kasdeva
Registered
I am posting this with the hope that it will prevent someone else from making the same mistakes I have made. I dont want to mention dive shops and institutions involved, I accept responsibility for my own actions.
It is a long post, it also a long story. If you make it to end, thanks for listening. A short word of advice on how to do it better will be much appreciated.
I have four qualifying dives scheduled.
One dive on day one, three dives on day two. This is done in Sodwana which is a reef system in the open sea exposed to strong currents and swells. The diving conditions in South Africa can be challenging.
Day one. Rough sea, very rough sea. 7 - 8 foot swell, very choppy with strong wind. We launch from the beach in a rubber duck (a five meter boat with inflatable pontoons and two 115hp outboards) and head to the reef. These are drift dives so the skipper picks a spot, drops the group and then chases the SMB. This being our first dive of a boat it takes forever to kit up. The swell is terrible and I am feeling very seasick. One of the other divers is retching over the side. After an eternity we are in the water but the swell is so high that I am sea sick in the water. Some students have buoyancy problems and once that is dealt with we have drifted so far out into the ocean that we have to be picked up by the boat again to be taken back to the reef. It being a rubber duck, you take your gear of in the water and then get dragged over the side. It is hectic, the swell makes this very hard to do but we all managed to get on. One of the divers are violently seasick at this stage and another boat from a different charter is hailed and she is taken back to the beach. I am now retching over the side. Most people are. The skipper is the only guy not loosing his breakfast.
We get back to the reef and roll over backwards into the ocean. I vomit in my regulator. Finally we get the signal to go down, I deflate and descend into the beautiful quiet ocean below. I look for my buddy, she is still at the surface. Back up to the top I go, cant leave my buddy. At least the vomit has been washed out of my reg now. More weights are acquired and we go down again. Thankfully we all reach the bottom. It is wonderful after the heavy seas up top. We do mask clear and regulator recovery in the shelter of a reef and then start the drift. What an awesome experience. Dive ends, back into the boat, some more retching, the sea is even heavier now and we head to the beach. No more dives for the day.
I get up at 5:30 am the next morning for our next set of dives. The sea is not as rough as yesterday but the swell is still going and by the time we roll over the side I am not feeling well. Dive is fantastic, the current is vicious which makes keeping track of your buddy hard, but I persevere. I am still stressed. So many things to remember as a new diver and I have to deal with the strong current. At 60 bar (900psi) I head up for my safety stop which is anything but a stop in the current, more like swim next to the knot in the SMB line at 5 meters for 3 minutes. Once in the boat, looking down to loosen my fins is too much for my stomach and I heave my morning coffee over the side. At this stage I dont even worry about it. Retch retch retch, wash face, carry on.
We have our surface interval at the beach, I cant eat breakfast, still feeling too queasy. Back out to the reef again for dive two. We are now doing a negative descent backwards roll. I am not sure of the terminology, but its basically: empty BCD, exhale , hold on to you gear and roll backwards going straight down. I make the most noobish mistake ever. When I roll over backwards my mask gets knocked sideways because I did not hold it down properly. In the chaos of heading straight for the bottom while trying clear my mask, searching for my buddy and regaining control of my buoyancy I forget to equalize and my right hear is hurting like hell. I try to equalize and it does not want to clear. I try again, I should have ascended at this stage, but I was making all the mistakes in the book now. I try once more, with commitment, and I can now hear bubbles coming out of my left ear, my right ear has sort of equalized. I am scared and angry and decide to carry on with the drift. I did not last another minute. You cannot equalize one ear if the pressure is escaping from the other so I find my instructor let her know i have a problem and head up. I am now angry with myself and very disappointed. I get back in the boat and wait for the dive to end in considerable pain. Needless to say, I apologized and asked if I could be excused from the next dive, I was not going to dive if I think if have a perforated eardrum. And so my diving course ends. That evening I am informed that I have passed my course and are now certified to dive. I thank those involved but I dont think I am qualified at all. Rupturing my eardrum was a rookie mistake due to inexperience and stress. I am scared of going down again and hearing air coming out of your ear is not pleasant. These points were covered in our lectures, but it is so hard to remember it all when you are stressed and task loaded.
Thinking back, it is hard to pinpoint where it went wrong. An instructor can only teach you the theory, not being stupid in the water is a personal responsibility. Taking your training seriously is a big responsibility and I will not feel comfortable being the backup system for a buddy if I cannot deal calmly and effectively with very basic issues in the water. Being seasick played a huge part in all of this, I will see a doctor and get some advice about it. General fitness is also an issue in rough conditions. I am 36 years old and exercise regularly. I can swim 300 yards in 10 minutes without getting out of breath but to be comfortable in conditions like these, I will need to do that in 8 minutes using front crawl and get a lot stronger.
Lying on my bed back at the diving lodge while the others were doing dive three, I decided to give up on diving. I have since changed my mind, I will redo my open water course at a different institution making very sure that I warn my instructor up front of the issues I had. There is no physical problem that prevents me from becoming a great diver, my next challenge is mental and I will do this properly.
