Initial descent panic

[jcxd45]

Glad to hear it's not just me, nobody else I've talked to has that issue.
It's just a mental thing, doing my standard freedive entry sounds much better...I can deal with being "that guy"
John

 

[CaveSloth]

Don't think about controlling your breath. Think about breathing smoothly and evenly and let air out of your BC to descend. Not all of the air, only enough to start descending slowly. At about 10 ft depth, add a little bit of air back as you descend (also, equalize) to stop your descent. Now you are neutral and you never had to hold your breath out. While you dive, you can use your fins to go up and down in the water rather than your breath. When you are very relaxed, then maybe think about using your breath to control buoyancy a bit, but not by holding your breath either in or out, but by changing the average volume of air in your lungs while continuing to breathe smoothly and evenly. With practice it will become subconscious and you will just dive and the amount of messing with BC or lung air will go down tremendously and you will basically forget about it but do it exactly only as little as is needed in the moment without thinking at all.

 

[Graeme Fraser]

Glad to hear it's not just me, nobody else I've talked to has that issue.
It's just a mental thing, doing my standard freedive entry sounds much better...I can deal with being "that guy"
John

I'm sure you'll find this a very temporary psychological block that you will find resolves itself organically. The good news is, lots of the skills / traits you've developed from freediving will put you in good sted in scuba (ie water comfort, lung control, etc).

I had a similar situation trying closed circuit rebreathers for the first time this year. It takes a while to undo many years of developed skills / habits, telling you to do one thing whilst the rational part of your brain is telling you to do another.

Another crap analogy is when automatic transmission cars became more common in Europe. The amount of experienced drivers (myself included) who nearly put themselves through the windscreen, after stamping on the brake with their left foot thinking it was the clutch (for my American cousins, if you've got three pedals, it's the one on the left).

 

[Angelo Farina]

I would guess the difference is descending with empty lungs when I'm used to having them as full as possible.
Definitely interested in descending more like a freedive...I just thought it was considered bad form.
I'll try that on my next dive, thanks for the tip

It is not considered "bad form", it is considered "old school", when no BCD was used, and the weight was chosen very carefully for being almost neutral at depth, so quite positive at surface...
As I was trained at that time (I got my first Fenzy BCD after more than 50 dives), I am still diving that way. It is efficient, elegant, powerful, and allows me to be at 10m depth in 5 seconds, waiting for the other buddies taking one minute while descending horizontal, or even head-up, just waiting for the weight doing the job, instead of their fins...
I start with the so called "air kick", a body rotation performed quickly and extending the legs outside water, so that their weight accelerates the body down quickly. When fins enters water, I start kicking properly. Of course I also use free-diving long fins, calibrated to my legs, and I use a "free diving" kick style, very powerful and efficient and fast, nothing to do with that ridiculous "frog kick" which some so-called tec divers claim to be more efficient...
And I also hold my breath with lungs full of air when descending, there is nothing risky doing that. the risk is holding air in your lungs when ASCENDING, as it expands and can cause emboly.

 

[CaveSloth]

FYI frog kick is used mainly to avoid stirring up sediment off the bottom.

 

[seeker242]

I get past it, just wondering if it eventually goes away...

Yes, I had a bit of this when I first started. And now none at all. How many dives it takes to go away? I doubt you can say there is some set number. Every person is different but it definitely goes away.

 

[Suppresst]

Hi all,

My question is about panic on descent.

I have been freediving for years and am pretty comfy in the water.

The problem is with scuba, when I empty my lungs for decent there is about 5 seconds where my body is screaming at me that this is wrong.

Once I get down 5 feet and start breathing it fades. . how many dives before this goes away?

It's not preventing me from diving but I Hate those first few seconds.... anyone else?

I read enough, and know enough, about SCUBA deaths to know that diving when one ought not to is folly. Don't push it if you can't find a comfort zone.

 

[johndiver999]

I read enough, and know enough, about SCUBA deaths to know that diving when one ought not to is folly. Don't push it if you can't find a comfort zone.

Scuba is not natural. To do it safely, means that you have to push and expand your comfort zone so that you can handle problems and challenges.

A new diver who is presented with irrational fears, and then confronts them, identifies them and seeks advice on how to work through them, is well on their way to becoming accomplished. You have to push outside of the comfort zone if you want to improve.

 

[TMHeimer]

I was a tad nervous descending on my first charter boat dive. Once I got going pulling myself head first down the anchor line it subsided. Probably not the same as your situation, but if you have an anchor line it may be a good idea to pull yourself down it quickly?

Graeme Fraser, I always drove a stick shift. My mother had an automatic. Once I tried to shift gears by grabbing a pop bottle in the console.

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

Totally had the same problem. Try to imagine you are a navy seal and you are rescuing your fellows in arms.

Hey, it worked for me.