Towards the end of our 3 weeks, we were ready to learn more. There was a trip advertised to a wreck site, that required both Deep and Nitrox to go. We didn’t have either, but realised that there would be other trips in the future that would require more training than we had, and it seemed like a good time to take that next step.

Deep and Nitrox Specialties

We booked to do our Deep and Nitrox together, as the dive shop offered a discount, and a young instructor was assigned to us. For the Nitrox course there was another couple joining us, and we spent the day in the classroom. Gary never lets me forget that this is the only exam that we’ve both done where he got a higher score than me – he got 100% in the exam, and I got 1 answer wrong.

We noticed that our instructor was not completely comfortable on the dive where we had to go below 30 metres.
The specialty allows you to go down to 40m, but we went to 34m. This is within PADI standards which give a maximum depth of 40 metres and allows for the instructor to make a judgement call on the depth, based on the conditions.
Given her obvious discomfort at depth, going to 34m rather than 40 was the sensible call, but we were a bit disappointed.

Getting Tangled

Our instructor was new, and fairly inexperienced. She had only ever dived on Koh Tao. With her discomfort at depth, she probably shouldn’t have taken our course, but the competition for work on Koh Tao is so great, that she probably felt that she couldn’t turn it down.
She wasn’t in any serious danger, and she wasn’t panicking, but neither was she comfortable enough to deal with any problems that we might have had, which is a greater concern.

What did I learn from this time in Koh Tao?

Buoyancy is the key to diving – many people want a quick course to learn to dive, but there is no substitute for mastery, and sometimes that takes time. It took me 30 dives to fully ‘get’ buoyancy, and many more before it became instinctive. Give yourself time to master it, it will come with practice.

Not everyone is comfortable going deep – and that’s ok. Experience expands our comfort zones, and you should take your time to get that experience.

If you are a Divemaster or Instructor and you personally are not comfortable in the conditions, you should not be leading that dive or course. You have a responsibility to the people you are looking after, and safety, not peer pressure or financial pressure should be the factor in your decision.

Our previous dives were in Jamaica with 2mm shorties, and we worked out that with a 7mm full suit I probably needed 12 pounds of weight, and Gary would need 16 pounds. We were given weight belts on the boat, which seemed heavy, but then, we were taking extra weight for the 7mm suits.

They told us to do a backwards roll entry, but I was too scared. We were in an unfamiliar dive site, without the guide that I had asked for, and I had never done a backward roll entry before. I found somewhere on the boat where I could do a giant stride entry and jumped in. I felt heavy in the water, but we did our dive. I was nervous all the time, because I didn’t know where we were, but Gary seemed ok.

What did I learn from this experience?

It’s easy to get confused in a new location and with new gear. Remember that your equipment is there to keep you safe, and your gear is your responsibility.  While your dive guide may suggest weighting, it’s your responsibility to check the weight that you have been given. If you are not sure, it’s important to do a weight check on the surface before you start the dive. 
If you are moving to an area that measures weight differently, work out what you would expect to use in the new units.  The same applies for pressure gauges – know what the signals are for tank pressure in the different units. 

The Instructor suggested that we meet up between Christmas and New Year to do the pool session that was required before we went out into Open Water in the dry suits.  I struggled with overheating in a drysuit in a heated indoor swimming pool, with nothing underneath the dry suit except my swimming costume, but my Instructor reminded me that it would be different in Open Water.

I had invested in some long-sleeved thermal vests, thick ski socks, I had two pairs of tights on under my jogging pants, and I brought several thin jumpers to get layers on my top.  I felt like the Michelin man or Pilsbury doughboy.

I can’t honestly say that I remember much about the dive.  It was cold, it was dark, I knew with absolute precision exactly which parts of my face were not protected by mask or hood, and I kept my instructors fins in sight at all times.  Eventually it ended, we surfaced, and almost immediately our gloves and hoods started to freeze!  He had done this before, and after helping me out of hood and gloves, he waddled to his car and brought out a thermos box filled with hot water, that we stored our hood and gloves in.

