Facing FEAR - Never been so SCARED of the SEA - Ep.95 

One of the best things about this vlog is your complete honesty in reporting your daily encounters.

One of the things that make this work for you and for us is your raw honesty, thank you we feel like family. This is one of the best of your filming, the emotions spoken work well with the cinematography and music. The two of you are an inspiration, a pleasure to watch you grow. Thanks.

I agree with Stuart Brown. I was smitten and touched by Matt’s description of his difficulties on the first dive. I could see myself saying, “yes I’ve got this,” thinking I’d taken it all in and then finding myself in trouble. As Matt has told the story I now will know to make sure I’ve mastered the breathing before moving on with the adventure.

well done Matt, takes a brave guy to admit he's scared and ask for help, glad you beat it!

A great American cowboy once said, "Courage isn't the absence of fear but recognition of fear and saddling up anyways!" Enjoy the dive

The full PADI diving training is vital for safety. The buddy diving system will save your life in time. I fully appreciated this the first time I ran out of air at depth. This does not happen gradually, you breathe out then when you attempt to breathe in there is nothing there,....... Panic. The discipline to swim to your buddy to share their air and go up together is what practice and safe diving is all about. Good on you for having a second go. I’m keen to hear your excitement at your first night dive.

A video about diving? Or a video about relationships, communication and feelings? That was quite profound. Thank you very much. :-)

2 minute chat with the instructor is always a good idea, they know their stuff and have been through all if these issues before. Sometimes turning on your back and making sure your BC is fully purged is worthwhile. Also adding a weight helps. Once you wear a wetsuit you will need more weight to overcome the suit anyway. Not all dives are fun, and finally cuttlefish can be a nuisance during mating season.

I haven't been diving in more than 40 years. I've thought about doing it again since I enjoyed doing it. A lot about my life changed changing coasts to California and one of them was my relationship with the sea. I grew up around boats, surfed, fished, skiied...moved to California 46 years ago and I've been on a boat twice, never surfed or dived or fished again. I exchanged the water for mountains, forests, and deserts. But I still love the sea. Matt, I'm happy you kept at diving.

Matt, as a diver for forty years and an instructor of hundreds of students I can tell you that your initial fears and difficulties are very common indeed. The physical forces acting on you underwater are completely different to those on land. It's almost like learning to walk all over again. You have to learn to sense and anticipate your movement in a totally new way. I would say that the average person feels they've really "got the hang of it" after 20-30 dives. Kudos to you for sticking with it and realising it's a learning process. But once you're there, there's nothing like it. Hovering above a reef, completely relaxed and weightless, free to move in three dimensions and controlling your depth to within inches with your breathing. The physical sensation is half the fun of diving!

You two are fast becoming my new favourite channel. You both are inspirational. One Life, One Search, Peace Out, Shane

Matt, huge respect for your honesty. Amy, simply a legend.

Marco is a terrific scuba diving teacher, and it's a great shared experience that Matt understood that his fear was irrational, but instead of just that macho nonsense of 'man up' and trying to ignore it, or giving up, he told his instructor, who helped him over come it. Brilliant. The vast majority of times someone I've known who's had any resistance at all to a new experience, has just given up, avoided the experience, refused to discuss it or do anything about it. A lot of those people have expressed to me, or to others who've told me later, their resentment towards how easy things are to me. It's not. My first kayaking lesson I think the other students thought I was going to drown because I flipped over so many times: I was first, last and most upside down. My basic premise in life, and experience has supported that I am a complete disaster, but if I keep learning I can eventually figure out just about anything.

To see you face your fears and overcome them, had shed a manly tear. As a man and a diver i understand what you went through. Good on ya for sharing this story.

From someone with over 1,500 dives in conditions ranging from under thick ice to the wonders of tropical reefs, Welcome to the marvellous experience and enjoyment under the sea! 🙌🏻. Good luck & enjoy!

Hi Matt, it takes courage to admit fear, and even more to face it. Well done, you should be proud of yourself.

