Did anyone else panic the first time?

[NYCNaiad]

I've seen or heard of this happening fairly often. This is one of the reasons why I now recommend that anyone who wants to try diving get OW certified (with pool work included) & not take an intro dive. Yes, it's a bit more money & time, but then you reduce the chances of panic & often weed out issues since you spend so much time in a pool first.

This worked well for a friend of mine. She grudgingly paid for the course, but changed her tune when she ran into a problem in the pool that would have been ugly if it happened in the ocean. She was able to fix the problem & her first open water dives went smoothly.

I've also personally experienced panic when I was caught in a down current in a whirlpool & then when diving for the first time after that. Panic can be worked through whether you're a newbie (with a good instructor) or someone with a lot of experience.

Wishing you lots of happy diving!

 

[Diver0001]

I've seen or heard of this happening fairly often. This is one of the reasons why I now recommend that anyone who wants to try diving get OW certified (with pool work included) & not take an intro dive.

I have a quite different point of view. When I get students in who have taken intro dives they have quite a head start on day 1 of the OW course and it makes it easier for them to learn. As an instructor I would actually recommend to take one or more intro dives before starting training.

Obviously, judging by the reactions on this thread, some people are being (probably literally) thrown in the deep in during intro dives and that's obviously not good. However, this does not, in my opinion, make the intro dive undesirable.

I've also personally experienced panic when I was caught in a down current in a whirlpool & then when diving for the first time after that. Panic can be worked through whether you're a newbie (with a good instructor) or someone with a lot of experience.

My personal feeling -- and that permeates everything I do during OW training -- is that "prevention is better than cure". I've heard people say that they got through their panic because of their instructor but in my opinion the instructor's job is to make sure the student doesn't get to that point in the first place. An instructor who has a LOT of experience with panicking students is probably not the guy you want. The way I do my OW course I have the occasional "bolter" in the pool during the first or second lesson but by the time we're in OW it's all worked out. In the entire time I've been in this game I have never had a student panic in OW.

... And if you ask me, that's what a person should be looking for in an instructor.

Just food for thought.

On a more personal note, I've never panicked while diving. I've panicked (at least slightly) from other things but my normal reaction when something terribly unexpected happens is to go into what my old Kung Fu teacher called "Mr. Spock mode". For some reason all emotion just stops and I become a glowing hunk of problem solving.... then after it's all over I fall apart LOL. I've experienced this several times while helping at the scene of serious accidents (once at a diving accident and twice at serious traffic accidents). I'm sure I have a breaking point because I'm sure everyone has a breaking point but I've always had the feeling that if you can breathe there's probably nothing wrong that you can't deal with.

gr,
R..

 

[Killerflyingbugs]

if you can breathe there's probably nothing wrong that you can't deal with.

So true. This kind of thinking has helped me keep my head in some vary uncomfortable situations.

 

[Adrouault]

This was actually my second attempt, the first was in Cozumel, with a well-reviewed dive group there. The waves were really big on this particular day, apparently not normal for the area. So the person assigned to me, one-on-one, had a very limited English background, and just told me to jump into the water, with no prior instruction. Bad situation all around. Ended in panic, and me getting out of the water.


After that bad experience, I was committed to trying again, and having a successful experience. And now, after my great experience in Guadeloupe, I feel successful, and will likely go back to the same PADI certified school I did the intro dive with.

 

[stuartv]

I have not personally had the experience of feeling panicked or particularly anxious. Yet. But, I have read about a trick that is supposed to help with that. The "trick" is, when you're in the water, on the surface, if you're feeling anxious, take off your mask and just dip your face in the water and breathe off your regulator with your face in the water for a few seconds. I think it's supposed to have something to do with the feeling of water on your face. I don't know. I haven't tried it. But, I've read it in more than one place.

