#1639
SeaGoat - 7/13/2012 6:49 AM
Rochelle,

I was a terrible OW student. Ken gave you great advice when he told you to spend lots of time in the pool. My instructor let me do my OW pool sessions three times in a row. (In hindsight, he couldn’t have asked for a better problem-child student to train his dive master candidate.) When I started, I couldn’t sit at the bottom of the shallow end. I actually had to stand and just blow bubbles with my face in the water.

My first instructor told me I was the worst student he’s ever seen but he predicted that if I stuck with it, I would be a good intructor. His prediction came true and I’m still diving and have been teaching for three years. Sometimes I’m still nervous but I’ve even gotten to the point where I have tried cave diving (it’s okay but not my thing).

The biggest thing is to be patient with yourself and I hope you have found an instructor who is even more patient (if not, find someone else). Then you’ll always want patient, more experienced dive buddies who don’t mind if you hold their hand in rough, murky or whatever other water conditions you don’t like. You’ll get there eventually. It took me about 70 open water dives before I felt like I hit my stride.

In the meantime, if you get nervous it helps to close your eyes for a bit, focus on your breathing and just remind yourself that as long as you have plenty of air, you can work through any problem or anxiety you have underwater.