As a rather aged diving instructor, I recognised immediately what your discomfort was, a lack of training. It warms my heart to learn that you stuck with it and now feel more comfortable under the water. The best time to be around divers is when they pull the DV out of their mouths, to tell anyone to cares to listen, all about the dive they have just done. Safe Diving to you both, Barnacle Bern BSAC Instructor

Scuba diving makes you very aware of your breathing, something that we rarely consciously think about...that’s why it feels so alien for some people at first. “Feel the fear and do it anyway!” Well done to you 👍🏻

In all honesty, the first thing you didn't need was a camera. As a new diver, you've got enough to handle - the new sensations, the dive master's instructions, your emotions, the BC, your body - you didn't need the extra distraction. Second, buoyancy is probably the most difficult skill initially. I remember rocketing up and plummeting down many times during my early dives. And it's really embarrassing to see everyone else 6m below you after an uncontrolled ascent, forcing them to wait while you got your sh!t together, and having the asst. dive instructors surface beside you to check on things. It took me a few dives to master, and now it is second nature. Glad to see you stuck at it and made it through. It opens up a new world of wonder...

I've flown 4,000 hours in USMC attack jets and a variety of training aircraft. No fear (even after having a 500 pound high explosive bomb explode right after releasing it causing massive damage to the jet; it was still flyable). I let a friend talk me into a tandom jump sky diving to celebrate my 45th birthday. I went with a USAF Pararescue Jumper among the best of the best. It was a blast until the chute opened and I then felt as though I was slipping out of the rig. I wasn't, but it felt that way. After we landed my legs were shaking like leaves. I never did it again. Good on you, Matt, for that second dive. You are a better man than me Gunga Din.

I’m really happy you both enjoyed diving. As a PADI instructor who has trained hundreds of divers, I have mixed feelings about the introduction dives, also known as resort dives and discover scuba diving. I’ve met many people who have been turned on to diving this way, but also many who have been turned off. Buoyancy and equalization are usually the two main reasons for negative experiences. If you took the full certification class, you now know that the class is designed to break down these and other skills and ensure you gain proficiency and comfort. The resort courses are often too abbreviated for many people to work through these problems, and some people walk away thinking scuba is not for them. Kudos for you for being honest with Marco, and kudos to him for taking the time to guide you through your areas of discomfort. I hope you have (had?) fun getting certified and enjoy diving as a lifelong pursuit. In case you are interested, here are some pics I took a couple years ago in Indonesia. www.flickr.com/photos/scubagerry359/albums/72157706411092831. Cheers!

I remember my first PADI Open Ocean dive as if it was yesterday but in reality it was well over 30 years ago. While preparing for this dive the instructor kept reminding us to put our regulators in your mouth before you start your decent. I’m thinking how stupid is that, who could possibly forget that! Well guess what, I did, we were on the surface and everyone raised their BC valve and started down. My first breath was a good swig of sea water. I cleared myself and continued down. It’s a foreign world down there and if you can overcome your fears and anxiety your air will last longer and you will become aware of your surroundings. Have fun with you knew adventures and remember these to things 1) put your regulator in your mouth before you go under 😳 2) don’t ever hold your breath.

Takes a brave man to admit he's scared, braver still to go back and face what scares him. Well done Matt, won't be long and you'll be using any excuse to dive! It's very much like flying, and you just learned how thrilling it is to take off!

(Baz) As an SSI certified dive master with close to 350 logged dives I can tell you that it took me about 20 dives before I thought I had it figured out. Each dive is a learning curve. Even with that many dives there are still times when a part of my brain shouts "We've got to get out of here. Get to the surface" and I have a conversation with myself in my head that everything is OK, just breath nice and steady. Eventually the thoughts pass and I enjoy the rest of the dive. Stick with it, the rewards are more than worth it.

