow deeeep breathing pattern that will be your bonanza when you start breathing from a regulator. The swimming with fins will also condition your legs making cramps in scuba gear much less likely. You don't need a buddy and you will make tremendous progress without burning class time.

As for the dry air and the illness you should have never been alowed in the pool. It was way to easy to get an ear injury and if there was lung congestion bad stuff could have happened there too. Your condition probably exacerbated the dry mouth.

When you feel dry think of a favorite food, pizza works for me. As the saliva starts to flow. Remove your regulator, close your mouth and irrigate your mouth with the saliva and swallow. Replace your regulator and off you go and you drilled regulator R&R as a bonus!

Have fun, give yourself time and you will adapt.
We're pulling for you, and yes it will be worth it all.

Pete

 

[BetterLateThannever]

I remember signing up for the Cert course and purchasing the obligatory; fins, mask, snorkel. Of course I couldn't wait for the scheduled class so, I dashed out to the nearest pool, donned my minty fresh new gear with every intention of plunging my face into the water and breathing like a fish. Only problem...my body refused to cooperate. I couldn't believe how difficult it was to force myself to breath with my face in the water. Seems funny now, but that was the most unnatural thing I ever did.

Oh, yeah...don't ever try this sport with a flu, cold, stopped up nose etc. Have fun!

 

[jeckyll]

I sent this in a PM to someone with whom I had a similar PM discussion:

I had real issues in the first class. I could get underwater & kneel but could not relax. When told I'd have to take my reg out and sweep to retrieve it, I said "Hell no" and got out of the water. I was very discouraged. The instructors encouraged me not to give up.
One of the instructors, worked with me on the 2nd night. We tried just snorkelling, but I still had issues, so we stood in the shallow end, with the masks on and chatted. After a few minutes, we swam around a bit. After a few more minutes I put the snorkel in and swam back and forth. After 10 minutes of snorkelling I put on the gear and by the end of the hour in the pool had completed all required parts of class one. I took 3 or 4 more one-on-one sessions to get caught up, but by the last pool class I was caught up to my class and did my OW ocean dives with them.

I've come a loooong way from that point. Don't let the first lesson throw you.
Obviously I agree with spectrum, snorkelling is the answer, at least it certainly was for me.

Best of luck and please update us on your progress.

Bjorn

 

[lamont]

Also, rental regs are typically pretty lousy and breathe hard. If you've got a good reg you'll pretty much forget about work-of-breathing issues when you're underwater (although its a little bit alien at the very beginning).

 

[craborn]

I tell all of my students that they may be nervous on the first dive and think this is not for them but the second dive they will feel better and by the third dive they will feel much better and be ready to continue learning.