Our last class was a little rough

[EFB]

We did a final review and did the final quiz (I got 88 and hubby got 100- two of them were just over thinking...and two I just wrote down the wrong answer). Its funny because I was worried about the RDP questions...and I got none of them wrong.

Pool time tonight was BCD/equipment removal underwater
BCD/equiment replacement underwater
Put on hood and gloves
Same thing at the surface
Working anything that concerns us...trying mask removal with the hood...that kinda thing

The only issue with the removal underwater was I forgot to losen the BCP straps, but no biggie
The weight removal...well, that was interesting..I COULD NOT lift the weights to save my life...I feel forward and basically did an involuntary headstand
DM took me to surface...gave me a lighter weight belt...and I did it

Then to the surface to put on hoods and gloves. The place we are diving is cold..despite the fact that it is July (welcome to Canada).
Let me say I am not a fan of either of them...AT ALL.

OH..and I should mention that hubby was very sweet and bought me a big eye mask...but I swear I think that was worse because the hood took up so much of the sides of my face, it was hard to get a good seal. Also, I will mention that hubby told me later that it looked like my eyes were bugging out, so the mask was too tight...so much so that I have a broken blood vessel under my eye..which may have been from the mask..or the panic that came at the end of the night...who know.

I had a heck of a time getting to sit on the tank at the surface...the problem there was that my BCD was overinflated..once I adjusted that, I managed to do the skill.

Weight belt replacement at the surface was tough...but I did it...then did it 3 more times just to be sure I could do it.

I went to go down and I realised that I couldn't descend because I had the lighter belt...yet one more weight belt replacement at the surface. I go down..work a little on hoovering. Hubby motions for me to try the mask removal..it was so hard..I started to panic..when I tried to clear my mask, the water just wasn't coming out..I open my eyes and could feel the contact in my left eye move...I managed to get the water out on the second try...then I did surface- not bolted I promise...it was a slow, controlled ascent.

IF THIS HAD HAPPENED in the "real world", i would have just lived with it...but contacts are expensive people..and let me tell you trying to adjust contacts with massive akward gloves was not fun...I did manage to slide it back into place..

By this time, the class was almost over, but I begged the DM to let me try one more time. That time, I did clear the mask on the first try (BUT I will say, I opened my eyes VERY slowly).

SO..4 dives this weekend...my cold is getting better with everyday. I am nervous and excited at the same time.

Will we get the opportunity to practice skills we are unsure of "in the water" before we have to do them? If you can't do a skill, do you fail right there, or can you try again?

Should I wear the smaller mask this weekend for the mask removal?

And lastly, do you have any tips for dealing with the awful hoods or gloves?

Thanks for reading and I would appreciate any good vibes you can send my way this weekend. Is it normal to be such a spaz?:blinking:

I know this will get easier only with time and practice..it comes so easy for some people..or it appears that way anyway.

TIA
Elizabeth

 

[Brian Sharpe]

Wearing your hood & gloves in the pool, you wouldn't be in Ottawa are you? The shop I dive with has students try their hoods & gloves in the pool which I think is a great idea - getting used to them before you're in open water.

If you're doing your checkout dives at Morrison's Quarry the hood & gloves are a good idea - it's not as warm as the St. Lawrence.

It may sound a little silly but bring your hood & gloves with you into the shower at home (if you're using rentals you'll probably pick up your gear Friday evening) and practice putting them on and taking them off. When you eventually get around to buying your own gear check out the Bare Elastek hoods & gloves - very stretchy and easy to put on. I don't know that I'd recommend changing masks just before your checkout dives, new gear may just be an additional stressor.

Good luck!

 

[Bubbletrubble]

Just a few comments:

