OW class today did not go well

[holstin]

I want to say that my wife and I are so glad we went with SSI for our open water. Today was the first day in teh open water after the pool. Things didn't go well at all for either one of us. Ear problems and anxiety just got the best of both of us. However, our instructor stuck with it and was determined to get us comfortable and wouldn't let us just quit. We are going to attemp everything again on Friday and hopefully will go better. Once we removed almost all of our weights we were able to decend slower and have more balance. Steel tanks took care of all our weights needed. we are able to do the swimming around but the going up and down is just not comfortable for us. We just cant seem to keep our feet down and that causes us to get even more nervous.

Thanks again SSI for having instructors that have the patience my wife and I are needing.

 

[cudachaser]

Steel tanks...Were you with Ocean Divers?

 

[Mopar]

That is the good thing about a good instructor. I have read many posts on the board that tells people to shop around for the best instructors and that is exactly why.

 

[tstormdiver]

It is always good to have a patient instructor. They want you to have fun in diving & to be comfortable. That's what diving is all about. If you are feeling like your tank is trying to pull you over backwards & off balance, you may look at leaning slightly forward on you descents/ ascents. Put your center of gravity towards the front a bit. If it is a problem of your feet feeling a bit "floaty" you may look at wearing your cylinder a bit lower on your back or wearing fins that are rather negatively buoyant. Just a couple of suggestions.

 

[StreetDoctor]

Why are you trying to keep your feet down? A lot of new divers have a problem overcoming not being vertical. In the water you should try and be horizontal.

 

[holstin]

First the reason for the steel tanks is I wanted to own our own equipment. Everything on me is top of the line and Steel tanks were to be easier to control from begining to end on the dive. We were told it is always best to have your own and to learn with it instead of renting.

As for going down horizontally. I thought the best method of decending from the surface was to do it feet first. going up isnt a problem its just the going down. I think we have it figured out so hopefully Friday will go better. I am going to ask my instructor about the idea of lowering the tank a little on the BC. It doesnt appear to me that it would be a good idea to dive without weight due to how would you do a emergency asscent if need be where you drop your weight belt. We are just negative people even with a Farmer John 3MM suit on.

I also found by removing our head piece it made it more comfortable on the descend.

 

[Wookie]

My suggestion is that if you can get over your fear on descending horizontally, you've got half of scuba diving buoyancy and trim solved. I like my tank band right below the shoulder of the tank, if I can get it there. Keep it up, when the lightbulb clicks, all will become remarkably easy and all of this will be worth it.

 

[OceanEd]

Congratulations on joining us in the diving world. As others have said here, you are in a great position because you seem to have a very good instructor.

I encourage divers to use steel tanks because they are either going to have to have weight in their BC's or in their tanks or both. I love using steel 100's and encourage all my students here in Florida to get Nitrox certified and use steel 100's.

You will get the buoyancy down if you keep working on it with your instructor. Remember that first and formost diving is a mental sport. Once your mind calms down and you gain confidence the rest will become much easier to accomplish.

Congratulations once again.

 

[Blue Sparkle]

Now that I have done more reading (thanks to the many links and posts here), I understand that it's good to be horizontal in the water, and while you are descending. Nonetheless, in two different OW classes (both PADI), I was always led to believe we should descend feet first. I'm not sure why it's (often?) taught this way - maybe there is a good reason.

I have read in numerous places that for those who have problems equalizing your ears, a feet-first ("vertical") descent makes it easier.

Speaking of ear equalizing, I've always had a hard time with it (took me forever to descend, as it took me forever to equalize). Before my last diving, I read a tip (from a link here) that was supposed to make it easier. I have no way of knowing whether or not it was that tip that helped, but I had a pretty easy time equalizing (yay!). It's so much better that where before I was always thinking "will I be able to equalize and dive this time?"; now I am (nearly) assuming that I will be able to equalize and descend. At this point I'm still going down feet first, just to give myself the added advantage, but maybe I'll be able to shift away from that.

At any rate, you're probably thinking "Okay, out with the tip already!" It was just to "equalize" your ears on the surface, before your head even goes underwater (I pinch my nose and blow, but not too hard of course). The theory is that it "pre-inflates" your eustachian tubes, which keeps them more open and makes it easier to clear.

I think it worked for me (unless it was just a coincidence for that two-week period).

B.

 

[TSandM]

Sorry that you didn't feel your class went well. You might get some moral support from reading the journal of my OW class (link in my sig line). Since that journal was written, I've gone on to a wonderful five years of diving all over the world, and I've gone on to both technical and cave training.

So be assured that, with enough perseverance, ANYBODY can become a diver. And it does get better.