Trusting Your Equipment......

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!

If I hadn't been able to trust my equipment (& my buddy to be there in the event of a catastrophic failure) I don't think I would have started diving.

If your friend has issues all I can suggest is that he or she keep the dives shallow (slowly progress to deeper dives) until the confidence level goes up and dive with the same buddy/buddies as regularly as possible to get comfortable.

I can still vividly recall my first pool session and breathing off a regulator as being a very liberating experience but every one is different.

It's all about (safely) having fun - ultimately if your friend isn't comfortable & having fun maybe scuba is not for them.

McLovinIt:

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!

Click to expand...

Your friend just needs to snorkel or free dive and thus he will need no equipment other than flippers and a mask.

Some people should not dive, some people should not drive but they do and mostly successfully unless you are the other driver they run into, run off the road etc. There is golf.

Everyone seems to want to be safe these days as if it was an inalienable right, stay at home, that is all you can do. You have a right to be born (well, unless you are an accident and then---) and a right to die, everything in between is a compromise of sorts.

N

I'm no psychologist, but this sounds to me like someone who is not very comfortable in the water, and has found a place to park that anxiety. Diving equipment is amazingly reliable, and usually fails in a fashion that permits plenty of time to solve problems.

It may be that more dives will calm this person, but it may also be that there are holes in his education or skills that, if they were filled in, would allay this anxiety.

Catastrophic gas loss is very rare and there should be the back-up of a pony bottle or the buddy system so theoretically two systems have to fail to put the diver in peril. Constant worry over equipment (assuming that it is maintained and appropriate for the way it is being used) is a little like driving down the interstate at 80 mph and asking yourself over and over again "what if the brakes don't work?". Yeah, it's possible that you could press the pedal with no response but the odds are pretty low. More likely the brakes would fail over a period of time and be noticed.

I agree with Nemrod - maybe he should try sky diving. This sounds like someone who might easily panick at depth-turning a minor problem into an emergency and unless they over come this fear, could be a danger to himself and those around.

It does seem like some instructor did not fully prepare your friend for diving on his/her own. Diving is a very unique activity and it is fairly common to deal with students who may be anxious. As instructors we relieve this anxiety through pool work and repetition in order to get the students comfortable. I am willing to bet your friend experienced similar anxiety in the pool and for some reason was either overlooked or ignored by the instructor. What your friend needs is some one-on-one time in the pool to build up confidence in the equipment, and also at least another day in the ocean with an instructor. It takes some students more time to get comfortable in the water, and some instructors do not want to take this time. First impressions are the most important, and if your friend's first impression of scuba is anxiety he/she may grow to dislike the sport. Instructors that do not care about producing the most competent divers do a serious disservice to the entire diving community.

McLovinIt:

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!

Click to expand...

I have a problem trusting my life to equipment, that's what emergency planning and practice is all about.

1) Don't dive beyond your training.
If he's certified than 20ft is well within his training.
2) If you don't trust the equipement, don't dive it!
Easy to resolve: Other than Tanks and Weights I have never rented or borrowed gear. I know the complete history of my gear. My gear is serviced regularly and even so issues do arise, such as a reg flowing a bit too freely on my last dive. But this is why I have redundant gear such as a spare regular on a pony. Swapped regs on the next dive and relied on my buddy, when the 2nd reg has the same issue I either had a service related, storage, or stupid user issue... in any case, that was the end of my dives that day.

3) Don't dive beyond your comfort level.
Being nervous is normal with anything new, either you get over it or it'll always be new ;-)
I'd suggest more
More training, perhaps an Equipment class
More "no peer pressure dives"
perhaps lots of pool sessions here

Some great dives are in water less than 40feet... the fact is he really doesn't have to go much deeper... just remind him and remember any one can call a dive any time, it's possible the "fear" is ego related as well...

I am not so worried about my gear.

I just make sure my partner has the best gear money can buy!!