I had dreamed of doing this for last 5 years, but never managed until this New Year's. I gave my husband an ultimatum: I am going to the Red Sea to learn to dive during Xmas vacation. If you wanna come along, fine, if not, not. Well, he came along.
I had never been underwater and had no idea what was waiting for me. My ideas were limited to old Jacques Cousteau films
We signed up for the PADI Open Water Certification course, because that was what the travel agent suggested. That was a mistake, because I simply lost money on that one.
We showed for the course a day late (the travel agency had bungled the booking and we had to run around straightening things out while the course started) and got right into theory. So far so good. We had no trouble at all with the theory and the videos and I was pulling at the bit to get into the water.
Second Day, First time out, just off beach: The Divemaster demonstrated (on the surface) clearing masks, retrieving a reg, etc. all of which LOOKED easy enough. My problems started when I put my head underwater. I simply freaked. My head was telling me strange things, such as: you are underwater, so you can't breathe. NOTHING could keep me underwater for more than 15 seconds. Well, that was that. I walked up the beach, removed my gear and figured it just wasn't for me.
An hour later, the rest came out of the water and my husband asked what the h*** happened to me, but I had some difficulty explaining it, because I was not really sure: it was just some kind of panic. The instructor and the divemaster said nothing.
The next day, I scrounged together whatever courage and dignity was left to me and went out on the boat with the rest of them to give it another try. We went out to Magawish and anchored. Everyone into the water with the instructor. Well, this time I lasted about 30 seconds, twice yesterday's time
I got back on the boat and waited for the rest to come back.
Again the instructor said nothing.
The fourth day, I went out AGAIN and the same thing happened. I figured, what the heck, I will just enjoy a nice boat ride, get some sun and catch up on some reading. When we returned to the base in the late afternoon, the instructor told me to get my gear on and come down to the beach with him. He said "Now we are going to see if this works at all for you. Just relax. We are not in a hurry.*
He had me put my head in the water (with all the gear) and take it again, over and over. Finally, after I seemed to do be able to do that without running for shore, he said OK - now we are going to get on our knees in the sand. The water was about chest deep where we were standing. I went down, and he took my hands and settled me on the sand floor and made me look straight at him all the while. Lo and Behold! I sat there and looked at him.
That was that. We went for a short underwater swim, a whole 5 minutes.
The fifth day, Reef Disha: Out on the boat, and the instructor was busy with the rest of group. He suggested that the Divemaster try to get to descend at my own pace while the rest of them did their thing. This worked. She took me down slowly to the bottom (12 meters) and I was FINE, actually quite positively excited. The instructor was already there with the rest of the group. He took my hand and we went for a 40 minute dive around the reef where I saw blowfish, angelfish, a whole swarm of barracudas (about 30 - 40 of them), flutefish....I was hooked!!
Unfortunately, the course I had paid for was also over. It was ok, though, because I had learned not to CONTROL my panic, but to HAVE no panic. The panic was simply gone.
The instructor had the next day off, but offered to take me out on a diving boat and go over some things with me. He did this free of charge which totally amazed me. We went down to 12 meters again, and he had me remove my mask, retrieve the reg, and various other stuff, which I instantly did with no panic whatsoever. We ended with an octopus ascent, and he told me that I was now enabled to dive down to 12 meters in the company of a divemaster or instructor.
So, what started out badly ended well, with me being not only hooked, but also impressed at the extra time the instructor was willing to sacrifice to get me underwater.
My husband felt that he could have worked more intensely with me from the beginning, but sheesh! There were 12 people in the course (totally overfilled) and the man has only 2 hands. He had to go down with 2 groups of 6 at a time as it was. The fault, if any, was with the travel agency who was more interested in selling an expensive course than one more suited to me, such as Discover Scuba Diving. My vote though goes with the Jasmine Diving Center in Hurghada, for effort and seriousness, as far as I could determine!
gozumutti