OK, maybe I was newbin it too. I saw the map was on loials server again so I joined and tested getting out of the water again. In pregame mode it's actually not that hard to get out of the water if you know how, but it's certainly not noob friendly. To get out I had to quickly press the jump, crouch and angle up out of the water buttons. So I don't remember it always being quite so tough to get out but I could be wrong.