29 replies to this topic

[scubaski]

Well, it finally happened. My 1st mistake at dive # 499 !!

Diving with the LDS group in Utila, we had a afternoon shore dive hybrid planned. The dive boat needed to make a afternoon run to a nearby caye and would drop us off from the dive platform a couple hundred yards up current and we would make a traditional shore exit. Well I setup my gear to the tank at my usual stop on the boat, attach the reg and turn on the tank valve and knew instantly that I had a bad tank valve, the knob just spun and wobbled around. Grabbed a new tank from the dock just as we cast off. As I setup my gear I'm 4 minutes behind everyone else for a 3 minute boat ride. Captain stops motor and everyone begins to giant stride, I arm into my kit and flip flop myself to the platform and do a reverse entry waiting for the mate to hand down my camera. I was a little low in the water column and went to grab the inflator to shoot a little air into the bladder and knew instantly that I forgot to attach the low pressure hose to the inflator. Well know big deal, 2 fin kicks and I'm back at the ladder and attach the inflator and off I go. My Mistake, probably would not have happened if 1st tank valve worked right. One of the best house reefs I've seen. Dive # 500 went smoothly, Yea Baby!!!

So what mistakes have you made while diving??? We all can learn from one another.

Stan

[ArtRunScuba]

I believe I have made at least one mistake on every trip I have taken and that includes 584 dives and 17 liveaboards all over the world. However, likely the biggest screw up was at Cocos Island in August 2003 on the Okeanos Aggressor. There were only six divers on the boat because there had been a trip cancellation at the last minute and I had lucked into a price approximately 65 % off the regular price. But not having dove since late 1999 in the Socorros Islands, I was not fully ready for one of the most difficult dives, Alcyon, which was the first dive of the second day. The plan was to go down the line from the panga (only Alcyon and one other site had a line down) to 75 feet and jump over to the big rock, hook in and hold on, and watch the hammerheads. I was assigned a Navy Seal as my dive buddy, and when I left the line, he quickly disappeared, and before I knew it, my depth was 140 feet and I saw no one. There were 5 foot waves at the surface, wind, rain, and fog, and the panga was 45 minutes from the mother ship. The Aggressor had lost two divers several months earlier, and I envisioned a long current ride with sharks back to Puntarenas which was a 30 hour boat ride away. Ugh! Fortunately, when I surfaced after a slightly accelerated ascent, the panga driver saw my orange safety sausage even though he was almost a mile away, and divers were not expected to surface for another 30 minutes. When everyone surfaced, the Captain said he had wondered where I had gone! Now I always go on tune up trips before a trip requiring advanced diving. This year, I did a week on a liveaboard in the Bahamas three weeks before going to the Galapagos and the excitement of Darwin and Wolf.

[WreckWench]

Great thread Stan and even more importantly that you were able to work everything out.

Usually it helps to have a separate thread per learning incident and to keep each one discussing the ins and outs of the 'opportunity' highlighted in each thread.

We can leave it all as one big thread or make smaller threads of the discussions that ensue.

[Moose]

Well, it finally happened. My 1st mistake at dive # 499 !!

Diving with the LDS group in Utila, we had a afternoon shore dive hybrid planned. The dive boat needed to make a afternoon run to a nearby caye and would drop us off from the dive platform a couple hundred yards up current and we would make a traditional shore exit. Well I setup my gear to the tank at my usual stop on the boat, attach the reg and turn on the tank valve and knew instantly that I had a bad tank valve, the knob just spun and wobbled around. Grabbed a new tank from the dock just as we cast off. As I setup my gear I'm 4 minutes behind everyone else for a 3 minute boat ride. Captain stops motor and everyone begins to giant stride, I arm into my kit and flip flop myself to the platform and do a reverse entry waiting for the mate to hand down my camera. I was a little low in the water column and went to grab the inflator to shoot a little air into the bladder and knew instantly that I forgot to attach the low pressure hose to the inflator. Well know big deal, 2 fin kicks and I'm back at the ladder and attach the inflator and off I go. My Mistake, probably would not have happened if 1st tank valve worked right. One of the best house reefs I've seen. Dive # 500 went smoothly, Yea Baby!!!

So what mistakes have you made while diving??? We all can learn from one another.

Stan

My biggest mistake was made before I ever did my first dive. It was getting involved in diving in the first place!!!! This damn sport has been consuming my life for longer than I care to remember. It’s cost me countless thousands of dollars over the years.

I just think of how much I could have done with my life if I spent my underwater time on a constructive pursuit. Maybe learning sign language or something!


Then, my next big diving mistake…

Finding this site! That’s right, this site is full of people that have the same passion as me and just keep feeding my underwater appetite! You are all a bunch of enablers!

[Racer184]

My biggest dive mistake was not doing it SOONER !

Diving is a heck of a lot cheaper than motorcycle racing.

Maybe learning sign language or something!

I am doing that now !

[Capn Jack]

A few of my all-time favorites that have become part of my instructional routine

- Not double-checking my air-on by watching my SPG* as I took a breath during gear up (this left me OOA at about 40' and descending) fortunately - the next mistake earlier in my life saved me
- Not being able to reach my tank valve by having by gear rigged too low to compensate for trim issues - AND an early experience of the previous, but that first time, I was still on the surface... just embarrasing
- Not resetting my j-valve (hopefully that won't happen again) but yes, you can ascend from 90 feet on a partial lungful, and you get another breath from an empty tank at about 40 feet on the way up
- Going in without my fins (don't ask why - still don't know how I missed that one - now it's always "two up (reg mask) - two down (fins)" as the final check.
- Diving with a really bad hangover - probably still a high blood-alcohol - but you can, in fact, puke thru your reg
- Not briefing with an insta-buddy about surfacing after 1 minute of separation in low vis (isn't that standard ?) really thought I'd lost this dude for about 20 minutes until I saw him climb the ladder on the boat - leaving me a long swim
- Not clipping a very valuable piece of gear to my harness - bought a cheapo plastic clip that didn't quite connect to my d-ring

* Corrected thanks to Peter - now perhaps he understands the relationship between alcohol and making mistakes

Edited by Capn Jack, 01 December 2009 - 07:16 PM.