 

[ToyZuki9615]

I would agree that a Discover Class CAN be good prior to taking Open Water, but only if conducted in a confined environment to a very limited depth after some instruction. Prior to my certification I took a Discover Scuba class with a friend of mine that was also planning to get certified. She experienced the panic and inability to breathe. It was only after some one-on-one instruction she was able to calm down and by the end of the 30 min session she was perfectly fine. She saved the open water instructor a lot of work by taking the Discover Scuba class and becoming comfortable in Scuba gear prior to the classes.

In summary, you are not alone. It takes some people time to adjust and become comfortable.

 

[ScubaWithTurk]

I have not personally had the experience of feeling panicked or particularly anxious. Yet. But, I have read about a trick that is supposed to help with that. The "trick" is, when you're in the water, on the surface, if you're feeling anxious, take off your mask and just dip your face in the water and breathe off your regulator with your face in the water for a few seconds. I think it's supposed to have something to do with the feeling of water on your face. I don't know. I haven't tried it. But, I've read it in more than one place.

I was going to make a point about this exact same thing based on my experience with my first OW dives.

My only moment of "panic' thus far was when we had to do the mask removal and replacement. Thankfully my instructor told me "it will suck when you first remove your mask due to the shock but keep breathing and focus on the skill."

Mind you this was a boat dive here in Southern California and we are not known for our warm water temps.

So we get down, I am begin my mask removal and damn was he right...I feel the cold water (55F bottom temp) hit me and I freeze. I can breath but it feels labored to say the least..I begin to feel the panic set in and felt I was not getting enough air. I know I was because the only change I made was removing my ask and I could breath just fine beforehand.

I am trying to calm down, the entire time my instructor is asking me if I am OK but I can't see him due to panic and having my eyes closed. I was soooooo close to shooting to the surface as I felt I was going to die if I didn't..then for some reason I remember taking a very big breath and thinking to myself "I can breath!"

That is when I calmed down, replaced my mask, cleared it and gave the OK signal to my instructor. Once on the boat he came over to me and seem excited. He said I killed the mask removal. I was stunned at this statement as I knew how hard I struggled through it. I told him that I felt it was terrible and that I almost shot to the surface. He then told me that is why he thought I nailed it. He saw me panic, saw me "working to calm down and regain my composure" and then saw me replace and clear. He said many divers have an issue with mask removal due to that initial shock and temp change.

This is where, like @stuartv stated, you should take your mask off at the surface and dip your face in the water prior to putting it back on descending. It helps to alleviate the panic apparently.

Like everyone here has told me...just dive, dive dive!!

 

[NYCNaiad]

I have a quite different point of view. When I get students in who have taken intro dives they have quite a head start on day 1 of the OW course and it makes it easier for them to learn. As an instructor I would actually recommend to take one or more intro dives before starting training.

Obviously, judging by the reactions on this thread, some people are being (probably literally) thrown in the deep in during intro dives and that's obviously not good. However, this does not, in my opinion, make the intro dive undesirable.
...

I wonder if the difference in our opinions is because you're an instructor & I'm not. I completely agree that students who take an intro & do well have quite a head start on day 1 of the OW course. That's what happened to me.

However, a large number of people have told me that they had such horrible experiences in their intro that they never dove again...so as an instructor, you would never even see these people or hear their stories in your class.

 

[Diver0001]

I wonder if the difference in our opinions is because you're an instructor & I'm not. I completely agree that students who take an intro & do well have quite a head start on day 1 of the OW course. That's what happened to me.

However, a large number of people have told me that they had such horrible experiences in their intro that they never dove again...so as an instructor, you would never even see these people or hear their stories in your class.

That's possible. We obviously do quite a few intro dives too and only a portion of those people decide to go on and take OW. We do our intros in the pool most of the time and even if people don't decide to take a course I hardly ever see someone having "horrible" experiences.

R..

 

[NYCNaiad]

... We do our intros in the pool most of the time...

That's probably the big difference there. The people that have told me they had horrible experiences didn't do it in a pool. I didn't do it in a pool.

So maybe between us we've come up with the best answer...An intro is great if it's limited to a pool. Otherwise, it's better to do the full OW course (with book work & pool work before getting into open water).