Failed Open Water Dive

[RJHinPDX]

Beyond the pool with your gear on (as suggested).... I do a lot of shore diving. Tons of it, in fact, and I've never worn anything less than a full 7mm wetsuit and hood etc. One thing I started doing was assembling my gear at my car so I can put it on and walk straight to the water. I realized very quickly that hauling everything close to the water and then assembling it was a recipe for back strain and stress. I also find I'm ready faster than others too. Plus when I'm done my dive, I walked back to the car, drop off tank #1 and switch it for tank #2.
Just an idea of something else you can do to minimize the stress it also means I generally only have to make one trip between my vehicle and the shore!



Oh! If you own your own fins switch the straps for springs. I still can't figure out the stupid clips on the straps that came with my fins. I always needed help until I switched them out. Best $20 (or whatever) I have spent on gear so far.

I thought of putting my gear together at the car. If it had been a straight walk to the water, I might have done it. I don't think I could have made it over the railing at the side of the road and down the rocks with the tank and BC strapped on. I am not a climber.

I'll consider the springs if I find I can't get the fin straps on wearing gloves. That might be an easy fix. Thanks!

 

[o2dependant]

If you take a group course spread over a few weeks, It is likely that you will get used to working with instructors assit instructors etc. If I had paid for a private 1 on 1 tuition I woulld anticipate that my instructor will be there untill the end and sign off my training. Not someone I have never met before. In a group situation I would have been used to other divers in the water and spent more time in the water watching others, and working with different instructors/ assitants. I would still have wanted to try on the gear. even if it was a 3mm shortie.

To send a student out to the elements who had never even tried on a wetsuit really is a shambles. It like learning to drive in a right hand compact car only to be given a left hand 5 door Saloon for your test( or vice versa for you lot who drive on the wrong side of the road!!!). I'm glad that the OP has not been totally put off as this would likely be the case with a nervous beginner.

Take the free pool sessions, insist on the full set of gear for them and get back in thewater as soon as possible for your OW dives if you feel comfortable after the pool sessions

 

[RJHinPDX]

Up herein the NW, its pretty common that the pool session be sans wetsuit. It'll be very warm and uncomfortable.

What concerns me, is the "3 trips to get my gear". Makes me wonder where she was taken for her OW, as the good OW dives are short walks to the water in full gear.

All the OW classes I've observed, helped with, etc, all students gear up in the parking lot, then walk full gear to the water.

The dives were at Octopus Hole in the Hood Canal. It wasn't the distance, which was not far at all, it was the climb down that made it difficult.

---------- Post added November 23rd, 2012 at 10:03 AM ----------

A couple of things..... Why not decide that the beach dive is just stupid for you, and that you want to be doing boat dives. If that is not an option, pay someone to carry your gear down to the water.
Try on all the gear long before you try to use it in the ocean, to make sure that everything fits perfectly.
A dry suit would have been a much better choice for the Pacific Northwest....Now you have to suffer with all the problems inherent in using a thick wetsuit.


You don't say if you are a man or a woman, large or small, or anything, so it is hard to make very specific recomendations on how you should do the beach dive, if this is the ONLY option for you.
Usually with something like this, there are little tricks you can learn to make what seems hard or impossible, actually fairly easy....If the biggest challenge is the carrying of the tank, then have somone else carry it for you...If this will be big for your future, then you will need a fitness regimen that will get you to the point that carrying your own tank is easy, after 6 months to a year of the program. Realize it takes about 3 months for any significant change to occur for strength and endurance, even for an athlete that trains hard...Which is why rather than sabotage the first 3 to 6 months of diving, I's say get someone to carry stuff for you, until you are stronger.

Dont dive when conditions are crummy...Someone needs common sense at the shop...New Open water dives should not be planned on horrible days, unless you think every member of the class is as bulletproof as a Navy Seal.
We have equivalent stupidity in Florida...a new class will be set for a Saturday, and it rolls around, and the seas are 6 feet--the shop won;t cancel, and half the class is seasick and none learn much more than that diving stinks. No comon sense, or, profits have taken precedence over a quality class.

