Hello,

Just yesterday I finally decided to stop waiting and sign up to get my certification. Class are starting in less than a week and was wondering if anyone had any tips? I read the first chapter of the course book as instructed and really the only parts that worries me are those involving taking off the mask. I have a bit of a problem NOT holding my nose underwater and I'm scared I will just freak out and get my nose full of water and choke.. Does anyone have tips to overcome that problem?

Thanks!

if you breath out slowly through your nose you will not get water comming in. I hated the mask removal too (I think most people do), but it's only a small part and over quickly.

best advice I can give you is relax and have fun. The more tense and panicy you get the harder you will find it. Remeber if you need to cough just cough into your reg, you may need to put a hand on it to prevent you accidently spitting it out.

Where are you doing you open water dives?

Good luck, let us know how you go

aliikai wrote:
Hello,

Just yesterday I finally decided to stop waiting and sign up to get my certification. Class are starting in less than a week and was wondering if anyone had any tips? I read the first chapter of the course book as instructed and really the only parts that worries me are those involving taking off the mask. I have a bit of a problem NOT holding my nose underwater and I'm scared I will just freak out and get my nose full of water and choke.. Does anyone have tips to overcome that problem?

Thanks!

My girlfriend had exactly the same problem. Here's a few tips:

1) If water does go up your nose, it's no big deal. It will end up in your mouth and you can spit it out into your regulator - they're hardy like that, you can even vomit into them

2) Practise in the sea, just dunk ya head under and open your eyes. It will sting for about 3-5 seconds and then you'll realise it's actually not that bad at all!

3) It can take some practise to breath in via your mouth and not nose. The absolute key here is to be relaxed, as previously mentioned. If you breath in hard, you're going to take water in your nose - so just chill With instructor you're in absolutely no danger and there's about a billion people within arms reach that can help!

4) If you take your mask off for the alloted time, the most likely time to get water up there is when you breath out - again breathing out hard will send bubbles up there. Just relaxed breath - I don't think they'll particularly mind you holding your nose, but try and do it without. I can do it easily but I force my girlfriend to do this everytime before we dive even though she hates it. Why? Because if you lose your mask for real, you want to be 100% fine and cool as gravy.

Number 1 rule (except don't ever hold your breath) when diving, is just stay relaxed!

Thanks. I will try to remember that. Hopefully I won't have any problems and just enjoy myself!

Well, just wanted to say that I just got back from my first class. Filling up mask then emptying was a breeze. I was worrying too much Only thing I wasn't able to do well was equalizing.. Breezed through the rest of the things we did though, 'cept for maybe keeping neutrally buoyant.. Either I was at the bottom of the pool, or slowly starting to float up.. oh and getting my regulator back using that technique where you reach back, feeling for it starting at the tank.

It was really fun, though not sure ears agree on that but practice makes perfect (or close to it anyways) and can't wait for my second dive!

PS: They should make tanks with wheels at the bottom. Easier to carry around that way.

Sounds like you did really well and it's good to hear you are enjoying yourself .

Don't worry about your bouyancy as it will improve the more you dive. I'm sure you will get a chance to do plenty fin pivets and hovers to help too .

Equalistion can be pain, sometimes you just can't do it and it happens to everyone at somepoint. Just remeber if it starts hurting don't go any deeper unless it clears even if this means you have to call off the dive.

you can get things to wheel your tanks around on if you are really struggling, but think of it as good exercise

Well tonight is my final class. Kinda sad that it's coming to an end. Not sure when I will be able to do my open water dives though. Hopefully I will be able to stay in the area over the summer and do them with the same group.

I've had lots of fun, a few times the instructors came to me after the pool dive and said they were impressed. The only part where I really had trouble was with clearing the mask underwater and putting it back on. Took me 4 or 5 tries but I finally got it. I was hoping we wouldn't have to do it again but we then had to do a swim around the pool without mask, then put it back on all while underwater. I have a problem with my nose underwater, but it went incredibly well. Unlike the last time, I didn't even hold my nose! We then swam around the pool for a bit and I didn't freak out like I had done the last time either. Then when came the time to put the mask back on and clear it, did it on my first try too!

Other than that I haven't really had any problems. Equalizing isn't much of a problem anymore in the pool. Still have to work on my neutral buoyancy a bit cause I have a bit of trouble with breathing, which keeps sending me up and down but no biggy.

Looking forward to lots more dives!

I sent an email yesterday to know when the open dives would happen and it will only take place on the last weekend of May :| Good news is that I am staying in the area for the summer so it doesn't really matter. Looking forward to it, and hopefully I won't have forgotten too much by then.

congratulations
Well done, the open water is where all the fun starts

You'll be mask clearing without thinking about it before you know it and as I said before buoyancy will improve with practice.

