My First-time Nightmare Dive

[Nightmare dive]

I’ve wanted to scuba dive, since I was 10, when my brother showed me the empty curled up shark’s egg pod he found while diving and regaled me with tales of the wonderment of watching a turtle swim gracefully in the sea. When I was 17, scuba diving was near the top of the ‘Life accomplishment list’ our teacher got us to do. Finally, at age 33 and after having 2 kids, you would have thought me older and wiser, but no, I saw a Scoop-On deal for obtaining an open water cert over 2 weekends for just $139. What a bargain! I insisted that my husband joined me and had our diving medicals done for another $130 each. After spending $540 of the family budget on the impending course, we went swimming at the local pool twice a week so that we’ll pass the skills test needed for the course entry. At this stage, I had no idea what an open water cert was and just assumed it was a beginner scuba diving course.

The big night came and on arrival at the diving school (Dive-Plus Fairfield), we were told there was a big hole in their onsite pool and so instead of a combi or theory and pool, we had 3 hours of theory cramped into one night. Besides my husband, I went with another 2 friends. Our instructor was from Denmark. His spoken English seemed very limited. Most of his explanations consisted of 2 words and a couple of actions. I didn’t think too much of that. We had an early start at the local pool the next morning and then, the big swim test. The next day, we had to carry our heavy equipment more than 500m from the busy car park to the poolside. The instructor stood by the pool while barking out (in very limited words) a few instructions and we started practising our basic scuba diving skills. For each skill, we had to repeat the action 5 times. It was a little scary undoing your mask in the water and hoping my contact lenses won’t fall out, but I managed ok. The instructor made snide remarks about women and long hair etc, and was generally really impatient and didn’t like questions (or toilet breaks) at all. After the skills test, one of my friends failed and had to stop the course there and then. Another new girl joined our class as she panicked in the tank yesterday (after her instructor just ripped off her mask in the tank when she failed to understand his instructions) and had to practise her pool skills again (at an additional cost, of course).

In the pool, even though we practised clearing mask and regulator etc, somehow, my husband, my friend and I never got to try fin pivot, and never got a chance to learn how to achieve neutral buoyancy. I’m not sure how we missed that part even though we never left the pool side and attempted hard to follow the extremely limited instructions. I was told to pull my buddy (the new girl) near the pool bottom at one stage for a few metres. I couldn’t get off the pool bottom and was basically pushing myself along the walls and bottom of the pool to reach the target point. I was only told by the instructor that it was very bad finning and I got to practise finning for around 10 mins. But I was never told that I was completely wrong as I should have done the fin pivot and achieved neutral buoyancy before I should even swim off. Anyway, we rushed back to the school and spent half an hour in a very scary 5m cement tank under-going a test to see if we can successfully repeat a few of our pool skills. My husband and I were made to ascend the tank using the “buddy out-of-air system” 3 times but we did them all wrong apparently. We didn’t know why then, even though the instructor was right there with us. We were only told we didn’t stay close enough together, and we weren’t watching the reference points for determining speed of ascent and that we weren’t finning properly. My second friend was unable to ‘pop’ her ears and couldn’t go down the tank. She was told to rebook (at an additional cost of course). After another 20 mins of theory, we were free to go home.

At home, my husband and I discussed the day, all the troubles that we had and the mistakes that we made. After reading the diving manual again, we realised that we never got to do a fin pivot and never learnt to achieve neutral buoyancy. My husband was told he had good finning but he was actually pushing off the walls of the pool as well when he pulled his buddy across the pool. We found out that our biggest mistake of ascent at the tank was the use of the buoyancy control device (BCD) to go up- instead of finning and releasing air, we were not finning much (cause we’re shoot right up of the 5m tank) and adding air into the BCD instead. We watched YouTube videos on fin pivot and tested each other on hand signals a few times. We learnt more from the YouTube videos than from our instructor who just stood by the pool side the whole morning.

The next day, was our introductory ocean dive. Our regular instructor did not attend and we were led out by the school owner instead. In my group of 4 were my husband, myself, another new girl (who had to repeat her dive from the morning as she used up her air before the 20 mins dive time was up) and the instructor/owner. After the hassle of getting in and out of wet suits again and again, as we were told we had the wrong wet suits on, male on female and female on male etc, we finally made our way to the pier for the dive. On descent, I was really surprised by how strong the currents were. I had such a hard time just trying to kneel on the ocean floor without getting swept away. From the kneeling position, the instructor just took off and started swimming between the pillars of the pier. No chance to fin pivot or find neutral buoyancy. So I just kind of finned along, pushing myself off the ocean floor and off the pillars to try to keep up and fight the currents. I had a really hard time finning as I felt my right fin slipping off a couple of times when I kicked hard. I tried to signal that to the instructor but he just signalled to carry on. I had no chance to check my buddy (my husband) as there was no space between the pillars and he was behind me the whole time.

