Jump to content

  • These forums are for "after booking" trip communications, socializing, and/or trip questions ONLY.
  • You will NOT be able to book a trip, buy add-ons, or manage your trip by logging in here. Please login HERE to do any of those things.

Photo

Gear mistakes to learn from


  • Please log in to reply
4 replies to this topic

#1 Dive_Girl

Dive_Girl

    I need to get a life

  • Member
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • 5,513 posts
  • Location:Portland, OR/Vancouver, WA USA
  • Gender:Female
  • Cert Level:PADI Course Director, EFR Instructor Trainer, DAN DEMP Instructor, rec-Trimix & Normoxic
  • Logged Dives:too many logged, too many not logged...:)

Posted 28 November 2006 - 08:35 PM

So I was chatting away with a friend of mine (Janna - a brand new SD member) the day before Thanksgiving when in mid-sentence there was instantaneous static. I thought our call had been dropped although the static was a new one of the cell phone...Turns our Janna was reaching into a rinse tub to grab her regs while talking to me when *KERPLUNK* there went the cell phone. Tried as she might to blow dry the phone and all - it was toast.

For me, the first dumb maneuver I can recall was stowing a box of new contacts in with my mask in my plastic mask box. The ink from the cardboard box the contacts came in had a caustic reaction with the silicone of my mask skirt. Upon arrival to Bimini and pulling the mask out, my mask skirt started to crumble. It wouldn't seal after that and I had to use an ill fitting rental for my whole trip! Lesson learned? Don't stow anything odd with my mask.

So although we've previously posted and shared stories of gear items we've offered up to the Dive Gods while on dives, I'm curious what gear, diving or other, you have inadvertently ruined while not on a dive?

Share your lessons learned to help others avoid the same mistake/misfortune! :cheerleader:
It's Winter time - you know you're a diver when you're scraping ice off your windshield INSIDE your vehicle...!

Once in a while, it is good to step back, take a breath, and remember to be humble. You'll never know it all - ScubaDadMiami. If you aren't afraid of dying, there is nothing you can't achieve - Lao-tzu. One dog barks at something, the rest bark at him - Chinese Proverb.

#2 Capn Jack

Capn Jack

    I spend too much time on line

  • Professional
  • PipPipPipPipPipPip
  • 1,994 posts
  • Location:DFW
  • Gender:Male
  • Board Status:Working to fund the next trip
  • Cert Level:YMCA in 65, dove till 79, returned in 2002... now will work for air and/or beer as a DM
  • Logged Dives:not enough

Posted 28 November 2006 - 09:28 PM

A couple of years back, my favorite DM buddy gave me a ration of grief about how much time I spent on the dock sorting out the things in my mesh dive bag that I didn't want to chuck into the rinse tank. Time that could be better spent sucking down beer in the little bar conveniently located next to the dive op.

So... I bought myself a dry bag for all the little things that don't agree with water - film, computer instruction book, log book, wallet, playing cards, dry t-shirt, fancy sunglass case, calculator, batteries etc.

Showing off, I was the first off the boat, and tossed my whole mesh bag, which now contained my new dry bag, into the rinse tub. Smiling at how clever I was, until I remembered I had not actually sealed up the dry bag.

New wallet - $20
New film - $15
New batteries - $12
New calculator - $18
etc....

humbled diver - priceless

Lesson - every time I open my dry bag, I close it immediately
No aquarium, no tank in a marine land, however spacious it may be, can begin to duplicate the conditions of the sea. And no dolphin who inhabits one of those aquariums or one of those marine lands can be considered normal.
Jacques Yves Cousteau

#3 ScubaDadMiami

ScubaDadMiami

    I spend too much time on line

  • Member
  • PipPipPipPipPipPip
  • 2,022 posts
  • Location:Miami Beach, Florida
  • Gender:Male
  • Cert Level:Course Director; CCR Instructor
  • Logged Dives:2000+

Posted 28 November 2006 - 09:39 PM

In the days when cell phones were the size of lunch boxes, I did something similar to DG's friend. I left the phone in my boat while washing it down, thinking that the compartment would keep it dry. That was the end of that phone.
"The most important thing is not to stop questioning." Albert Einstein

"For the diligent diver, closed circuit rebreathers are actually safer than open circuit scuba." Tom Mount

#4 drbill

drbill

    I spend too much time on line

  • SD Partners
  • PipPipPipPipPipPip
  • 4,486 posts
  • Location:10-200 feet under, Santa Catalina Island
  • Gender:Male
  • Cert Level:Rescue
  • Logged Dives:who's counting, definitely four digits

Posted 29 November 2006 - 10:51 AM

Well, I don't use cell phones so my dumb mistakes haven't involved them. Usually my dumb mistakes revolve around computers... or women! For example, the morning I'd spent editing a new episode of my cable TV show and then turned the system off without saving the entire morning's changes.

#5 jextract

jextract

    I spend too much time on line

  • Member
  • PipPipPipPipPipPip
  • 4,210 posts
  • Location:Los Angeles, CA
  • Gender:Male
  • Cert Level:Instructor, Divemaster, Nitrox, Rescue, Wreck, ...
  • Logged Dives:120ish

Posted 29 November 2006 - 12:56 PM

Nicolle, that's a pretty funny story. My best friend Phillip just told me last night that he's been out of touch because he dropped his cellphone in a toilet on a job (he's a professional touring sound engineer).
"Because I accept the definition, does not mean I accept the defined." -- ScubaHawk
"Love is blind but lust likes lacy panties" -- SanDiegoCarol
"If you're gonna be dumb, you'd better be tough." -- Phillip Manor
"If I know the answer I'll tell you the answer, and if I don't I'll just respond cleverly." -- Donald Rumsfeld




0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users