The hardest part AFTER you find the hole is staying under the water. Get someone you trust to hold your legs to help you stay down long enough to do about above fix-cut the patch with rounded edges. You will want two patches. One just over the hole then one slightly bigger over the first one. I also wear a diving mask to help me see things clearer.
This. You want a helper in general, for a number of reasons.
If I may regale you with my underwater patching tale, it may be helpful. Firstly, I correctly realized I wanted something to help hold me down. I decided to put a large landscape brick in a backpack, to act as a weight. Somewhat ironic, as a falling landscape brick had punctured the hole in the first place, but that's besides the point. Putting the backpack on, I sat on the top of the pool ladder and put on a diving mask and some disposable gloves (so I wasn't touching the liquid glue). I then took the patch I had cut, opened the glue and smeared it over the patch. I then fumbled to get the cap back on the bottle, only to start panicing when the patch started turning white from the glue and I realized I needed to get that patch on
now. I folded it in half and rushed over the the hole...which I couldn't find! After a bit of searching I finally found it and dove beneath the water to put the patch on, only to find that the air trapped in the backpack countered the weight of the brick and was
pulling me up instead of helping me down. I shrugged out of the backpack and blew the air out of my lungs so I'd sink, and slapped the patch on, but because I had to exhale to stay down I couldn't stay down long. So I had to go up and down a few times to press the patch on and make sure it was secure. After all this, it seems the patch has held, though one corner got rolled over and stuck. I'm rather lucky it stayed at all, given the sequence of events that delayed the patch. Not to mention the whole diving and breath holding isn't smart to do by yourself, there's a thing called shallow water blackout that comes from extended breath holding. 0 out of 10, do not recommend.
I'd recommend:
- Get in the pool along with a helper.
- Put on a diving mask and some disposable gloves.
- Position yourself and your helper directly over the hole, so you know where it is once the glue is on the patch.
- Apply the glue, hand the tube to your helper (or have the helper apply the glue), fold the patch.
- Have your helper hold you down as you dive and apply the patch.
With the helper, it should go much smoother and safer than my patching attempt. The actual patching is pretty easy, it's the prep work and helper that will make all the difference.