Panic Attack During OWC - Had to Bail

[hdtran]

Depending on the resort area & season, an o/w referral can be a private lesson...

When I decided to have a midlife crisis on vacation two weeks ago :05: , I decided to get a scuba o/w certification (I've been a long-time snorkeler). I started walking around the dive shops in Cabo San Lucas (where we were staying), and found a PADI instructor who had no students scheduled. He was happy to give me private lessons (you read the book & do the exercises in your hotel; you come to the shop to take the tests, and go dive...). With the private instructor, he/she will slow down or speed up based on your comfort level. Out in tropical waters, the water is warmer (and the view much more interesting than Santa Rosa lake). But unlike Santa Rosa lake, you will probably be doing a back roll entry (which can be intimidating). There will be light swell, which could give you motion sickness (happened to me until I got my head underwater), and you may be fighting a small current (ditto). My instructor required me to do one more o/w dive than normal to practice my buoyancy control and fin stroke (he says I still s*** at it, but he felt I was acceptable).

Mind you, the 7mm 2-pc suit I wore on the first dive (62 deg. water at that time) was painfully stiff! On our last day (when my wife did a resort dive), the water was 72, and we were overdressed in a much more comfortable 5mm 1-pc.

So, do ask your shop to send the o/w referral papers with you. Typical rates for the o/w referral dives are $200 to $250, and may include equipment rental.

I think Belize in June/July should be warm enough that you can do a 3mm or a shorty (but check with the locals!).

Whatever you choose to do, best of luck!

 

[milkathecow]

So, do ask your shop to send the o/w referral papers with you. Typical rates for the o/w referral dives are $200 to $250, and may include equipment rental.

Please don't provide prices... not because it's a taboo, but it's just a question of where you do it. People expect to pay the same price everywhere for their course... but it's just not possible for one simple reason.. the price of the equipment diveShops buy in their own country is subject to the cost of living... in switzerland a simple BCD is around 600-650USD, and a pair of Mares Volo Fins costs 160USD but in france like 5 miles away it's just 1/3rd of the price... approx 55-60USD.

You can't expect a center which buys it's equipment in france to have the same prices as the one in switzerland if only for that reason. moreover a course is all based on the instructor as we are talking it over in this thread and the one on the AOW.. therefore you pay for service and not for goods.. prices vary for many reasons, and referrals do too for the same reasons, add to that the boat dives if all dives are not done from the shore, insurances that some countries make compulsory which are included in the price per dive, and so on.

i'm always amazed when i go diving at the differences in prices for the dives, in europe it can go from 15€ to 50-60€ per dive... different places, but still just the same type of boat and service... it's just how it goes... but it's amazing

I'm realizing i might be sounding very harsh, no offense to be taken, just a few comments

 

[Damselfish]

Please don't provide prices... not because it's a taboo, but it's just a question of where you do it.

It's helpful to provide prices, as long as it's made clear where the prices are for.

 

[sharky60]

i had been a diver for 6 months when i had my first "panic attack" i had never had any trouble at all and than all of a sudden in the middle of a dive i started to hyperventilate. luckly i too had a great instuctor an just happend to be diving with him on that day, he sat me down on the bottom and made me focus on his eyes and i started breathing regularly. that was over 20 years ago and i still have no explaination for it. i have had it happen a couple of other times over the years and been able to control it myself.
it does sound like your wet suit was too tight, this could have definatly attributed to it. maybe you can try it again on your cruise, where you won't have to wear such a heavy suit and so much weight, 28 lbs. is a lot.
many of dive shops will do a certification dive, it does usually cost about $200, and you usually have to set it up ahead of time, but that's what my wife did because she was't about to dive in a lake. she took her classes and pool work here in Texas and got certified in Hawaii on shallow shore dives, she also had some anxiety but made it thru it.
your story is not unique, so don't feel bad, just relax and take your time you'll do just fine. if you do it in the ocean you can focus on the beautiful sea life and try not to worry about all the technical stuff so much, if you've done your homework, the technical stuff will work it's self out. talk to your instructor and see if you can get some more pool time in also, this will help you feel more comfortable in the water.

best wishes and God bless,
sharky

 

[scubaeric]

My nightmare came true. I could not complete my open water certification.

