Fun things Newbies do

[Insta-Gator]

I've done quite a few goofy things early in my diving career, so I thought I'd share one and get others to fess up too.

On my first boat time away from my instructor I forgot to put on my weight belt before striding off the back of the boat. After a few minutes of flapping around in the surface like a beached fish, I looked over at the boat and one of the crew was holding up my weight belt. Boy did I feel stupid.

OK, now what did you do?

 

[Brian Sharpe]

Took up scuba......I'm now broke & living in a cardboard box.

 

[knowone]

Diving the other end of the wreck.

And hopefully after hitching home, drying their gear, to avoid
de-stabilising the cardboard.

 

[diver 85]

I've done quite a few goofy things early in my diving career, so I thought I'd share one and get others to fess up too.

On my first boat time away from my instructor I forgot to put on my weight belt before striding off the back of the boat. After a few minutes of flapping around in the surface like a beached fish, I looked over at the boat and one of the crew was holding up my weight belt. Boy did I feel stupid.

OK, now what did you do?

Same thing in Spring '86, 6 months after getting cert-@ Spanish Cove Resort, Grand Cayman.....Things you learn along the way....

 

[cloudflint]

Jumped into the sea with the vanity zip on my drysuit open. I had 7mm gloves on too so i couldn't get ahold of it to close it in the end i had to descend to about 10 meters before my gloves compressed enough to allow me to get ahold of it and close it. Sad thing is the suit was that leaky it didn't really make much of a difference to the dive.

I also did a river dive and i started off in my semi-dry but figured since it was that warm (16 degrees Celsius ) i would go in in my trunks. I soon learned that:

The webbing on my harness is extremely uncomfortable against bare skin.
A horsecollar BC has a tendancy to ride up the gentlemanly area if you don't have a suit on.
eels seem to get a cheap thrill out of swimming up the trunks of divers who dont know any better.

Suffice to say i wont do that again in a hurry

 

[tddfleming]

Took up scuba......I'm now broke & living in a cardboard box.

I hope it is a 350# double wall box

 

[Sas]

I've done quite a few goofy things early in my diving career, so I thought I'd share one and get others to fess up too.

On my first boat time away from my instructor I forgot to put on my weight belt before striding off the back of the boat. After a few minutes of flapping around in the surface like a beached fish, I looked over at the boat and one of the crew was holding up my weight belt. Boy did I feel stupid.

OK, now what did you do?

'Newbie'? Experienced divers do stuff like that all the time too

Stuff I've done:
-jumped in without a mask on
-with no weight belt
-with my wetsuit weights rather than my drysuit (about half the weight)
-without light connected to battery
-with my tank only cracked open, didn't even notice the whole dive though! (was shallow)
-thrown my computer and compass onto a seat on the boat when it was rough, compass bounced over the side
-forgot to turn my deco bottle on before switching
-gearing up on the boat and standing up without unbungeeing my tanks
-put my wing on backwards when assembling my twins (three times now :\)
-forgetting to close my pvalve when diving with it unconnected
-first time I did a valve drill I turned everything off...
-forgetting to put my drysuit hose back on my regs for a dive in my drysuit
-forgetting to set my camera to macro for an entire dive focused on macro photography
-forgetting to unzip my drysuit before trying to get out of it and getting stuck


Luckily though I have not had to sit out dives due to any of these And the only piece of gear I have forgotten before was wetsuit booties and sneakers were substituted. But STILL, lots of screwups.

 

[aquaregia]

Sas's post sort of reminds me of RJP's "how am I not dead yet" list.

 

[ccohn2000]

'Newbie'? Experienced divers do stuff like that all the time too
(EDITING Sas' list with my own faux Pas)
Stuff I've done:
-jumped in without my computer & discovered on descent!
-forgot to turn my deco bottle on before switching
-gearing up on the boat and standing up without unbungeeing my tanks (or trying to)
-forgetting to connect my drysuit hose to my drysuit, more times than I can count
-velcroed my BC tank straps to my head trying to get it out of the car
-turtled on my back in my boat with my tank on, and couldn't get up to help my buddy who was in the water and in need of help as our ladder had broken, fortunately we were a multi boat group and a friend picked him up.
-Turtled in my doubles in the dive shop trying to take them off by myself, knocking over several other cylinders and opening the valves on some of them in the process.

& my buddy has:

-leapt in without fins more than once
-ditto the computer issue
-forgotten to zip his drysuit

It happens to everyone, newbie or experienced. It just gives you something to chat about after the dive.

 

[Sas]

-turtled on my back in my boat with my tank on, and couldn't get up

Haha that reminds me I have gotten stuck in my boot twice trying to slip my twins off to put them in there... I fell backwards and got wedged in there like a turtle :blush: