Open Water entry level has been a disaster so far

[mdb]

I just want to clarify that I have nothing against my instructor; I'm sure she's doing an excellent job and I appreciate she's giving me all this feedback. But when you're in a group of several people progressing nicely and seem to be the only one lagging behind, frustration, blame and anger kicks in.

Now, on to better news....

I went to a local pool this morning and practiced my snorkeling there. And guess what?....I snorkeled several lengths of the pool, and my mouthpiece did not flood, and, I'm pretty sure I managed the flutter kick (no one was watching me and I didn't want to bug the lifeguard, so I can't say for sure) but I didn't pedal once!
I "tested" myself by sticking my entire head underwater, and expelling water when stuck my head back out (the "TWO!" technique I was taught).
I even tried a free dive, went to the bottom (5 feet) ascended, and cleared my snorkel without freaking out. I repeated this several times.
And apparently I need to take slow, deep breaths. This is another thing that wouldn't register, for some reason.
Part of the extra classes next week will be practicing my kick, so I'll see how that goes. But I'll continue practicing until then!

Good for you; you are on your way to becoming a diver. Diving is great, you can dive worldwide, meet interesting folks, and, do it all your healthy life.

Keep it up!

 

[thirdcoastdiver]

I went to a local pool this morning and practiced my snorkeling there. And guess what?....I snorkeled several lengths of the pool, and my mouthpiece did not flood, and, I'm pretty sure I managed the flutter kick (no one was watching me and I didn't want to bug the lifeguard, so I can't say for sure) but I didn't pedal once!
I "tested" myself by sticking my entire head underwater, and expelling water when stuck my head back out (the "TWO!" technique I was taught).
I even tried a free dive, went to the bottom (5 feet) ascended, and cleared my snorkel without freaking out. I repeated this several times.
And apparently I need to take slow, deep breaths. This is another thing that wouldn't register, for some reason.
Part of the extra classes next week will be practicing my kick, so I'll see how that goes. But I'll continue practicing until then!

Congratulations. I was one of those students who took longer than most to learn some of the skills. I spent at least 5 hours a week in a pool in addition to my OW class time. I practiced the skills over and over again until it became second nature. At the end, I was a much better diver because I had to work harder than the rest of the class, but it was definitely worth it.

 

[TSandM]

Super news! Sometimes it just takes some time and reflection to figure out how to put the advice you get into action. And sometimes instructors, being way too far away from their own beginner problems (or sometimes never having had them) aren't able to recognize what the root of the issue IS.

Do read my dive journal . . . I know I'm harping on it, but I think it has helped a lot of people to read it and realize that they aren't the only folks who catch on slowly. The woman who wrote that journal now has 1200 or so dives, and technical and cave certifications; is a PADI divemaster and a struggling underwater photographer. You would never have predicted ANY of that, if you'd seen the floundering, wallowing, bicycle-kicking student in the open water pool.

 

[Instructor_Tom]

Lexir;

I sounds to me like you may need some one on one time. I would check with your local dive shop about the cost of having a shop DM work with you. since you are in a class it should be ok to have a DM work with you for a day to refine the skills you are having trouble with and be ready for the open water dives.



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[Glenn08]

'Blasting' is not the best way to clear a snorkel, but I think you need a lot more practice snorkeling before you try 'displacement'. 'Displacement' means blowing into the snorkel when you are breaking the surface, still looking up. It takes less effort, but the timing has to be right.

 

[supergaijin]

Best way? There's more than one way to skin a cat. At the beginner phase of learning to dive: Do it the way that feels most comfortable and fluid.

Same goes for mask-clearing, reg clearing or equalising the ears. That said, an argument can actually be made about the 'best' way to equalise.... but that is another thread.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I never seem to see instuctors recommend this, but why not time yourself in the pool while snorkeling? Try to keep your feet submerged and kick, hard and strong and fast. When your goal is to swim really fast and you get feedback from the time clock, the new diver should be able to learn pretty quickly what type of flutter kick is powerful and efficient and what type is just having them flail around.

I think part of the problem is that divers are taught and demo-ed to swim so super slow. If you are floating around like a jellyfish and your goal is to move very slowly, an inefficient kick will move the diver along. However, if a DM or instructor can demonstrate how to swim really fast and powerfully, I think the students will see what a powerful kick looks like and can more easily emulate it.

Once they learn how to kick reasonably hard and fast and move through the way quickly, slowing them down should not be hard.

Learning to snorkel and freedive is one of the best ways to prepare yourself to be a good diver. Practice clearing the mask while breathholding, if you can do it snorkeling, it will be easy when scuba diving.

 

[Doc Harry]

If scuba was easy then we wouldn't need classes.
With practice you can master any skill

 

[tphelps]

1) tphelps nailed it: I really want to know where I am; I'm a control freak, OK? What can I say.

Happy to help lexir! Saw your most recent post, kudos to you man! Like everyone said, practice makes perfect. If you get any other skill from your course, or at anytime for that matter, compartmentalizing is really the best way to learn something. One of my students in my last open water class COULD NOT take her mask off. The first 3 times we did it in the pool (5 feet of water), she bolted to the surface. So I worked with her one on one for about 20 minutes afterwards. We started with her just closing her eyes and breathing. After a couple of minutes, I told her to let a LITTLE water in her mask with the eyes closed. Sometime later, a little more water and so on until eventually she had a fully flooded mask. At the end of the session she did the skill and met the performance requirements but did not feel comfortable still. For the rest of the course I had her practice in the pool whenever she was "waiting" for me to evaluating a skill. I am very proud to say that she completed dive #4 today in open water doing a full mask remove and replace WHILE hovering off the bottom. Practice in segments until you have the confidence to go on to the next part. If it can work for musicians, it can work for us divers!

 

[lexir]

So, update.

I went on my four dives. Considering how much I struggled during the class, things went fairly well (not perfect). I performed all the skills, but on one of the dives I had trouble descending, even though my BC was deflated. When I finally did start descending, I had equalization problems (pain) and had to stop the descent. I was even told I had to come on another dive if I couldn't do it on the final scheduled dive, but I fixed that and equalized with no problem on the final dive. I had no idea what went wrong, but at least I took care of that issue later.
Log book was signed, written exam passed with flying colors, and all skills completed, but, my instructor strongly recommended I go on a quick refresher dive for practice (which I am, BTW) because my ascent is a bit too fast and I still fumble a bit when reaching for my BC hose (I tend to mistakenly grab the snorkel tube).
It's been a bumpy road getting my certification, but hopefully it's almost here!