It is a long post, it also a long story. If you make it to end, thanks for listening. A short word of advice on how to do it better will be much appreciated.
I have four qualifying dives scheduled.
One dive on day one, three dives on day two. This is done in Sodwana which is a reef system in the open sea exposed to strong currents and swells. The diving conditions in South Africa can be challenging.
Day one. Rough sea, very rough sea. 7 - 8 foot swell, very choppy with strong wind. We launch from the beach in a rubber duck (a five meter boat with inflatable pontoons and two 115hp outboards) and head to the reef. These are drift dives so the skipper picks a spot, drops the group and then chases the SMB. This being our first dive of a boat it takes forever to kit up. The swell is terrible and I am feeling very seasick. One of the other divers is retching over the side. After an eternity we are in the water but the swell is so high that I am sea sick in the water. Some students have buoyancy problems and once that is dealt with we have drifted so far out into the ocean that we have to be picked up by the boat again to be taken back to the reef. It being a rubber duck, you take your gear of in the water and then get dragged over the side. It is hectic, the swell makes this very hard to do but we all managed to get on. One of the divers are violently seasick at this stage and another boat from a different charter is hailed and she is taken back to the beach. I am now retching over the side. Most people are. The skipper is the only guy not loosing his breakfast.
We get back to the reef and roll over backwards into the ocean. I vomit in my regulator. Finally we get the signal to go down, I deflate and descend into the beautiful quiet ocean below. I look for my buddy, she is still at the surface. Back up to the top I go, cant leave my buddy. At least the vomit has been washed out of my reg now. More weights are acquired and we go down again. Thankfully we all reach the bottom. It is wonderful after the heavy seas up top. We do mask clear and regulator recovery in the shelter of a reef and then start the drift. What an awesome experience. Dive ends, back into the boat, some more retching, the sea is even heavier now and we head to the beach. No more dives for the day.
I get up at 5:30 am the next morning for our next set of dives. The sea is not as rough as yesterday but the swell is still going and by the time we roll over the side I am not feeling well. Dive is fantastic, the current is vicious which makes keeping track of your buddy hard, but I persevere. I am still stressed. So many things to remember as a new diver and I have to deal with the strong current. At 60 bar (900psi) I head up for my safety stop which is anything but a stop in the current, more like swim next to the knot in the SMB line at 5 meters for 3 minutes. Once in the boat, looking down to loosen my fins is too much for my stomach and I heave my morning coffee over the side. At this stage I dont even worry about it. Retch retch retch, wash face, carry on.
We have our surface interval at the beach, I cant eat breakfast, still feeling too queasy. Back out to the reef again for dive two. We are now doing a negative descent backwards roll. I am not sure of the terminology, but its basically: empty BCD, exhale , hold on to you gear and roll backwards going straight down. I make the most noobish mistake ever. When I roll over backwards my mask gets knocked sideways because I did not hold it down properly. In the chaos of heading straight for the bottom while trying clear my mask, searching for my buddy and regaining control of my buoyancy I forget to equalize and my right hear is hurting like hell. I try to equalize and it does not want to clear. I try again, I should have ascended at this stage, but I was making all the mistakes in the book now. I try once more, with commitment, and I can now hear bubbles coming out of my left ear, my right ear has sort of equalized. I am scared and angry and decide to carry on with the drift. I did not last another minute. You cannot equalize one ear if the pressure is escaping from the other so I find my instructor let her know i have a problem and head up. I am now angry with myself and very disappointed. I get back in the boat and wait for the dive to end in considerable pain. Needless to say, I apologized and asked if I could be excused from the next dive, I was not going to dive if I think if have a perforated eardrum. And so my diving course ends. That evening I am informed that I have passed my course and are now certified to dive. I thank those involved but I dont think I am qualified at all. Rupturing my eardrum was a rookie mistake due to inexperience and stress. I am scared of going down again and hearing air coming out of your ear is not pleasant. These points were covered in our lectures, but it is so hard to remember it all when you are stressed and task loaded.
Thinking back, it is hard to pinpoint where it went wrong. An instructor can only teach you the theory, not being stupid in the water is a personal responsibility. Taking your training seriously is a big responsibility and I will not feel comfortable being the backup system for a buddy if I cannot deal calmly and effectively with very basic issues in the water. Being seasick played a huge part in all of this, I will see a doctor and get some advice about it. General fitness is also an issue in rough conditions. I am 36 years old and exercise regularly. I can swim 300 yards in 10 minutes without getting out of breath but to be comfortable in conditions like these, I will need to do that in 8 minutes using front crawl and get a lot stronger.
Lying on my bed back at the diving lodge while the others were doing dive three, I decided to give up on diving. I have since changed my mind, I will redo my open water course at a different institution making very sure that I warn my instructor up front of the issues I had. There is no physical problem that prevents me from becoming a great diver, my next challenge is mental and I will do this properly.
