This is my first post on scubaboards after lurking and learning for several months.
I completed my confined water dive # 2 in the pool this week and came to the realization of the fact that diving is not for me. As an intro, I am a native Floridian and have spent most of my life boating, swimming, snorkeling and even scuba diving with experienced buddies in shallower depths off my boat and in the springs across FL. I did a PADI dive with an instructor in Puerto Rico descending to 60 feet or so and had an awesome experience. I consider myself assured and confident in most undertakings, sporting a cool head and having a reasonable modicum of intelligence.
I decided to go ahead and do the OW cert after securing a committed and capable buddy in my cousin. Together, we went to our local LDS/PADI center which is a large multi-state chain store. After hearing the sales persons views on everything SCUBA, we decided to enroll in PADI OW and get it done while the Gulf of Mexico is still bathwater warm. In retrospect I will tell you that after leaving the store and contemplating my decision on the drive home I was struck with a lack 100% confidence in the LDS I had entrusted my training to. Something just didnt click with these folks but I shrugged it off as nervous anticipation to what the training experience would entail.
I will make a statement regarding Night #1 in the classroom with my instructor and leave it at that. My instructor did a few things that evening while not dive related, demonstrated poor judgment to me in more than one circumstance. This affected my confidence in him to make the right decision at depth. Whether my impression of this man is right or wrong it is still my impression. The ride home that night left me more apprehensive than before about my choice of dive educators. I should have bowed out at that point but I persisted on. There is more regarding my follow up to the LDS manager about the instructor but I do not want to waste bandwidth or disparage the LDS, I wish simply relate the story which happened to me.
The first night in the pool went fine and we were zipping around with neutrally buoyant ease. All the first night pool requirements were easily met and we were off to classroom night #2. The douse in the chlorine must have diluted the boredom of our instructors cave and near death exploits because we zipped right through the required videos and lecture for class #2.
Confined water dive #2 came 2 nights later with the excitement that only a new diver can have. We dove right in and did the prerequisite distance swim and float. We then donned our gear and giant strode into 12 feet of water to run through more instruction and drills. Now mind you his instruction pretty much consists of: watch me do it while submerged, now do it, which to now has been fine. Then, we got to mask replacement. Down we went for the watch me session. Instructor does it. Signals to my buddy who does it, but with a certain degree of difficulty. Instructor signals to me and across the bottom I scoot. I wear contact lenses and until now, in 30 years of snorkeling and a few scuba dives, have never had my mask off with a regulator/snorkel in my mouth. Flooding and clearing the mask was not a problem before and I regularly swim underwater with my eyes open, high dive into the water etc., again no problemo.
Two things my instructor told me raced though my head as I reached up to pull my mask off in twelve feet of water 1) I wear contacts, so keep your eyes closed. 2) His students do not dart for the surface if in trouble. In class he told us with bravado how he forcefully held students down from bolting. He now signaled for me to take my mask off, as he held tightly to my BCD. I closed my eyes, pulled of the mask and for the first time ever experienced breathing without the mask. In the darkness I went into immediate sensory overload and stress. I did not anticipate or expect what the feeling would be like and choked on water rushing down my sinuses. I struggled in survival mode in the blackness waiting for my instructors tug on my BCD allowing me to replace my mask. After what seemed like an eternity and convinced I was drowning, I struggled to get my mask back on and successfully cleared. He shook my hand and motioned me over beside my buddy which I did choking and still gasping in my regulator. As the instructor moved onto the next student, I kneeled next to my buddy and came to an immediate conclusion that DIVING IS NOT FOR ME and how I would let my buddy down by wussing out. I managed to stay submerged and make an orderly ascent. When I surfaced, I went straight to the side of the pool and began to shake uncontrollably. Of course, I did not want to be the only wussola in a class of 4 guys so at my instructors urging I donned my mask and re-inflated my BCD to rejoin the rest of the floating class.
