Bonehead moves - $$ sacrifices to dive gods.

I'm sure all of us have had our share of mishaps in your years of diving. I felt compelled to come clean on some of my bonehead moves with your gear.

I guess hearing of others won't make me feel so bad

Pls. share, perhaps others will learn from each others mistakes.

1) Left mask ontop of car and drove away.

Don't know what posessed me to put my mask (in case) atop car after a dive. Wanted to get a 2nd dive at another location. Got suited up. (tanks, weights on and everything..) went to look for mask. Dohh! I remembered where left it. My buds continued on while I drove to LDS to buy another.

2) Wife ran over Air2 reg of BC

Had gear all over drive way and I thought on my side of driveway. Wife pulls out of garage and felt something. She calls me on way to where she was going that she thought she ran over something and to go check. Sure enough, it was the reg. I couldn't yell at her for running over the gear I left out on drive way, could I?

3) Flooded HID Cannon light.

Like a dolt, forgot to completely tighten light. I had left it lose and forgot to close it. Going down, saw bubbles coming out of light..

4) I noticed my zipper on wetsuit was starting to get stuck. I figured could get one more dive out of it and would have it fixed next dive. Finished dive, and no way could I undo the zipper. No matter what I did, could get it open. I REALLY HAD TO GO PEE BAD.... Got out my safety shears and cut it and figured a new zipper could be replaced. $130 later. They said they could have repaired the broken zipper for about $20 bucks.

5) Overtightened light. Trip to bonaire, didn't know better to unscrew light before putting in luggage (and remove batteries) Sure enough, I get to destination. Light had come on and burned some of the reflective part. Worse, I couln't open it to take batteries out. Even Big Ramon at Toucan Divers with his special tool (To remove oil filters) and his strength couldn't do it. We ended up drilling a hole so could let air in and just have to replace the lense. Know better.


I hope to feel better after learning of others mistakes.

I guess this thread is about mistakes that resulted in loss or damage to dive gear.


Best I can do- I had a small knife mounted in a sheath on my BC hose, and I forgot to remove it prior to going through an airport security checkpoint. Of course the knife was confiscated but they were at least nice about it and didn't strip search me or anything.

A close second might be- I was on a Cozumel trip and at the end of the diving day we packed up our gear and took it back to our rooms. Even though I rinsed all the gear in the tub and laid it out to dry and repacked it all up, it was not until we got back on the boat in the morning and the dive master held up a pair of fins that were left behind that I realized they were mine.

Last March in Mexico on a night dive Idue to a crowded boat ( not the regular dive boat) I put on one fin and moved my leg over the bench to get room for the other fin. Then it was over the side when I noticed it felt funny, I turned on my light stuck my face in the water to see what was wrong . Much to my surprise I only had one fin, couldn't see a black fin in the bleack water. Try diving with one fin while holding a light and attempting to take pictures at the same time. I was getting dizzy swimming around in circles. Had a great laugh afterwards but #180.00 later I now have an extra fin. Wife wasn't too happy either!

Oh yeah ... the one about splashing without checking if your dive light is screwed down tight. First dive of the trip in Roatan a few years back, all excited, whoopee, ruined my light!

....or damage to ego. On dive boat in the Keys I was introduced to the other divers as "a newly certified dive master" after which I promptly splashed without my fins......

still new:

Last March in Mexico on a night dive Idue to a crowded boat ( not the regular dive boat) I put on one fin and moved my leg over the bench to get room for the other fin. Then it was over the side when I noticed it felt funny, I turned on my light stuck my face in the water to see what was wrong . Much to my surprise I only had one fin, couldn't see a black fin in the bleack water. Try diving with one fin while holding a light and attempting to take pictures at the same time. I was getting dizzy swimming around in circles. Had a great laugh afterwards but #180.00 later I now have an extra fin. Wife wasn't too happy either!

Click to expand...

You will be surptised as to how many 1 pair fins see on eBat. Not too many 1 legged divers.

I've been incredibly lucky with boneheaded gear decisions...

Among my more ignoble moments:

Left my camera and housing on top of my car in the most heavy pedestrian-trafficked, touristy area of Monterey. Realized it on the swim out, decided it was a lost cause and did the dive anyways. An hour and a half later, it was still there when I got back.

Dunked my regs in the wash bin without capping them off. Grabbed 'em out immediately, found that the insides were (inexplicably) dry.

Brought my wallet with me while snorkeling on vacation. A fellow snorkeler saw it come out of my pocket and snagged it before it dropped 20ft to the reef below.

I was holding my mask and fins in my hand doing a surf entry, and got rolled and lost a $150 prescription dive mask That was the one time I was profoundly grateful for having a spare mask in my pocket, because I was NOT looking forward to the long walk up the hill at Laguna Beach without even getting to dive to make up for it!

My husband will say the loss of a $600 strobe was my fault, because I insisted he sling a 40 on a dive where I was worried about gas reserves, and the extra bottle hammered on his camera while we were scootering until the plate broke and the strobe was lost, somewhere between shore and the Carthaginian.

Left my dive log in the rental car.

Still crying over that one.

Put my sea&sea camera in the holding tank before a dive...forgot to close the case!!! $900 down the drain.