My Zellet is now Scared to dive.....

[Diver Lori]

My niece took her confined at 12, her certs at 13 and then didn't dive again until she was 16 by her choice. Her father was ready to take her, but she was too scared. Her father has been diving since 1979 and me since 1989.

She remembered from her OW course what my buddy and her instructor at the time said..."Anyone can turn or refuse to dive at anytime without fear of repercussion". My buddy and I are both cavers. She came to me and confided in me that she didn't want to dive because she was scared. She actually said to me, "I am afraid I might pop my lungs like a balloon". Okay.... the kid was thinking and she obviously paid attention to the course material on rapid ascents. I told her....that's okay, you don't have to dive and she said her father (my brother) would be disappointed with her. I made it clear to her that he would not and he would respect her concerns, which he did.

She's almost 17 now and wants to dive again. She went with me last year to a very nice and clear quarry when she was 16 and had a better experience. She's itching to go again because her father told her he wouldn't take her anywhere tropical until her skills were improved. Soooo....she's wanting me to take her. At least now she's got the right attitude and outlook that comes with more maturity.

 

[Ginger]

OK, like the others said, if he's really scared, it's not a good idea to push. He has to want to dive for it to be fun... and that's the thing, right?

My motivation to dive started with my SO's fascination with it. I wanted to be able to enjoy this activity with him. The key here is tha I WANTED.

Beyond that, I'll share a couple of stories.

When I took my first Open Water course (in Hawaii) just about every thing that COULD go wrong, did. The equipment didn't fit right, I struggled with rental gear that was mis-sized, in a very shallow pool (4ft) and an instructor (thankfully, not typical) who didn't seem interested in anything but getting the one student who had no problems at all through all the material... the rest of us were left to flounder and fail on our own. I ended up aborting my training due to an ear infection that appeared on the morning of my first open water check out.

A few months later, I tried again. Different Dive Shop, different instructor (in California)... same kinds of equipment problems, but got some excellent advice and help from the Instructor and his Assistants. With their help and patience, I succeeded in the pool work and was ready for my Open Water checkout dives.

Open Water dives were through another Dive Shop (Puerto Rico) and by then, I had my own BC with an integrated weight system. Many of my earlier problems had to do with the fit of rental BCs, made for men, on my quite definite female frame<G>. The weight belt was impossible to position correctly because the BC was too long. Nor did the rental wetsuits come anywhere close to fitting me.... anyway... first open water checkout dive, I descend feet first to about 25 feet, go horizontal and the next thing I know, I'm bobbing on the surface like a cork!! One of my weight pockets was incorrectly threaded (new equipment and inexperience), so I basically dropped half my weight when I went horizontal. My buddy and the Instructor retrieved the weight, I got down to about 15 feet with the instrucotr's help and we rethreaded the pocket and went on to have a great dive!

Fast forward a year.... I only dive warm water, which for now means only when we are vacationing... back in Hawaii.... First series of dives since my certification and I'm stoked! We'd done a refresher in the pool with my California Instructor and everything was kewl.... except I made a poor decision to dive in conditions that were not similar to my training. The first dive took us to a spot where there were 8 foot swells. Entry wasn't too bad, I knew the longer I stayed on the surface, the rougher it would feel, so my buddy and I descended right away. We gathered with the group at the anchor line and began our tour. As we swam and looked, I started to really relax and enjoy what I was seeing. There was one diver in the group who was photographing. I turned just as she changed direction and her fin caught the top of my mask, knocking it all the way down around my neck.... reg pops out of my mouth and I'm there with a face mask where I really wanted to have an air source. Thanks to my training, I didn't panic. I popped the mask off, grabbed my secondary (since I KNEW where that one was) got my mask back on, cleared, recovered my reg and all was well. The only other issue I experienced was on the ascent, holding a line for the safety stop in 8ft swells is not the way to do it.... I had forgotten what I had been taught about letting the rope move while I floated next to it. Needless to say, I ended that dive with really tired arms<g>.

There was absolutely NOTHING that happened that my training hadn't prepared me for. The things I remembered kept me safe, and the things I didn't were only minor, in this case.

By the way, the rest of the dives on that trip and on subsequent one's have been glorious! It seems mostly that my own inexperience was the culprit. For your son, I'd advise letting him work in the pool until he is absolutely confident in his abilities on the basic skills. It's not a race to become certified... diving is a lifelong pleasure. Refreshers are fabulous!!

Best of luck to you and Zellet.

Ginger