The instructor then told us we were now going down, taking off the mask and swimming with our buddy without the mask, then replace/clear and switch roles. My mind was racing and I made the statement out loud I didnt do to well on the mask removal thing and I needed to practice a bit in shallow water. I was told we were not going into the shallow water and to get ready to submerge. Again, letting the almighty ego win over common sense I began to descend. At about 5 feet freakout city ensued and back to the surface I came. The fear was indescribable. The only time I have ever felt that scared, was the unfortunate time I was forced to draw a firearm in defense of my family. (I did not have to shoot, thank God). The class went on with the remainder of the session. As I floated alone on my BCD while they finished the class, I contemplated how I was a not cut out for diving, having just had my steel tested at 12 feet and failing miserably. I took the gear off and left.
The whole event, a continuous sense of dread and the issue of what to do has been heavy on my mind over the past days. Being a man of considerable constitution, and coming from stock that believes you must overcome and control your fears, I headed for my brother-in-laws pool and regulator/tank set up to practice after work today. Convinced I was going to conquer the demon of mask removal or drown trying, I suited up. I swam underwater in the backyard pool thinking and dwelling on how fooked I would be were I to loose my mask at depth on an OW dive. I could not overcome these thoughts and the shallow dive was not fun. Without contacts, so I could try it with my eyes open, I kneeled in 4 feet of water and tried repeatedly to breathe sans mask without success, still inhaling a lot of water.
Dejected and disappointed I realized that while I once dove in the safety and comfort of experienced friends in the open ocean and having sailed through every other in water skill test, dive table and requirement, my mask is not coming off. Because of this I will not achieve Open Water certification, have lost all confidence to deal with such an emergency and am thereby relegated to the limits of the snorkel. Monday I will drop off the loaner gear to the LDS and simply not return, having learned diving is not for me for $159, the cost of a PADI OW session. It is better to have learned in 12 feet of swimming pool rather than 40 or 50 feet below the Gulf on our open water dives next weekend.
I completed my confined water dive # 2 in the pool this week and came to the realization of the fact that diving is not for me. As an intro, I am a native Floridian and have spent most of my life boating, swimming, snorkeling and even scuba diving with experienced buddies in shallower depths off my boat and in the springs across FL. I did a PADI dive with an instructor in Puerto Rico descending to 60 feet or so and had an awesome experience. I consider myself assured and confident in most undertakings, sporting a cool head and having a reasonable modicum of intelligence.
I decided to go ahead and do the OW cert after securing a committed and capable buddy in my cousin. Together, we went to our local LDS/PADI center which is a large multi-state chain store. After hearing the sales persons views on everything SCUBA, we decided to enroll in PADI OW and get it done while the Gulf of Mexico is still bathwater warm. In retrospect I will tell you that after leaving the store and contemplating my decision on the drive home I was struck with a lack 100% confidence in the LDS I had entrusted my training to. Something just didnt click with these folks but I shrugged it off as nervous anticipation to what the training experience would entail.
I will make a statement regarding Night #1 in the classroom with my instructor and leave it at that. My instructor did a few things that evening while not dive related, demonstrated poor judgment to me in more than one circumstance. This affected my confidence in him to make the right decision at depth. Whether my impression of this man is right or wrong it is still my impression. The ride home that night left me more apprehensive than before about my choice of dive educators. I should have bowed out at that point but I persisted on. There is more regarding my follow up to the LDS manager about the instructor but I do not want to waste bandwidth or disparage the LDS, I wish simply relate the story which happened to me.
The first night in the pool went fine and we were zipping around with neutrally buoyant ease. All the first night pool requirements were easily met and we were off to classroom night #2. The douse in the chlorine must have diluted the boredom of our instructors cave and near death exploits because we zipped right through the required videos and lecture for class #2.