Way to go, guys. Scuba is truly a mad experience, if you think about it, it would be odd if something so outlandlish was just as easy as popping a reg in your gob and jumping off a pier. Small point....I would not be taking someone for a try-dive straight into water out of their depth. Horse around in the shallows first until you are comfortable with the kit. Your in-built instincts do not immediately accept that it is possible to breath under water... don't rush them. Secondly, especially for Matt, do the courses. The more you understand the physics of diving the more in control and therefore safer your will be. Both of you please stay safe and don't rush this. There are wonderful experiences to be had but please do your homework and prep first. Enough of my waffle though, thanks for a great movie xx.

love you honesty Matt - I learned in the UK (BSAC trained) - its a more extreme environment than warm / clear water for sure but you won't find anyone who done a lot of diving who hasn't overcome fear or the spooks as we used to call it. In fact we used to prefer to buddy up with people who knew what this was as they were more likely to stay calm if things went astray. You got back on the horse and I'm sure that took a lot of courage but you will now get the benefit. Getting the right amount of weights on your belt is always a problem when you start out, seems you didn't have enough weight OR you had air in your jacket taking you up - you have to be negatively buoyant, (but not massively so or you sink very quick and speed up as you do), and then add air to the stability jacket to stabilise.

Glad you worked past the fears you were having. Many. many have issues with controlling buoyancy the first few dives. Learning to scuba and getting my open water certification actually help me get over my tremendous fear of being in deep open water. I've never had a fear of being out on the water on a boat or being in a swimming pool but I did have a genuine fear of deep open water! Welcome to a new wonderful expensive love...

Concentrate on all the beauty around you then there is no room for fear. Well done.

"Scuba diving lets you stand and stare" My kind of diver. Nothing better than letting the undersea world come to you rather than chase it away by swimming, swimming and swimming.

I LOVE scuba diving. I feel so calm and serene afterwards. Sleep amazing after four tanks too. It’s extremely expensive in the Caribbean but I have done it a few times and love it. Wish I could do it in these amazing spots these guys go to! Congratulations!

I agree with Stuart Brown’s comments below. Thanks to both of you for sharing the story, emotions and that communication and trust can result in great experiences for both partners. :)

Neutral buoyancy takes some practice, when it clicks, it’s a game changer, really glad you persevered! And well done for opening up about your fears.

Yay. You learned to sprint and do backflips and twists before you knew how to crawl ?! I found your channel whilst looking for a boat I could buy to go diving. Then, I fell in love with sailing. Oh, this lovely unpredictable life !

So glad to hear your more relaxed on that 2nd dive.. I got Padi certified back in 75 ... One thing you will learn right at the beginning is... PLAN YOUR DIVE AND DIVE YOUR PLAN... Words i have never forgotten .. Good luck to you both.. I look forward to your journey..

I would like to thank you for this video - Having been 5 times to Cubadak Resort, it allows me to see the place again since with the pandemic, impossible to go there ... Took with my wife our Discovery Dive there, and also got hooked immediately, so we took our PADI Open Water course with Marco ... Can't go wrong with Marco, he is patient, takes the necessary time to make sure that every is right and is demanding (for obvious security reasons) and taking the course in Cubadak in a smaller resort is a completely different experience (more like a private class) than the PADI factories in more touristic places, where you are just a number ... Good luck with the Open Water Course and don't forget to enjoy and disconnect from the world above the surface - That is what diving is all about ... Please do say hi to all the Cubadak crew ;-)

As a SCUBA diver in southern California I can relate to your experience. Buoyancy control takes practice to master and can be even more difficult if you're underweighted. Great job presenting the story, though! Enjoy your certification experience and many dive adventures to come!

I'm glad you gave it another try. I haven't dived in years but I'm a SSI Assistant Dive Instructor. It's often tricky for noobies to catch on to proper breathing and buoyancy control. If you're nervous, it causes you to breath shallow and be more buoyant. Practice makes perfect!

Good on you, Matt, being afraid, facing that and proceeding anyway is the very definition of courage. Do it enough and eventually, you’re not afraid. You’ll have to explore other areas of possible fear to concur...smiling. Well done, man. Texas

I'm a dive master, so this is a nice story of how the fear of the unknown and lack of experience can be overcome with the right mindset and determination to embrace challenges, rather than letting these experiences prevent us from growing or developing. We can apply the same mindset to future challenges by remembering that when we choose to make the unknown, the known, the irrational fear we may have initially will often dissolve. This situation wasn't just about dive training, it was about mindset training too.

Diver here: Matt take your time. Diving is beautiful once you get used to it, but it is not unusual to struggle in beginning. It took my wife some time and adjusting, as well. Here are some adivce based on our experience: 1. Take your time. Expand your comfort zone but do so at a reasonable pace. There is no rush and it is better to learn things slowly, than to go fast and not enjoy them and potentially give up. 2. Communicate under water. If something is not right, no matter if it is something with your gear, something with the technique like buoyancy, or you are just feeling uncomfortable in the current situation, always communicate with your buddy and your instructor. This is also important if you are later diving with larger groups. Everyone understands that learning takes time and while it might be uncomfortable to be the one holding the rest back, no one will blame you. In fact everyone would much rather see a beginner signaling a problem early, which then can be adresses, rather than waiting till a serious issue like panic sets in. 3. Enjoy when things go well, like on your second dive, but don't get frustrated if you have another bad experience. There is a chance that you will have unplesant dives in the future. Don't let this scare you off when it happens. In the long term the dives will get better (as long as you don't increase the difficult level too fast but that is another topic...). Always remember how beautiful it can be. And the following advice are not directly related to you feeling scared but more general and probably will become more relevant when you have your open water license: 4. Continue to stick to all the safety rules. Now this might sound trivial right now, as most beginers tend to be very diligent. But later, with more experience, you will notice that you become more relaxed with the rules. Try to counter that actively. One of our instructors once said, that most fatal accidents don't happen to beginners, because they are way too careful. Most accidents happen to the experienced veterean that let his guard down too much because he became too confident in an unhealthy way. This does not mean you should be nervouse or tense, just diligent. 5. Watch your buddy. This ties in with point 4. When you become more relaxed and experienced and you can enjoy a beautiful reef with out worries (which is the state you want to be in), it is easy to spend 5 minutes without checking on your buddy. Afterall he/she is doing fine and watching fish just like you. However, in the unlikely situation that one of you needs help, 5 minutes or 30 meters distance could be way too much. Thus, I would advice you to throw each other just a quick a glance at least once a minute and to stay within a close distance. Again this might feel trivial right now, but later you will see many diving teams being far away from another, relying soley on their experience. Don't to that. You don't watch your buddy because things are going great 99.99% of the time, you watch him because of that 0.01%. 6. (maybe the most important point) Once you have your open water don't jump in, thinking you can dive now. Diving is like sailing, you don't learn is with by getting license, you learn it by doing and it takes time and practice! You could do an atlantic crossing as a beginner and likely be fine, as long as things go smoothly. But you should only do an atlantic crossing, when you are sure you can handle bad conditions. Same goes with diving. Don't go deep just because you got the license, don't start wreck diving just because you are technically allowed to. It might feel fine, and it most likely will be, but you need to be self sufficient and calm in that 0.01% case where something goes wrong at a greater depth. My wife and I, after we had our open water and our first 20 dives, went on a diving expedition that was way out of our level of experience. Everything went fine but many dives and our advanced license later, we started to realise, that we were way too much ahead of us. We did not noticed it at that time, but in hindsight we are glad everything went well. So be aware of the Dunning-Kruger-effect and just keep in mind that people right after they get their open water sometimes tend not to realise how much more there is that they don't know. Hope it helps! And enjoy this beautiful sport :-)

What an excellent teacher Marko is

Great honesty here. Very unique RU-vidrs here. A refreshing change. Bravo!!!!

Wow, I just assumed that you two were divers. Really glad you decided to give it a try. Matt I know the aggravation not being able to clear your ears. I didn't know how to properly clear my ears for thirty years, yes thirty. That alone kept me from diving deep or with other people, I didn't want them waiting on me and it seriously jacked with my confidence. RU-vid came along and I found Adam Freediver and his demonstration on the Frenzel Equalize technique. You can literally practice while setting in front of your laptop, as I did and it took me about 5 minutes to get it down. That video alone changed my diving experiences forever and dropping down to depth is a breeze. I can now enjoy diving with my sister and two daughters. If you or anyone is having trouble clearing your ears I highly recommend checking out Adam's video. Oh and if you don't feel comfortable diving deep... then don't, it's no big deal. Wait until your comfortable with your newly developing skills with scuba. Once you're comfortable, you will know it, then go on down to the next atmosphere. Just mind your tank PSI and your watch and everything will be fine.

