I am frustrated

[Scuba-dooba-do]

I have been taking ssi training for 6 weeks now. We are training in a heated pool. I have many skills down but many I struggle with. We have been in a total of 5 pool instruction classes. I go to the pool on Fridays at 10 a.m for 5 hours to practice. I am a slow learner. I have to do things multiple times to have it really click. These classes move quickly. The instructors show the training first e.g. Mask 1-4, Regulator 1-5 etc. I have chosen not to do the open water dive test because I know that I am not ready. It still takes me about 10 minutes to get my buoyancy just right. Which slows down the class. The instructors get irritated (which makes sense) I am slowing them down. I have had a few dive buddies. One of them is a navy diver from 40 years before doing refresher courses so he can dive again. He helped me a lot. I would take personal lessons however the instructor has to come to you. It is winter here and the water is too cold in the pool. I have a friend that is certified and told me he would help me in his pool. Part of my frustration is the pool we practice in is only 5 feet deep. Yesterday at the pool my husband threw his back out helping me put my gear on. I had to take his gear off of him and carry the takes back to the side of the room. He is very hurt. It will take at least 3 weeks to heal. Our open water diving test is March 4. I know he will not be ready physically. I am not prepared for doing all of the tasks. An example is taking off my gear in the water and getting back on. Buddy breathing, controlled ascent I have not mastered yet. I can clear my mask most of the time. I have had a few instances where I had to cough into reg. to get rid of water. With lack of buoyancy I am a mess on everything else. I know the amount of weight I need, it just takes time for me to swim around so I can get the feel of being neutral. In class there is no time for this. Our pool is small and is five feet at the deep end. It has a slope in the middle. We have to move the class along fast. There are 7 of us in that small pool. I am so frustrated and I feel like a complete loser. I feel bad for my husband who is hurt. He is in great shape btw. He just moved wrong.. As for me I am 5 feet 8, I have 29 percent body fat: which means I can float! I use about 12 pounds of weight to drop.
I guess I don't have any questions per say...just venting frustrations. I knew by class 4 I was not going to be ready. I kept going to class though. I probably will still take the written test, but not go to anymore official classes. Which is only 1 more. Which is a wet suit fitting etc. They also will be doing all of the skills with a wet-suit on. I will continue to go to the pool on Fridays when hubby is better and can be my buddy. I will continue to practice all of the steps. Going to the last Saturday class will only serve to frustrate me even more. I need to practice certain things that I struggle with...before I even think about putting on a wet-suit. Again I am so frustrated. I cried the whole way home from practice. Then and there I decided I will not put myself or others at risk by doing the open water dive without more confidence in my skills. As an aside : I am very comfortable in the water, no panic, no problem with the regulator. I am strong. I can carry the tanks and help my buddy put theirs on. I use less oxygen than most of my classmates. I breathe deeply and regularly . Guess I have good lungs. I have lost 10 pounds in the last 2 months..I am on a wellness journey. Thanks for letting me vent.
... Any comments, advice, opinions

 

[Cthippo]

Couple of thoughts. Buoyency at less than 10' is hard. If your pool is only 5 feet deep, that is definately doing it on hard mode. It gets easier the deeper you go.

Breathing deeply may also be part of your problem. When you take a deep breath you change your buoyency, and change it again when you let it out. Ideally you want to get close to neutral with your BCD and then fine tune it with breathing. If you are on the botrom and need to go up a little take a deep breath, and you will rise. On the other hand. If you are neutral and you exhale fprcefully and then take a shallow breath you will sink. The problem a lot of people have is that this process takes time. They take a deep breath, nothing happens at first, then they take another one and start rising, then take a more normal breath but are already positive and heep going up.

You might see about doing a couple private lessons with your instructor, preferably in a deeper pool, before you try open water. There is nothing wrong with taking a little longer to get it figured out!

