The makings of a diver

[JS1scuba]

As you know from my previous posts, I failed the GUE-DIRF miserably and admittedly need lots of work to become a diver.
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I deleted most of the post since it was a bit long winded and not needed to be repeated.

You did not fail DIRF .. your instructors failed to help you succeed.

There is only ONE practice for diving.............. Diving.

Put your **** on, put the face thing on, put the feet things on, put the breathing thing in your mouth and get in the water. Go do 20-30 dives in your rig and make minor adjustments on each dive. You can dive in ANY gear and achieve good form.

Guess what -- with only diving since last June you cannot be perfect. Nor should you. Go dive and have some fun. It sounds like you are not having fun yet.

Get a nice mess of Ettoufe' then night before. Then pack a muffuletta and go do some dives. leave the puke-green Kool-Aide home.

The more you dissect what you are doing the harder it will be.

[Diverdaniel]

I would like to add to what JS1scuba said and Travis,
what calms me and is also good practice, the hovering, get in the pool, find a spot/light/broken tile on the wall and just look at it, stay eyelevel with it, adjust you BC accordingly, just sit there, in the waterbody and breath, calm, i personall like this, close your eyes, breath as if almost asleep, listen to your brathing,Ears and sinuses. they will tell you if you are level,going up or down.
i do this every time i want to relax.
oh, i fully agree with JS1scuba

[Chantelle]

Ok... so I'm a little late to the party...

If you receive a Provisional, you have 6 months to work on what you need to, and return for a re-evaluation at no charge IIRC.

Also, one can qualify for a Recreational Pass or a Technical Pass. If you have received a Recreational Pass, there is no limit as to when you can upgrade to the Tech Pass, but there is a small fee for the instructor's time.

[Tom R]

You did not fail DIRF .. your instructors failed to help you succeed.

Actually your instructors before you took the DIRF failed to prepare you properly for the level of diving your trying to take on now. Most people do not fail DIRF but are sent off to practice skills to ensure a pass in alloted time frame.