I'm a woman, 58 years old, not an athlete, but not in terrible shape. I didn't have any trouble with the required surface swim, I'm generally comfortable in the water.

It's the Pacific Northwest. It rains a lot here. I probably wouldn't have willingly gone diving in the conditions at the open water dive, but on the other hand, these conditions are pretty common here and I can understand why the shop wouldn't cancel the dive for them. They would be canceling more dives than they ran. Nobody else seemed to have any trouble with it.

Not sure about a boat dive, especially for certifying. Certainly my local shop does not offer them. Most of the dives up here appear to be shore dives.

---------- Post added November 23rd, 2012 at 10:34 AM ----------

I remember how much more difficult it was by simply adding 5mm gloves and a hood (not an issue after getting used to it). I got an extra pool session before the checkout dives specifically to do my skills with the gloves. It helped immensely.

Pool sessions with all the gear would be preferable, but as someone else pointed out, it might just be too hot to be practical. Perhaps having the hood and gloves on would be the way to go. Thanks!

---------- Post added November 23rd, 2012 at 10:37 AM ----------

Somehow, adding a wet suit, etc that you have never donned or worn before at all to the mix, just at your first OW dive is surely asking for trouble. A lot unnecessary stress was added to the mix for you.

Take the time to practice your skills in as close to the same conditions a you can. Obviously a pool is not going to be like diving the ocean in your area, but at least if you had the chance to have dived in the wet suit you will be adding one less thing to an already naturally stressful dive. My two kids really struggled to overcome the wet suit issue themselves during their OW training, because the rentals they trained in were never a good fit for them, but once they got a little practice in the pool under their belts in the hated wet suits, they did very well.

Keep trying. My gf was a very insecure beginning diver, and we kid that it took her 5 years, and 5 countries to get her certification, but when she failed to complete her OW the first time around, she went back and tried again. In a week or two now she expects to log her 100th dive, and is super excited about our upcoming trip to Australia later this winter.

I didn't mean to give the impression that I had never had the wetsuit on. I had it on in the shop when I was fitted for my rental gear. I put it on, then I took it off. I just had never been in the water with it on.

 

[p1p]

Personally, I dont think Octo Hole is a good OW dive site, especially when you have Sund Rock just down the road with about the easiest shore access there is.

 

[RJHinPDX]

YES...head for warm water. Cold water is difficult, however, when you can manage it, you're a better diver for it. Pure-bred cold water divers ARE better than warm-only divers...(sujective, read that as having a broader climate & gear experience)

I know this for a fact, because, I'm a warm-water diver only.
Like you, I didn't quite "make it" in pure cold water. I avoided it completely, got certified down South in ocean (cozumel area).

All is not lost, however, you can dive in "cold water" areas in the summer, with just a 3/5mm or "shorty", no gloves. Just avoid quarries...go for lakes or slow meandering rivers...because quarries have a severe thermocline (goes from cool, cold, near-freezing), that most lakes & rivers, because of current, will be MUCH warmer.
Canals are good & warm too in the summer.
Bonus - no need to buy different gear. I use my 3/5 in the Montreal (Quebec) area in the summer, and down South as protection. Same wetsuit. Same BCD.

My son, a "true" cold-water, braves it out now in a dry suit. I was present at his certification in a quarry, boy that was difficult. He was 18 at the time.

So if you dive down South during the winter on vacation, and with a local dive club in the summer, you can easily do 10+ dives per year, which is plenty to become an "adequate" OW diver, and slowly progress to AOW after 40+ dives (my suggestion).

If you're a young(ish) guy that wants to go ASAP to AOW, Rescue, DM, etc... Only suggestion would be to weight train?

I'm just OW, in the 40-ish dives after three years, and this is just fine by me. Perhaps AOW next summer.

I don't think the water up here gets significantly warmer even in the summer, although the air does and that would certainly make the experience a bit more comfortable. I think people still wear 7mm wet suits to dive, though.

