Dumb Things I've Done

[tdtaylor]

I was running behind, and hurried checked my DSLR for proper settings, etc., then popped it into the housing. Packed it up, kitted up, and off on the boat. Fast forward to 45'. Went to take my first picture, and I had managed to close the eyepiece shutter. Being a older DSLR, live view sucked. Learned to always check the camera in the housing before a dive.

I had injured my shoulder on a exit on a morning boat dive, and in my pain, I forgot to load my fins into the truck. One of my good friend gave me a raft of you know what when we got to the shore dive. Not feeling well, I took the opportunity to sit the dive out. Not 2 minutes later, he jumped off from an 8 foot dock without his fins. It was fun listening to him beg me to throw down his fins.

Was headed for a wreck dive, and had my normal drysuit setup ready to go. At the last minute, my daughter, who does not have a DS, decide to join me. Out of sympathy, I got my 7 mil and we headed out. At the site, I realized I did not have booties for the 55 degree water, having forgotten them while changing out my gear. Well, being the Boy Scout, my daughter and I always carry lycra socks, and I did happen to have an extra set of insulated sock (one of my buddies also had an extra pair). I found that a lycra sock, covered by a wool sock, and then covered by another Lycra sock makes a workable booty. My feel even stayed warm!

 

[TONY CHANEY]

Not too sure about a dumb thing but...I was running late for a long drive with buddies to cave country from NC. I got my friend's house and he asked me if I had just called him. I said no but please check the message. It was my wife asking if I needed the travel suitcase I left in the kitchen. Oh crap! That bag has the lights, camera, charger as well as clothes in it. So I told her that I would meet her half way in order to save time. When we met she had a puzzled / pissed look on her face. I asked what was wrong and she opened the case and pointed to the condoms laying on top. I had never told her about condom caths. for drysuits. I had a lot of explaining to do.

 

[NAM001]

After all the posts of yours i have read,,,,, I thought you were exempt of such forgetfulness.

If there is a piece of dive gear I have FAILED to forget on a dive, I can't think of what it is . . . And I don't limit myself to one. I showed up at our local mudhole one day, excited to serve as guide to a respected technical diver from Canada. I had forgotten my hood, so I ran down the street to the local dive shop and rented one. Got back to the site and discovered I'd forgotten my boots, too . . .

Showed up to do THE premiere shore dive in all of Puget Sound, one I've lusted after and been apprehensive about for YEARS, and had finally gotten an opportunity to dive with people I trusted. Found out I brought my doubles regs instead of my single tank reg. Did quick regulator surgery in the parking lot, hauled all my gear a hundred yards or so to the beach, and discovered I'd apparently damaged one of the o-rings in the hose transfer, and I had an unfixable leak. Got to sit on the beach and watch everybody else dive.

Showed up for another dive where I was horribly late. So late that I grabbed a tank from home without gauging it. I put my gear together at the site in a screaming rush, and forgot to check the pressure in the tank. Got into the water feeling bad about making everybody else wait, so when they did the gas check, I said (because I believed it) that I had 3500 in an HP 130. Ten minutes into the dive, checked my pressure and discovered I had a half-full tank. Luckily, it was enough for the planned dive, but how to feel stupid!

Fell off a dive boat in Florida in the middle of a GUE diver weekend. Fell off. Tore my dry suit wide open in the process, too.

Led a dive with two more novice ladies. Said to them, "Watch the entry here, because there are a lot of submerged rocks you can trip on." Shortly after saying that, slammed my shin into said rocks and fell on my nose. Thank goodness for bungied backups!

I'm sure there are more. Those lept to mind.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Today I was out with a friend experimenting on a stage setup for my sidemount rig, in preparation for upcoming cave trip. After the dive I dropped my tanks next to the site exit and walked to my car carrying the stage bottle. I'd noticed some bubbling in the stage reg and after getting out of my gear and packing the car I decided to take the reg straight up to the shop so they could work on it. I'm halfway home from the shop when I realized I'd forgotten something ... so I turned around, went back to the dive site, and retrieved my sidemount tanks ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Augustus]

doing a shore entry down in Mexico and about the time decided to start swimming realized I was wearing sunglasses and not a mask.

 

[Token]

I've been clever enough [or just dumb-lucky] not to forget anything significant while kitting up and getting in the water, however new gear seems to be my nemesis...

I paid a lot of money to go with a west coast dive party with a new BCD, reg and 7mm wetsuit that turned out to be a bad fit and had a hell of a time with it all. I still didn't understand the buoyancy problems heavy-duty wetsuits can cause...not to mention it was a little tight around my chest and the effort of breathing kinda freaked me out. I'm sure I made a very negative impression on the other divers...nearly all of whom were either very experienced or actual instructors. Lesson learned: Introduce only one new piece of gear at a time, and test it out before taking it on vacation.

Last year in Maui I had my nice new GoPro Hero2 camera and was quite avid in taking it into the water with me. Unfortunately my quick read of the instructions wasn't enough, and I missed a lot of good footage with it... Lesson learned: RTFM until it's memorized and play with your camera _out_ of the water where you don't have to be splitting your concentration.

 

[Michael Guerrero]

- was filming my buddy at the start of the dive and the descent, watching him pat the 2nd stage in his mouth, wondering why he's doing it as I'm deflating my wing, sinking underwater, and realizing I had no reg in my mouth

- forgot to hook up both my drysuit inflator and wing inflator on the same dive, then having a surge of cold water as I hit my drysuit button.

 

[TONY CHANEY]

I've been clever enough [or just dumb-lucky] not to forget anything significant while kitting up and getting in the water.

Don't worry...after a alot more dives you will have more. I am sure.

 

[FM1520]

During the SI, I was taking the yoke first stage off my tank and accidently unscrewed the bolt to far and it came out, slipped out of my hand and went overboard. Lucky for me my buddy has an extra reg set with him so I was able to make the second dive. The replacement bolt was $25.

 

[Locus]

I always soak my regs for at least an hour after a saltwater dive. As I was removing them from a recent soak I noticed that I had left the dust cap off. So now I've gotten my regs' first full annual service out of the way and I've only owned them for a few months. I can no longer look at a set of regs without checking the dust cap.