Dumbest things you've seen a newbie diver do

[idocsteve]

My girlfriend got certified last week prior to a cruise to the Caribbean.

Here we are in the Caymans on her first open water dive since becoming certified and the dive master is giving his briefing and telling us that the best way to do this dive is to descend to around 80-90 feet. She looked a bit nervous at the thought of that sort of depth, rightfully so...

We jump in and work our way down the line...soon we're off the line and heading out over the wall. She gets slightly ahead of me and below me...I'm following her and watching our depth drop to 105...she was swimming merrily along, probably narced out of her skull, when I signaled to her to follow me back up the wall to a "more shallow" depth of around 80 feet. If I wasn't there or she was with an inexperienced buddy she'd probably be exploring the Titanic right about now.

I dont think she looked at her gauges once during the entire dive. Yes we had a nice post dive discussion about it. Sure she was in good hands with me and I was watching out for her but that is no excuse for self reliance and spatial awareness and keeping a close watch on your depth and your gauges.

 

[Peter_C]

Maxbottomtime wins so far by posting a video, but I will add to this thread by posting a couple of photos.

 

[StevenN]

Peter C that first pic looks like a Monastery crawl but the beach doesn't look steep enough. Where was that taken?

 

[Lee Taylor]

The dumbest things I have seen a newbie diver do is put the BCD on the tank upside down.

 

[StevenN]

The dumbest things I have seen a newbie diver do is put the BCD on the tank upside down.

I have a friend that's a Fireman and I always joke with him that he wears his tank upside down.

 

[Katamuki]

Watching a new diver find the angry part of a 105mm and pick it up. I suppose they thought it was a really cool pointy rock. Whats worse is that in one of the areas where alot of new divers go in there were three of these 105s in the sand and several months ago they all disappeared. I can only imagine that somewhere someone has some really cool door stops...?

 

[Peter_C]

Peter C that first pic looks like a Monastery crawl but the beach doesn't look steep enough. Where was that taken?

Both of them were taken on the same day at Fort Ross. The waves were about hip high. The beach has fine sand except at the water line in which case the composition (Gravel) is very similar to Monastery except it is not as steep. It does drop like Carmel River Beach though, and I can say I do sink deep into the sandy/gravel with gear on.

To keep on track with the newbies post: I've had my dive buddy run OOA :shocked2: I consider it my fault. It was her first cold water dive, and I should have watched her pressure closer.

Another dive buddy refused to read his computers manual. When the gauge read 0000 I gave him my reg and we made a slow ascent to the surface. Once back on dry land it turns out his computer gauge held back the last 500 psi as a reserve. What the heck kind of computer would do that

 

[StevenN]

Both of them were taken on the same day at Fort Ross. The waves were about hip high. The beach has fine sand except at the water line in which case the composition (Gravel) is very similar to Monastery except it is not as steep. It does drop like Carmel River Beach though, and I can say I do sink deep into the sandy/gravel with gear on.QUOTE]

Nice, thanks! I've always wanted to try some spots up north and it's always good to know what to expect. Thanks again for the local info, I'm sure that will help when I go there for my first time.

 

[laguna230diver]

grab the DM's spent 130 jump off the boat and flop around..... then get back on the boat and decide "i didnt dive because i didnt really feel like it today"....

 

[sydney-diver]

Trying to put tank and BC on over the head (looks cool if you do it right) whilst standing in front of car.