(September 7, 2012 at 9:00 pm)Chuck Wrote: I used to have no fear whatsoever of water, objects in water, or submersion. Did stupid things like scuba diving without partner or certification. Try to dive under or through anythings I can whenever I can
Then I thought it wise to get my self certified. During the open water dive the instructor brought the wrong wetsuit, and miscalculated the weights. So I had to make to with a woman's suit that was tight in all the wrong places and which constricted my rib cage's expansion, saddled with about 15 lbs of extra lead weight. I had to keep pumping up the BCD to stay afloat, and I could barely breath due to wetsuit constriction. I almost drowned. I acquired a reluctance to go diving for the next 5 years.
Even now, although I am out and about with scuba gear once more, I don't feel quite so completely at ease and carefree in water as I had been before the little incident. Fear of water is like bicycling. Once you acquire it, it never completely go away.
I didn't ever dive before becoming certified. After my basic open water cert, myself and the several friends who took the course with me had an overinflated sense of self-confidence. You probably know the feeling - that you have learned all there is to know and that you can do no wrong. The kind of feeling that only comes with youth and inexperience.
Many years later, after taking almost every recreational training course offered and who knows how many dives... (I don't log all of them, just notable ones, ones with instructors, etc - enough to show experience to the occasional op that might ask to see my logbook) ...I've come to appreciate that there's a bazillion ways to die. Fortunately, the vast majority are controllable. It's the ones you don't know about that'll sneak up and fuck you. When you're inexperience or untrained you don't know enough to be scared shitless (or plan for contingencies).
My biggest fear? Entanglement. Which is why I carry a knife and two pairs of titanium paramedic's shears, strategically located so that I should always be able to reach one of them.
Some amount of fear is a healthy thing. It can keep us from doing stupid things... at least a second time.