I'm curious if anyone here has had a similar experience. Has anyone had a disastrous first attempt, then gone on to be a diver, to come to love scuba?

*Great advice from JBD and others!*

Hi Shaken_Bake,

A close friend of mine had a very similar experience. During his OW
Certification dive he panicked.

The poor vis, cold water, weights, and thick wet suit made him extremely anxious and he was unable to complete the dive. He was very disappointed.

A few months later he was in Hawaii and decided to try again. After taking a refresher course he tried and successfully passed the OW Certification dive.

He says that diving in warmer water, a much thinner wet suit and the increased visibility made for a much more relaxed initial open water dive.

Now you can't keep him out of the water! I think he's grown gills! So not only can you have a disatrous first attempt and go on to love diving but you can go on to grow gills! ;-)

Don't rush the diving thing, do it only if you are comfortable.

Best of luck to you and have a great time in Belize!

 

[squee!]

I just want to take a moment to thank the OP for this post. I read this a week ago today, which was 5 days before my first open water dive (this last saturday), and I found it very helpful. On my first open water dive, I noticed my regulator was hissing slightly, and I thought it was leaking. I asked one of the divemasters and he said it was fine. We swam out to our dive area and began descending the line. as I switched from snorkel to regulator and started inhaling, I felt like the regulator was BLASTING air into my lungs, and it was causing me to inhale too much air. This was nothing like the regulators I used for my pool sessions. I started to descend with my instructor, but he air blasts were too much for me and I found that I had difficulty breathing and I panicked, signalled that something was wrong and signalled that I was going up. My instructor shook his head, but I ignored him. He came up and asked what was wrong and I told him my regulator was giving me too much air. He said "too MUCH air?" And I responded in the affirmative. He said some regulators are different from others and that maybe the regulators I used in the pool session were not giving me enough air. So i tried it again, same results. This time, my instructor told one of the divemasters to switch regulators with me. So I went over, and treaded water and held his weights with a full BCD while he took off his BCD and switched his octopus with mine. He didn't seem to have any problems with the regulator I was using, but I certainly felt a lot better after switching. I just think I would have tried braving it if I hadn't read this thread. I'm glad I did, it made the dive much more enjopyable for me after that incident. Thanks again

 

[armyscuba]

Don't Give up..Keep trying. Take Your time..Get comfortable..work Your skills in the Pool on Your own time..Just with mask, fins, and snorkel..then add the additional tasking of SCUBA equipment as You see fit..

 

[Mako Mark]

A nice sandy beach, palm trees, clear warm water, pretty coral reef in shallow water within a short surface swim from the shore, take you time, and dont do anything that you feel uncomfortable with.

(most of the posts on this thread are really long, so thats all)

 

[Roz Amos]

I second (third, fourth?!) many of the comments made- I freaked out on a try dive, and took a long time in the pool to get at all comfortable underwater. One thing I thought helped was that we wore the same gear in the pool as in the ocean, which meant that it wasn't a big change in bouyancy and we were used to the reasonably thick wetsuits by the time we came to deal with the open water part of the course. The gear and the cold water can cause many people to become uncomfortable - I recently saw an experienced buddy of mine panic on a cold water dive, largely because all her recent diving had been tropical and she was unused to the thick wetsuit, the amount of weight needed and the impact this had on her buoyancy. I also advocate getting a wetsuit to fit, or diving in warmer water where thinner wetsuits give you a lot more leeway - a made to measure wetsuit has made a lot of difference to my comfort, in terms of both feeling unconstricted when breathing and warmth.

