I had been worried about her at the very beginning because she ticked ‘No’ to the question ‘Can you swim?’ on her application. Even worse was all the lousy equipments she got: a mask that did not fit her face constantly flooded and an oversize buoyancy controller that lifted her up like a life jacket.
I could sense her fear from her eyes. Although she forced herself to pull out the regulator from her mouth and put it back, she didn’t blow to clear the water inside. Instead, she panicked after a second. She spitted out the regulator which were supposed to be her life saver and struggled to the surface.
That’s it. I rushed her back to the surface. I already spent too much time on her while there were two other introductory divers waiting for me in the water. I had to call my colleague to escort her back to the boat. This really made my frustrated whenever I had to give up an introductory diver (or the introductory diver gives up herself). I wished I could show her the fun of diving not the fear of water.
Later in the afternoon, she was going to try the introductory dive again. I was touched that she was trying so hard to overcome her fear. This time, I had prepared the proper equipments for her. Also, no other customers but she and her friend doing the introductory dive.
She finally made the regulator cleaning skill after a few tries. Still, I was worried that she might panic and spit out the regulator during the dive. So, I kept escorting her at 3 meter depth which was only a quarter of the maximum depth for an introductory dive. It’s so shallow that I could almost reach the snorkelers above me. But, who cared? It’s a nice dive as long as they had an easy and nice diving experience.
