My PADI Open Water Experience

[Graeme Fraser]

DAY 2

I had troubles sleeping the night of dive 1 and 2. The free flow experience just kept going through my mind. When it wasn’t about the fear I had when it happened, it was me kicking myself for not reaching for my wife’s secondary right away. My wife and I had discussed the situation. She felt bad that she didn’t hand me her secondary. Apparently, the other students where all in shock and confused about what was happening. I was less enthusiastic to get to the quarry.

Due to the low numbers in our AM group, the PM class was asked to join the AM class for dive 3 and 4. The PM class only had three divers, so we were still not as I high as were supposed to be on day 1. The student who couldn’t clear her ears dive 1 did not return, so this left us with 7 students.

Day 2 did not start out well. One of the junior divers forgot his fins. Another diver forgot her snorkel. A different junior diver did not have a compass on their rental counsel (oversight by LDS). Luckily (maybe not so much) I had the XS scuba compass I bought since my personal regulator did not have a counsel on it. Since I was using the rental regulator I had no need for it, I loaned it to the student.

DIVE 3

The first thing we had to do was a surface swim via a compass. This turned out to be a lot harder for me than doing compass navigation on land. For the life of me, I could not swim in a straight line. I am not sure if it has to do with my fins (old jet fins from my dad that I have troubles kicking with), the wind, or if it was something else. My wife on the other hand, who was really worried about the navigation part had no troubles. She was the first to the float. After one course correction, I was the third to the float. I think we waited at least 10 minutes before the others arrived.

For the first decent one of the instructors was going to work with two students who failed the partial and full mask flood. The other instructor was going to have 4 of us do full mask removal, fin pivot with oral inflate, and underwater compass. The instructor started having us do our oral inflate fin pivot as the others descended. Three of us did it before the fourth made it down. I am still not sure when this skill would be used? The other instructor came down with his two students last. Our instructor looked at him confused. We were also confused since our group was missing one. Our instructor singled us up. We went up and learned that one of the students was having troubles equalizing. She was already on the shore when we returned to the surface.

Once everything was straightened out, we went back down to complete the full mask removal and underwater compass swim. My full mask removal went ok. I took my time and got it back on and cleared the mask. Our instructor moved to the next person. As we were waiting, I had a slow leak in my mask. I couldn’t keep it dry. Trying to do the underwater compass swim turned out to be difficult for me. I am going to blame my mask since it kept flooding making it hard for me to see the compass. I also had to keep stopping to clear it which just threw off everything. After a few tries, I completed the skill and it was time to surface. It turned out my hood was slight under the skirt of the mask. No-one notice underwater.

We waited for the other instructor and students. The last skill we needed to do for this dive was a CESA before doing underwater exploration. The cesa took forever. We were on the surface so long that my dive computer logged dive 3 as two separate dives. Doing the CESA was no problem.

The underwater exploration swim was not fun for me. My wife and I were behind the other students following a rope to one of the sunken vessels. We kept what I estimate 4 feet between the two divers in front of us. Everyone was kicking up the bottom so visibility was horrible. The new instructor was behind us. He kept pulling on us as if we were not keeping up. I will admit my wife and I got a little low to the bottom which I tried to adjust with my inflator, but at one point the instructor grabbed my inflator and proceeded to add air which caused me to rise too high. I did manage to release some air before getting too high.

Dive 4

The final dive is one we planned. In hindsight, I wish we would have planned it differently. I also wished we had new tanks. We were all using the same tank from dive 3 and I was down to only 1500 psi. My wife and the other student were at 1700 and 1800. We planned to explore some boats until I hit 1000. We would then ascend to a 15’ for safety stop before doing our controlled ascent. While I would have loved to dive longer, this dive only lasted 10 minutes before I hit 1000 PSI. We had three members in our team with one instructor. The other member was already very cold, so the shorter dive worked out well for her.

We first surfaced swam to the float. By now the wind picked up, so the swim was much more challenging than earlier. We all had to catch our breath at the float. We planned to free descent to a platform and then move towards a couple of sunken boats. We all had troubles ascending. I think I needed to exhale longer. Descending took way too much effort and I think that ate into my 500 PSI I had before turning the dive.

The boats were in about 20’ of water. When we did our safety stop at 15 feet my wife and the other diver kicked up a lot of sediment. My wife was below me about 2 feet. I think I kicked up a little as well but was able to trim myself out. Visibility dropped to a level in which we could hardly see each other. I grabbed my wife’s hand since I know visibility is her greatest concern. She was thankful I did. We waited for 3 minutes and then completed our ascent. When we surfaced, there was clearly a storm rolling in. The wind really picked up. Our instructor had my wife and I quickly remove and replace our bcd in the water. We swam to the shore with the other team. Before long, the storm rolled in and brought pouring rain with some lightning. I guess the short dive worked out for the best.

