When did you feel comfortable diving?

[fjpatrum]

1. What was your first dive like?
2. How many dives did it take to get comfortable?
3. When did you feel like a "real" diver?

I have been posting on scubaboard pretty much the whole time I've been diving. I have a lot more posts than dives.

I was comfortable the moment I hit my first pool session. I never had any trepidation at all about the whole experience. I've been snorkeling for over 20 years at least a couple times per year average and many of my other leisure activities revolve around the water. I'm also rescue trained (not scuba rescue) and ex military so I'm familiar with "stress" situations and how to deal with panic response.

Some might argue that I'm more comfortable than I should be, given my experiences so far. They might be right but I try to keep that in mind every time I don my gear.

1) My first dive I seriously considered doing solo because I couldn't find a buddy in Kona that wanted to do some shore dives. I ended up finding a shop through recommendations here on SB that did guided shore dives. Somewhere in my post history is an account of that dive but basically it was me and 3 other tourists with the guide. All the other tourists had "lots" of dives (I think the total for the three was somewhere in the low hundreds) and it went very smoothly other than the guide having to tow one of the divers out because he was a bit further in years and clearly a vacation diver (and probably a vacation exerciser). I had "planned the dive" in so much as I paid attention when the guide gave the dive brief and I verified I would be okay with my own eRDP. I have no idea if my buddy did that or not, we didn't really discuss it much. We did discuss some hand signals and I did our buddy checks after being introduced and we more or less followed the guide. I tried to use my compass occasionally but in all honesty that's one of my weaker skills. At the end, the guide suggested if I was going to frog kick a lot I should maybe look at shorter fins and all the other divers didn't believe it was my first dive because my buoyancy was better than theirs. (In their defense I had just finished my training and they had all had a year or more since their previous dives.)

This and the night manta ray dive off of Kona are the only "guided" dives I've ever done. All others have been me and a buddy.

2) I guess just one. In my OW course I'd gotten my partially pulled off, my reg kicked out of my mouth and had a buddy who was on the edge of panic pretty much the whole time. I'd dealt with the "big scary" things I knew about and I'd done it in cold water with low(ish) visibility.

3) I'll let you know if/when I get there. I'm far too novice to consider myself a diver. Hell, I've been rock climbing for almost 18 years and I still don't consider myself "a climber". I'll probably quit doing it if I ever feel like I reach that level of "old hat". I find when people get there they often make careless mistakes that have dire consequences. I'm a newb comfortable with planning and executing dives within my training and a couple pushing the boundaries of my training. I'm taking baby steps in that direction.

 

[Steve_C]

Was certified in a quarry in NC. Couple weeks later had to dive so arranged for an instabuddy also pretty newly certified. Only problem was this quarry's viz drops in late summer. So we did just like in class. We swam out to 20 ft of water, signaled and dropped. I tend to dive horizontal. Knew I had reached bottom when my face was planted in the silt. Viz was about 4 inches. Buddy was gone. After bobbing back up to surface a couple times looking for him like we were taught in class to do in shallow water and finally realizing he was a same quarry diver, I thumbed the dive.

Next dive was a month later in the Florida Keys. Wonderful dive with a good buddy and two ghost divers.

In good conditions and modest depths I was pretty comfortable from the start.

 

[fred3798]

I got certified in a quarry but basically have dived only with guides on vacation. I am very comfortble in the water. But it took me a good 25 dives to start to feel comfortable with knowing what I was doing. After 75 dives i realized how little I knew at 25!! I am now at 100 and have good buoyancy; have seen some ugly conditions; can navigate rudimentarily at least and swim much closer ot my buddy than I used to. I now am starting to feel like I have a right to be comfortable because I know what to stay on my guard for.

 

[farsidefan1]

My first dive trip to Belize I never really felt "comfortable". I did 12 dives there. Next trip was cocoview in Roatan. Did about 25 dives that week and with the help of Dee (Texas swamp divers) I became very comfortable. Since then nothing I've done has bothered me or made me uncomfortable. My most exciting dive was just off Peleliu. Couple of wild current dives there but once your skills are up you can adjust to about anything. Of course the biggest problem for divers (or newbies at anything) is not knowing enough to know what you don't know.

 

[CamG]

My first dive out of OW / AOW was in the Caribe off Playa.
It was a bit stressful till we started our decent in 80' it was like a fish bowl!
Warm fuzzy and you could see all the way to the bottom.
This is not what you are looking for but that was my experience.

When we arrived home I dove the very next weekend at Gilboa our local quarry.
Temps were cold but I was unbelievably at ease and immediately went to work mastering skills and techniques on every dive.
The comfort level of what you are speaking develops like the awareness a diver needs to evolve into a complete, conservative safe diver.
It grows with every dive, good and bad now teach us what works and what does not.
We all are different and what I have learned is that every person has a breaking point, it is good to not push it!
Comfort levels are meant to grow slowly and experience / skill mastery grow in accord as well.