• Use whatever mask fits the best. Period.
• You'll get used to the thick hood and gloves over time. You'll become accustomed to the sensation of wearing the exposure protection, and you'll learn to accommodate a certain amount of loss of manual dexterity. Just make sure that the thick hood and gloves fit you. Too tight or not tight enough is not good.
• A diver needs to equalize the space between the face and the mask. This should have been covered in your OW class. As you descend, you will need to add a small bit of air to that space via the nose to avoid mask squeeze. Mask squeeze is the likely culprit for the popped blood vessel under your eye.
• The combination of mask and hood needs to "work." If the mask skirt is seated on top of the hood, there will be a leak. If the mask skirt is contacting the skin directly and positioned underneath the hood, then there should be no issues with maintaining a seal. Once you buy your own hood, you should have the option of trimming it down a little so that the mask skirt does not overlap it.
• I am disappointed that your instructional staff was cutting corners with the underwater remove/replace weight skill. You should be properly weighted always...and particularly when doing that skill. The correct response is not to make it easier by giving you a light weightbelt on purpose. That's the DM/instructor being lazy, in my opinion.
• I recommend doing some mask-off drills underwater as a means to get more comfortable with the mask-clearing skill. Another important reason to practice without a mask is that putting a lot of uncoordinated, flailing OW students together who have very poor buoyancy control, inefficient locomotion techniques, and embarrassingly little situational awareness raises the likelihood of someone getting his/her mask kicked off. It's only a matter of time before it happens. Do a fair amount of practice with your mask-off underwater. I think this is even more important for a diver who elects to wear contact lenses while diving.
• I've successfully completed several hundred dives while wearing disposable soft contacts. I keep a pair of replacements in my save-a-dive kit. You just need to keep your eyes closed while water is inside your mask or your mask is off underwater. To determine whether your mask-clearing efforts are working, I recommend barely opening one eye to test if the water level is receding. The secret to mask-clearing is proper technique and practice. Ask your instructor for some extra time to practice this skill in the pool. I think you should feel fairly comfortable with it after about 50-100 tries. Seriously. That much practice will take the anxiety out of the skill. I don't subscribe to the one-and-done method of skill "mastery" that certain instructional agencies set forth in OW training standards. Moreover, it will be useful to approach mask-clearing in an OW situation with a certain amount of confidence. That confidence will come with repetition.

 

[TSandM]

I watched one of our students yesterday not liking the gloves and hood at all, as well. I think it's a common reaction to being bundled up and made awkward. I know, I hated my wet gloves -- HATED them. They were SO hard to put on! (It helps to fill them with warm water before putting your hands in them.) They were hard to take off, too, and I couldn't manage anything with them on. Now, I can do almost anything I want to do, including threading straps into buckles, with my gloves on. It takes practice. It's not a born skill!

Clearing a mask with a hood on is a little more complicated than doing it without. You have to be sure the hood is entirely clear of the mask skirt, or you cannot clear the mask. I don't know about you, but I have found that clearing my mask with my eyes closed, and then reopening my eyes to a mask full of water, is far more stressful than having my eyes open the entire time. There is something that just gets me about expecting to be able to see, and not having it happen. So, when you flood your mask, take the time to resettle it and clear the hood, before you begin the exhalation for clearing step. It will make it far more likely that the mask will be clear when you are done.

I totally agree with BubbleTrubble -- this is a skill you really need to MASTER, because you will use it depressingly often. Masks shift, or don't get settled properly, or come off on entry, or get kicked or hit by somebody, or some days, they just don't cooperate and leak. Clearing a mask is just one of those things you need to be able to do calmly and effectively while you are still just diving -- it should not be something you have to steel yourself to try. Practice really is important, and your kitchen sink or bathtub are just as good a place to do it as anywhere else.

 

[EFB]

Thanks for your replies. We adjusted our masks tonight and WOW, what a difference. I still think I might use the rental mask because it has a much smaller skirt.

And yes, I am in Ottawa and will be headed to Wakefield this weekend. And I will be getting the gear Friday night, so I will be in the shower with the gloves and hood...and adding my mask. I swear, I have done some weird stuff in the shower since starting this class...starting with flooding the mask with water and stand there breathing through my mouth.

And I will also be flooding my masks in my kitchen sink also.

 

[Jaydubya]

Congrats and good luck with your class.

FWIW, after 200+ dives in my 5mm gloves I still hate them. A necessary evil though, my hands seem to get shredded even if I don't touch anything but the anchor line when I go wreck diving. One of the things that is better about North Florida cave diving versus mid-Atlantic wreck diving is not having to wear gloves. At least there I only rub off my finger prints (pull and glide).

