Terrible Advanced open water experience

[LOG-SPLITTER]

I decided to try my advanced open water this weekend and oh boy what an experience.
To boot it was my first time in a wetsuit.

I went diving in my first lake and it was like tea. Not used to such dirty water.

1. Had a hard time to adjust my mask, inflator etc with the gloves on.

2. The rental regs wouldn’t fit the adapter on my bcd so had to borrow one from another student .The dive shop also forgot to send out gloves and the top part of the wetsuit.

3. I had a hard time to descend with the 31 lb belt they supplied. It was nothing like at the pool when I deflate. I would just descend nicely. I had to actually work hard to swim to the bottom. the instructor actually pushed me down. he grabbed the back of my tank and and pushed not telling me and not giving me a chance to pop my ears.

4. The wetsuit was so tight I found it very difficult to move.

5. My anxiety levels where nothing like I had ever experienced. everything was so rushed and with all this new equipment on I didn’t feel comfortable at all.

6. The instructor was in such a bad mood because he had so many students before hand and hadn’t had a break after 5 dives and was mad because he hadn’t had lunch etc.He ended up canceling my first dive and whole weekend trip withen 5 minutes in the water.??said I wasn’t ready.Then told me to right down in my log book that we went down to 40 feet when we actually only 20 feet max??

Keeping in mind it was the dive master who I was working with the instuctor was no where to be found.

Any words of advice for me I’m just really turned off of diving right now. And have no desire to to it again anytime soon.

 

[mikerault]

1. Get your own equipment or be sure to try it on before leaving the shop
2. Get a different instructor

Mike

 

[loosebits]

1. Get your own equipment or be sure to try it on before leaving the shop
2. Get a different instructor

Mike

I'd only add get another shop.

Diving should be fun. If you're not having fun, it's probably because of poor instruction.

 

[fire_diver]

Wow! sorry you had such a bad experience. Regardless of the difficulties on the dive, I say to get a refund and find a new instructor. That guy sounds horrible! I dive a 7mm wet and I can't imagine using 31 pounds of lead! Even so, pushing you down was wrong, and telling you to falsify your log so it looks like he did his job was wrong.

I understand that such drastic changes in environment and equipment can make it stressfull. The shop should have let you practice with the new gear before demanding you do the dives. It just sounds like they care about your cash, not you or your training.

My 2psi anyway

FD

 

[theskull]

Lake water is usually like tea. Learn to like it or just dive when you're on vacation in the tropics.

Diving IS more equipment intensive and awkward in colder water. And it is indeed a little more difficult to descend with the proper amount of weight when you are wearing a lot of neoprene. It can even be next to impossible if you are anxious and refuse to relax and exhale.

None of which excuses the instructor from being impatient with you, though he may have been right about you not being ready. Cold water diving is an entirely different sport from tropical diving, and not everyone "gets it".

theskull

 

[Diver Dennis]

Although not everyone may not "get it" right away does not mean you won't be able to do it. The instructor should have had you check out your equipment in the pool first, getting used to the wetsuit, fine tuning the weight you needed and practicing with your gloves on. This would have calmed your anxiety considerably. Your instructor was not very patient obviously, so I would either voice your concerns or find a different instructor. You mentioned he was not in a very good mood and if you tell him that you were rushed and nervous because of it, he will probably listen. We all have a bad day sometimes.

Don't let this deter you from continuing.

 

[rjpv]

Ditch dive shop and instructor.

If the "write down 40ft when we only went 20ft" was an actual dive-for-a-certification, the instructor might deserve being reported to the certification agency. You don't want to think you are newly qualified for, say, a deep dive when in fact you were poorly trained.

 

[DivingCRNA]

You sound like a diver I know very well. She does not dive in lakes anymore, but loves to go in the ocean.

That being said, you can learn to love to lakes. I do think the instructor was right about you not being ready. You had 4 new things at once:

1. Unfamiliar gear (rental stuff)
2. New diving environment (the dark, cold lake)
3. A class that gave you more tasks than you could handle. (doing AOW you must have been doing Navagation, Deep and Night dives with 2 other dives) All 3 of the required dives give you more to think about than just doing the dive.
4. An instructor you did not know who sounds like he had too many students and a 'tood.

I would recommend the following: If you are going to dive more in Canadian lakes, buy your own gear and dive in it a bunch before you take more courses. Get comfortable doing dives in the environment before task loading yourself. Also, find another instructor or have a long talk with the one you had.

Otherwise, just stick to the warm ocean and rent stuff on trips-there is nothing wrong with doing this. Thousands of divers do it and my wife is one of them. She thought I was nuts to buy a drysuit, but I KNEW BETTER than to buy her one! LOL Most divers are not as hard core as the typical ScubaBoard poster.

Remember-recreational diving is supposed to be fun. If you are not having fun you are wasting time and money.

Have some fun, DUDE!

 

[*Floater*]

First, buy your own wet- or drysuit, gloves, boots and hood that fit, and if possible find another shop and instructor. Also 31 lbs sounds like a lot of weight - I assume you were using a 7mm wetsuit. Perhaps you could ask them to help you do a buoyancy check in the pool before you do your next open water dive.

 

[amascuba]

Along with the other suggestions I would report the experience, instructor, and instructor number to the certifying agency (EX: PADI, SSI, etc)

Lake diving and cold water diving are fun experiences, but when you have a instructor like that it makes people either just do tropical water diving or drop out of the sport all together.