Scared. Am I cut out for this?

[scubamurray]

I enjoyed your post. I think the question is when is the feeling of fear justified, and when is it a remnant of an over-zealous instructor. I don't view diving (and I have 40 years experience) as a risk-taking activity. Yes, there are unknowns, and we prepare for them.

I don't think the question about DIN is out of place; I far prefer DIN, when I saw it I thought: What took me so long?

The smartest diver I ever saw sat on an offshore dive boat half into his drysuit and then took it off and went home, despite the ribbing of his buddies. He knew his limitations, didn't feel good that day, and lived to dive another day.

Practive, Practice, practice. It's right in some recent Scuba maganzine article on safety. The number one cause of accidents: divers outside their training and skill levels, combined with other errors in judgment.

Focus on your needs as a trainee, and if they are not being met go elsewhere or, as someone noted, get the extra instruction you need.

Finally, there are all kinds of divers, from beach blanket to ultra-deep. You can be what you want to be in diving and enjoy the heck out of it.

Best of luck and welcome to diving.

Bob

 

[Dux]

Hi tomahawkpilot
I am brand new to scuba diving and was 59 last week, oh and to compound my sins I am female.

I have always liked swimming and although neither fast nor powerful am very happy to be in various water settings.

But then my daughter announced she was getting married at the Great Barrier Reef as they live and work in Sydney.
I am in England so my thought processes went something like this.
I have seen scuba on tv and always liked the look of it, but would never have taken it up
I want to dive at Cairns but would not have the confidence to go on one of these little courses with a load of youngsters and not know what I am doing therefore no enjoyment to be had.

So with a flash I though I'd better learn here, in cold and miserable England

I found a very friendly but professional couple who run the Padi courses and signed up.

And then it dawned on me that I didn't like getting my face wet even in the shower.
I never swam with my face in the water if I could avoid it.
Had never swum underwater and certainly never snorkeled or used fins.
:11:Great ...what a start.
Face in shower....head underwater and within a week could even open my eyes underwater.

Onto the pool dives and I was very very nervous indeed. I analyse for Britain and the knowledge that I trusted my instructor was crucial for me.

After swallowing half the pool at first, I have now done 3 quarry dives and the last one I can say I enjoyed.
My skills have been ticked off and I just need the confidence now, but all in good time.

I just think that slowly and at your own speed is what matters. Maybe it is easier in some way to be older as I have long passed the age when I need to keep my street cred rating intact and I am never too proud or reticent to say to my instructor I need help with this or that and I did tell them when I was nervous.
One of the women who dives and has done so for years told me that she is still a little nervous before every dive she does.

I hope your instructor is good and if you need the technical explanation then they should give it to you, if you ask.
As many people need to understand to learn then they should acknowledge that and respect your technical mind.

All the best to you

 

[Ber Rabbit]

You have to find your own comfort level. Making the choice not to pursue the sport because it isn't for you can be hard but is the wisest one. You say your class is a weekend course, I'm not so sure that's the best choice for you. I too was an anxious student and the class I took was 10 weeks at the university and I STILL wasn't comfortable enough to pass my OW check-outs the first try. My instructor insisted on an extra day of diving where I was tasked with convincing her I was comfortable in the water. I managed to fake my way through that extra day but it was sheer determination rather than actual comfort. You can see in my logbook where I actually started getting comfortable with my skills and confident I could deal with an emergency if it arose, that was Dive #52 for me.

All I can think is, when the regulator quits or gets knocked out of my mouth, it won't be after I inhaled deeply like we practice in the pool. It will probably be just after I exhaled all the air in my lungs while swimming vigorously, so my body will be using oxygen so rapidly I will have even less time to find the regulator before losing consciousness.

Properly maintained gear generally does not just "quit" mid-dive, if you have that kind of luck you better be playing the lottery because you'll be winning regularly. You have a pressure gauge, just like you have a fuel gauge in your aircraft. Check them both regularly, running out of gas in either is easily prevented. There's no harm in coming back with a lot of air in your tank, there are some really good posts here on the board for calculating "rock bottom" pressure. You should take the time to find and read them and learn to do it.

Having a regulator knocked out of your mouth means 1 of 2 things.
1. You're not aware of what's around you and you got close enough to something to hang your regulator hose in it.

2. Some jerk who was not aware of his surroundings just tangled himself in your regulator hose.

Both situations are pretty easy to deal with. For #1 learn to pay attention to your surroundings. Ever fly lower than the towers around you? You better be paying attention to where they are and aware that there can be guy wires in the area stabilizing them. Same thing with scuba "stay alert, stay alive". Most new diver scuba problems can be prevented with awareness. When you see a problem approaching (tree in the quarry for example) take whatever action is appropriate (stay far enough away to give regulator hose room to pass).
For #2 you may be ticked off enough at the jerk that just landed on you that you take the time to shake your fist at him (and maybe share a few other gestures) before you bother recovering your regulator and muttering into it. I recommend securing your octopus with a necklace instead of the other do-hickeys. (something else to look up)
A necklace leaves your octopus regulator basically right under your chin, no searching for it is necessary if, for some reason you took extra long cursing the clutz who landed on you. You do have to keep in mind that if a diver comes to you out of air you will have to donate the regulator from your mouth instead of your octopus. Some instructors train that way but it's not a big deal to practice that way if you weren't trained that way.