 

[p1p]

correct, 7mm or drysuits. Some drysuit divers switch to wetsuits over summertime

 

[RJHinPDX]

I agree. One of the most if not the most important things about diving is proper weighting/buoyancy. Doesn't sound like this shop cared.

I can't say they didn't care. They made what I assume was an educated guess about the amount of weight I would need, then added weight for neutral buoyancy when I got in the water. Isn't that what is usually done?

Part of the problem was my gear. I bought a weight-integrated BC at the shop. The shop insisted on using a weight belt for instruction and the certification dive anyway because the belt would be easier to ditch in an emergency, I think. With the amount of weight I needed in the pool, this worked okay. The BC fit over the weight belt there. In the cold salt water with the added buoyancy of the wetsuit, where I needed more weight, my BC would not fit over the belt at all. The instructor suggested I could go to the local dive shop in Hoodsport to rent another BC. When I nixed that idea, the instructors worked with my integrated weight pouches on my BC, but this was kind of a last minute fix, not what was planned.

I had 20lbs in the front pouches and 10lbs in my trim weight pouches in the back of the BC.When I got in the water, the instructor added four of those clip-on weights to the D-rings on the front of the BC. I could barely move, but I know it's usual to be overweighted on your first dives. Unfortunately, the weights hanging made it difficult for me to access the i3 inflator on the BC, which was what finally ended the dive.

Not sure what I'm going to end up doing, but I really appreciate all the good advice and kindness.

 

[Scuba_Noob]

1. Pretty ridiculous that you paid for private instruction and your instructor wasn't there for the actual open water. He should have tried to reschedule. I would have rescheduled to get my money's worth and the comfort of the private instructor.

2. Pretty ridiculous that you didn't do your pool dives in a wetsuit. When I got OW certified, I did all my pool dives in a drysuit. I was comfortable when we got to open water. Adding new equipment always increases stress a little, which is why with anything new, I always do one thing at a time. These instructors made you add 10 different things at one time (e.g., drysuit, hood, gloves, weights, etc.) to add onto the stress of the open water and the conditions when you didn't have any open water experience.

3. Even more ridiculous that the dive shop recommended finishing your cert in warm water. That's not a solution, especially when you're probably going to dive locally - most people should be able to dive temperate waters. That's like a band-aid solution that won't really fix anything in the long term. They take your money, and then they recommend that you spend your money somewhere else. Sure, it's a two-way street between the diver-in-training and the shop/instructor, but it doesn't sound like the shop made enough effort to comfort you.

4. Probably the most ridiculous thing is that they didn't try to reschedule when the conditions were rough for your first ocean dive. They called it anyway, so they should have called it before the trek. I've been in rough conditions, but I always know there's an option to call a dive before the dive. However, a first open water student isn't necessarily expected to know when to call it, as the trust is placed on the instructor.

I'd say the shop and the instructors should do more. If they gave you the two extra pool sessions, take them, but emphasize wearing a wetsuit for practice. If they're still going to take you out in the open water, make sure it's with the private instructor for which you paid. Then, if that happens, the shop did well. Am I asking too much? I don't think so.

 

[RJHinPDX]

Personally, I dont think Octo Hole is a good OW dive site, especially when you have Sund Rock just down the road with about the easiest shore access there is.

Actually several of the dive masters and my instructor said the same thing. The difference is that you have to pay $20 a day to dive Sund Rock and Octopus Hole is free. I understand the shop is trying to keep the divers' expenses down, but personally, I would rather pay the extra money.

 

[Scuba_Noob]

Just read your last post, and if you bought a weight-integrated BC at the shop, you should use it. Practice with the gear you'll use. It's just as easy to ditch weight-integrated weights as a belt.

They shouldn't clip weights to the d-ring, though. My friend, who requires 40+ pounds weight, fills his weight-integrated pockets and rear pockets (=30lbs) and then wears a weight belt with 14 pounds on it. And you could put on some ankle weights. Or some tank weights. Try that. And do a buoyancy test and check your weight recommended based on your OW manual. You might not even need any more than 30 pounds plus some ankle weights or tank weights.