What gear have you forgotten ?

Yesterday I drove 1 hour to a dive site to meet a dive buddy whom I had never met before (arranged the dive over SB). We started to gear up and I realized I had left my dry suit at home -- arrrggg . Luckily he lived close by and had his son bring a wet suit for me (temps were 72F..so OK).

So, has anyone else forgotten to bring critical gear to a dive ?

So far i havent forgotten anything but my friend forgot his fins on one dive and had to rent some from the shop. He was not happy.

mintaka:

We started to gear up and I realized I had left my dry suit at home -- arrrggg .

Click to expand...

I've done exactly this. I realized it while we were at the shop renting gear for my buddy. Should've kept my mouth shut then, cause the guy at the shop remembers the incident to this day

We ended up driving an hour and a half back home, grabbing the suit, driving back to the dive site, gearing up, getting in the water, swimming out, only to have my buddy's mask break before we descended. We decided someone was trying pretty hard to tell us not to dive that day, so we left. All the fun of travel, hauling, and washing gear, without the hassle of diving!

Lately, I've forgotten a weight belt, but have been able to make do with a buddy's spare weights.

Everything...

Booties - Problem solved with brand new T shirt and dive knife...

I've nearly forgotten many things but so far so good! One time I had reached the car and was about to leave (fully packed) when I remembered I forgot to put the p-valve back in my drysuit A few other times I've left my drysuit in the house and only realised at the last minute (I live on a top floor in an apartment block so have to make a few trips to put my stuff in the car and the drysuit is always last).

One of my buddies forgets lots of things. Once he forgot his fins and realised after the boat had left the pier. Turns out the captain had a spare pair but they were basically as big as shoes so not really an effective type of fin! Lucky it was a drift dive. Another time he forgot his contacts and had to drive an hour back home to meet his wife (who'd driven the other hour to meet him in the middle) to get the contacts for our second and third dives (I went and dived with someone else in the mean time). And one time he drove off on me after a dive whilst I was in the toilet getting changed (looong story, we were carpooling and he figured I could get a lift with someone else as he was in a hurry to get back to the store to drop off gear before they shut). I don't know how he packed up my gear but I never saw my camera again... same thing happened one day when he packed up my gear and I lost a weight pocket. I don't like anybody going near my gear now!

This is not so much a forgetting something as a losing something but my other regular buddy had his car keys fall out of his BC on a dive once. He was stuck in his drysuit thermals all day until a friend could drop a spare key to him at night time and it was quite funny watching him wander around the local streets and join us at a restaurant for lunch in his thermals (it is a one-piece suit) and socks.

I forgot the small metric allen wrench that tightened the nut that secured my ultralight bracket to my camera housing. I was shooting film on Turneffe Island and the resort didn't have a metric allen wrench set. So I shot with one strobe the entire week. That shot of the eagle ray banking towards me from 2 feet away with the blue water background? Underexposed. The dolphins cavorting around me at the Elbow? Underexposed.

Now I have a checklist.

After driving 1 hour to pick up my buddy and then another hour to get to the dive site (in the same direction) I realized that I had forgotten my Dive Computer. Well, truthfully I only forgot half of it as the transmitter was still firmly attached to my First Stage but the Computer itself was sitting on my couch at home.

Figured okay, no problem, attached the analog gauges only to discover that my weight pouches were also missing!

Rented a weight belt (I still hate weight belts) and got my two dives in for the day.

I've mostly forgotten to check stuff...

Once rented a BCD... it was the last one in the shop (they had a big group doing a cert that day)... the old one..... the one without a tank strap!!! ; ) After realizing there was no way we could rig something to make the tank hold, a quick drive to the closest dive shop got us a new strap.

My buddy once rented a dry + gloves and got 2 left hands, fortunately he also had his wetsuit gloves in the bag (I've since realized that you can turn a glove inside out to make it fit the other hand).

Last christmas, while visiting the in-laws in Deerfield Beach, I got a lift to the dive boat, took everything out of the trunk, gear, tanks.... but forgot the wetsuit... I managed to call and get it before the boat left the dock though.

We have a continuously evolving checklist. I print 4 copies and each of us checks their own gear.

Richard