Dumbest things you've seen a newbie diver do

[homerun3us]

My first dive on my own after getting my open water certificate my dive buddy (brother) decided to follow a fish into the windows of a sunken school bus (which was placed there intentionally) and got stuck in the window, he ended up kicking off a fin and losing his mask while trying to get back out. After that everything went great!

 

[sleepr]

On my open water training dives, in our local lake we had completed the skills portion of our dive and were going to go for a little tour. As we kicked away from the platform in 20 feet of water, I lost my fin. Because I was having challenges trying to equalize as we descended slowly down the slope of the bottom I never even noticed it was gone. By the time I finally got sorted out and notified my instructor we had kicked a fair way. Fortunately at this point my buoyancy skills were still on the steep part of the leaning curve and we followed the fin/foot marks on the sandy bottom all the way back to the platform where we found the fin caught in one of the slats!

It totally brought in to focus what is meant by task loading. I was so focused on my ears, I had no clue about the fin. I have spring straps now but when I wade in and put them on, I ensure the strap is secure on my foot!

 

[freewillie]

Glad to see this thread is still active.

I'm still very much a newbie, having only 7 OW dives since my recent certification. During my OW cert dives forgot to take the inserts out of my fins before heading to the beach. My instructor noticed as we were gearing up. I had already locked my car so I left them on my trunk, but were still there when I returned.

I've also done the mistake the snorkel for reg thing. We were gathering as a class at the surface marker to begin our dive. Once the instructor gave OK to descend I deflated my BC and started to sink. Didn't realize my mistake until took my first breath underwater and realized I had forgottent to replace my snorkel with my reg. Didn't panic, simply found my reg and continued the dive as if nothing happened.

As a newbie, I'm still very much in the learning stages. I've been reading this thread to gain pearls of wisdom to make my own diving safer. This is a safe sport when done safely and with proper training. It can be a deadly sport when the diver does not pay attention to his/her training and situations. I would rename this thread "what is the stupidest thing you've seen ANY diver do?" It seems many divers with more experience are more dangerous than us newbies.

idocsteve should be ashamed of himself. buddying up with a partner then continuing to dive without any regard to your buddy goes against everything we've been trained. every dive publication as well emphasizes the point accidents happen when you abandon your buddy. the newbie who was rescued twice because she let go of the line was because you did not pay attention to your buddy. and as a newbie she was expecting you to help her during the dive. If you're not going to be with your buddy don't volunteer to be a buddy.

If nothing else during this thread I've realized that as divers we can only rely on our own skill and training regardless of how many dives we've done.

Continued safe diving to all.

 

[Baconator]

Hi guys! I've been reading all 35 pages and learned a few things and I especially agree with what someone said about diving being routine oriented. I'm relatively new and I'm also guilty of going in and then realising my bottle wasn't on (that was exciting... I though my reg broke) and being so excited to get into the water that I had everything but my fins on (thanks to my insta buddy who pointed it out to me )

I have an experience regarding divers going into situations they're not prepared for that happened last week diving with a group on a liveaboard:

In our group we had 2 newbies (20 dives each, all rental gear), a husband and wife team who've been diving for more than a few years, my buddy who was an underwater videographer, and me (photographer who've had about 45 dives in about 6 months previously). First check out dive for the trip, the newbies had trouble with their buoyancy and so were crashing into everything (bottom, coral... kicked me on the head once...). Since this was a wall dive I decided to hover at 30m at the back of the group to act as the tail. I noticed that the 2 newbies were doing something with their bcd's and were sinking pretty quickly, being at 30m I thought to myself that if they didn't kick up in the next few minutes I'd have to go get both of them myself. I went down to see what was wrong and tried inflating her bcd using the inflator button, when that didn't work I ended up picking them up from a depth of around 37m, way below the limit for their experience, and hauling them up to 20m and signaled for them to stick with the DM and stay at that depth. I also noticed at the time the woman was always in a vertical position indicating she was overweighted. Here's the kicker: I, along with the other people in our group, asked her how much weight she had and what was her body weight. She told us she had on 8lbs and weighed 120. I told her I was 125 and used 6lbs so she was really too heavy (obviously). She told me that she had trouble descending quickly hence the over weighting (??) I told her that she didn't have to sink like a rock and that she really needed to reduce the weight to help her with her air consumption, it took her a couple of days before she finally decided to take off the 2 lbs. I also asked her why she didn't want to use her bcd (after receiving a replacement) and she told me she was told to NOT rely on her bcd and to use her lungs for buoyancy (??????????). I don't know if she just confused the instructions for the fin pivot and thought that that was also meant for normal diving or what...

