8 replies to this topic

[shadragon]

This weekend I was on a boat dive with my usual operator of choice. We had a heavy contingent of newbie divers and as such I try to get in the water ASAP to avoid the rush. This time I had to stop and assist my insta-buddy with his BCD straps and by the time I was done I was behind a group entering the water. The last diver (a tourist) tried a giant stride, but instead short stepped into the water and face planted. A safety sausage, camera and snorkel went floating toward the horizon. I knew the sausage and snorkel were shop gear and as I like my local dive op I decided to recover them.

I explained to my buddy what I intended to do and told him I would meet him at the mooring line. When it was my turn to enter I did a surface swim and recovered the items quickly, but as there was a significant surface current it took a lot of hard kicking to get back. By the time I got to the swim platform I was winded and found the face plant diver had gone down. I handed up the gear to the appreciative deck DM and descended down the mooring line with my buddy, but the exertion of the swim had me breathing hard. This made me go through my air quickly and I only had a 25 minute dive instead of a 45-50 min expected profile as a result.

We got back to the boat before the face planter returned and when the camera was given back by the crew there was just a disinterested grunt instead of a thank you.

Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Any other stories of insecure gear out there?

[Diver Ed]

I paired up with divers at Nubble Light in Maine a number of years ago. The three of us started surface swimming out towards the lighthouse, when one of the others said it was too hard to surface swim, and he wanted to decend. We all did. We got to the bottom, and he was gone. The two of us surfaced again to look for him, and found him floundering on the surface with a lot of leg cramps. I offered to tow him back to shore. He got on his back, I placed my camera on his chest, grabbed his tank valve, and started back toward shore. After a couple minutes, he rolled over, dropping my camera in about 35 feet of water, with limited vis and some current, and pushed me away saying he was fine. I got my mask back on, dumped the air from my BC, replaced my reg, and spent about a half hour doing a search among the sea weed on the bottom, looking for my camera. I had about 4 foot of vis, and was amazed to have found it. I was ready to kill this guy even before he started arguing with me about the fact that he was fine, and didnt need any help when he was in the water. I know that warm and fuzzy feeling very well. Ed

This weekend I was on a boat dive with my usual operator of choice. We had a heavy contingent of newbie divers and as such I try to get in the water ASAP to avoid the rush. This time I had to stop and assist my insta-buddy with his BCD straps and by the time I was done I was behind a group entering the water. The last diver (a tourist) tried a giant stride, but instead short stepped into the water and face planted. A safety sausage, camera and snorkel went floating toward the horizon. I knew the sausage and snorkel were shop gear and as I like my local dive op I decided to recover them.

I explained to my buddy what I intended to do and told him I would meet him at the mooring line. When it was my turn to enter I did a surface swim and recovered the items quickly, but as there was a significant surface current it took a lot of hard kicking to get back. By the time I got to the swim platform I was winded and found the face plant diver had gone down. I handed up the gear to the appreciative deck DM and descended down the mooring line with my buddy, but the exertion of the swim had me breathing hard. This made me go through my air quickly and I only had a 25 minute dive instead of a 45-50 min expected profile as a result.

We got back to the boat before the face planter returned and when the camera was given back by the crew there was just a disinterested grunt instead of a thank you.

Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Any other stories of insecure gear out there?

[WreckWench]

Fortunately for me all of my efforts to help divers with lost, dropped gear etc have always been returned with gratitude. I think so many new divers are so new they do not realize how unaware they really are and how RARE this kind of help is. And not to open a can of worms about training...it is not usually in their training to be aware as much as they need to be.

I hope there are not too many others who have had experiences such as Simon and Ed. And if you have been one of the divers who were 'clueless' and ended up being ungrateful (or seeming that way) what does it take to reverse this course?

I'm sure just discussing it on a site like this helps tremendously...what else helps?

[uwfan]

I do recall swimming behind a dive buddy when said buddy had a beanie fall off... won't say who, but it felt good to snag the beanie as it floated toward me and repay some earlier kindnesses by handing the beanie back to the owner.

[hambergler]

Fortunately for me all of my efforts to help divers with lost, dropped gear etc have always been returned with gratitude. I think so many new divers are so new they do not realize how unaware they really are and how RARE this kind of help is. And not to open a can of worms about training...it is not usually in their training to be aware as much as they need to be.

I hope there are not too many others who have had experiences such as Simon and Ed. And if you have been one of the divers who were 'clueless' and ended up being ungrateful (or seeming that way) what does it take to reverse this course?