 

[Tigerpaw]

Welcome to the boards! Since you are comfortable in the water I would tell you to be patient and keep trying. That being said private lessons would help out because an instructor will be able to focus on you and correct any issues you may have. Also with a private you will be a bit more relaxed because you will not be worried about holding up anyone else.

You had also mention that the instructors getting irritated, instructors should not be getting upset at you. (assuming you are not doing something crazy)
You may want to consider changing dive shops or finding another instructor to do privates with.

Stay encouraged and good luck on your journey.

 

[sea_ledford]

It sounds like you have stability problems, not buoyancy problems. Until you feel stable in the water, everything else is a challenge.

I would recommend private classes with a different instructor, preferably one that emphasizes neutral buoyancy and proper trim from the outset. If you have to wait until warmer weather, so be it. Your current instructor may be perfectly capable, but with a class of 6 students, one of which is significantly slower than the others, they are having to effectively teach two classes simultaneously. Frustration on everyone's part is to be expected there. With a new instructor, neither of you will have any of that historical baggage to influence future learning.

Good luck, I hope you find something that works!

 

[steinbil]

It sounds like the pace of the class and the style of teaching is not good for you. Are there any GUE instructors in your area? The GUE Rec1 class is a slower paced class, with fewer students per instructor, really focusing on the fundamentals of buoyancy, stability and trim before anything else. It might be a better fit for you.

 

[FLturtle]

Good luck. I hope you can complete your certification then just start enjoying some easy dives. All the skills will get easier with the more diving you do. Hiring a private dive guide on vacation diving has really helped me too in the past.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Couple of thoughts. Buoyency at less than 10' is hard. If your pool is only 5 feet deep, that is definately doing it on hard mode. It gets easier the deeper you go.

This.

Buoyancy is one of the most difficult skills. Even for experienced divers, when we change an item of the gear we are used to, it can take time for us to regain our buoyancy skills. When I learned to dive with a drysuit instead of a wetsuit, it was like learning the skill of buoyancy all over again. When I learned to dive with double steel tanks, it was like learning the skill of buoyancy all over again. Frustrating, yes, but readily surmountable with time and practice.

Don't be concerned that others in your class appear to find some things easier than you do. Some of us just take more time to learn a skill than others. You don't sound like the type who will earn an actual "fail" for the course--very very few students truly fail--but rather someone who just needs more time. It's normal. The instructor will work with you, and you will reach your goal eventually.

Keep up the good work! I hope the venting felt good. We're happy to listen.

 

[lowwall]

A five foot pool is a tough place to learn buoyancy and trim.

But if you have time to practice without the pressure of the class, you can overcome this. The good news is that if you can master buoyancy and trim in this pool, you will be a star out in open water.

Start by getting your weight right. I suspect you have too much weight for your pool training. With no wetsuit, at this point you should weight to be neutral with 0 air in your BCD. Keep a couple of one and two pounders handy that you can stick in a pocket to get back to neutral as you breathe down the gas in the tank.

Things should get much easier without that bubble of air in your BCD that expands and contracts with every foot of elevation change. Now it is only your breath that controls bouyancy. It takes a few seconds for each inhale and exhale to affect your elevation, so if you are breathing evenly the net effect will be 0. If you want to initiate an ascent or descent, you can do it with a longer and larger inhale (ascent) or exhale (descent).

Next get your trim figured out. Trim means that you can maintain a horizontal position in the water without kicking. With only 5' to work with, you really need to be horizontal. You primarily fix trim by moving your weights around. Most people end up being head high, feet low when they completely relax in the water. This is because the upper torso is more bouyant than the rest of the body and the usual placement of lead is on the lower torso. This is exacerbated if the diver is overweighted.

If this is true for you, you can counter it by moving a weight to the tank strap. If that's not enough, you'll need to get creative and use upper pockets if you have them or even clip them to your BCD chest d-rings.

Once you have your own gear, it's easier to move weight around. A pair of trim pockets for weights on your tank strap will be enough of a solution for most people. And a backplate and wing instead of a conventional BCD will lessen or eliminate the need for upper weights entirely.