 

[ICEDIVER7352]

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My nightmare came true. I could not complete my open water certification.
My first dive was in Cancun 6 year ago I hated it, sea sick no training I said I would never do it again. Three year ago we were in P.V. Mex. and my boy who was 14 wanted to get O.W. cert. so I took him to a dive shop they talked me into doing it with him no problems got O.W. Cert. then two years ago got advance cert. in Maui Ha. still no problems. When to Cancun in March, seas were rough and a small boat jumped in and freaked out couldn't get anough air all I wanted was to get out of the water my son and I were getting Rescue cert. at the time. Well to make a long story short I tried it again the next day and was okay went on to get my rescue cert. Don't give up try it again in warmer water. See Ya Frank
I breezed through the classwork, scoring 100% on my test. Pool work was a piece of cake; never did I feel any apprehension or nervousness about being under water. With a little practice, I ran through my skills fairly well I thought. I could clear my mask, share my regulator, do emergency ascents, etc. I felt I was ready for my open water, which was just two weeks after completing my coursework and doing an extra practice session in the pool. Nevertheless, I thought a lot about the certification test, worried about it, didn't sleep at all the night before, wondered what I'd do if I panicked...

Our class from Denver travelled to Santa Rosa, NM to do our OW in the Blue Hole. It is a natural aquifer, 80 ft. deep, small but crystal clear water. 62 degrees year-round, which is cold for me. We obviously had to wear wetsuits, most going for 7mm. I'm a bit heavy and had a lot of difficulty finding one that even got around me; it was tight. But I felt I could breathe all right. The cold water was a shock and I hated it. It took a while to feel even remotely comfortable and my hands never felt comfortable. We did a snorkel on the surface and practiced towing skills first. I was OK with that. Then we donned our tanks and weights to descend. I had on 28 lbs. of weight to compensate for my suit and natural buoyancy. I was staggering to get into the water, relieved to finally be swimming around, but feeling so weighed down.

Our class of six and two instructors went to a "platform" set up with buoys and ropes and PVC pipes 20 feet down. I let the air out of my BC and held on the rope as I went down, equalizing OK. I was able to get neutral fairly quickly and signalled OK to the instructor. It was not OK. Not even close. My chest started to feel compressed; I could not get enough air in my lungs. I turned my head. Everything started to spin. I could not stand one more second depending for my life on this rubber thing stuck in my mouth which was not giving me enough air. Our instructor had joked that during the skills test, he was going to hold on to each student so that no one would bolt to the surface. That was all I could think of. I floated up a few feet then inflated my BC. Someone grabbed my fin but I shook them loose. I got to the surface and spit out the regulator. Once there, I felt enormous relief.

One of the instructors came up immediately to see what the problem was. I tried to explain what I was feeling. He was sympathetic; he offered to sit with me in shallower water and let me take more time to get used to it. There was nothing in the world that I wanted to do less. I wanted to get all this heavy equipment off me and get me the hell away from this place as soon as I could.

So here I am, two days later, ready to cry every time I think about that feeling of complete and dire panic. I'm bitterly disappointed that I could not complete my certification in order to go diving on a cruise I'm taking next month. My husband is a diver, which was my original motivation for taking up scuba. He in no way has been pushy about my becoming a diver; he was completely supportive and sympathetic about my failure. He thinks that maybe I'd be comfortable trying to get certified in warmer water without such a heavy wetsuit - at a much later date (we have no time on the cruise to do it).

I'm curious if anyone here has had a similar experience. Has anyone had a disastrous first attempt, then gone on to be a diver, to come to love scuba? Did I worry too much and create a self-fulfilling prophecy that I'll never be able to get over now? Should I just hang it up and be happy I figured it out now before I endanger myself or others? I can't picture I'd be able to dive more than once a year, given the lack of decent open water diving opportunities around Denver. My heart is telling me it's something I should be able to do, but my brain has taken a complete opposite tack, reminding me that silly humans weren't meant to swim under the water for more than one breath!