what are common beginner sticking points?

[supergaijin]

I see the 3 biggest beginner challenges as learning to control breathing,balance and situation-awareness.

Breathing: Establishing a good breathing pattern before initial descent, focusing on slowing it down further, knowing that neutral buoyancy using the BCD is done after establishing good breathing.

Balance: learning to control the hips to go from an upright position (initial descent, venting BCD on ascent) to a horizontally trimmed position without kicking. Having the abdominal muscles slightly contracted to keep the legs from sinking.

Situation awareness: is knowing where you are, how much air you have, approximately how long that will last you at a given depth, no-deco time- basically respecting the rules of diving without having to narrow your focus on any one of them.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

Back to the original post, I would say new divers have a tendency to not monitor their gauges, and sometimes to chase after some cool thing or creature they see. Skills like buoyancy control and body control come with practice and repetition. They often focus on those things and forget to to others. Stay close to your buddy and be aware of where they are. Monitor your gauges. Don't chase anything- you'll never catch it anyway.
DIvemasterDennis

 

[mstachowsky]

Dive went great. I paid a LOT of attention to equalizing, and turns out that pinch-blow gently-swallow works for me. I had no ear trouble at all. I also put the weights in the BCD -- SO MUCH EASIER! still having trouble with buoyancy and balance, but in all this was probably the least trouble I've ever had in scuba gear. Now it's just practice.

MIKE