much fear!

[Mary Snyder]

Hello, all!
I'm new to this forum. I am an "older" woman who was Padi certified in Feb. and have done only 4 dives recreationally all in Feb. I love it when I'm down there, but getting down and up again I find very scary. I do not have the bouyancy control, and when I am within 15-20 feet of surface just seem to pop up. I also have trouble just getting down...I don't sink. I'm not overweight, 5'8" and 145 lbs. That scares me as I learned that at 15 we are to hold for 3 minutes. I don't feel like diving without a "keeper"! Is there a place...school, person, caretaker, or someway to continue with my diving, but under the direct supervision of someone to help me.
Wanting to play, but scared.

 

[herman]

Hi Mary and welcome to scuba. You are experiencing what we all have when we started. Bouyancy control is an art form that takes a long time to master and is never perfected. I have over 100 hours underwater and bouyancy is a skill I try to improve apon every time I dive. Based on your posting it may be useful to get someone to give you a hand and do a GOOD weight check, it SOUNDS like you are improperly (like most new divers are) weighted but thats one of those things that vary greatly depending on things like body size, shape, water type(salt or fresh), wetsuit and really has to be checked at the dive site. My exact weight, what I was wearing and if my weights were properly adjusted has become the most important thing I log. If you are not a member of a dive club, my I suggest you find one and join. I am a member of 2 and both of my clubs have monthly dive outtings to a local quarry which is a wonderful opportunity to dive with experienced people and pick up pointers on bouyancy control. Divers are social animals and you will most likely get more help that you can use. Also,PADI offers an advanced bouyancy coarse that is well worth the cost as well. In short, we have all been there. Keep diving, review each dive, makes small changes to your weights and study the results. Do that and I suspect that after 20 or 30 dives you will be much, much better, remember, you have to crawl before you can run....Hope this helps.

 

[Ladydiver]

Hi Mary,

I fully understand your fear in this situation. I also had problems with buoyancy. I am lucky in that my husband happens to be a divemaster and was able to help me out. From what I understand, buoyancy and rate of breathing are 2 of the most important and most difficult things to get a handle on, so don't worry, you are not alone in this situation.

PADI does offer what they call a Peak Performance Buoyancy course for people who feel they need additional help getting a handle on buoyancy control. If you would like to let me know where you are located, I will try to find a shop near you that can provide the course. I think at this point that might be the best plan of action. That way you are with an instructor in a more controlled environment and your questions can be addressed by someone who's is literally a PRO.

Anyway, let me know where you are located and I will find a shop for you.

Cheers,

 

[King_Neptune]

Mary,

First of all I would like to thank you, Mary, for asking this question as all too often people are afraid more of looking silly than they are acting silly, and your question was anything but silly, but rather very intelligent.

Every diver, no matter how great they think they are has had to learn these issues and it is learned or perfected, over time. We were born with arms and legs and not gills and buoyancy bubbles on our backs.

As herman pointed out, being correctly weighted is an ongoing and always changing process. Even during your dive it will change. The deeper and longer you are down the more saturated your suit becomes and you will find it becomes easier and easier to stay down.

Additionally, I cant help but question the intentions and quality of an instructor that does take the time to FULLY make sure ALL of their students understand as much as possible the ins, outs, tips and tricks associated with buoyancy control, as this in addition to proper breathing can be essential to your health and welfare. You should probably find that by the time you are reaching the surface you have NO air in your BC and just as your head pops up from the surface you are then fully inflating your BC. This tends to lead to a slow easy accent.

Finally, practice makes perfect. Stick to it and you will find that it starts to become more and more natural for you.

=-)

 

[Pinny]

Hi,
Well, you brought up two things that new divers have some problems with as they start they diving "career". I'll start with the fear while diving. Many divers (and many people on the surface) are breathing very shallow breaths, which causes anxiety. You should always take deep slow breaths and exhale slowly as well. As we breathe our body metabolize the oxygen and build up carbon dioxide, which this is the gas that tells our brain we need to breathe, if we build up too much carbon dioxide, we feel we are not getting enough air, and this whole process will cause anxiety, and as human our first reaction is bolt to the surface to get air (and you have a full tank of air on your back). So, try slower breathing I'm sure it'll work. As for your second question about buoyancy, there is a little trick you can do to figure out the right amount of weight you should have on. Get in the water empty your BC, take a deep breath, and you should surface at eye level, and only as you exhale you should decent. If with a full breath you sink, then you have too much weight, and if you exhale and still stay on the surface, too little weight. The thing is that until you get some dives under your belt, it's hard to know the amount of weight you should have on. Different water and different thickness of wet suit will require more or less weight. Give that trick a shot IT WORKS.
One last thing, do a refresher at your local dive shop before your next trip, it always add to you dive safety and comfort.

