Darwin Awards of Diving

Over the years I've observed people doing strange things while diving that go directly against the grain of common sense and dive training.

This past weekend while diving at a local quarry, I watched a diver at the entry area come out of the water with a cylinder, place it on the ground, pick-up another cylinder and carry it into the water. My curiosity go the best of me when he put on his mask started wallowing in about 4 feet of water. He was wrestling with a partially inflated BC, the "new" tank, and his regulator. All of this with his gear submerged.

As soon as he had his regulator attached (underwater), he cracked the valve and took a couple of test breaths. After a couple of water laced breaths, he told his buddy that he was taking the *$^%#* thing back to the dive shop becuase they told him it was an environmentally sealed first stage and it was full of water!

I couldn't resist asking him about what he was doing and he insisted that he was told that he could swap-out his tank underwater so he was trying it out for the first time in shallow water.

Trying not to roll my eyes or laugh, I suggested that he go back to the shop that sold him the regulator and have them show him how to do it in the shop's pool.

Oh to be a fly on the wall of the LDS when he takes it back!

Omg!!!!

:shocked2:

I was told of this same thing happening at a local quarry with one of my LDS's....of course the story as told to me had the diver being certified with someone else . It never ceases to amaze me the level of stupidity that some people successfully achieve in their lifetimes

OMG...underwater.... stop, you're killing me....

Thanks for the afternoon laugh!

As in my sig below:

"It is impossible to make anything foolproof, because fools are so ingenious." --RobertHeinlein

I'm paraphrasing a quote I saw once, "Stupidity ought to be painful".

Shouldn't this be in the HUMOR forum.

Well they come in all sorts and sizes I guess.

That is not nearly as bad as "Computer Man" as I like to refer to him.

Wife and I where on vacation at a tropical island, week of diving. Said diver gets on the boat, have the usual how ya doing get to know you conversation. Guy seemed like an OK diver, put gear together clean and smooth.

First dive of the morning, we where using 32% nitrox, said diver was using air. We do a wreck dive to 100 feet, wife and I see a huge moray eel and follow him down to 110 for a bit. Still staying within our MOD, I notice said diver following us. Wife and I had a nice dive, and headed back to the line, all the while said diver following us. When we hit the line we where really really close to the NDL. So I kind of look at my wife and she looks at me as we look at said diver on AIR doing the same profile as us. :shocked2:

I'm thinking to myself if I'm a nats behind to deco, he has got to be in deco. We accend, and start doing stops. Said diver accends past us and heads for the boat. Wife and I exchange looks and wait to hear the boat fire up and take this guy to the chamber.

Needless to say, we finish up our stops, get on the boat. Said diver is on the boat, fine as can be, starting to change over his tank for dive 2. After switching tanks I see him grab a bag, take off his dive computer and pulls out another one. He must have had almost a dozen computers in the bag. So, feeling as if I'm going to explode if I don't ask, "wow that's a lot of computers, why so many?" Said diver responds "Well, I use them and when I surface they say violation or something like that and wont work on the second dive. So I just get a new one so I can keep diving"

At that point in time I just walked away shaking my head in disbelief. I did not just hear that did I? So during our SIT I get a chance to talk to the DM in private about said diver. Needless to say he did not dive the second dive and we did not see him on the boat the rest of our trip. I don't know if he is still alive or not.

Dr Neil:

he was told that he could swap-out his tank underwater so he was trying it out for the first time in shallow water.

Click to expand...

I'm missing something here. You CAN change tanks/regs underwater.Not something I would choose to do unless I had no choice,and I would expect the first breath or 2 to be wet,but it can be done.