While struggling to keep up with the instructor and the new girl, my thoughts were all on trying to swim without losing my fin, and fearing that I use up too much oxygen and have to abort the dive like the new girl in our group, as I felt myself breathing hard trying to keep up. After a few metres, when the instructor made a quick stop, I decided to clear the little bit of water in my mask. I did this well back in the pool and the tank. I’m not sure what happened next but my mask completely filled with water. I panicked a little and pulled it off. I don’t know why but my respirator came off too, (did I give a yelp when I pulled off the mask and therefore dropped my respirator? I don’t know.) The next thing I know was that I was trying to clear my respirator, by blowing out, but I must not have blown hard enough as I kept drinking ocean water through the respirator, I tried again but drank more water. I think I tried to purge it with the button but I must not have done it right or I had forgotten all about the button at this stage, I’m not sure myself. I desparately turned to my husband/buddy and grabbed his emergency respirator, and tried to purge it by blowing out again. At this stage, I had no breath left and just ended up drinking more water from his respirator. I gave up and tried to swim to the surface (it was only about 3-5m deep). I remember trying to swim up (I had forgotten my weight belt and don’t even know where my buoyancy control stick was by then) and the next thing I knew, I was up. Apparently, my husband saw that I was really panicked and noticed that I was hardly moving up to the surface and tried to help me. He flooded his BCD with air and yanked me up to the surface by holding onto my BCD. The instructor came up after a minute or so, and just asked me ‘What happened’. I tried to explain but he just seemed really pissed off and inpatient. At no time did he asked me if I was ok.

We snorkelled back to the ladder by the pier. I was weak with exhaustion and and sat down by the ladder after I got up the steps. After which I had a really hard time trying to stand up but the instructor just stood by and refused to help me. He said, ”I’m only going to take the fins, you have to help yourself stand up.” Anyway, I managed to stand up somehow by pulling on whatever grating was on the ground and we made our way back to the beach. Even then, I refused to let my husband help me with my weight belt as it was drilled into us that it’s inappropriate to make my husband do the heavy lifting and all the female students were expected to show some ‘girl power’.

My husband and I were told by the instructor,’ I can’t have you guys just shooting up the surface, can you imagine if it was at 10 m depth? You guys are just not ready and have to repeat the pool lesson again.’ I told him that I didn’t understand my instructor from the previous day and I was told that that wasn’t the main problem. We were just not ready (why were we allowed in the open waters when we were not ready yet then?). I asked him ‘Isn’t this a beginner’s course?’ and he said “Yes, but it isn’t for everyone. If it was suitable for everyone, this course would take 6 months. More than 35% of the students fail from each class”. Well, after my husband and I failed, that would make up 50% of the class. I thought that the course was about ‘teaching’ us how to scuba dive. Instead, they gave us a few basic instructions, a limited time and chances to practise, then the moment we make a mistake or we failed to do something right, they got us to repeat a part of the course and pay more money. If you didn’t have prior experience with diving, how can you be expected not to make a single mistake and not to panic at any stage with the little instructions and practice you have? Isn’t that what learning is about- you make a mistake, the instructor corrects it, you do it again and practise till you get it right? It isn’t the case with this school, the moment you make a mistake, they tell you to rebook and pay more. We left after that and never looked back. There was NO WAY we were re-booking with such a school (Dive-Plus Fairfield) like this and with such instructors.

Will I ever scuba dive again after this experience? I’m not sure. I woke up in the middle of the night to write this as I couldn’t fall asleep again. I don’t know if the next time I try to dive again, would I just panic like I did before or would I do better under better instruction and with more practice? But I do feel like I was very close to losing my life underwater and that my husband did save my life, amateur that he was, while the instructor was far away and unaware of what was wrong with me.

 

[TSandM]

I hope you will dive again.

From your description of your class, it was a nightmare from the beginning. It is quite possible to learn to do these skills so that you can be comfortable and confident in doing them. It is also possible to run open water dives so that they are not a terrible stress on the student. We certify people in very cold water and often in very poor visibility, and we have yet to have a student panic during mask skills. It is also a very poor reflection on your instructor, that he was so lacking in vigilance that you could lose your regulator, go to your husband for gas, and then bolt to the surface without him noticing or intervening.

It sounds as though you had a very poor class, and I worry that these bargain classes might tend to be that way. But I would rebook with another shop, and do some homework before you sign up. Find a shop that has a less compressed schedule, and talk to the instructor you will be working with BEFORE you commit, so that you know you can understand him, and that he knows what you went through the first time.

We just worked with a very nice woman who had a similar experience with another shop. She did a pool session with us and came up smiling, and she did her certification dives yesterday, and came away excited about being a diver. You can do it, too!

 

[beaverdivers]

Thanks for sharing.