Once you've got buoyancy and trim dialed in, practice slowly moving around while staying level. Don't mix in the other skills until you are completely comfortable both moving and hovering while maintaining your elevation.

With that base, you can add skills like mask clearing and removing and replacing your reg. The key here is to stop kicking when you do a skill and do it slow.

I had my then 12-year old son do this in our condo pool before he took his OW class and he breezed through the course.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Where are they planning on doing open water checkouts in March? You say you are in the US. Unless your friend who is certified is an instructor, they are taking a huge risk and you are putting yourself at risk going into their pool.
If the instructors you have are getting irritated, they should not be teaching. We do get irritated at times, but showing that to the student is unprofessional and counterproductive.
One of them should be taking you aside and working with you individually at these sessions to get you through the classes.
How many in total are in these classes? Instructors, assistants, students.
There are so many solutions to this that just involve a little time and patience to overcome.

 

[Scuba-dooba-do]

A five foot pool is a tough place to learn buoyancy and trim.

But if you have time to practice without the pressure of the class, you can overcome this. The good news is that if you can master buoyancy and trim in this pool, you will be a star out in open water.

Start by getting your weight right. I suspect you have too much weight for your pool training. With no wetsuit, at this point you should weight to be neutral with 0 air in your BCD. Keep a couple of one and two pounders handy that you can stick in a pocket to get back to neutral as you breathe down the gas in the tank.

Things should get much easier without that bubble of air in your BCD that expands and contracts with every foot of elevation change. Now it is only your breath that controls bouyancy. It takes a few seconds for each inhale and exhale to affect your elevation, so if you are breathing evenly the net effect will be 0. If you want to initiate an ascent or descent, you can do it with a longer and larger inhale (ascent) or exhale (descent).

Next get your trim figured out. Trim means that you can maintain a horizontal position in the water without kicking. With only 5' to work with, you really need to be horizontal. You primarily fix trim by moving your weights around. Most people end up being head high, feet low when they completely relax in the water. This is because the upper torso is more bouyant than the rest of the body and the usual placement of lead is on the lower torso. This is exacerbated if the diver is overweighted.

If this is true for you, you can counter it by moving a weight to the tank strap. If that's not enough, you'll need to get creative and use upper pockets if you have them or even clip them to your BCD chest d-rings.

Once you have your own gear, it's easier to move weight around. A pair of trim pockets for weights on your tank strap will be enough of a solution for most people. And a bakplate and wing instead of a conventional BCD will lessen or eliminate the need for upper weights entirely.

Once you've got buoyancy and trim dialed in, practice slowly moving around while staying level. Don't mix in the other skills until you are completely comfortable both moving and hovering while maintaining your elevation.

With that base, you can add skills like mask clearing and removing and replacing your reg. The key here is to stopI kicking when you do a skill and do it slow.

I had my then 12-year old son do this in our condo pool before he took his OW class and he breezed through the course.

I practice for 5 hours the day before class. Cannot do it more. I can achieve perfect buoyancy on Fridays. I can have room to stretch out and get it just right. Our pool is small. We literally can't do much without hitting each other with fins. I hold no feelings of ill will toward my instructor. I can only imagine how frustrating it is. We have a 2nd helper if I failed to mention that. We are doing instruction building on the weeks prior instruction. I am okay with being a slow learner. Let me rephrase, I am not a slow learner in the sense of understanding the skill. I can do the skill perfectly at some points but not others. I don't do them well every time. For example I had trouble removing my Bcg the other day and getting it back on. Could I have after taking some time to? Yes I could have but the class must move on for which I totally understand. I am a fighter and would have wrestled that s.o.b back on. BUT in a timely manner of a few minutes no. I am still getting used to feeling buckles and snaps without looking down too much. I practice this on my bcg at home as well. My husband and others say I am too hard on myself. I can see that from their perspective, but from mine, no. Determination and being hard on myself is what drives me to do better. Am I frustrated heck yeah. Will I quit, no.