We did a second thing, which was swimming around a bit with mask with mask off and having to clear it underwater after that. I surprised myself and did it without a problem on my first try!

aliikai wrote:
We did a second thing, which was swimming around a bit with mask with mask off and having to clear it underwater after that. I surprised myself and did it without a problem on my first try!

Oh, I had to do that in my training! Before we did this I couldn't clear a mask, after I haven't had any problems since *touches wood*! Like the little switch clicked lol!

Oh as for the buoyancy I got told the more you do it the better you get! Mine is still rubbish lol!!

This threat is very useful to me. I just arrive to the site and I discovered very interesting information, so thank a lot!

I'm planning a trip to Australia for some weeks and one of my goals will be obtain my PADI open water certification. I hope this experience would be great to me so I like to improve and keep discovering. I found a nice opportunity to do it at these Great Barrier Reef diving tours.
I see some awesome pictures as well, sharks,the Lady Darling. It has to be amazing be there. As you can see I'm a new diver so any cool history or experience feel free to share!!

Cheers!

So I went back to the store this weekend to sign up for my open water dives. They are at the end of the month and a day before we have to go back to the pool for a refresher dive before the weekend.

I really cannot wait to finally get my certification. Have been meeting a couple of people this past weekend that are also certified, including an instructor. Hopefully I will be able to make a few dives this summer!

And off to my open water dives this morning! Everything packed and ready to go! Today I believe will be mostly skills and stuff and tomorrow will be a more relaxed kind of day. We will also be doing our 60ft dive tomorrow. I know we should do the deepest one first but I guess it's to give us time to get used to open water and stuff before going deep.

So excited! Also a bit worried it's going to be cold but we have one full 7mm wetsuit and another 7mm shorty to put on top plus hood, gloves and boots so shouldnt but much of a problem, hopefully, but I just HATE(like REALLY REALLY HATE) the hoods though. Too restricting for me.

*Bounces off to get her stuff ready, all excited*

Wow what a day! Got back home at around 5 and at 6 I was in bed for the night! A friend woke me up so now I'm up getting a snack then back to bed, lol.

Today went well, had a few weight issues and my belt wasn't properly set up so I had weights all around and with the tank in the back it kinda hurt. Other than that did not have much problems. We went down to 40ft both our dives today. Water was not cold with good wetsuits. We did the mask clearing thing and I did well. I was scared I'd freak out and shoot to the surface but didn't and stayed calm. Equalizing was a little bit of an issue at first both dives, but once I have it going, it pretty much takes care of itself for the rest of the dive, which is good I guess. Visibility kind of sucked, having LOTS of other divers also doing their open water. Wherever you would look there was someone. With the compass part, we'd constantly be going up and down, over, under and around people. You'd be on your knees at the bottom and would have to watch to not get kicked in the face with fins. That part was really not fun. Hopefully tomorrow will be better as some rather large group is going elsewhere to do their last 2 dives. We will also be doing mask removal and putting it back on, which I would rather skip to be honest.. Especially with cold water like that, and hood on, it's kind of hard to put back on with gloves. I also know better than having 2 hours of sleep and not bringing a lunch. Lesson learned!

well done, sounds like you did well.

You are gonna need lots of weight with all that neoprene. having lots of weight is a pain to get organised and comfortable with.

I hate busy dive sites too, will be good if your next dive is a bit quieter.

Food and sleep are good aren't they
I find chocolate and/ or bananas are good to take along for a quick bit of energy boost. Hot chocolate in the cold is always welcome .

So had our last 2 dives today! Was much easier and less crowded plus only had a few things to do, including that mask removal.. I hate it! I tried to bribe the instructors with money but failed It's really cold on the face plus putting it back on with a hood and gloves is easier said than done. But I apparently did very well. We also did buoyancy, which is just easier I found, to do in open water vs pool. At least you have space to move around and it's not either the bottom or the surface.

After that was out of the way, we slowly made our way down to 60ft (Ok, some of us cheated and went down to 65..) It was very cold (45F) and was glad to have 14mm of wetsuits on. First time I didn't have my gloves on right and the cold water was pouring in. But I fixed that on our second time down there. It's so nice to go back up, slowly feeling the water get warmer.. Our first 3 dives were with normal air in the tank, but our last one was with nitrox and I did feel a difference coming out of the water. Wasn't as exhausted and still had a bit of energy left in me.

All in all had a great time. Very demanding in energy but lots of fun and looking forward to go diving with friends! Now off to unpack the gear and put it to dry..

Congratulations on getting through your open water

You did you nitrox course as well then? It is nicer diving on nitrox isn't it.