Finished up open water classes and I am really Bummed out.

[archer1960]

I finished up my pool work this weekend and will be doing my check dives next weekend. I had a some what similar incident in the pool and literally from reading this forum aced my incident.

I was doing the mask clearing drill and started the tilt backwards prior to starting the air out the nose and I got a really good splash back into my throat. As soon as it happened the terra firma instinct was kicking me in the head telling me to get my butt to the surface. But from reading this forum I STOPPED and THOUGHT and took a breath and was like "Whoa, I am alive; breathing and that bit of water did not kill me!" So I finished the clearing drill and we surfaced. Once on the surface the instructor got close to me and told me that he saw that I had sucked water because of my instinctual jerk/twitch and he said he just KNEW I was going to jet to the top, but he instead said that he was very proud and was happier to see the control and thought process than the drill by the numbers. After that I purposely did nothing but mask removal, donning and clearing drills whenever we were given a moment.

The exact same thing happened to me, but during the breathing without a mask drill, when the air bubbles pushed water up my nose and back into my throat. I started coughing, and the instructor just "knew" I was going to go up to the surface, but I didn't, and he said later that he was pretty impressed.

 

[Neilwood]

Not done my course yet (2 weeks time) but I will certainly bear in mind the advice here to try to override the panic reflex.

 

[ChemGuy]

I did my pool dives this weekend and I'd the same thing on day 2. We started off right away with mask removal for the first time. I was still a little heavy breathing from getting to the bottom and the water on/in my nose was not good. I paused and sucked some water in and went straight for the surface. I felt like an idiot. I Know I will get over that moving forward and will practice that more because of it.

its nice to see I'm not alone in having that cough/bolt instinct.

 

[Phil_C]

its nice to see I'm not alone in having that cough/bolt instinct.

Darwin sees to it that all humans have that reaction - those who don't have it have not normally survived very long in water

+1 for practice, practice, practice etc. the muscle memory really will be learned and will be there for you when you need it -

I really hate the thought of taking my mask off under water, although I don't actually have any problem doing it, or clearing the mask, or even swimming with a flooded mask or no mask, and I never have had a problem or bad experience with this skill, but if I know I have to remove my mask for an exercise on a course the thought of doing it really makes me extremely uncomfortable, so much so I will think of excuses not to do it and try to avoid doing it.

When I did my CMAS 3 Star on one of the test dives an instructor had dropped in behind me unseen, he switched off my tank valve then pulled my mask off and dislodged my regulator - this was in about 45' of water. I automatically took my octopus, only got half a breath, I knew how much air I still had so loosened my bcd and reached the valve to switch it back on, when I was comfortably breathing again it was at this point that I realised I had no mask on. The instructor had it in his hand - he gave it back when I asked for it with an appropriate hand gesture (well he got my meaning).

My point is that I didn't really think about any of it, I couldn't see where my primary had gone but knew where my octopus was so went straight to it, I knew I had air left so correctly guessed my tank valved had been rolled off and dealt with that, the absence of the mask didn't even figure until I had sorted the regulator and air out, and both actions to do this were so instinctive my buddy, who was ready with his octopus, didn't even get time to deploy it.

So practice, practice, practice and when it happens for real you will often find you have instinctively sorted things out before you have time to think about what has gone wrong, and on those rare occasions when you haven't you will have the confidence to take those few seconds to work out what is going wrong and how to sort it.

Finally practice your buddy diving - you are not down there alone ! - a good buddy who is attentive to what is going on in the buddy pair and during the dive will always be there to step in, support you and help you out if you can't sort your problems yourself.

I know my example might seem a bit extreme, but the Russian dive club I learned with still rather macho, it still teaches buddy breathing in a group off one regulator, teaches emergency rebreathing from your BCD and does all of its courses from basic OW through to instructor in the open sea from dive 1. It would not survive in the PADI or BSAC world of standards and health and safety, and I do not endorse or promote the way it teaches, but that experience has stayed with me and gives me a lot of confidence that I have a fair idea how I will react when it happens for real.

Dive safe and don't beat yourself up, you now know what it feels like, and you know the answer - practice, practice, practice and you will learn not to be frightened into bolting - Phil.

 

[Neilwood]

I know my example might seem a bit extreme, but the Russian dive club I learned with still rather macho, it still teaches buddy breathing in a group off one regulator, teaches emergency rebreathing from your BCD and does all of its courses from basic OW through to instructor in the open sea from dive 1. It would not survive in the PADI or BSAC world of standards and health and safety, and I do not endorse or promote the way it teaches, but that experience has stayed with me and gives me a lot of confidence that I have a fair idea how I will react when it happens for real.

Dive safe and don't beat yourself up, you now know what it feels like, and you know the answer - practice, practice, practice and you will learn not to be frightened into bolting - Phil.

Sounds like the "train hard, xxxx easy" school of thought - make the practise harder than most of the situations you will ever face and then when one happens for real you don't even have to consciously think about it as the responses become second nature (it is almost harder to screw them up because they have become so ingrained).