Diving does not generally involve swimming vigorously. The harder you work the faster your air goes and the shorter your dive will be. The goal is to move slowly and enjoy the scenery not race from one part of the site to the other. Think "mosey" and notice the little things on the dive. You don't have to do dives in areas with currents and I would recommend getting comfortable with basic dives in calm water before you decide to take on a site that could require vigorous swimming.

So how am I supposed to deal with a situation when I can't breathe anything and I have limited time in which to act?

You should go through all your options in your head and do practice scenarios regularly. I always tell my students that during the drills if something isn't going right and they don't think they can execute it then STOP, return to a safe configuration underwater and start the drill again. HELLLOOOO, they are DRILLS not real emergencies and you get "DO-OVERS" until you can execute the drill comfortably. The way you train is the way you will dive. Screwing up a drill and moving on to something else increases the odds of screwing the response up when it counts. Divers who take the time to drill, drill, drill until the correct response comes naturally will fall back on their training when the fecal matter hits the blades and may have the problem solved correctly before they even had time to think about the fact they had a problem. You CAN get the correct response into muscle memory and get to a point where you don't have to think about what you would do, you simply act. These skills deteriorate if not used regularly though, that's why it's important to practice basic skills on a regular basis. The safety stop at the end of your dive is a perfect time to practice your basics, you don't have much else to do for 3 minutes.

BTW, had you told me I would be teaching scuba 10 years after I got certified I would have told you that you'd lost your mind. I freaked out about EVERYTHING and drove my instructor crazy...yet here I am, I've been training divers for 5 years now. I tell my students, "You CAN'T freak out about anything I haven't already freaked out about...I have an entire collection of 'been there, freaked about it' shirts."
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[Dirkadiver]

I'm not boasting or bragging, but simply trying to help provide the broad difference in comfort levels with divers. When I got certified, I did my checkouts in a local quarry over the course of a few days, immediately signed up for advanced OW & Nitrox. Within 2 weeks of my OW cert., I was in 5'-7' seas of the coast of SC diving to 80' on a civil war wreck.

My point here is that every diver has their own set of concerns, comfort levels & ambitions. Only do what you're comfortable with. Maybe you should take a discover scuba class before OW. That will give you a little more time in the pool. Express your concerns with your instructor & geth him/her to give you plenty of 1 on 1 time.

 

[tomahawkpilot]

Ber Rabbit, I would love to be able to take the time to make a rude gesture before grabbing my reg!

Thank you everyone for the posts. This is a completely different response than I got from chatting with people in dive shops, which was mainly "Why would you even ask that?"

So now I know that I am capable of learning to do all of this. Whether the quickie-class will be of any use, I don't know. If it's not any good, no big deal. I can get certified elsewhere.

Thanks again.

 

[spacemanspiff1974]

Regarding your fear of blacking out. Try this while sitting at your desk.

Exhale and wave your arms behind your head for a few seconds and then touch your mouth. If you haven't blacked out after a few seconds, you have the physical ability to locate your regulator and stick it back in your mouth.

 

[Colliam7]

My Open Water class is about to start and all I can think of is whether I should quit now before I kill myself. ... Here's the problem: I can't imagine how I am ever going to leave the safety of the pool for the open water dives. I do not want to ever take the regulator out of my mouth, for any reason. I don't want to go below 10 feet. I want to to know that I can reach the surface if I have to.

It can be scary, daunting, intimidating. And, you can do it. It is a practiced skill. I felt the same way before I started.

All I can think is, when the regulator quits or gets knocked out of my mouth, it won't be after I inhaled deeply like we practice in the pool. It will probably be just after I exhaled all the air in my lungs while swimming vigorously, so my body will be using oxygen so rapidly I will have even less time to find the regulator before losing consciousness.

One of the reasons we emphaisize the buddy system so heavily is to reassure ourselves that there should be a buddy, with air and an octo, nearby when that occurs. Even then, I would be less than candid if I said I don't think about the 'what ifs' on a regular basis - what if I have a problem, end up OOA, and my buddy is 40 feet away, etc, etc.

I don't think I will panic. I am an instrument rated private pilot and I have been in real (non-training) scary situations but maintained perfect control of myself. I just don't know what it will be like all the way down at 30 ft. I know I can probably find my regulator. I just don't know if I can do it in time.

