Starting the Open Water Course
Our schedule was theory every Wednesday evening at the dive centre, and pool every Saturday evening at a nearby pool, for 5 weeks. We picked the course because the schedule fitted in with our lives.
We spent an hour travelling to the dive centre during rush-hour traffic, watched a 45 minute video, reviewed our knowledge reviews from the previous week, and a half hour travelling back home. We didn’t really get any benefit from the classroom environment, but it was the easiest way for the Instructor to make sure that we had all watched the video. And that really sums up the course for me – it was easy for the instructor, not best for the student.
At that time there was no real alternative within a working environment. We could have done the theory on holiday and spent a day of our holiday studying, or the weekly trip that we opted for. Now with e-learning you can avoid both of those scenarios, because you can download the material onto your phone, tab, laptop or desktop computer, and complete all the theory while sat in the comfort of your own home. E-learning would have fitted into our lives much better!
When we did our Open Water Course, TripAdvisor was in it’s infancy, and we didn’t compare courses or instructors. The instructor was competent and made sure that we achieved everything that we needed to do, but never really made the time to get to know his students. He didn’t realise that Gary already had 200 dives until he was signing the referral paperwork at the end. He was also completely unaware of the stress issues that I had dealt with during the Confined Water part of the course.
In short it was a reasonably thorough but very impersonal course.
Overcoming Anxiety
We’ve learned a lot over the years, and I always feel that you can learn more from the things that don’t go right than the things that go smoothly. This was one such example.
From my Open Water Course I learned that some people (including me) find the whole Open Water Course just a little bit scary – and that’s ok!
If they are willing to confront their fears and anxieties, I’m there to help them through.
Whatever it takes.
Scuba Diving is fundamentally safe if done properly, and anxiety can be worked through and eased by patience, calm instruction, a clear understanding of what is required and why, and if necessary, someone to hold your hand while you face your personal demons.
There are lots of parts of the course that can be made easier and more comfortable with a little bit of assistance and personal attention. There is more than one solution to almost every problem, and finding the solution that works for you can make the difference between ‘getting through’ the course or ‘really enjoying’ the course
Having been on the other side of the anxiety I understand it completely. I think that one of the reasons I teach is because I’ve personally experienced almost every problem that students face while learning to dive, and if I haven’t yet figured out a way of dealing with it, I at least fully understand it!
If you need extra time, reassurance or attention to get moving with your diving, contact us and we’ll do our best to help.
