Diving lessons disappointment

[bcwolfen]

My wife (Amber) had serious issues with mask clearing during our OW course. We had 4 evenings of class and then 1hr in the pool after each one and 4 check out dives over Sat/Sun. Amber has to keep her eyes closed and plug her nose with her fingers when her mask is off making it rather tricky to put it back on one handed while wearing a glove. Mask clearing was one of the first skills we practiced/demonstarted. When she could not do it our instructor allowed us to continue and we practiced it while other students were performing their other skills. She did all the other skills fine. On the 3rd day of pool sessions she called him over and performed her mask clearing for him. It went well...but she is still not comfortable with it.

On our 1st checkout dive the entire class of 8 had to snorkel around in our 14mm wetsuits for a few minutes to get used to the cold. Then we geared up and started to swim out to the float on the surface. We don't know for sure but we think my wife was not breathing well (deep) enough through her snorkel, got too much CO2 build up, mixed in with some anxiety and the cold and started to panic. One of the DM's towed her back to shore and she sat out the dive. The rest of us did our mask clearing, OOA/air share, reg switch etc. During our SI our instructor asked her if she was doing better and wanted to try again. She said yes and felt silly for quitting the first time. He took her out alone about 10 mins before the rest of the class, they went down near shore in about 12-15' and swam out underwater to the float. He asked her to do her maks clear. She filled it, and snorted water. Managed not too panic and race to the surface, cleared it but then thumbed the dive. She headed back in while the rest of us went out.
On Sunday we did the rest of our checkout dives and she came along and snorkeled in the shallows in her wetsuit. She felt very uncomfortable, lots of anxiety, irrational fears of sharks coming to eat her. etc etc.

Our LDS allowed her to join the next months pool session for $15.00 (just to cover equipment rental) and they allowed me to join as well. While the class was learning their skills, we sat under water. She couldn't even bring herself to fill the mask whiel sitting in 3' of water. We surfaced, took off her mask and went back under with her nose plugged and eyes closed. I held her arm to reassure her that I was there and slowly let go over about 10mins. The panic finally went away, we practiced mask clearing and removal for 2 hours. Did it again the next day, until she was ok with it. Not comfortable, but able to do it as well as possibel with one hand. LOL The insturctor would stop by every once in a whiel and see how she was doing. On day 2 she again showed him she could do it.

That weekend they allowed her to join that class for the checkout dives (for free, seeing as she had already paid for them and had not really gone) They allowed me to come (for the standard equip rental fee) for moral support. She did all her skills over those 4 dives and received her certification.

Sorry for the long winded post. I guess I just wanted to show that not all stores/instructors are the same and relate our experiences at teh same time. Maybe our LDS went above and beyond, but that seems to be common for them. We are customers for life because of it.

You will get the mask clearing skill down!!! and you will get certified!! I also agree with what everyone else has already said that the LDS either owes you some money back or additional instruction. (preferably with another instructor)

 

[fisherdvm]

I would wonder if your problem clearing your mask might be related to the size of the mask. It might be hard to find a good fitting small mask to fit a thin face.

On the issue of the instructor, I wonder if you reminded him of his ex, and he is transferring his anger toward you? Poor guy, he probably need a good dose of progesterone. Maybe someone can slip it into his drink??

 

[pir8]

Not really cool you have to pay the extra money to take OW again. But you can think of the OW with a private instructor as more training and that will make you so much more comfortable in the water when you are certified. I had private intruction but that was because I got certified in the Carribean during a quite week. I am glad I did and would did it again, actually I have been thinking of doing Rescue course witha private instructor. Seems like a tough course that I could get allot more out of with one on one instruction. Good luck and welcome to the club.

Rescue is the one class that I would recomend not doing as a private class. To me part of the learning involves working as a group to effect a rescue. I like to create scenarios that you are not expecting and then you need to deal with it as a group utilizing each persons strengths and weaknesses.

 

[Blackwood]

I passed my written exam and did all my skills well the first day. The second day of the class, he told us at the beginning of the class that he would really like to get out of there early and that if we skipped lunch we might could do so. This was the day we actually took the written test and then we went to the pool. By 12:30 he was rushing us so much, everyone looked agitated.

Yah. Dive hungry. There's a good idea.

 

[cummings66]

That's funny, odd as it may seem but I've often skipped a meal while diving as have nearly all of my buddies. We carry our own food and eat as soon as we finish up, but the missing or delay of an hour or two will not cause problems for a normal healthy adult. Of course, and my wife will agree, my wife does tend to get a little frosty until she eats.

In this case, after having talked to the LDS I think there's more to the story than we've heard. I suspect a big misunderstanding happened.

 

[seastargf]

I was contacted by the other LDS here in town and they told me that they receive complaints about the facility I went to about twice a week. My mistake for not checking them out........I don't have any friends who dive, so I just made a choice!

 

[cummings66]

One thing is certain, a person can accomplish anything they want if they really want it bad enough. Keep at it and you'll get there.

By the way, for some reason it's common for one shop to really get down on another and tell their customers the other shop is bad and if you learn or buy stuff there you'll die. It's difficult for a person to tell who's telling it straight when so many do this. Sometimes it's true, and sometimes it's not.

The best source of info is not the shop, but rather the customers of that shop. I'm sure you already know this, a person doesn't get to where you are with the skills you have without learning a few things along the way.

 

[snorkelcorey]

"I'm writing this in response to the Lady, Miss Seastarfgf, will be encouraged to try geting Certified as an Open Water diver. I don't know if this will help her or not, I hope it will. Seastargf has my total support. And, I don't know if she'll read this post or not. i hope she will". SnorkelCorey

 

[DandyDon]

I was contacted by the other LDS here in town and they told me that they receive complaints about the facility I went to about twice a week. My mistake for not checking them out........I don't have any friends who dive, so I just made a choice!

Oh, you'll hear that about every other LDS, restaurant, etc. I never knock my competition, but I will admit to hearing complaints. I'm sure they do the same to me.

I have a couple of questions, please, seastargf...?

> You said "recently" - when was this anyway?

> Did you speak with the Instructor's Lds, and did they offer a new class for free?

> If you really want the private Instructor, did you ask about that?

> Did you get certified?

Ok, that's 4 questsions, but since this thread is still going after all these posts, I thot more information would be nice, if you don't mind?

Too, I'm curious how one who could complete three ocean resort courses could have mask clearing issues. Ok 5 now.

thanks

 

[DiveSite]

...........By the way, for some reason it's common for one shop to really get down on another and tell their customers the other shop is bad and if you learn or buy stuff there you'll die. It's difficult for a person to tell who's telling it straight when so many do this. Sometimes it's true, and sometimes it's not. .....................................

I am the person that contacted seastargf. I was offering to give her some pointers on mask clearing as that IS the most common issue for new students that I have talked to.
What cummings66 said about this industry happens to often. I did not bad mouth the facility that seastargf took her lessons from. I simply pm'd her, surmized what facility she was at and what instructor she had. She confirmed this and I just stated a fact about the complaints I receive on a regular basis. Not once did I ever bash the other facility and I believe seastargf will confirm this. I am a firm believer that all bashing does is make the person you are talking to think you are just a competitor talking bad about another competitor. I also pm'd her so as to not air any dirty laundry in public. Not all dive shops play the "we are better than they are" game.