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While on Vacation I had an opportunity to learn something new.
Some of you might have already learned this, like I did, and others probably thought about it before it happened to them.
I was just settling down in about 35 FSW, just off the reef top, waiting for the rest of the divers to get in.
I notice two guys finning as fast as they could in the oppisite direction from where I was facing. I am thinking, what are they going that way so fast for? I am thinking sea monsters, or sharks kinda thoughts. So I look around and see nothing wrong, I turn around and see one of the guys picking up a full weight belt off the reef. Later, when we were back aboard they told me that the belt just missed hitting me on the head. I had no idea it had even occured. Lesson... ALWAYS move away from the dive boat while waiting for the other divers, or stay on top until everyone is in the water first least you be smitten by a bunch of lead. It never crossed my mind before that day. I assumed (there's that word) that all divers were like me, and they would made certain their belt was secure before they jump in. Silly me.
Currently in the Pacific Northwest, a few hours east of Seattle.
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Its not only their weightbelts. Sometimes the divers themselves drop from above like plummeting dirtbags, the out-of-control-little-darlings, and land on top of your tank or your head, driving your face - mask first - directly into the reef.
Lots of good reasons for clearing the landing zone as quickly as possible...
While on holiday recently we had a diver on the boat who didn't weight himself properly during the bouyancy check and as a result had to put a load of weight in his BCD pockets which he didn't secure properly. On his decent he went down head first and the lead blocks came out of his pockets down on top of people. That was the fist dive of the week and unfortunately this particular diver never got any better. My buddy and I always try to be last down and hang behind when we are diving with a group - it's safer and more fun
OK, I admit it. I have dropped my weightbelt before. We were doing a backward roll entry off an RIB in Sodwana Bay. While securing the weightbelt, I pinched the weightbelt material between the buckle and the release. This was conveniently hidden by my BC.
However, gravity applied itself during the backward roll and the belt slid off into the deep blue. Fortunately, we were over sand, so I did not do my bit for reef destruction. And there were no other divers below I so I did not panelbeat someones head. My DM was gracious enough to recover it for me and I bought the first round of the evening in return.
The lesson was learnt. I double-check it every time I dive by sliding my finger along the top and bottom of the release to make sure nothing is jammed in there. Particularly now that I have a Bright Weight belt which is double the thickness of a traditional belt. [I know that the buddy check should reveal this, but how practical that is in a small RIB that is heaving around... I can double check something like this easily - unfortunately I had to learn this one the hard way]
Most of the incidents I have seen with weightbelts happen when the belt is being handed back to the Skipper after the dive. Almost every time the diver is holding the belt by the non-buckle end and it slips out of their gloves or bare hands.
While teaching, I had a student drop a weightbelt on my toe (I was adjusting her inflator hose routing from behind) - which was bare and on concrete at the time - I still have a split in my toenail from that event 20+ years ago...
She said it was too heavy so she was just going to take it off for awhile...
Wow, that was a close encounter.
I know a guy who was teaching a couple students at the same time, and on of them was like 3 feet beneath the surface and his belt slipped off his waste. At that time, my friend was right underneath that guy and looked up! Got the weight belt right smack on his face. His mask took most of the hit and by some miracle it didn't break.
Saw a close encounter with an anchor. No diver involved though. But one of the divers lost his mask. It fell overboard. And the captain thought he could hook the anchor on the mask and get it up again!! So he just threw the anchor out, when one of the divers decided to go down to get the mask, and saw the anchor had missed the mask by just a couple of inches. And diving equipment ain't cheap. :P
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