Congratulations Matt on over-coming your fears. As a retired PADI Instructor your concerns are very real. After around 5,000 some dives ironically my greatest fear is that of cold water. It just isn’t enjoyable unless I stay warm. Cheers Matt and Amy. It’s a whole new world to discover!

Nice! Sailing around the world is pretty brave in itself. Nice job sticking with the scuba.

Always spend the first few minutes and the last few minutes practicing your buoyancy. Don’t rush through the courses. Courses won’t make you a good diver. The more dives you will. Good luck in your ventures.

Congratulations on taking the plunge (literally!) into scuba diving. I am claustrophobic and understand the fear of being under the water, so kudos to Matt for overcoming that natural resistance to being in an alien environment. Being able to film your prolonged time under the water will add a new dimension to your already excellent video production. If there were RU-vid awards you would win all the gold medals!

I’ve loved the water all my life. Even as a child I had no fear of it. I would hyperventilate and just lay on the bottom of a pool watching divers, or see how many lengths I could swim under water without coming up. My favorite swimming hole was where the river was pinched between two boulders and cascaded about 8 feet into a deep sandy pool. I’d get in above the fall, and let the current suck me through and drive me to the bottom rolling and tumbling in a cascade of caressing bubbles, finally spitting me to the surface... It’s off limits now... somebody drowned there. I swam far out beyond the breakers in the ocean... After getting caught in a rip and carried out at an amazing rate, I panicked. I saw the face of death, and knew real fear for the first time. Nobody was around that day. I was young.... about 16, and rescue was not remotely possible. I confronted death that day and accepted that it might be my fate, and a calmness descended over me. Logic kicked in, and I realized that there had to be an equal and opposite current, and an eye of calm between.... So I swam south. Relaxed and taking it easy as I knew I had to if I were to survive. I swam miles that day. The return current was opposite, but not equal.....I’m still here nearly 50 years on. It was a life and death situation and I knew it. I gratefully pulled myself out on the beach with rubbery legs many hours later. I’d conquered fear that day. I’v never feared death, or succumbed to panic since. I’ve ridden rips many times since.... fear and panic kill, calm and confidence are life. Good for you! Facing and overcoming fear is powerful.... empowering.

It take a big man to admit that he was scared and you sure don't have anything to be ashamed of. I went through a similar experience in Hawaii and I've never been able to try scuba again. I'm fine knowing my limits and I don't ever want to feel the way I did when I couldn't breathe and thought I was about to die. Good job overcoming your fear but don't be ashamed when you reach your limits.

Thanks for this vid guys. As avid followers of your channel, my partner and I look forward to each vid release from you. For Matt, I completely relate to what you experienced and am very impressed with how you dealt with your fears. Fear is a natural instinct to aid survival. Uncontrolled, it has the opposite effect. The best way to deal with it is to 'get back on the horse' as soon as possible in a less stressful situation than what triggered the fear and then work back to the original conditions whilst reflecting carefully on each step. The progression may not be linear, but by making that first hard step to go back to the activity (diving in this case), you are also creating transferrable experiences that will help you deal with other stressful unrelated situations. One of my great passions for decades has been paragliding, I stepped away from it for a while and lost my nerve as well as motivation to fly, you have just reinspired me to get back into it! Keep up the great vids, in my opinion you two have the best sailing channel on RU-vid.

Hi There. I first tried Scuba diving when i was 28 and living in the Bahamas for a year. Unlike most dive outfits in the US at the time they would put you in the pool in the Morning and if you did ok and learned the basics you would be in the ocean in the afternoon. I got Hooked right away and got certified. Your fears are normal you are underwater for goodness sake. But if you really do not feel comfortable i respect that its not for everyone and go with your gut. Cheers mate.

Good on ya mate . That smile when you surfaced was so cool.