While I might have virtually no experience with diving, when I did First Aid (15 years experience and was a trainer for a few of those), this was the way a lot of us trained with realistically simulated incidents with multiple casualties, multiple injuries and help not imminent (all of which were simulated very realistically by highly trained "casualty simulators") so you had to learn panic control, logical thought when faced with adverse circumstances and planning. Thus when faced with a real life situation it was inevitably easier with a lot less going on than a lot of the simulated scenes (there was the stress of"this is real" but this was offset by the repeated training)

 

[Phil_C]

Sounds like the "train hard, xxxx easy" school of thought - make the practise harder than most of the situations you will ever face and then when one happens for real you don't even have to consciously think about it as the responses become second nature (it is almost harder to screw them up because they have become so ingrained).

I guess so, but also suspect there was an element of just for the hell of it in their thinking - enjoy your course in a fortnight, you won't have anything like that in an open water course, but you will learn the basic building blocks to make you a competent and safe diver, and set you on the right route to a long and enjoyable diving career. Have fun - Phil.

 

[cents20]

I thought I am the only idiot who have this problem,glad to see this was not a rare beginner's thing.
The drills in ow training were take off mask and clearing,the bubbles go into my nose or after my nose exhale I stupidly inhale by nose little more,then I choked.

I　ＡＬＭＯＳＴ　ＤＲＯＷＮＥＤ　ＤＥＡＤ,I cough and my regulator left my mouth then I choked much more water in.
I try to grab the regulator but I can't,I lost my awareness,I could see I was flowing up,I could feel I was losing,but I can't move.
I could see my instructor saved me,then I backed to the surface,my awareness back.

Fortunately,I am still alive,I finished the take off mask+clearing drill with my fingers mingled with the nose exhale.
But that experience was too terrible and unforgettable,I woke up from a twitch that night,it still often brings back the feeling and the frames.
Although I got my cert but I am not sure if I continue diving or not,I keeping read diving materials like before lessons,I want to watch the ocean stuffs in pictures by myself.

After viewing this thread I will try to over come these drills,maybe find another instructor to do the "treatment" for me,I hope so.

 

[Neilwood]

I thought I am the only idiot who have this problem,glad to see this was not a rare beginner's thing.
The drills in ow training were take off mask and clearing,the bubbles go into my nose or after my nose exhale I stupidly inhale by nose little more,then I choked.

I　ＡＬＭＯＳＴ　ＤＲＯＷＮＥＤ　ＤＥＡＤ,I cough and my regulator left my mouth then I choked much more water in.
I try to grab the regulator but I can't,I lost my awareness,I could see I was flowing up,I could feel I was losing,but I can't move.
I could see my instructor saved me,then I backed to the surface,my awareness back.

Fortunately,I am still alive,I finished the take off mask+clearing drill with my fingers mingled with the nose exhale.
But that experience was too terrible and unforgettable,I woke up from a twitch that night,it still often brings back the feeling and the frames.
Although I got my cert but I am not sure if I continue diving or not,I keeping read diving materials like before lessons,I want to watch the ocean stuffs in pictures by myself.

After viewing this thread I will try to over come these drills,maybe find another instructor to do the "treatment" for me,I hope so.

I did struggle with my first mask remove and replace in OW as going from a heated pool to 10deg C seawater was a bit of a shock to the system (had absolutely no problems in the pool even on my first time). Ended up with a mouthful of salt water and choking ( I somehow managed not to spit the reg out and stay where I was in the water) but this has gotten so much better with practise and the knowledge that the cold water on my face will feel very cold. Also we are brought up to be mouth and nose breathers and remembering to purely mouth breathe is something that can take a bit of practise and determination at the start.

I would suggest that you do a few more dives (pay a DM/ instructor to go with you if you want the backup) but without the stress of testing (it does change the feel of the dive).

It is one of those feelings that you can become accustomed to with practise.

 

[Reku]

When I took my OW 5 years ago I couldn't even use the compass because the needle would always get stuck because it was not held at a level angle lol....so recently I bought a petrel 2 JUST for the awesome electronic compass that works in multiple directions. Honestly we all mess up MANY MANY times and even when you have been diving forever you will still screw something up, it's part of the game The more you dive the better you will become.....and the more chances to screw up you'll get

 

[cents20]

I did struggle with my first mask remove and replace in OW as going from a heated pool to 10deg C seawater was a bit of a shock to the system (had absolutely no problems in the pool even on my first time). Ended up with a mouthful of salt water and choking ( I somehow managed not to spit the reg out and stay where I was in the water) but this has gotten so much better with practise and the knowledge that the cold water on my face will feel very cold. Also we are brought up to be mouth and nose breathers and remembering to purely mouth breathe is something that can take a bit of practise and determination at the start.

I would suggest that you do a few more dives (pay a DM/ instructor to go with you if you want the backup) but without the stress of testing (it does change the feel of the dive).

It is one of those feelings that you can become accustomed to with practise.

Thank You for your suggestion,I like your Avatar.
I will try adjust my mind and arrange a coach to practice.