So a little background first. I am brand new to diving. I finished my PADI course work and did my first day in the pool doing every skill our instructors asked of us without issue. Well, There was one issue at the beginning of our pool session that I was able to push through over time. Took me about 10 minutes to feel like I was getting enough air per breath at the beginning of our pool session. Over those 10 minutes under the water I had this almost uncontrollable urge to surface. I was able to talk myself out of this urge and continue to breath. After that 10 minutes while we continued to work on skills I felt great and enjoyed every minute of diving/training there after.
The issue I am having though is....... 2 weeks later we went to do our Open Water dives at a geothermal lake. Upon doing our 5 point descent and holding onto the buoy rope to descend to our training platform in the lake 20 feet down. That same feeling I had during our training pool dive was back. And this time in full force. There was nothing i could tell myself to make anything seem ok. I kept trying to descend getting closer and closer to the platform but the urge to ascend was to great.(I was also struggling to equalize my left ear. Because of my panicked head/breathing and was trying to equalize very hard). I signaled to my instructor with stop / problem / pointing to my ears and chest. I stopped for a moment and ascended maybe a foot or two to take pressure off my ears. But again the feeling of not being able to breath coupled in with everything else going on at the moment was to much. My breathing became sporadic and at one point very shallow almost to the point of hyper ventilating. After about 5-6 very short panicked breaths I was able to tell myself to calm down and take long deep breaths (Even these felt awful). At this point my other dive instructor above and behind me grabbed me by the shoulder and signaled me to ascend. So my other dive instructor and I ascended to the top while i held onto the rope all the way up. Once at the surface I couldn't shake how i felt under the water and wouldn't commit fully to trying again. I called my dives there and wouldn't do another dive for the weekend. This whole experience really weighed on me. I felt like a complete failure to myself / my instructors and my class.........
Since this experience I have been doing a lot of research on breathing techniques. But my ultimate question is..... Will this feeling of not being able to breath underwater ever go away. I'm assuming with more practice and diving experience the body and mind will cope with what is going on and just like any other thing in life becomes second nature after repetition.
Any advice to get through this would be great.
Per my instructors request I am doing another pool dive this weekend.... Hopefully I can learn to feel more confident / comfortable about breathing under the water...... Or as my wife says "Remind yourself you are a fluffy cloud" (Lightning McQueen joke there.... for those that have little kids and watch Disney movies) meaning to get out of your own head and relax...... She knows I'm not a very relaxed person and when asked to do so takes me time.
The issue I am having though is....... 2 weeks later we went to do our Open Water dives at a geothermal lake. Upon doing our 5 point descent and holding onto the buoy rope to descend to our training platform in the lake 20 feet down. That same feeling I had during our training pool dive was back. And this time in full force. There was nothing i could tell myself to make anything seem ok. I kept trying to descend getting closer and closer to the platform but the urge to ascend was to great.(I was also struggling to equalize my left ear. Because of my panicked head/breathing and was trying to equalize very hard). I signaled to my instructor with stop / problem / pointing to my ears and chest. I stopped for a moment and ascended maybe a foot or two to take pressure off my ears. But again the feeling of not being able to breath coupled in with everything else going on at the moment was to much. My breathing became sporadic and at one point very shallow almost to the point of hyper ventilating. After about 5-6 very short panicked breaths I was able to tell myself to calm down and take long deep breaths (Even these felt awful). At this point my other dive instructor above and behind me grabbed me by the shoulder and signaled me to ascend. So my other dive instructor and I ascended to the top while i held onto the rope all the way up. Once at the surface I couldn't shake how i felt under the water and wouldn't commit fully to trying again. I called my dives there and wouldn't do another dive for the weekend. This whole experience really weighed on me. I felt like a complete failure to myself / my instructors and my class.........
Since this experience I have been doing a lot of research on breathing techniques. But my ultimate question is..... Will this feeling of not being able to breath underwater ever go away. I'm assuming with more practice and diving experience the body and mind will cope with what is going on and just like any other thing in life becomes second nature after repetition.
Any advice to get through this would be great.
Per my instructors request I am doing another pool dive this weekend.... Hopefully I can learn to feel more confident / comfortable about breathing under the water...... Or as my wife says "Remind yourself you are a fluffy cloud" (Lightning McQueen joke there.... for those that have little kids and watch Disney movies) meaning to get out of your own head and relax...... She knows I'm not a very relaxed person and when asked to do so takes me time.
Good job hanging in there, bud!
