Trusting Your Equipment......

[Herk_Man]

FRIEND...NOT WIFE!! Anyway...I totally agree with equalizing early and often. I told her I can't go much more - if any - past 5 feet without uncomfortable pressure. What happened with the blown eardrum? Difficult to recover from or just a neusance to get through?

As for her check-out dives...I'll have to find out. That is a good question.

Luckily the eardrum rupture was very slight. She did not even know it happened but she had blood coming out of it when she surfaced. She saw the doctor the next day and he put her on some antibiotics and some steroid ear drops. There was some discomfort in the ear for about a month and her hearing was kind of goofed up during that time as well. But all is good and luckily she had enough time to heal prior to the trip that it did not effect her ability to dive. Zero ear problems in Bonaire and she loved it. She still does not like to ascend and descend vertically because of the incident so we generally descended in about 10 feet of water and followed the sand to the reef. Took a bit of air but there are actually some cool things to see in the sand if you look for them.

In fact, that is really what I recommend doing with your FRIEND (sorry ) until she learns that things really are ok below 20'. This will ensure a gradual descent and give her ample time to clear the ears while swimming out to the edge of the reef.

Good luck!

 

[halocline]

Thoughts and opinions...please. A friend of mine has a problem with depth over about 20 feet or so. Just wondering how many people had issues trusting their life support equipment when they first started diving. I mean, if you're at 20 feet and you have catastrophic failure of your 1st stage, you can simply surface fairly quick. But if you're at 60 feet, it's not going to be as easy (I usually carry a pony bottle with me, so this problem don't really cross my mind). I'm just curious if this is a normal issue, or one that is mainly limited to new divers getting use to breathing underwater. Fire away!!Thanks!

You might try to find out what exactly your friend is worried about. Is it regulator failure, running out of gas, what? If she (it's a woman, right?) is mechanically inclined, and her fear is centered around reg failure, maybe get her some training in working on regs. That might not be a very realistic solution, but it's an interesting idea.

Another thing to do would be to have her experience reg failure and/or gas loss in controlled situations, with an instructor or mentor. You could start this at 20 feet and work progressively deeper so that she experiences being able to safely deal with reg failure or running out of gas.

 

[Herk_Man]

I think it was established earlier in the thread that her main worry is ear equalization.