Swimming to shore I started to feel sick. It felt like motion sickness (the way I feel when swinging on a swing with my kids or scrolling to fast on the computer). I felt even worse while in the shallow water getting my fins off and climbing up to shore. I think it was a combination of the water movement and restriction from my hood. When I sat down with my BCD, I felt even more restriction around my neck. As soon as I got out of the BCD, removed my hood and sat down for a bit I began to feel better. One of my instructors asked if I was alright and I explained how I was feeling. It took about an hour to feel back to normal. It took about 3 hours to warm up.

CONCLUSION

I am glad we completed the open water certification but I will need many more dives to start to feel confident in most of the skills. We are signed up for advanced open water (was a package deal) in July, but we may need to push that out further.

I wish we would have spent more time on many of the skills. In the end, I felt we were being rushed through each skill for a check-off box instead of focusing on training good divers. Once again, I am not sure this is even possible with how PADI is structured. That said, as noted before, I am the type who prefers to master a given skill before moving on even if it means taking much longer to finish.

If I would have to do it all over again, I would have taken more time to meet the actual instructors who would be teaching the class. As you may recall, I chose this LDS because I spoke to one of the instructors. That instructor was not involved with our class at all.

This is probably the most thorough post-certification report I've read and, as wetb4igetinthewater said, it's also a very useful feedback tool for instructors, so thank you.

Sounds like you had some ups and downs, but with your clearly determined mindset you will be driven to hone your skills, which is a good attitude to have. Remember as well that some of the conditions you experienced will make you a more resilient diver not easily phased by the environment. That said, good viz, warm water, etc do not necessarily mean safer and there can be other challenges to manage such as currents and swell.

Regarding your AOW, many people do do straight to this after OW. There are pros and cons to this, but if your LDS does an open pool night, maybe you and your wife should do a couple of sessions just to reinforce and practice skills beforehand.

 

[Dubious]

I think you came to the right place to get information that will accelerate your skills growth. In general, my recommendation is to take UTD Essentials, GUE fundies as your next course, or @The Chairman's buoyancy course.

I'll leave you with a few notes that I've written that you might find useful here: https://www.facebook.com/pg/ThavmasScuba/notes/. Maybe you'd also find the dive planning doc I wrote. It isn't targeted to your area, but hopefully you find some concepts useful. Good luck and stay wet!

Thank you for the suggestions and link. I will look over your notes when I get home. I was actually talking to my wife about GUE fundies on our drive back home from day two. It doesn't appear it happens around my area so we would likely have to travel a bit. I will have to see if I can get my wife on board. She is not sold on a backplate and wing right now.

Regarding your AOW, many people do do straight to this after OW. There are pros and cons to this, but if your LDS does an open pool night, maybe you and your wife should do a couple of sessions just to reinforce and practice skills beforehand.

The LDS we did our training with has a peak buoyancy pool clinic coming up this weekend, but I don't think we will be able to make it work. We are trying to line up a few dives before the AOW.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Thank you for the suggestions and link. I will look over your notes when I get home. I was actually talking to my wife about GUE fundies on our drive back home from day two. It doesn't appear it happens around my area so we would likely have to travel a bit. I will have to see if I can get my wife on board. She is not sold on a backplate and wing right now.

The LDS we did our training with has a peak buoyancy pool clinic coming up this weekend, but I don't think we will be able to make it work. We are trying to line up a few dives before the AOW.

Remember that you don't have to stick with a BP/W after you take fundies, though your wife may decide to stick with it. If not, she can go back to a jacket style BCD. The skills will transfer.

I cannot recommend enough to not take any course until you take fundies. Seriously, please save your money. There is a reason why when I was a PADI instructor I never taught PPB: I covered all that stuff in open water. If you look at the performance requirements for OW and PPB, you'll see that everything in PPB is supposed to be covered in OW, if the class is taught properly.

If you decide to take the PPB equivalent in NAUI or SDI, two agencies that allow instructors to add content/skill requirements, then it is conceivable to have a buoyancy course that resembles fundies. But you have to interview the instructor in great detail. They should be able to provide a syllabus similar to the attached file.

But with GUE you are guaranteed a solid course, no interviewing necessary. It is great you are doing this with your wife. Maybe a vacation to Florida for the course? GUE central down there. Good luck!