Pinny
http://www.worlddivingzone.com

 

[herman]

Pinny's weigh checking procedure is great but missed one very inmportant thing, this must be done with an almost empty tank, at least down to 500 psi. The reason is that the bouyancy on an aluminum 80 increases about 4 lbs from full to empty. If you are perfectly weighted at the beginning of a dive, you will be about 4lbs light at the end of the dive and because of that, it is almost impossible to control your bouyancy at the end of the dive. By doing the check at the end of a dive and getting it correct for the diving conditions of that dive,(wet suit type, salt water, fresh water, ect), the next time you duplicate that dive senerio, you start the dive slightly over weighted making decent easier and end the dive perfectly weighted and in full control of your accent.

 

[Mary Snyder]

You people are just amazing!! I can't tell you how much it means to me as a new diver to know that others actually go through all this same stuff. I thought it could be that I am just to old to do new games!! You give me support to continue!!!
I will locate a Padi shop and definately take the bouyancy control course. I would love to do it in warm water, but since I live in No. CA probably won't find it. I am planning a trip this fall, so hopefully can do it then.
Thank you all for giving of your time and knowledge!!
Mary

 

[OKron]

Hey there,
I am really enjoying what postings I have read here. Thank -you for putting this all together.
My wife and I are overweight and out of shape, which made our open water certification a big challenge. The water was cold and the vis about 4 feet. We ended up aborting two trips to the lake. Our instructor was very patient and understanding but would not pass us until we had done our skills properly and spent the required time for each dive. Because of the size of my girth (40") and my 250 pounds on a six foot body, I was unable to get my weight belt tight enough to stay in place.The two layers of 7-mil Farmer John neoprene did not help. I felt like the liitle boy in the movie "A Christmas Story" that was all bundled up to go outside to play, but he could not move.As soon as I stood on the bottom to perform the dive skills, the belt would begin to slip towards my knees and I was wearing myself out.We were getting down to the last week- end available before going on vacation to Cozumel and we were beginning to wonder if we were going to make it. The rules were just changed to allow 3 certification dives in the same day and we made it.
My reason for sharing all of the above is this. We were really struggling with what were " The basics" and here we were about to go in 90 feet of water. I was more than a liitle unsettled. I asked our dive shop operator if we could go to the next pool session and " get comfortable" with our equiptment. He agreed and didn't even charge us for the eqiptment and air for this play time. Now that we were once again in the warm water all of our training came together as we rehersed our procedures without error. Nothing was a problem.We had made it and all the fears were history.
I suppose that I need to share the topic at this point. Because of our renewed confidence and being assured that we we were not going to die or try to inhale a barrel of water, we were now free to concentrate on the task at hand. We began dancing in full embrace on the bottom of the pool. We were having fun.Weghtless in the water I turned upside down and placed my hands on the bottom of the pool and did push-ups. Then I did the same using just one finger and remaining perfectly balanced upside down. It was at this point That I became fully aware of neutral bouyancy. Try it sometime and you will see what I mean. I hope that this experience may help others.-ron

 

[herman]

Hi OKRon,

I have a dive buddy that has you beat, he is bigger and rounder ( and a really nice guy). He also had trouble with his weights slipping. If I remember correctly, he was wearing about 25 lbs of lead. He purchased a special weight harness that goes across his shoulders and has a waist band as well. Is is designed for diving so I know it is ditchable. The entire thing gos on under his BC. I have no idea where he got it but if you still have trouble with weights slipping, you might want to look into one. By the way, intergrated weight BC's solve this problem as well. My wife loves her's, her weights use to be a problem as well.

 

[OKron]

Thanks Herman,
I bet that the shoulder harness would work real good. I had thought of something similar to a carpenter using a set of suspenders to helps support his tool bags, but I didn't want to violate the quick release of the weight belt system. I even tried putting it under my Farmer John Jacket in shallow water to see if that would help. Shortly after standing up with my head above the water the weights began to slip out the leg holes. It was too funny for words.
I have a total of 20 logged dives and have not yet purchased a bc. Our instructor made us the loan of 2 of his Zeagle Rangers for our treck to Cozumel. They are weight intregated with back flotation and worked very well for us. Wearing only a diveskin I started out with 25 pounds and was able to get down to 18-20 pounds by the end of the week. During certification I was packing 52 pounds.