 

[gcarter]

Just a few comments:

• Use whatever mask fits the best. Period.
• You'll get used to the thick hood and gloves over time. You'll become accustomed to the sensation of wearing the exposure protection, and you'll learn to accommodate a certain amount of loss of manual dexterity. Just make sure that the thick hood and gloves fit you. Too tight or not tight enough is not good.
• A diver needs to equalize the space between the face and the mask. This should have been covered in your OW class. As you descend, you will need to add a small bit of air to that space via the nose to avoid mask squeeze. Mask squeeze is the likely culprit for the popped blood vessel under your eye.
• The combination of mask and hood needs to "work." If the mask skirt is seated on top of the hood, there will be a leak. If the mask skirt is contacting the skin directly and positioned underneath the hood, then there should be no issues with maintaining a seal. Once you buy your own hood, you should have the option of trimming it down a little so that the mask skirt does not overlap it.
• I am disappointed that your instructional staff was cutting corners with the underwater remove/replace weight skill. You should be properly weighted always...and particularly when doing that skill. The correct response is not to make it easier by giving you a light weightbelt on purpose. That's the DM/instructor being lazy, in my opinion.
• I recommend doing some mask-off drills underwater as a means to get more comfortable with the mask-clearing skill. Another important reason to practice without a mask is that putting a lot of uncoordinated, flailing OW students together who have very poor buoyancy control, inefficient locomotion techniques, and embarrassingly little situational awareness raises the likelihood of someone getting his/her mask kicked off. It's only a matter of time before it happens. Do a fair amount of practice with your mask-off underwater. I think this is even more important for a diver who elects to wear contact lenses while diving.
• I've successfully completed several hundred dives while wearing disposable soft contacts. I keep a pair of replacements in my save-a-dive kit. You just need to keep your eyes closed while water is inside your mask or your mask is off underwater. To determine whether your mask-clearing efforts are working, I recommend barely opening one eye to test if the water level is receding. The secret to mask-clearing is proper technique and practice. Ask your instructor for some extra time to practice this skill in the pool. I think you should feel fairly comfortable with it after about 50-100 tries. Seriously. That much practice will take the anxiety out of the skill. I don't subscribe to the one-and-done method of skill "mastery" that certain instructional agencies set forth in OW training standards. Moreover, it will be useful to approach mask-clearing in an OW situation with a certain amount of confidence. That confidence will come with repetition.

Funny. I am re-learning some of these skills in the cold water environment. Last night I was practicing, face in a 70 degree pool, no snorkle, full remove, replace, and clear in prep for working on the real thing this weekend in the quarry, just trying to get my comfort up / anxiety down. All of a sudden something just clicked. Anxiety dropped to zero. I now actually believe what I have been reading here about clearing multiple times on a single breath. If this new found comfort translates to the quarry and 50 degree water, I will be a happy camper this weekend.

 

[EFB]

Funny. I am re-learning some of these skills in the cold water environment. Last night I was practicing, face in a 70 degree pool, no snorkle, full remove, replace, and clear in prep for working on the real thing this weekend in the quarry, just trying to get my comfort up / anxiety down. All of a sudden something just clicked. Anxiety dropped to zero. I now actually believe what I have been reading here about clearing multiple times on a single breath. If this new found comfort translates to the quarry and 50 degree water, I will be a happy camper this weekend.

Good for you! Good luck this weekend. I guess I will see you in Wakefield.

 

[gcarter]

Thanks for your replies. We adjusted our masks tonight and WOW, what a difference. I still think I might use the rental mask because it has a much smaller skirt.

And yes, I am in Ottawa and will be headed to Wakefield this weekend. And I will be getting the gear Friday night, so I will be in the shower with the gloves and hood...and adding my mask. I swear, I have done some weird stuff in the shower since starting this class...starting with flooding the mask with water and stand there breathing through my mouth.

And I will also be flooding my masks in my kitchen sink also.

I would suggest you do the extra test and pay the fee for your FQAS. The quarry is nice and handy for a quick dive, for skills development, for just playing. I was suprised, my son did his OW dives there a month ago and out of 9 in his class only 2 bothered with it. Given the minimal cost, it ensures you have the option of (legally) diving in Quebec.

*Edit*

Almost forgot, good luck! Enjoy!

 

[spectrum]

Embrace The Rubber!

On the 4th of July I was at a local beach walking the shore in trunks. Just for chuckles I jumped in the water as I often did as kid. I have to say this provided a whole new perspective and respect for the protection neoprene provides. It is your friend, trust me.

In our classes hoods and gloves were required after the first (of 4) nights. It's the simple reality you need to be prepared for. Sites that let you go light on protection are a bonus, otherwise suit up appropriately.

Doing the tricks in class on check-out dives are the hard parts. As you get into permanent gear revisit those skills and you will soon master them with a constant configuration.

Pete