Newbie Mistake

[chillyinCanada]

We're deep into "experienced divers mistakes", which just goes to show that we're all human. Pay attention out there but don't beat yourself up because you forgot to put on your fins before rolling in.

 

[Rickk]

On one of my AOW dives the instructor showed up with no mask. He had lent his spare to a student, not gotten it back then left his main mask sitting on the counter back at the shop. His truck had at least two of everything else in it, just no mask.

 

[jborg]

Splashed yesterday with the dry suit not fully zipped... mistake was quickly corrected, but the dive was rather colder than intended...

 

[RemcoDutch]

That's nasty! I humour them for a bit before saying "gotta get in the water, I'm starting to boil".

I usually just say 'lots of water'

 

[Saniflush]

Don't beat yourself up over it because forgetting something will happen to everyone at some point and usually more than once. I am a very focused person (Mrs Flush nicely calls it "Highly Structured") and had never forgotten to don any piece of gear before a dive since being certified....Fast forward to when I became and instructor and had my very first two students. We were doing their open water portions in Cancun and I was so focused on what I needed to do with them that I rolled right off the back of the boat without my fins. Boy did I feel dumb, but saw it as a great opportunity to point out to my new students that everyone will make mistakes just try to ensure that they are mistakes you can recover from.

 

[greeniguana]

Last time I was in Cozumel, I put weights on my belt appropriate for a steel tank, which I normally use at home. Of course,, we were using AL 80s.

I rolled into the water and at about the 20 foot depth point I realized my error. Rather than thumb my dive, I decided to try to battle the boyancy for about 10 more feet to see if I could get my suit to compress just a little more... And then at that exact point... like an ocean miracle... I spotted one beautiful 4lb lead weight sitting majestically in the sand after a sea turtle swam over it!

I kicked like hell, grabbed that weight, put it on my harness waist belt and enjoyed the dive. Wasted a bunch of air kicking myself to the bottom, but nobody ever caught my error.

True story.

 

[Degenerate]

I've gone over the side of the boat without my fins on.

I did that recently on a club charter, realized my mistake the second I jumped off the boat.
Felt like a complete idiot when one of the guys on the boat asked me if I wanted my fins with me on the dive.

 

[Fishyhead]

I realized I didn't install a BCD inflator hose on my new regulator when I was gearing up on a boat in Maui Good thing they had a spare regulator set onboard!

 

[Neilwood]

I realized I didn't install a BCD inflator hose on my new regulator when I was gearing up on a boat in Maui Good thing they had a spare regulator set onboard!

Had the spare reg set not been there you could always have manually inflated - bit more of a nuisance but it would have meant you could have kept diving.

My favourite mistake to date (which has caused me to change my predive check) is getting in to the North Sea water here (approx 10C) with my back zip wetsuit open under my BCD. Needless to say when the water went in I quickly bolted upright to the outright shock of my instructor ( I was on my second check out dive for OW). Doff gear, zip up and re-don the gear and I was good to go with a skill ticked off the sheet as well!

 

[TMHeimer]

Then of course there is the story I've bored you all with often about the DM in Panama (and I thought he was quite good) who jumped in with an empty tank and needed to share air with me to ascend (he noticed it when we were descending) from 40' (bottom was at 80'). Said "Thanks for saving my life".