Last Class...Problems

[Finnatic]

Last night we had our last class and for the first time I really felt uncomfortable and had a lot of problems. We had to wear the wetsuit (3mm) in preparation for our open water dive and it has made a big difference. I just could not get situated and buoyancy control was non-existent. A weighting problem maybe? We did some weighting tests and I was told to add 2 lbs. Also, the tank felt like it was rolling around from one side to the other and the whole time I was fighting for balance and just flailing around....this could not be called swimming by any stretch of the imagination. I could barely concentrate on the skills for tying to keep my balance. The cert. dive will be in three weeks, so no more practice and my confidence has taken a nosedive. Has this happened to anyone and how did you overcome it? Thanks.

 

[JimC]

Floppy tank syndrom!

If there is a protective mesh on the tank, loose it for the dive. That will give the tank strap more grip on the tank. Wet the tank strap before you put the BC on the tank. Make sure the tank strap is TIGHT, real tight, and not just on the shoulder of the tank. Give your self a few inches of tank atleast. Now you should have the tank fixed as securly as posible to the BC.

Next step is to make sure your weight belt is balanced and tight. "Add 2 lb" sounds like you just tossed a 2 lb chunk on one side of the belt. As a newbie, you don't want to have to deal with that, so ensure your weight is evenly balanced on the belt around your hip area. Then get your belt wet and put it on.. tight and centered.

Now put the BC on, get the straps tight and get in... now the fun starts. Your wetsuit is going to shrink as you decend. This is going to cause your BC and belt to loose that tightness. Which means you need to sinch up both as you decent. Weight belts have a tendancy to spin around so the heavies part is down and BC's have a tendancy to start floating around you once you breath down your tank a bit.

You will also become overweighted at depth as your wetsuit compresses. Nothing you can do about this one, thats just part of diveing wet. This can do all sorts of fun things your trim if your weights arn't balanced. Moveing weight up on the tank will help a great deal with this. A pair of ankle weights around your tank valve, lead on the cam strap or trim pockets, slidding the tank up an inch or 2 can help.

Its a LOT to deal with, I'd ask for some extra pool time, and hour or 2 in 10 feet of water just fiddling with weight placment and boyancy.

If your not comfortable, do not move on.


Or, you can get a backplate :wacko:

 

[learn-scuba]

Finnatic --

First... the tank rolling side to side normally means that either your BCD was too large or you didn't have the straps and waistbelt tightened down enough.

Second... adding the wet suit makes a huge difference. That's why I start my classes out from pool session #1 in wet suits so the students have plenty of time to get used to it, weighted properly, etc. Don't feel bad or beat yourself up about it. It's kinda normal. Okay? A couple of tips... make sure your weights are fitted as far forward (toward the buckle) on your weight belt as you can and make sure the larger weights are in the front and smaller to the rear... this will shift your trim toward the front center which most students find to be more managable. Also, while you are still learning and buoyancy control is an issue, you have skills to do, etc, it doesn't hurt to be a couple of pounds overweighted... you can compensate with air in the BCD and it helps stabilize you while you are learning. You can start shedding pounds from the weight belt as your skill, comfort and confidence grow.

Since your open water is a few weeks away, ask your shop if you can have some extra time in the pool with the wet suit to practice buoyancy control. They should give you the pool time.

 

[Diver0001]

Finnatic once bubbled...
Last night we had our last class and for the first time I really felt uncomfortable and had a lot of problems. We had to wear the wetsuit (3mm) in preparation for our open water dive and it has made a big difference. I just could not get situated and buoyancy control was non-existent. A weighting problem maybe? We did some weighting tests and I was told to add 2 lbs. Also, the tank felt like it was rolling around from one side to the other and the whole time I was fighting for balance and just flailing around....this could not be called swimming by any stretch of the imagination. I could barely concentrate on the skills for tying to keep my balance. The cert. dive will be in three weeks, so no more practice and my confidence has taken a nosedive. Has this happened to anyone and how did you overcome it? Thanks.

Go to your instructor with this story and ask to repeat that session between now and when you take your open water dives. You'll probably have to do it with another group but most good instructors will agree to that.

R..

 

[Diver0001]

learn-scuba once bubbled...
<snip>

Since your open water is a few weeks away, ask your shop if you can have some extra time in the pool with the wet suit to practice buoyancy control. They should give you the pool time.

They can't do that, he's not certified yet. The best they'll do is let him repeat the session with another group.

R..

 

[learn-scuba]

Diver0001 once bubbled...


They can't do that, he's not certified yet. The best they'll do is let him repeat the session with another group.

R..

I don't know about other instructors, but I know when one of my students comes to me and tells me they're not comfortable and need more pool time, I grab my gear and head on down. Whether he gets more time with his instructor one on one or sits in with another class, the point is that they should allow him more pool time.

 

[Diver0001]

learn-scuba once bubbled...


I don't know about other instructors, but I know when one of my students comes to me and tells me they're not comfortable and need more pool time, I grab my gear and head on down. Whether he gets more time with his instructor one on one or sits in with another class, the point is that they should allow him more pool time.

OOhhh. That's different. I thought you meant unsupervised.

R..

 

[MikeFerrara]

A wet suit does complicate things due to the extra bulk, buoyancy and weight needed. You need to get all that balanced or you'll be a mess in the water.

It's very important to be ready to go to OW. If you're not, don't go!

 

[JimC]

For the love of my eyes, please don't purpousfully overweight your self.

This is what happens when ppl atach a boat anchor to there weight belts. There is a large ship wreck in there somewhere...

 

[learn-scuba]

JimC once bubbled...
For the love of my eyes, please don't purpousfully overweight your self.

This is what happens when ppl atach a boat anchor to there weight belts. There is a large ship wreck in there somewhere...

JimC --

I feel your pain. But let's try and be realistic about it. If you're diving that wreck with a herd of students, you can pretty much count on that happening. Advanced divers and students don't mix well unless the instructor is smart enough to keep his students above the wreck or down current in the sand.

In the real world, it is folly to assume students are going to be neutral, off the bottom and properly trimmed. They have far more to worry about than where their fins are. I never have figured out why open water freaks them out like it does -- water is water, right? -- but it does. No matter how much time you spend practicing skills, buoyancy and trim in the pool, they always seem to forget the instant they hit the open water. A student who sank like a rock in the pool is floating like a cork in open water because they're stressed.

It is my personal belief that students doing their first few open water dives should be purposely overweighted a couple of pounds. While the student may be hovering over the bottom quite nicely as we swim along, as soon as I ask him/her to clear their mask they start to float. It never fails. A little bit of negative buoyancy is a good thing in this case. Not to mention the difficulty they will have compensating for the change in buoyancy in their tanks over the course of the dive.

It takes time and it irritates me to no end when experienced divers crab about students buoyancy control. Not one diver started their carreer with grand buoyancy control and perfect trim. This is something that's learned over time with practice and as the diver becomes more experienced, more comfortable and more relaxed their weighting is going to change, too. The trick is to teach them to constantly monitor their weight and trim and tell them up front that they'll be needing to drop weight as they get more comfortable. Teach them the skills they need to constantly improve their control, but don't fool yourself into expecting it from word one.

If you can't tolerate being in the water with divers who don't have perfect trim and buoyancy control, then just stay away from students. It's just that simple.