We’d both brought some lunch, and we sat and ate our soup and sandwiches in the cold sunshine, and then retreated to our cars with the heaters on.  At some point we had to get back in, and the hot hood and gloves provided a few seconds of bliss – until they started to freeze again. 

Somehow we got back in, dived, and got out. 

What did I learn from this course?

I remember feeling a great sense of achievement, not at enjoying the dives but at completing them! In hindsight, perhaps the first week of January was not the best time to push my boundaries on cold-water diving.

The lesson from that day was simply this:

Just because something is possible, does not make it a good idea 😉

At that time it was standard practice to open your tank valve fully, and then turn your valve back 1/4 turn. It’s no longer recommended practice, because it’s very easy to jump in with your tank only 1/4 turn open – like I did. It’s OK to turn your tank off while you are travelling to the dive site, but once you are ready to kit up, turn it fully on, and then leave it fully on.

We completed both our Open Water Course and our Advanced Open Water course in Jamaica.  Having completed our Open Water course I had loads of confidence.  In hind sight, I was a terrible diver, but I thought I’d got it nailed! 

I remember correcting another far more experienced diver because his octopus / alternate air source was dangling as he was swimming, and feeling perfectly justified in such arrogant behaviour 😉

Perhaps the most memorable dive was our Deep adventure dive – one of the 2 mandatory dives for the Advanced course. We went down a shallow sandy slope and then back up through a coral chimney that started at around 27 metres deep and opened out at about 12 metres. It was both spectacular and scary, as it wasn’t particularly wide!

The requirements have changed since then, but at that time on the Deep adventure dive, you had to perform a cognitive function test on the surface and at depth. Our instructor gave us an addition to do on the surface, and timed how long it took us to do it. Under water he gave us the same slate with the same 2 numbers, and I added them in less time than it took on the surface. When he passed the slate to Gary, he queried something before doing the math. Once back on the surface I found out that the numbers were the same, but the addition had been changed to a subtraction, which I had completely overlooked in my enthusiasm to do the math quickly.

Things I learned from this

• Although there is no physiological reason that I know of, years of experience both as an Instructor and previously as a nervous diver, tells me there is a definite link – many nervous people have problems with their ears, and many of the people with ear problems find that the problems resolve as soon as they relax and become comfortable.
• Over-confidence is a dangerous thing!  There is no loss of face in double-checking that everything is how it should be.   While most errors won’t result in a serious problem, failing to check your actions or your understanding is asking for trouble.

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.

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.

I had panic attacks before every dive for the first 16 dives of my life, until I realised the problem was the neck on my wetsuit!  Most back-zip wetsuits have a high neck at the front, and mine was just a bit tight.  A combination of a tight neck, and the weight of the scuba tank pulling the wetsuit down slightly at the back was enough to send me into a hyper-ventilating mess. Once in the water, the pressure came off and I was fine, but pre-dive – UGH!

If this is you – there are a couple of quick fixes, even if it’s a rental suit that you can’t take a pair of scissors to 😉

• Get someone to undo the zip a short distance and make sure the velcro flap at the back is not secured.
• If that doesn’t fix it, take the wetsuit off, turn it around and put the wetsuit on back to front!  It doesn’t look pretty, but it brings the zip to the front and completely eliminates the problem 😉

I stood up in a hurry and she stood up too. I explained that I hadn’t expected it to be that difficult to breathe. She reassured me, explained that it’s quite an unusual sensation and that there is some resistance to breathing from the mouthpiece, but I should just relax and try again. “Sure, I guess I’m just not used to it, l’ll try again” I replied. 

We repeated the exercise.
Mouthpiece in, on knees, take breath, and this time it’s even harder – like trying to breathe from a glass bottle!
I shot up to standing again, and again she stood up to join me.
When I explained again, she looked confused.“Let me just check something” she said, reached around behind me, and cursed.

“Your air wasn’t turned on!”

I learned 2 things that day that I carry with me to this day:

• Always get the diver to take a few breaths from their regulator before getting into the water.
• You see far more life underwater if you sneak up on it, than if you charge in at it like a predator. 😉