 

[charlier]

@Dubious,

I assure you, this will be read by many instructors. It is not easy for us to put ourselves in the positions of the new diver and see through their eyes. Your writeup does help do that.

I think you came to the right place to get information that will accelerate your skills growth. In general, my recommendation is to take UTD Essentials, GUE fundies as your next course, or @The Chairman's buoyancy course.

I'll leave you with a few notes that I've written that you might find useful here: https://www.facebook.com/pg/ThavmasScuba/notes/. Maybe you'd also find the dive planning doc I wrote. It isn't targeted to your area, but hopefully you find some concepts useful. Good luck and stay wet!

Excellent write-up and a helps pit other instructors. I am not sure that my wife would have continued to dive after a similar OW class. As Kosta suggested, UTD Essentials, GUE Fundies, et al. are excellent classes, but these classes are not always needed by many recreational divers. As a freelance PADI instructor, in Indonesia and in the USA, I have meet other instructors that approach teaching OW scuba differently. They might have smaller instructor to student ratios and 2:1 and focus on buoyancy, trim, and dive planning that are intertwined with theory, confined water and open water. At this point, try to find good mentors, or DM’s that will be good role models.

 

[Dubious]

'll leave you with a few notes that I've written that you might find useful here: https://www.facebook.com/pg/ThavmasScuba/notes/.

So I had to chuckle about when read, "Never on the knees: Open Water Scuba Classes" since most of our class, both confined and open water dives, were done on our knees. This is why I really would like to work on my free decent. I was thinking it would be good to plan a training dive where all we do is stop at certain target depths. It looks like you teach that.

Maybe you'd also find the dive planning doc I wrote.

Thank you. Exactly the kind of detail I am looking for.

Maybe a vacation to Florida for the course?

This may be possible next year. This is the first year we are actually traveling together. I was eyeing Florida as a possible destination for our next trip.

 

[Dubious]

At this point, try to find good mentors, or DM’s that will be good role models.

That is our plan. There is a scuba club not too far so we plan to hook up with them. I am also thinking we will try to do fun dives with multiple shops to meet other divers, DM, and instructors.

 

[dewdropsonrosa]

Fond du Lac. Part of me wishes I would have checked out the shops in Madison but they were all over an hour away which was the cutoff I initially made. We might hook up with Madison scuba to do some of their Tuesday Night Adventure Dives. The greater Milwaukee area shop we went with only goes out once a month.

Madison Scuba happily takes visitors for TNAD dives - I dove with them for many years before moving to Chicago. Avoid nights at Second Point, though - there is NOTHING to see. Shorewood, Monona Terrace, and Devil's Lake nights are the best options.

 

[iamrushman]

congratulations to you and your wife on a job well done ... enjoyed reading your review.

 

[T Mogle]

Thank you for making this diary. Very interesting read.

My dive buddy will quickly become my wife. It scares me. She got her certificate 20 odd years ago. (and hardly dived since.) She needs a refresher and most likely more than that. Anyway - nice to hear of a couple that does their training together. Diving with my wife scars me! I think would like 50 dive +, rescue training, and solo certification before I am configurable dive with my wife. Keep on posting!

 

[jonhall]

My dive buddy will quickly become my wife. It scares me. She got her certificate 20 odd years ago. (and hardly dived since.) She needs a refresher and most likely more than that. Anyway - nice to hear of a couple that does their training together. Diving with my wife scars me! I think would like 50 dive +, rescue training, and solo certification before I am configurable dive with my wife.

Hope you don't have to wait all that time. My wife and I were dive buddies when we first started. Both of us were comfortable in and around water and scuba was easy for us to both pick up. We became serious divers (4-6 dives on a once a year trip, lol) 7 years later after only having done our PADI checkout dives. Although she had to take her time going down to clear her ears, she was by far the better scuba diver between us as she was always relaxed and great on air and buoyancy control. All of our dives were boat or shore dives around a pier. Unfortunately, 7 years ago (the year we both retired), while diving, she had ear problems and couldn't go down and hasn't been diving since - she felt like she constantly had water in her ear that she couldn't get out. We were fortunate to have gone to an ENT (we were in St. Croix) before flying home, because it was blood.

Seven years ago was also when we were able to start traveling and diving more. I miss her as a dive buddy but fortunately because we travel with another couple most of the time, I have another dive buddy - he's not as cute! I think most of all I feel badly for her as we have traveled, and still travel, a couple of times a years to some nice diving areas, mostly in the Caribbean, that she, by choice, will no longer dive.

You may have been joking, but don't let diving with your wife scare you. You really are responsible for yourself anyway. Enjoy the time diving together.