Failing the OW check out dives

[danielle]

junko once bubbled...
Is it common for someone to pass the confined water dives but get flunked on the check out dives? I'm not talking about someone who gives up on their own and doesn't complete all the dives, but someone who tries and gets flunked anyways.

yeah its possible ... sometimes you just panic underwater.. i know a lot of people who are freaked out about taking their mask of under water... and they just cannot complete it and they fail. I am lucky that i have a pool in my backyard and my dad is a divemaster and i had equipment and i would practice with him every single day because i was one of those people who even in the confined water sessions did not like to take the mask off.... if i didnt do that i probably would have failed my OW ... but now i completely comfortable with taking my mask off underwater.

i know there was one person in my class who completed all the skills but should have failed... she was not comfortable in the water...and for one dive she was my dive buddy and she started to panic a bit becuase some how her reg fell out of her mouth and u wanna know what she did... she basically pulled mine out of my mouth and put it in hers.....so i really didnt know what to do... so i grapped my octopus and put it in my mouth ... calmed my dive buddy down .... and we surfaced. I dont think she dives anymore though...she only was diving because her then boyfriend was a diver and he basically forced her to dive.

 

[aquagirl]

nice one...

 

[Rick Murchison]

NetDoc once bubbled...
they might not have made it on the first go around and that is "OK". They can always redo this with the next class.

This is my policy also. The only two ways you can actually "fail" are to quit yourself or to get disqualified by your doctor.
Rick

 

[fundiver12]

Im a new diver too, in fact, as a kid I never learned to swim. I mean if thrown in the water, Id probably try to swim, versus the alternative =). But Ive always been terrified of water. So, I went and took private swimming lessons prior to my OW course. I think it was mostly a confidence issue, and with most people I would say the same.
Being a new swimmer/diver, one has to realize that you wear weight to give you the ability to sink. If you dump that weight, youre going to the surface. I dont claim to be a great swimmer, but have enough confidence now to know that I can float. I think the biggest lesson is that if you tense up while on the surface, you dont float as well, so relax and float. Besides, 99% of the time, youre gonna have air in your BC, even if your tank is dry you can manually fill it. So, most of the work is done for you. Even before I took lessons I knew I could wear a BC, float on my back and kick and swim that way. There is no requirement that says you have to freestyle swim anywhere. I did the backstroke in the pool sessions and it went fine. If youre nervous about the swimming part, go take private lessons at the YMCA or find an instructor. You could also try www.clubswim.com, they list swimming instructors on there in your local area. Good luck.

 

[Jaxscubadiver]

There are some great responses here. Keep in mind the student can only progress to the next part of class once they have mastered the previous part. With PADI there are 5 Confined Water sessions, each session must be completed and the skills must be mastered before moving to the next session. Once the skills are mastered in Confined Water then the student needs to perform the skills in Open Water, this should be comfortable for the student if they really mastered the skills in Confined Water. There is always the possibility of being intimidated in an Open Water situation. This is why PADI has made the Open Water training dive #1 simple with having the student prepare their equipment, don and adjust their equipment, a predive safety check, entry, a buoyancy/weight check, controlled descent, uw exploration, an ascent and exit. This should be made fun and exciting with a great dive breif and a big smile, the rest of their Open Water dives should be just repeating what they mastered in Confined Water. I would belive that most training agencies have the same or similar standards.

 

[RiverRat]

As a new student of diving I just wanted to comment on training and being ready for OW dives. I just recently finished pool dives and passed the written test so I feel confident for open water. I probably had an "edge" on some students as I was introduced to diving with a Discover Scuba course on a cruise and I'm comfortable at least down to 35 ft. or so in clear warm water.
That being said the warm water joyride was much "easier" than doing tricks in a pool. I have to say it was easier on that first dive than it was sipping air off a free flowing regulator. My instructor decided to use "her" method that she called the soda straw method (sucking air through small hole formed in center of fist).
Needless to say about 10 seconds into it I sucked some water hard, was gagging and getting that CO2 induced craving for air. I thought about popping up but somehow regained my composure and kept telling myself that if I was at a 100 feet I would not have made the surface. I then started to "work" the stream of bubbles and got the air I needed to pass the 30 second test.
I felt proud of the fact I did not panic and was able overcome my problem with air. I think this is what the instructors want to see, whether or not you panic in situations and overall how comfortable you are under water. Anyway, on to open water for some more "tricks"

 

[Ron Brandt]

If you cannot do the open water dives on the first try ,do them again

The odds were against me when I did mine 23 yers ago.

I tried again on another weekend.Out of our group I am the only one still diving , including my instructor.

BTW: I am an instuctor now.

Ron