It is hard to put a number on how many dives as said previous because it is ever changing growing with every dive.
When I became solid skill wise I would up the level of training to the next step this keep me growing moving toward my then goal of DM.
When I reached that I kept moving into the Tech side of diving all the while enjoying diving the level I was at the time.

I found it to be very goal oriented for me personally and when I reached one goal I would just continue to move the bar a bit farther.
This is not how everyone is and that is totally cool we all dive for different reasons.
Enjoy your journey it is a magical process that can really transform you.

6 yrs ago I would have laughed in your face and bought you a beverage for telling me I would be diving like I do now!
It is a awesome journey one that when lived enriches your life beyond your wildest dreams!
Dive safe train well.

CamG

 

[DivemasterDennis]

I was comfortable diving with more experienced divers or a DM right after certification, but it wasn't until I had had about 30 dives that I was comfortable being the dive leader and planning and executing dives as that guy. Comfort and competence grows with training and experience. Familiarity with equipment is also a big factor, which is why I think everyone should own and know how to service their own equipment. That said, remember, ever diver is unique and learns and grows in their own way. Also, pretty much every diver can relate at least one dive that was similar to the experience the op shares. No judgment here, just encouragement to dive within one's limit but also to be active and expand those limits with every new experience.
DivemasterDennis

 

[islanddream]

I got certified in Puerto Vallarta which included no pool dives. My first dive after spending hours in the classroom reading the text, watching videos, and taking the exam was in the ocean. I grew up as a "water baby" so being underwater was not scary. However, on my first dive after giant striding off the boat (in a 3mm shortie), I got multiple stings from jellyfish! Ugh! That wasn't a pleasant way to start a first dive! But the dive went well, and I absolutely loved being under the sea.

How many dives did it take for me to get comfortable? Good question. I now have nearly 100 dives and have to say on my last trip a few weeks ago, it was the first time I felt no anxiety on the first dive of the trip. Prior to that I was always looking forward to diving, but the first dive was usually my least favorite because I was too wound up thinking if I was going to remember all that I'd been taught and had learned in the years I'd been diving. Maybe I felt better on this first dive because it'd only been a few months since my last???? I felt much more confident in my pre-dive skills and diving skills.

When did I feel like a "real diver?" First of all, I've only gone diving in tropical waters and have no desired to dive in cold water....ever. All of my dives have been in places where a DM has to be with the boatload of divers. During our recent trip, my husband and another couple we dive with hung back and let the newer divers to the area follow the DM. On most dives we didn't see our DM until we got back on the boat. Luckily, the DM knows us, has seen our diving skills, and knows we have safety sausages, mirrors, etc., so we are able to take care of ourselves and get back to the boat. On one dive my husband and I got separated from our friends and everyone else. There was absolutely nobody around. I think prior to this trip I might have experienced some anxiety if this would've happened. However, because we are more confident divers, have safety equipment with us (and know how to use it), and knew the direction we needed to go, I didn't feel uncomfortable in the situation. I think this was the first time I felt like I was a real diver.

 

[fred3798]

Would people agree that it was the dives with the crappiest conditions in which you learn the most? Following a guide in gorgeous conditions is beautiful but I don't learn anything (nor do I necessarily always need to be learning or practicing skills. I dive for fun). But, we went on a LOB right after hurricane Sandy last year. There was very limited viz and unpredictable currents. We decided to work on navigating and buddy skills all week (we had no choice really except not diving). But my next trip a month ago really showed the progress we had made in all areas. Like anything else in life, surmounting challenges creates growth. The diver who feels comfortable as a guide after 25 dives scares the crap out of me. What experience has he or she had to be equipped as a leader with responsibilities for others? Comfort comes from experience wher you gain the knowledge that you are educated and have tested the education in a real life environment. If one is comfortable with no experience then, in my view, he or she just does not know or is not admitting what they do not know. Ignorance is indeed bliss - frighteningly so.

 

[DCBC]

Would people agree that it was the dives with the crappiest conditions in which you learn the most?

Absolutely Fred, but I think that the Diver first has to be trained/monitored for "crappy conditions" and have a level of fitness and in-water skills/knowledge that's sometimes required to dive in these environments. Not all Diver training programs prepare Divers for these conditions (even if they are what's normal for the area in-which they are trained). Once the Diver is comfortable and competent he can begin the slow march forward to expand his/her 'safe diving envelope.' As a Canadian Diver, I suspect that you know what I mean...

 

[TSandM]

I forgot to answer the "When did you feel like a REAL diver?" part . . . I'll let you know when I get there!

I did have a pleasant experience on a couple of challenging dives in Canada. On each of them, I was not comfortable at all, for various reasons, but I was aware of my discomfort and very sure that everything that was not as it should be was well within my capacity to cope with it. (We had a whole group of experienced divers who were going through roughly the same thing -- the water was not always kind to us!) I think that's coming close to being a "real diver" -- have done enough training and gotten enough experience to have expanded the scope of your capacity to recognize issues, assess their severity, and make a rational decision about what is safe and reasonable and what is not.