Tips for a newbie?

[ixrayu]

Hello ladies! Any tips for someone who just got certified 2 weeks ago this coming Monday? My husband and son have been diving for about a year and I'll be diving mostly with my husband as our son is a senior this year and getting ready to go off to college. Other than 2 instructors ( one is nice and one is not), I don't know any other women divers and the girls at work think I've lost my mind for doing this! Look forward to getting to know ya'll!

[Zenagirl]

Best advice:

**Relax and have a good time.
**Don't let your husband and son pressure you into doing anything you don't want to.
**You can call (cancel) a dive at anytime for ANY reason!
**Relax and have a good time.

Oh yeah, welcome to the board!

[ixrayu]

The relax part has been the hardest part for me. I had to overcome a huge fear of the water to learn to dive. But I really want to see everything that is going on underneath the water! So can't wait until I get to go diving again.

[letsgodiving]

Don't talk down there.......no one can hear you......bliss.

[ixrayu]

My goofy , lovable husband has tried to talk to me when we were practicing in the pool! I told him that I can't understand a word he says underneath the water to either learn sign language or use the slate!

[Disneymom]

Hi, Sherry! Welcome to the 'girls' side of the board! Sometime the boys sneak in here too, but we goodheartedly give them a bad time. They're pretty good sports.

Hey, I have a senior in HS this year too!

I'm a newbie, too. First of all, congratulations on conquering your fear of water. I didn't have that problem - I'm a fish. My husband, on the other hand, has a big fear of water, and we're slowly working on his swimming and snorkeling skills and getting him accustomed to clearing a mask and breathing through his mouth. He's coming around. He breathed through a reg for the first time today (in 3 feet of water) - he liked it!

As for 'tips',
You have NOT lost your mind for doing this! I'm finding that there's lots of women divers. I'm fortunate, and have two of them for instructors.
I agree w/ Zenagirl - relax, relax, relax. Enjoy the sights that you get to see that other people don't.
Make sure your equipment fits well - it'll help with relaxing if you're not fighting equipment.
Familiarize yourself with said equipment before you set foot in the water - so you know exactly where everything is and how everything works.
Practice every time you get a chance. I practice buoyancy in my pool, and just practicing has made me tons more comfortable.
Just enjoy yourself!!
Dive Training is a great magazine, and full of a lot of good information for even beginners you should be able to get them free from your LDS.
Hang out here - you'll see all kinds of opinions, meet people with all kinds of experience, and this board is FULL of people who are willing to answer your questions.

See you around the boards!

[medic001918]

In time, you'll get more relaxed and everything will become second nature to you. You'll be doing things without thinking about it and your diving will become even more enjoyable. Just relax, dive and enjoy. That's all that it takes to make diving great for you.

Shane

[Zenagirl]

Oooh Disneymom brought up an excellent point....make sure your gear fits well!! Not only that, but don't let anyone influence you to buy certain type/brand of gear unless it's it fits perfectly and is what YOU want.

I made the mistake of buying "the most popular" women's BC on the market after I got certified. Unfortunately for me, it never fit me right, I couldn't make it fit me right, and was simply the wrong BC for me. When I did my search for the right BC for me, I ran into all sorts of obstacles of people insisting that "this one" was the best, or "that one" was right. When I went to try on a Zeagle Zena, the sales person didn't even know it was a modular design and could be custom fitted, and basically tried to talk me out of a back inflation/wing type BC and into the same jacket BC I had just sold on ebay!!!

Fortunately I'm a stubborn soul and called ScubaToys for them to send me a Zena and here I am over 100 dives later in it and couldn't be happier.

The point of my story isn't to convince you to buy a Zena, it's just to get you to be stubborn about making sure you're buying well fitting, quality gear that will fit YOU and you'll enjoy diving in. Sure I recommend you try the Zena, but it isn't for everyone (no one BC is IMO) and your mileage may vary!

[namabiru]

Dive, dive, dive and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy. So the other ladies at work think you're a bit mental for wanting to get more out of life by diving... you never know, you just *may* be able to recruit another new dive buddy once they see how much fun you're having!

Congrats, and happy travels!

[dallasdivergirl]

Have fun!

Most people think I an crazy anyway.

I started really relaxing after I got about 30 dives under my belt & got all my gear just like I wanted. I would spend dives just working on one thing that I wanted to do better.

Good luck with your diving.