Yet another Hello from Oklahoma!!

[TheMan79]

Hi everyone,

My Girlfriend and I are in the process of completing my PADI certification. We have completed our confined water dives and are waiting for the lake temps to get a little warmer so we can finish our certifications without freezing out butts off. We should be hitting the lakes around May 1st, by then the temps should be warm enough for our wetsuits.

I am doing fine and I am able to control my emotions and fears while under water, but my GF is not the most confident diver and she has a lot of anxiety about being submerged. Do you guys/gals have any suggestion or techniques that would help her overcome her anxiety? She has come a very long way from her first confined water dive but she still gets nervous about being submerged. Every little bit helps.

We have a trip planned for Cozumel in June and we want to try to dive as much as possible until then so that we won't be total newbies when we get to Cozumel.

Any suggestions on how to help my GF would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Tim

sorry about the mispelling of Hello!!! - I have been drinking tonight

 

[Theunis]

The Man79, I think the key is the instructor!! The instructor is where everything starts. The instructor should lay down the cornerstone and that is to guide her through her fears in a slow, professional and restful manner.

If your GF is not at ease with the instructor maybe she should switch to another one!!

 

[soonerwink]

Welcome,
After your certification, check with any local dive clubs and try and get in some dives with them. They can be very helpfull to new divers in gear selection and places you can dive locally. I don't know what part of Oklahoma you are in but if you are in the Tulsa area check out Tulsa Aquanauts (Tulsa, OK) - Meetup.com

 

[Jerseybeachdiver]

welcome aboard!

 

[TheMan79]

Thanks for the replies.

After seeing how much trouble she was having, our LDS brought in another instructor to work with her one-on-one. During the second night she was able to work at her own pace and was able to relax and build her confidence. She breezed through the pool dives on the second week and we are ready to hit the lake for our cert dives.

Soonerwink, we live in OKC so Tulsa is a little bit out of the way, but we plan on diving the lakes so maybe we could meet up at Tenkiller or something.

 

[DOWNDEEP73]

Tim,
Good luck! Also, looks like in might be mid to late May before the viz gets somewhat back to norm at Tenkiller.....Thanks to all the rain.