Yuppie .. finally you both doing scuba diving and seeing you both in the water was like wow ....❤️❤️❤️❤️

What a wonderful video. You both worked together to overcome your fears which really reminded me of agrophobia. You did well to go back and Marco was amazing with those exercises. We loved the vertical fish! What are they? Your videos are truly special. Thank you.🌬⛵⚓😎🦘🙏

That was beautiful Matt, thank you for sharing! I am so happy that you were able to try it again and overcome your fear. We are looking so forward to seeing footage of your future dives💖

Thank you for sharing, brave of you// Pierre (Sweden)

You kept at it. Way to go. You two got some great footage.

Such magnificent story telling. Thank you so much for sharing. I will remember this in my future when I learn to dive.

Awesome video. I have trouble equalising past 5 metres. I now have a 12v battery hooker compressor, lets me scrub the bottom of the boat left on deck or floats along with me to dive less than 8 metres for abalone and lobster and I don't need a BC. Best bit of kit I've ever purchased.

Well, that was a complete turn of events! I thought everything would change and that would be the end of this water-world lifestyle. So glad it worked out for the better! I tried to get as qualified in SCUBA as I could before I set out sailing back in 1987. I added a salvage dive and a deep water dive to the itinerary. Both were done off the NC coast in 65' and 115' respectfully. The water was "clear enough". We dove on a wreck and brought up a handful of items, each getting progressively larger and heavier and had to raise one larger object as a team sharing our inflatable bags to float it to the surface. The deep dive was on a sunken German sub from WW2, and was just to explore and take pictures as we were not allowed to enter for obvious reasons. It was on this dive that we had a problem with one of the students. He had claimed in the classroom work that he was experienced. Once we got into the water he was frightened and never relaxed. He would breathe like he was running a race. We had a dozen students and everyone couldn't be monitored closely all the time. After about 10 minutes of a leisurely exploration of the hull, I felt a pull on my tank and turned to find him signaling me that he was out of air. He was not the one I was "buddied" up with. I gave him my 'octopus' mouthpiece and took him over to the instructor to ensure he was aware of the problem. He took over and asked me to get everyone else back up to the boat so he wouldn't have to worry about any one else but the one in trouble. Everyone else was rounded up and we slowly rose to the surface and reboarded the boat. I jumped back into the water to help the instructor whose double tanks were still good but the troubled diver had further panicked on the ascent and gulped in a LOT of seawater and was throwing up and thrashing in a panic on the surface. His lips were bluish in color and his face was very pale. The instructor was already applying mouth to mouth in the water. We got him back in the boat and he had already stopped breathing and lost consciousness. The instructor restored his breathing and we headed back in. The USCG sent a boat out to retrieve him and get him to the hospital to be evaluated. It was pretty obvious he was uncomfortable in the water for some reason and was in constant fear causing him to be unable to relax and slow his breathing. He had endangered himself and others on this dive by not confronting this issue with the instructor and resolving it if it could be before hand. So you have done exactly the right thing and it has paid off in safety and enjoyment.

Wow. Superb account, and I hope your confidence continues to grow, Matt, and you can genuinely enjoy the dives ahead without having to keep that fear-layer on a leash all the time. Well done, and thank you for your honesty, and especially for being able to talk about it. I love sea swimming, but I'm not a strong swimmer and get to panic stations if there's anything near me in the water - kick out and thrash for the shore - so I'm pretty certain I could not do what you're doing, and my only experience of scuba is going to be what you show us; so thank you again.

I'm so glad you gave it another chance Matt! Looking forward to some amazing under the water video! Love you guys!

Amazing. Well done. And well done to Marco for helping you to deal with the problem. A good teacher is worth his weight in gold!

Next to learning how to fly, scuba diving is the greatest experience I have ever had. Once you are competent and comfortable with it you can literally go to sleep on the bottom. I once read a NavySeal’s explanation that he had more than 20,000 hours underwater, days on end. Anything you can do on land, can be done underwater . Learn, be safe, and enjoy !

Good for you to face this and to try again. Thanks for sharing. Shows us that things can be overcome. Fantastic.

Fantastic storytelling in this video. Enjoy the diving!

