Am I fit for SCUBA diving?
I can do the 300 yards with a snorkel and fins and mask easily, but I cant float fore more than a second, and I get really tired treading water, the only way I can float is if I’m doing my backstroke. Should I just give up?
Keep practicing. I’ve always been able to swim well, but I sink like a rock.
Build your stamina by treading water in practice. Run on a treadmill. Stairclimbers work great too. Another thing to try is this:
Take as big as a breath as you can, and arch your back in the water. Most people can float this way, even if its only 20-30 seconds. This gives you a little break. Tread for a couple minutes, then float. Tread, then float. You only need to do 10 minutes, so these little breaks could be all you need.
Been a diver for several years, and this helped me pass the tread.
Keep practicing. I’ve always been able to swim well, but I sink like a rock.
Build your stamina by treading water in practice. Run on a treadmill. Stairclimbers work great too. Another thing to try is this:
Take as big as a breath as you can, and arch your back in the water. Most people can float this way, even if its only 20-30 seconds. This gives you a little break. Tread for a couple minutes, then float. Tread, then float. You only need to do 10 minutes, so these little breaks could be all you need.
Been a diver for several years, and this helped me pass the tread.
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As a diver, I’d say if you give up you don’t know what you’re missing. I am working on becoming an instructor, and boy it is tough. I see one common thing with new divers, and I myself am a victim of this. We all want to dive, but the instructors don’t really tell us what we should know before coming to class. One of the really important things is to be comfortable in the water. The snorkel skills are really important, along with the swimming skills. We ask our students to swim 60 feet under water, swim 200 yards on top (no gear) and tread water for 10 minutes. The ones that do that no problem, usually take to scuba easier. It’s not that they will BE any better at it – It is simply that they will get though the class easier. The reason is experience and comfort.
I don’t know if this is the case in your situation, but if you don’t swim all that much, and have snorkeled only a few times, it’s not that you can’t do it, it is that you are missing some of the foundation that you need. It’s like trying to do algebra before basic math! Talk to you instructor, and see how you can get a little experience before going forward. Trust me, you can float or tread for a long time, it’s much more about beind comfortable and having the confidence to know you can do.
By the way, it is one of the best sports there is!
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