[uwfan]

I'll add my 2 psi of mistakes...

Not removing the bungee from the tank before putting my regs on the tank...
Getting sloppy and thinking the dive crew attached my gear to my tank...only to discover the tank straps weren't cinched down to the tank...
Not turning my air on before I slipped on my back plate...

I've yet to jump in without fins, but I've seen it happen and I'm sure my time will come
If I ever get lasik I might also jump in without my mask...but anyone who has been on a boat with me knows I'm least likely to make that mistake, my mask is pretty much part of me once I've done the first dive... and once my glasses are tucked away I don't do much until the mask is in place, replacing the glasses! LOL!

[peterbj7]

Sorry to be pedantic, but so as not to confuse any newcomers here

A few of my all-time favorites that have become part of my instructional routine

- Not double-checking my air-on by watching my depth gauge (you mean SPG) as I took a breath during gear up (this left me OOA at about 40' and descending) fortunately - the next mistake earlier in my life saved me
- Not being able to reach my tank valve by having by gear rigged too low to compensate for trim issues - AND an early experience of the previous, but that first time, I was still on the surface... just embarrasing
- Not resetting my j-valve (hopefully that won't happen again) but yes, you can ascend from 90 feet on a partial lungful, and you get another breath from an empty tank at about 40 feet on the way up
- Going in without my fins (don't ask why - still don't know how I missed that one - now it's always "two up (reg mask) - two down (fins)" as the final check.
- Diving with a really bad hangover - probably still a high blood-alcohol - but you can, in fact, puke thru your reg
- Not briefing with an insta-buddy about surfacing after 1 minute of separation in low vis (isn't that standard ?) really thought I'd lost this dude for about 20 minutes until I saw him climb the ladder on the boat - leaving me a long swim
- Not clipping a very valuable piece of gear to my harness - bought a cheapo plastic clip that didn't quite connect to my d-ring

My own mistakes? Way too numerous to list here, but they include jumping in with air off, without fins, without weights, without specific gear (like no camera for a photography dive), and (dry suit dives) with my inflator hose either completely disconnected, or pushed on not quite far enough so it popped off on the way down. Or my most memorable, getting myself inverted on an early drysuit dive and trying to fin back down. And of course I've lost count of the times my mask has fogged up because I didn't do a good enough job before I entered the water.

I'll remember about being able to puke through the reg if the occasion ever arises

[Landlocked Dive Nut]

but you can, in fact, puke thru your reg

Yes, indeed you can, and as often as you need to! Love my reg for being able to deal with it, and I keep it well cleaned & serviced in return.

Heidi, I share your habit of putting on the reg before removing the bungee.....Usually happens at least once on every trip. Usually happens when switching tanks on a bumpy boat ride, or when I'm yakking it up with the person next to me......

[damselfish]

Not having enough weight for first time in the water with a new 5 mm and struggling to stay down for my 3 min safety stop at 15 ft. I will stop at 20ft for my 3 min stop and have more weight.
- D

[timalso]

I once drove all the way out to the quarry for mandatory rescue training with the dive shop got all geared up and walked into the water and was listening to a briefing when I noticed that one of the other staff members was nodding and looking towards my feet. I did not get at first, but realized that I did not have any fins on and at that very moment remembered that I left them at home! How embarrassing, I had to borrow a pair from our Course Director. Also on every trip I go on I loose count of the times I try to get out of my seat all geared up, only to get pulled back into my seat by the bungee cord I forgot to remove. Tim

[bluefins]

Trying to dive in too big a wetsuit. It was pretty frustrating at the time ...I couldn't even descend. Looking back on it,
it had to pretty hysterical...I'm sure I looked like a giant bobber

A dangerous mistake is entering the water and forgetting to inflate my bcd...thank goodness the water wasn't that deep.

Edited by bluefins, 06 January 2010 - 07:57 PM.

[Jerrymxz]

On a trip this year the guy in front of me stepped off with out his fins and I was 1 second late from stopping him. Once he surfaced and I got him to give me the ok I got his fins and took them to him. The whole time I'm thinking I'll never do that. YEA RIGHT! That lasted less then 24 hours!!

I was sitting in my rig ready to live boat the entry on our second dive when the dive master calls GO! So I stood up checked my air and stepped off the boat. It is amazing how long that second is while you stare at your booty with out a fin on it suspended in mid air after you stepped off the boat.

That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

[Bubble2Bubble]

Well last year on a SD trip in S.Fl I jumped in a ripping current out at sea with No Fins On!.. And I dont know how many times I have dove in without my weight belt... this just blows my mind

[Parrotman]

Probably a common mistake but in this case it was a big deal for me.

We were about to do a drift dive and the dive master said " first one up and the whole group comes up" No exceptions. We were diving a pretty good current and there was no way he was going to let the group get separated by a lot. So I jump in the water, kick down a ways and realize that I do not have my weight belt on. There was no way that I was going to be the first one to the surface so I kicked down to the bottom and picked up a large rock. Worked just fine as a weight. I kept an eye on the group so that with the first diver to the surface I could drop the rock and go up.... worked out just fine except for the fact that when I dropped the rock I almost brained the dive master who was below me and coming up from the rear.

Last dive I ever did with out a weight integrated BC.