Hang in there. Consider private instruction if training in a group makes you feel nervous or pressured. You did not experience anything that I haven't seen before.
OW class today did not go well
- Thread starter holstin
- Start date
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We are in private lessons and that is why he is able to take so much personal time. We had to cancell Friday due to other issues and wife is just our is right now to afraid to get back in the water. We will be sticking to this but right now she is to nervous. We ahve been married for 23 years and do everything together so until she is ready to continue we will just wait. i am in no hurry. we are in our 40's and retired so we have all the time. Thanks everyone for your support.
A couple of other points, after rereading this this morning.
With steel tanks and in a pool, you are going to be negative -- possibly quite negative. In general, with some kind of exposure protection and in salt water, this will be less noticeable. If you are negative with no additional weight, it's not a bad idea to carry some kind of auxiliary flotation device, in case your BC won't hold air at the surface.
A feet first descent often isn't optimal. It means your fins are going to hit the bottom first, which may kick up a lot of silt, and it makes it more difficult to stay with your buddy (since you can't kick forward or backward while you are vertical) and to see the bottom coming up. Beginning the descent feet first, and transitioning quickly to a horizontal float down, is often a better strategy.
As a number of people have said, if your gear tends to put you in a nice, horizontal position for swimming, you are way ahead of the game! Many people work hard, moving weights around and readjusting gear, to be comfortable while horizontal. Don't give up on this!
With steel tanks and in a pool, you are going to be negative -- possibly quite negative. In general, with some kind of exposure protection and in salt water, this will be less noticeable. If you are negative with no additional weight, it's not a bad idea to carry some kind of auxiliary flotation device, in case your BC won't hold air at the surface.
A feet first descent often isn't optimal. It means your fins are going to hit the bottom first, which may kick up a lot of silt, and it makes it more difficult to stay with your buddy (since you can't kick forward or backward while you are vertical) and to see the bottom coming up. Beginning the descent feet first, and transitioning quickly to a horizontal float down, is often a better strategy.
As a number of people have said, if your gear tends to put you in a nice, horizontal position for swimming, you are way ahead of the game! Many people work hard, moving weights around and readjusting gear, to be comfortable while horizontal. Don't give up on this!
Thanks again everyone your info. Especially liked Journal. I had my wife read everyone's comments and she has decided to go through with tomorrow and see what develops. Its a new day with new beginnings. We will definately be descending on our stomachs as that is the easiest way for us and just let out air slowing in our BC's. The required skills we know will be easy as we have no issues with Them. It was really just the descending part that bothered us and after our first attemp and going down so quickly not even having time to equalize our ears scared us both. however now we have the right weight if any and are ready to try this again without first having something like that happen and ruining our day. We know our instructor has the patience we require and that is why we went with private lessons to begin with. I will post again tomorrow after we get back and let everyone know how we did.
Best of luck to you! We're all rooting for you!:cool2:
Well today was much better. We were able to do all our skills and did a dive to 60 feet. We ahve two more dives to complete our training. I want to thank everyone for your advise. We were able to descend just fine by leaning forward and not worried about keeping our feet straight down. Today i will have to say was fun and now has me all excisted to go do more. I am so glad also that I have purchased all my own equipment.
Bubbletrubble
Contributor
@holstin: We're all glad that you had a better experience today in your open water class. Diving can be an addictive activity.
The one point I'm trying to wrap my head around is that you purchased your own steel tanks before completing your open water class. Who advised you to do this? That's a significant financial investment in a sport that you may not pursue seriously in the future. Most dive shops offer free gear rentals (tank, weights, BCD, reg, wetsuit) as part of open water instruction.
Good luck with the rest of your class. Be patient. Take your time...and practice those skills.
They did offer us rentals but then everything you read says you should try and purchase your own if possible for being comfortable. I agree is was a major costs for everything but in Life I have never failed at anything and I new we would get this and actually the cost is what helped because i didn't want it to go down the drain. In the future I would probably do it different but now I am glad I did it this way. Our instructor was able to help us set up our own equipment and even help work out some kinks in our Atom 2.0 computers.
My wife and I are retired and travel the country in a RV. We wanted our own so we could travel and see some of the lakes and rivers where we travel. Only our winter months in Florida will we actually be in salt water but we hope to dive at least 4 or 5 times a month so having our own equipment was mandatory.
My wife and I are retired and travel the country in a RV. We wanted our own so we could travel and see some of the lakes and rivers where we travel. Only our winter months in Florida will we actually be in salt water but we hope to dive at least 4 or 5 times a month so having our own equipment was mandatory.
Bubbletrubble
Contributor
That depends on what you read, I guess.
I think purchasing all of your dive equipment prior to taking OW class is kind of like buying a car without doing any test-driving...or even knowing how to drive. I sincerely hope that your instructor didn't suggest that you purchase all of your gear prior to the class starting. I realize that you have already purchased all of your dive gear...and you may have purchased a lot of wonderful gear. I'm just stating this explicitly so that other prospective divers will consider a more patient approach to gear-buying.
I'm not sure that I understand your last post. Are you saying that the cost of the expensive dive gear motivated you to complete your open water training?
Diving can be a lot of fun. Try not to pressure yourself into liking it so much. You'll enjoy it more. Have fun out there...
diver 86
Contributor
Welcome to the addiction. Glad today was fun. It's supposed to be.
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