Think back a little...what were you like as a new diver??

[EFB]

As a newly certified diver, I saw that my group had very different experiences..

My hubby was a fish from the beginning and never had an issue(Ok..he told me he was nervous at the beginning).

Another girl in our group did everything asked of her but she told me she was nervous and is still nervous yet excited about diving

I almost quit the first night, but hung in there...managed all the skills..had ear issues..but stuck with it. I am far from comfortable, but hoping experience will help (going out on Saturday again).

Then there was one in our class that was kinda spastic. Not certified.

SO...what were you like? And how did you get to where you are today??

TIA
Elizabeth

 

[BVickery]

I took to it with ease. I was a competitive swimmer for a few years, and before that I was such an advanced swimmer I was taking the lifeguard course (minus actual certification) when I was 10 (mind you I am 37 now so parks and rec. let kids get away with more than they do now for such things). I am just at home in the water for some reason and when in it/near it stress goes away, feel good/happy.

I had a few issues the first two times I took it (bad instructor and then medical issue) before finally able to get OW certs. I benefited from being certed later in life in that I looked at the skills as something to learn/master in the greater skill of things instead of task to complete to get a c-card.

I am glad you got through it all.

 

[fnfalman]

I was a mess. Had problems with venting BC and kept floating to the surface, had problem with descension. At one point I was carrying up to 28-lbs of weight PLUS the heavy M-series Faber 100-cuft tank.

My buddy was a 500-dives guy who sucked as a mentor.

If it weren't for all the money I invested into buying all the gears, I think that I might have quitted the hobby.

 

[Blackwood]

All I remember specifically is losing a weightbelt the very first time I jumped into the ocean in scuba gear.

Fortunately, there is no video evidence so I don't know how bad I was. Also fortunately, I picked up a good instructor (who took me through basic trimix) soon after getting my ow. He has become a great mentor and friend, and has played a large role shaping me as a diver. Thanks in no small part to his own passionate efforts, I'm less bad now than when I started

 

[MaxBottomtime]

For me, scuba was the easy part. I had been free diving for a little over a year and was very comfortable in the water with a wetsuit and weights. A year earlier and I would have never dreamed I'd be diving. I had never snorkeled before. After getting married, my wife said she had always wanted to be a diver since she first saw Sea Hunt. I tried several times to snorkel with her, but I gagged every time I heard water gurgling in my snorkel. I couldn't keep my face in the water for more than a few seconds. I finally told her she would need to find someone else to snorkel with. The disappointment in her face was devastating.
The next day, while she was at work I went to the beach and forced myself to keep my face in the water. After many tries, I finally got it. I swam around for twenty minutes without lifting my head, and this was in Long Beach, California where the visibility was zero. I rushed home and called her.
The next weekend, and nearly every weekend and many weekdays for the next year we were free diving all around the Palos Verdes Peninsula and Laguna Beach. While snorkeling at White Point one late afternoon the lifeguard said,"Hey, you divers! We're closing the parking lot in fifteen minutes". We looked at each other and said,"He called us divers!" That was exciting. After seeing a batray and a leopard shark at Christmas Tree Cove I knew I wanted to spend more than thirty seconds at a time under water. We signed up for our OW class the next week. Nearly 1600 dives later, I still get excited when I see an unusual animal. I feel like a new diver quite often. I hope to always feel this way about diving.

 

[TSandM]

Read the journal of my OW class that's linked in my sig line! I was the student the instructor puts his face in his hands over. I was handed off just about every night to the poor DM whose role it is to give one-on-one instruction to the hopeless. When I got certified, I had never successfully done a descent without hanging onto my instructor's BC -- and I went on to do the first 20 dives by falling down on my back, hitting the bottom, rolling over, doing a fin pivot to try to get neutral, and then swimming off. I had uncontrolled ascents (one from 70 feet) which left me with a real neurotic anxiety about direct ascents of which I still have vestiges.

What I never was was nervous or scared. I ended up on the bottom all alone at the beginning of the third dive of my OW class, and sat up and mused, "Huh, I've lost the instructor. They taught me a procedure for that, better use it."

My path to where I am now began with attending a "Big Buddy" dive and getting paired up with NW Grateful Diver. Bob took one look at this woman who was all enthusiasm and no talent, and began the thankless task of trying to make some sort of diver out of me. And when he'd fixed the worst of the initial problems, he sent me off to do GUE Fundamentals, where he had learned a lot of his skills. And the rest is history.

I am living proof that the most hopeless student diver in the world can go on to get tech and cave certified, given enough determination, the right mentors, and access to a lot of opportunities to dive.

 

[DevonDiver]

Every year that I have been a diver, I've been shocked to discover how little I knew the year before.

When I first learned to dive, I thought I was OK. A year later, I realised I wasn't.

When I qualified as a DM, I thought I was OK. A year later, I realised I wasn't.

When I qualified as a Tech Instructor, I thought I was OK. A year later, I realised I wasn't.

.... roll on next year!

 

[ThomasScherrer]

read this thread.
all is explained in a good and funny way
by many honost divers
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ne...umbest-things-youve-seen-newbie-diver-do.html

 

[TMHeimer]

For me, where can I dive at home and in Florida?

 

[chs8084]

On my first post-certification dive, I was so nervous about doing everything right, in Bonaire no less, I paid more attention to time and depth and my buddy than I did to all the beautiful things around me. That made it really clear to me that I had more work to do and came home and took the peak performance buoyancy class. Navigation was a real challenge (there was the time my buddy and I almost lost the boat in Key Largo).