You are correct, your class was a nightmare. It is a shame that poor training like this exsists.

If you feel up to it, I would suggest that you and your husband continue with the best instructor that you can find.

I would recommend taking a private course and have the instructor focus on buoyancy.

Good Luck and Good Diving!

 

[spectrum]

Nightmare Dive,

I don't know if that is how the shop operates or if this is how they recoup the discount offering but I can tell you this it's not the way isn't supposed to work. Dive instruction should be a progression of skills that build on one another. Secondly student and instructor need to recognize that it is an adaptive process. It's not easy for everyone but nearly anyone in decent health with a true desire can do it. In your case desire and aptitude seem to be fine, you just had awful instruction. Repetition is common and even when it's checkout time there is always time for a teaching moment and another try or 2. It is almost never a single try pass or fail affair.

Often times pools are not in the most convenient spot, most users just have goggles and towel when they arrive. I have had to do some crazy lugging for pool sessions. That's good practice since not every dive will be made right from the back of your car either. In any case the work can be shared in any way people choose and how much lugging you do has nothing to do with passing the course.

Where this has been such a dream for you I urge you to take another shot at it. You have already proven that you can do it. This time you'll have a much better idea what you need for an instructor and can sign up for a really good program. As a couple you may even find private lessons won't cost that much more. At the top of this forum is a sticky about finding an excellent class. Trust me, this really is a lot of fun and the effort will be worth it.

Pete

 

[maniago]

I'm sorry to say, but this sport we call scuba diving is an expensive hobby. As such, life support hobbies always are and maybe with good reason - parachuting and flying also come to mind. Because of that, there are less scrupulous operators who fish for new clients with low rates, hook them, then bilk them for their certification. I believe you found such an operator. Any introductory "adventure" dive probably ought to cost what you paid. A full Open Water cert, not so much. My wife and I paid $400 each for our open water, but that covered every expense you can imagine and a guarantee that the instructor would go to whatever lengths to work out our kinks and certify. Dont read that as a blanket pass. It wasn't - not even close. You had to holdup your end of the bargain too. My wife did remedial training and several skills over until she passed. I had some difficulty as well and needed some further attention. We're now both PADI certified and we're headed to PADI AOW this coming weekend, same instructor.

What I'm trying to say, is that, though not always true, more often than not, the good and the great instructors cost good money to employ. Quality is the reason for that. Don't give up, but do ask previously certified divers who they trained with and go from there.

 

[thirdcoastdiver]

I am sorry. A good course will make sure that you have performed all of the skills correctly and will be designed to reinforce your newly learned skills. I chose not to go with a short weekend or two class. I needed time to evaluate those skills that were challenging, practice the challenging skills, and then be able to demonstrate mastery to the instructor. I chose the longest class based on my learning styles. I would have liked another week or two of class sessions. TS&M and beaverdivers are correct. There are good classes, and good instructors. I spent nearly three months researching dive shops and instructor before making a commitment. Find a great instructor and learn to dive with confidence, and comfort. It will be worth the effort.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

You got taken by a bunch of incompetent, greedy, bums. That was no course. That was steal your money and run. I'd report them to whatever agency they certify through, then submit this to every local paper and website in your area. I'd call the coupon people as well and demand my money back. Do your local tv stations have a consumer reporter? IF so, call them. Shops like this need to be put out of business.

 

[Nightmare dive]

Thank you to every single one of you, for taking the time to read my long post. I have never joined a forum before and was encouraged by my brother (the one who inspired me to scuba dive) to share my experience. It's only been less than a day after the incident and I'm still very emotionally traumatised / raw. After reading your messages, I feel really touched that you would reach out to a stranger like me with such support and encouragement. I have also realised my mistake - I made a lot of assumptions. I underestimated what a tough sport scuba diving is and overestimated the control of the imagined rigid standards Australian Government must have placed on dive schools. Thank you for enlightening me. I should have done more research. Thank you for all your kind words and support. I really appreciate them.

 

[wedivebc]

I do hope you try again. These groupon promotional things are a lost leader for dive shops to bring new customers into the shop and hopefully entice them to become regular customers. How a shop expects to get repeat business (which is the initial intent of the discount) with such poor service I will never know. It seems dive shops should put their A-team on the groupon customer not the short bus instructors.
Hopefully you try again. Diving is a wonderful experience and can be loads of fun once you get proper training.

 

[tracydr]

I think after a bad experience, a semi-private lesson would be a good idea. I'm really sorry for your bad experience, especially after you waited so long for Scuba lessons. Sounded like you tried really hard and maybe didn't really truly panic, but just got frightened, which is much better.
Everybody has the ability to panic, if pushed hard enough, especially without proper training.
Sounds like you may be a good candidate to work at retraining, since you really did work at not panicking.
These group-on classes have a horrible reputation.