Well done Matt for facing the fear and being brave enough to admit it - and well done Amy for supporting and encouraging Matt the way you did. Thank you for sharing all of that emotional roller coaster. I'm a PADI Dive Master and for me, SCUBA and being underwater is like being in a state of bliss but I've also seen a lot of students face what you did. I would feel bad if you had left it at the first dive. You've found a good instructor and I wish you many more wonderful dive adventures.

👍🏼for your honesty. Thank you

Bravo Matt! This was a surprisingly touching episode. Your vulnerability and honesty were BRAVE of you to share. So glad you gave it another try.

Scuba diving is a life changing experience, there is nothing like it. Watching my friend try to equalize his suit on the first day was so hilarious that I wanted to laugh underwater. Wasted a lot of air. But after that it was amazing, the colours, the fish, the corals, Breathtaking. Seeing it on camera doesn't do it justice.

Another great video, thank you, really admired Matt being honest and open about his experience.

Incredible story! Thanks for sharing.

Brings back fond memories of when I started to dive. Once you understand the buoyancy, the next hardest thing in diving is a bit of maths! 👍

Oh wow!!!! What a great video! Fear, excitement, courage, beauty. All in one show!!! Can’t wait to see your underwater footages. Well done for embracing fear the way you did. That is what courage is all about. 👍👍👍 Reminds me when I did my first skydive. I became a skydive cameraman after conquering the fear. 😊😊

Very vulnerable and real. I to have had a horrible scuba experience. I've never been back, but after seeing you go back, I'll try again. Thanks for taking me along.

If you couldn't stay down, you needed more lead on your belt. I also struggle with equalization. I take a decongestant the morning of, then try to regulate before you even feel the "squeeze". If you do feel the squeeze, ascend until you can't feel it, then equalize. Glad you got over the mental hurdle! Scuba diving is magical.

Beautiful video video!!! Thanks

What a wonderful, honest, heartwarming story. Bravo Zulu to Matt for facing and conquering his fears. Keep the videos coming. From Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Well done on facing those fears and overcoming them. Great video

I really enjoyed this episode! I have a fear of the water but I race my sailboat! Well done Amy and Matt. Amy for helping Matt face his fear and Matt for facing it! An inspiration, indeed.

What an awesome achievement! Thanks for sharing guys

As the saying goes, courage isn't a lack of fear, but facing your fear. Absolutely amazing job, with the honesty and facing your fear. So much respect from me, not that it matters, but great job!

Well done. Awesome episode, great story telling and openness to share your fears and struggles and managed to overcome them. Hugs from NZ

Great video guys, well done Matt for sharing your fears and then pushing through them. Amy is a natural underwater. Really enjoyed the video. Cheers

Fantastic video ! A great lesson of not being afraid to push the limits! Well done!

I was lucky to have a great instructor. The first thing we did was control level swimming. It sounds like you didn't have enough weight. I hope you try again with a more experienced school. It would really make a difference to go to a PADI school for 5 days. Diving for 5 days with the same instructor is fantastic.

Wow what an inspiring video of facing your fears!

Bravo Matt! Well done for subduing your fears, however rational they seem at the time and well done Marco, for your skills and abilities (And your calm professional and non-judgemental demeanour) in helping Matt overcome his fears of buoyancy control (Or rather lack thereof!)..... May you both share a lifetime of enjoyment of your new passion and we hope to reap the vicarious rewards! Thanks for posting another great episode!

Great stuff. Well done.

Well done mate.

What a way to face your fears! Good job buddy!!

Great story telling as always. Thanks or sharing.

Boyancy control is the hardest thing to master, a weight belt properly weighted helps. DO the PADI Open water Course you will get all the skills you need, being scared is ok a little fear will keep you safe. I learnt and taught in Brighton UK where vis is on a good day five meters.

Thanks for sharing this with us

Terrific video!! Well done on facing your fears!!

Wow, Marco is one awesome man. And well done on facing your fears. Beautiful video guys.

Well done fella. Really brave of you.

What a great guy Marco for giving you a second chance super well done Matt and Amy joyful and beautiful to watch

Brilliant! Relax and go forward your own fear, on better self controled and confident side; what a great lesson!

Learning to overcome rational fear is what makes human beings advance in this world. That you could admit these fears and overcome them is testament to you and your teacher.