I'm sure just discussing it on a site like this helps tremendously...what else helps?

Not lost gear, but I was once buddied with an extremely smokin' hot, but incompetent,diver on a two tank dive on the Florida gold coast. She would've killed herself on the dive had I not been there (basic bouyancy, air management, buddy awareness, you name it). The boat DM actually apologized to me once we got back on the boat for buddying me with her, as he had suspected her and observed us during the entire dive from his vantage point over the wrecks (Tracy and Scutty, I think). After the dive she actually questioned a basic tenent of diving knowledge to him on the boat, after another diver commented to her on her obvious incompetence. The boat DM was her buddy during the second tank. She never expressed any sort of appreciation. It was obvious to all on board that she wasn't a rocket scientist, and obtained her C-card under, shall we say, questionable circumstances.

[peterbj7]

I worked with a British/Australian instructor in England when I was training to be a DM (an internship lasting 12-15 months). On one awful dive with 6 students the visibility was so poor I had to swim backwards and forwards the entire dive, as I couldn't see more than 3 divers at one time. After we had completed some skills and were starting what PADI euphemistically call a "swim for pleasure" I took up the end, from where I could just see the second from last in line. When we next stopped we had lost one of the divers, the second one behind the instructor.....

Anyway, as we were leaving our skills area on top of a shallow wreck I dimly saw the instructor reach down to something before he started swimming off. After we had surfaced we climbed aboard our RIB. Before we set off back to shore, another small dive boat came close and a guy shouted something that I couldn't hear. I did hear our instructor call back "no". The other boat docked close to where we did, and we all mixed and socialised a bit, during which time I discovered that one of them (a student) had lost a dive watch that he had had clipped to his BC.

Later that evening over a pint our instructor pulled a Citizen Aqualand out of his pocket and showed it to me. Said he had found it on the wreck. I asked if it was the watch the other guy had lost and he said "yes", but the fellow deserved to lose it as he shouldn't have had it clipped to his BC. By then the other group had left and I had no idea who they were.

I never went out with that instructor again. Problem was, his father owned the dive centre.

[pmarie]

I just got back from a wonderful trip and on the last day and last dive trip I ran into some diver/s that I am hoping I do not cross paths with again....well, unless they have figured some things out.

They were late arrivals, the husband proceeded to set up the wifes gear on the tank immediately next to mine-no gap. I rolled with it, had someone switch my tanks around. Both husband and wife were using 18+ pounds of lead and I quietly informed him that where we were going could get a little rough and we had had some waves hit us pretty hard and maybe wait until we get to the site before placing the weight in BC. He informed me he is a professional-okay. Teaching and protocols can be different, I have always been instructed to hold off putting your lead in especially if the boat ride is 30 minutes or longer. The wife sat on my reg......cost me air. I let them get in the water before me and therefore when I came up they were already back on board. The husband had set his wifes gear up on MY second tank! I spoke to the DM and we solved the problem with me just switching my gear onto another tank and removing the other tank...did I mention the boat was full????? I was in the middle of the boat. Why is this important you ask???? Cause between dives the wife got sick....all over my gear under the seat that she moved into......and did not move to the back of the boat, or downwind, and continued to be sick three more times.

I did get an apology...."Sorry, it's just water." I'll take it.........

[Starfish Sandy]

Dan was going out on a boat in Long Island, boat leaves dock at 6 a.m. sharp..........not island time. Every one BUT one was there at 5:30 a.m. setting up their gear - Johnny come lately came rushing on board - with DOUBLES - sat them on the bench where Dan was gearing up - and turned to do something and they fell off and landed on top of Dan's foot. They thought Dan's foot was broken - someone helped him hobble back to his vehicle, lugged his gear for him and his dry suit. Foot xrayed and just severely bruised and needed a little physical therapy - The man did apologize at the time - the boat went out..........whoever carried Dan's items had mistakenly (I hope) switched dry suit bags.........Dan had the other guys and Dan's was on the boat with Johnny come lately.......so neither one got to dive that day!! He did bring the suit to Dan with a 6 pack of beer -

Edited by Starfish Sandy, 18 May 2010 - 04:43 PM.

[scubajunkie6]

the wife got sick....all over my gear under the seat that she moved into......and did not move to the back of the boat, or downwind, and continued to be sick three more times.

OMGosh! What a story (the whole story at that)! Glad you at least got an apology out of the illness,and that it was your last dive. I would have been horribly embarrassed if I was the sick one. One can only hope that lessons were learned.