Confined water dive #2 came 2 nights later with the excitement that only a new diver can have. We dove right in and did the prerequisite distance swim and float. We then donned our gear and giant strode into 12 feet of water to run through more instruction and drills. Now mind you his instruction pretty much consists of: watch me do it while submerged, now do it, which to now has been fine. Then, we got to mask replacement. Down we went for the watch me session. Instructor does it. Signals to my buddy who does it, but with a certain degree of difficulty. Instructor signals to me and across the bottom I scoot. I wear contact lenses and until now, in 30 years of snorkeling and a few scuba dives, have never had my mask off with a regulator/snorkel in my mouth. Flooding and clearing the mask was not a problem before and I regularly swim underwater with my eyes open, high dive into the water etc., again no problemo.
Two things my instructor told me raced though my head as I reached up to pull my mask off in twelve feet of water 1) I wear contacts, so keep your eyes closed. 2) His students do not dart for the surface if in trouble. In class he told us with bravado how he forcefully held students down from bolting. He now signaled for me to take my mask off, as he held tightly to my BCD. I closed my eyes, pulled of the mask and for the first time ever experienced breathing without the mask. In the darkness I went into immediate sensory overload and stress. I did not anticipate or expect what the feeling would be like and choked on water rushing down my sinuses. I struggled in survival mode in the blackness waiting for my instructors tug on my BCD allowing me to replace my mask. After what seemed like an eternity and convinced I was drowning, I struggled to get my mask back on and successfully cleared. He shook my hand and motioned me over beside my buddy which I did choking and still gasping in my regulator. As the instructor moved onto the next student, I kneeled next to my buddy and came to an immediate conclusion that DIVING IS NOT FOR ME and how I would let my buddy down by wussing out. I managed to stay submerged and make an orderly ascent. When I surfaced, I went straight to the side of the pool and began to shake uncontrollably. Of course, I did not want to be the only wussola in a class of 4 guys so at my instructors urging I donned my mask and re-inflated my BCD to rejoin the rest of the floating class.
The instructor then told us we were now going down, taking off the mask and swimming with our buddy without the mask, then replace/clear and switch roles. My mind was racing and I made the statement out loud I didnt do to well on the mask removal thing and I needed to practice a bit in shallow water. I was told we were not going into the shallow water and to get ready to submerge. Again, letting the almighty ego win over common sense I began to descend. At about 5 feet freakout city ensued and back to the surface I came. The fear was indescribable. The only time I have ever felt that scared, was the unfortunate time I was forced to draw a firearm in defense of my family. (I did not have to shoot, thank God). The class went on with the remainder of the session. As I floated alone on my BCD while they finished the class, I contemplated how I was a not cut out for diving, having just had my steel tested at 12 feet and failing miserably. I took the gear off and left.
The whole event, a continuous sense of dread and the issue of what to do has been heavy on my mind over the past days. Being a man of considerable constitution, and coming from stock that believes you must overcome and control your fears, I headed for my brother-in-laws pool and regulator/tank set up to practice after work today. Convinced I was going to conquer the demon of mask removal or drown trying, I suited up. I swam underwater in the backyard pool thinking and dwelling on how fooked I would be were I to loose my mask at depth on an OW dive. I could not overcome these thoughts and the shallow dive was not fun. Without contacts, so I could try it with my eyes open, I kneeled in 4 feet of water and tried repeatedly to breathe sans mask without success, still inhaling a lot of water.
Dejected and disappointed I realized that while I once dove in the safety and comfort of experienced friends in the open ocean and having sailed through every other in water skill test, dive table and requirement, my mask is not coming off. Because of this I will not achieve Open Water certification, have lost all confidence to deal with such an emergency and am thereby relegated to the limits of the snorkel. Monday I will drop off the loaner gear to the LDS and simply not return, having learned diving is not for me for $159, the cost of a PADI OW session. It is better to have learned in 12 feet of swimming pool rather than 40 or 50 feet below the Gulf on our open water dives next weekend.
