Bicster
Contributor
Hi, I'm new here, I'm 32, and I live in Houston, TX. My wife and I started our PADI Open Water certification class recently, but I chickened out during the first pool session.
When I was 3 or 4, my parents had a pool in the backyard and they hired someone to teach me to swim. I took like a fish to water. Throughout my childhood I had easy access to swimming pools, and I remember playing with toys with my friends under 10' of water all the time. I guess my point here is that I've never been afraid of water before. I don't get wet much anymore, but when my wife and I were in Playa del Carmen in 2003, I had no trouble swimming out into the ocean a few hundred feet to the end of the no-watercraft buoy.
Yet, for some reason, the most horrible death I could possibly imagine involves drowning. I have no idea why. I can certainly think of far more painful ways to go, yet if I had to choose, I'd pick being burned alive over sucking lungfuls of water. And perhaps this is the reason for my trouble. But I had no nervousness at all until I took my first breath underwater...
We were learning some basic compass navigation stuff in the PADI class when I noticed my rented compass didn't work. They happily swapped out the whole kit, and I stupidly didn't check it before heading off to the pool for our first water session. After I got in the water, I noticed that my reg's mouthpiece was bitten off pretty badly. I couldn't hold it securely in my mouth and it made me nervous. The instructor (just a kid of 19, albeit with 11 years of diving under his belt) was dismissive of my discomfort with the situation and suggested I use it anyway. After I decided I could not, he told me to use the octopus.
The octopus scared the hell out of me. It had significantly greater (to me) inhalation and exhalation effort, but worse yet, as soon as it got wet it sounded like a kazoo or perhaps a loud quack with each breath, while vibrating in my mouth. Underwater or above water made no difference.
The instructor told me to use it anyway, and then decided it was the reg I was supposed to be breathing from in the first place, after I produced a nylon zip-tie to move the good mouthpiece to the other reg. Correct me if I am wrong, but I am pretty sure we learned in class that the brightly colored reg with the extra long brightly-colored hose is the safe-second... So his assurances that it was 'normal' and that I should just go ahead and continue with the class did not put me at ease.
I was even uncomfortable breathing from that thing outside the water while watching everyone else continue with their class. The other reg was OK. Maybe it was safe and 'working normally' but I was freaked out. Nobody elses reg made nearly that much racket underwater.
This happened the Saturday before last. The LDS has been supportive and offered to let me join any of their other classes, which they have every week, rotating through a rather long roster of instructors.
I still get really nervous when I think about breating through a reg though. Their rental equipment all looks pretty old and ratty to me. Apparently it's not old, but it's well-used and not properly cared for by the renters. Yellowed gauges, rust, broken bits, and so on do not inspire my confidence. My wife and I have already spent $1,700 on snorkeling equipment and PADI lessons (we both requried custom prescription dive masks). If I buy a reg, octo, and gauges it will significantly add to that without any assurances that I will ever become comfortable with scuba.
I know this is all psycological. I really want to do this. Like I said, I love the water--and I am totally fascinated by aquatic life. If anyone has any suggestions on how I can relax and make this within my comfort zone, I'd greatly appreciate it. Even now I have that tight, nervous feeling in my chest. That can't be good!
When I was 3 or 4, my parents had a pool in the backyard and they hired someone to teach me to swim. I took like a fish to water. Throughout my childhood I had easy access to swimming pools, and I remember playing with toys with my friends under 10' of water all the time. I guess my point here is that I've never been afraid of water before. I don't get wet much anymore, but when my wife and I were in Playa del Carmen in 2003, I had no trouble swimming out into the ocean a few hundred feet to the end of the no-watercraft buoy.
Yet, for some reason, the most horrible death I could possibly imagine involves drowning. I have no idea why. I can certainly think of far more painful ways to go, yet if I had to choose, I'd pick being burned alive over sucking lungfuls of water. And perhaps this is the reason for my trouble. But I had no nervousness at all until I took my first breath underwater...
We were learning some basic compass navigation stuff in the PADI class when I noticed my rented compass didn't work. They happily swapped out the whole kit, and I stupidly didn't check it before heading off to the pool for our first water session. After I got in the water, I noticed that my reg's mouthpiece was bitten off pretty badly. I couldn't hold it securely in my mouth and it made me nervous. The instructor (just a kid of 19, albeit with 11 years of diving under his belt) was dismissive of my discomfort with the situation and suggested I use it anyway. After I decided I could not, he told me to use the octopus.
The octopus scared the hell out of me. It had significantly greater (to me) inhalation and exhalation effort, but worse yet, as soon as it got wet it sounded like a kazoo or perhaps a loud quack with each breath, while vibrating in my mouth. Underwater or above water made no difference.
The instructor told me to use it anyway, and then decided it was the reg I was supposed to be breathing from in the first place, after I produced a nylon zip-tie to move the good mouthpiece to the other reg. Correct me if I am wrong, but I am pretty sure we learned in class that the brightly colored reg with the extra long brightly-colored hose is the safe-second... So his assurances that it was 'normal' and that I should just go ahead and continue with the class did not put me at ease.
I was even uncomfortable breathing from that thing outside the water while watching everyone else continue with their class. The other reg was OK. Maybe it was safe and 'working normally' but I was freaked out. Nobody elses reg made nearly that much racket underwater.
This happened the Saturday before last. The LDS has been supportive and offered to let me join any of their other classes, which they have every week, rotating through a rather long roster of instructors.
I still get really nervous when I think about breating through a reg though. Their rental equipment all looks pretty old and ratty to me. Apparently it's not old, but it's well-used and not properly cared for by the renters. Yellowed gauges, rust, broken bits, and so on do not inspire my confidence. My wife and I have already spent $1,700 on snorkeling equipment and PADI lessons (we both requried custom prescription dive masks). If I buy a reg, octo, and gauges it will significantly add to that without any assurances that I will ever become comfortable with scuba.
I know this is all psycological. I really want to do this. Like I said, I love the water--and I am totally fascinated by aquatic life. If anyone has any suggestions on how I can relax and make this within my comfort zone, I'd greatly appreciate it. Even now I have that tight, nervous feeling in my chest. That can't be good!