And none of us can tell you in advance what it will be like for YOU at 30 ft. But, ... if you are comfortable flying through summer cumulus build-ups, and bouncing around but maintaining control, I suspect you will do just fine. Heck, if you are comfortable flying around in a Tomahawk and not letting concerns about flat spins rattle you, not only will you do well, but you have my admiration! I fly Mooneys, and every year when I do my club annual, I worry in advance about garden variety spins when I am doing climbing, turning stalls. And, every year, I somehow successfully finish the annual.

I had a bad experience in the pool when I was 12. The instructor came up from behind, knocked the regulator from my mouth, and handed me a bottle of Spare Air. I did not know how to work it, so I fumbled with it while growing ever more desperate for air. Finally, I bolted for the surface. After which, I was chewed out. I tried to explain that I had to breathe. Didn't matter. That won't work in real life. So how am I supposed to deal with a situation when I can't breathe anything and I have limited time in which to act?

Don't want to judge instructors from afar, or out of context. Sounds a bit like it could have been one of those, 'Make a man out of him!' scenarios where you were intentionally hit with a little too much, a little too soon. Hope not. Diving is not boot camp, after all. As several have said, don't push it. Take it slow and easy, and build your experience and confidence.

Please, can I hear some advice from someone else who worries about everything? Am I cut out for this? The only thing keeping me from canceling the class is looking forward to using scuba again. Just not on the open water dives. Not yet.

I don't know if I worry 'about everything'. But, the thought of drowning worries me. A lot. And, there are times underwater when I feel I am getting a little close to the edge of anxiety, which is when I slow down, take out my Wet Notes and write notes to myself - 'relax', 'calm down', etc. The act of focusing on writing and not on my anxiety usually does the trick. I also worried a lot, before I did my OW training, that I would get really claustrophobic underwater, and panic at 60 feet. It didn't happen. I worried before I did cavern that I would feel the same way. It didn't happen. I worried before my first tec dive to 165 ft that I would feel the same way - only then I couldn't just head for the surface without getting seriously damaged. It didn't happen. There are no guarantees that you won't flip out, that you won't feel really uncomfortable, etc. But, as one who does his share of worrying, I can say that most of my anxieties in diving did not evolve into reality. Take it slow and give it a go.

 

[Parysa]

Parysa, I like how you think. Spitting out the reg with minimal inhalation just to test yourself. That could be a good confidence builder. It seems as though no one I talk to is even slightly concerned with stuff like that. The attitude seems to be, we practice it in the class, so I guess I'll be okay in real life. My attitude is, we only practiced it 10 times. We could have practiced it 50 times, at different depths, while already starved for oxygen, or in other unusual situations. But for everyone else, they do it a few times, then jump right into the quarry. Again, I wish I could be that way.

I, so far, have not experienced fear while in the water. I'm usually a little nervous getting in, but the minute my head is below water and I've made that transition, I'm fine. I've had a moment or two where I've thought, "I don't know if I can do this, this is something that would normally scare the crap out of me," like the first time I went over the hole in Vortex and I couldn't see the bottom, just darkness. But I just told myself, I can say no and that relaxed me. We went down and it was really neat. The things that worry me on land don't worry me underwater. That's the best thing about it. You can be stressed about money, friends, family, whatever, and once you're down there, it's gone. There's your body and the water and whatever you can see, but nothing exists outside of that and the sound of your breathing. You're so focused on your body and what you can see that all the little worries and stresses and irritations of the day are just gone. That driver that cut you off and made you mad earlier doesn't exist (unless he's your buddy or the klutz that kicks you in the head, lol). You're weightless and flying and worry-free. That's what I love about diving. I think that once you get comfortable with it and let those worries go, you'll see what I mean and you'll love it, too. I think the biggest thing for me with comfort, though, was that I trusted my instructor 100% and that helped me to trust myself b/c he was confident in me. A good instructor is worth their weight in gold. (Mine is priceless. )

 

[tomahawkpilot]

Colliam7: Believe it or not, I actually spun a Tomahawk. Multiple times. And I was quite familiar with its reputation at the time! I don't like those climbing, turning stalls either, but I think: whatever might go wrong with stalls in a 172 or Cherkoee, it can't be as bad as that Tomahawk.

I like the Wet Notes idea. I'll have to get one. I hope I can make it down to 165 feet some day. For now, I will just remind myself that at least 30 feet is not 165!

 

[tomahawkpilot]

I, so far, have not experienced fear while in the water. I'm usually a little nervous getting in, but the minute my head is below water and I've made that transition, I'm fine.

I can relate. I used to sit at the runway with the prop turning, wondering whether I should really go. That went on for months. When I finally did it, I found that all my fears disappeared once I took off. And I actually started looking forward to being in flight.

There's your body and the water and whatever you can see, but nothing exists outside of that and the sound of your breathing. ... You're weightless and flying and worry-free. That's what I love about diving. I think that once you get comfortable with it and let those worries go, you'll see what I mean and you'll love it, too.

Thanks. That's exactly what I look forward to experiencing. I have to remember to think about the positive aspects of diving now and then, you know!