On the upside, I got to practice some crisis prevention and management Lost buddy during a night dive was fun too after she lost her buddy and I had to go look for him while having to maintain visuals on my buddy and her at the same time.

I sent a text to my instructor after my trip thanking him for teaching me.

 

[fisheater]

I sent a text to my instructor after my trip thanking him for teaching me.

Nice touch!

 

[drbill]

I'll just pop back in after a few months and repeat what I said earlier... the dumbest things I've ever seen were not by newbies, with whom "stupid" things are to be expected based on lack of experience. They were done by divers who should have been experienced enough not to do what they did. Perhaps the strangest one was while I was lying on the sandy bottom filming and an instructor WALKED his entire class on top of, or right beside, my body as I filmed stirring up the sediments horribly! The instructor was the first to step on me. This was in 30 ft of water!!! Talk about a total lack of situational awareness.

 

[Downing]

The instructor was the first to step on me. This was in 30 ft of water!!! Talk about a total lack of situational awareness.

Did you ever stop to consider perhaps it wasn't an accident?

I'm just sayin'...

 

[Travis B]

in my experiences i would relate to Diver0001's experience, as a newbie i was always extremly cautious of my gas consumption.One day we showed up to a dive site and there was a fellow standing at his car with his gear ready to go, he had all the newest gear and told us had had "tons" of dives @ the site,my fault for not asking for exact numbers,we briefed the site and went over our dive plan and return pressures,i thaught we were all on the same page,,, apparently not though. I had previously said he had all the newest gear,, he had a nice new dry suit which i had found out was his 3rd dive in it, and 3rd dive since he did his OW,not my idea of "tons" of dives.i was already buddied up but we had 3 so my other db said she would dive with him to make 2 groups of 2.its around 7-9 mins from shore to the wreck so we all headed down and split into our 2 groups.we reached the stop sign just before the wreck andwent over our pressures (out of habbit i ask for pressures alot until i have 20-30 dives with that buddy)and our newbie said he had only burned 400psi,, i was impressed because i thaught i had good consumption and had burned 600psi.within 2 minutes of leaving the stop sign my buddy got my attention to say that newbie and her were turning around.We continued our dive and when finished met them on shore to change and debrief,i asked what happened??? was she uncomfortable,was he? thats when he told us he was down to 1000psi and decided he had reached his 1/3s and was time to turn,, i said pardon,, but thats not how 1/3s work,,, confused he looked at me and said ya it is, you save 1/3 for your return,astonished i told him no i think you have been mislead,if you are going by 1/3s your turn pressure if filled to 3000psi would have been 2000psi,He looked puzzled. i asked him if you burn 2/3s of your gas to get somewhere do you have enough to return to your start? Of course not, the rule of 1/3s is to dive your 1st 1/3 and return with the next 1/3 and always have a 1/3 in reserve.thats when i started asking for numbers on his dives and realized that it was my fault for not being a little firmer at the beginning of the dive for exact numbers and expeirience,needles to say that was our first and last dive with this mislead fellow, i offered to dive with him again but i was unsure if he was embarassed or just didnt like my tone. he too said that was the furthest he had ever made it on that wreck and he hadnt even made it 1/5th of the way through it(non-penetrable wood boat on bottom). since then before diving with strangers i ask for log books and equipment experience,i also try to let see thier gauges myself and watch thier consumption instead of just putting my trust in them.I have still dove with strangers that i have met form other online forums but before we even brief on the site i take the time to go over my experience first and then ask for them to share thiers,, i find it easier for others to share if you already have. i have dove with several diferrent buddies since that day and must say that i am 99% of the time the newbie out of us,but because i ask i have confidence in my buddy and also feel alot more relaxed.Alot of these "strangers" i have met up with for a dive have now become friends and mentors,,experienced divers to learn from and with. sorry for blabbing but like most people on here have said, in my opinion newbies mistakes are diving outside of thier limits and training.be safe and have fun

 

[tddfleming]

My daughter and I just did out AOW this past weekend, I witnessed what was not one of the smartest things that I have yet to see. Another student has his octo rigged with a spiral metal loop, much like what you would see on a key chain. The octo hose was put though this metal circle and then held to his bcd by yet another clip which he would need to unsnap in an OOA situation. Inst. caught it, had a talk with him and changed over to an extra rig the inst had, as his hoses were blowing and leaking air. While not funny but scary.

However, I am proud to say that we did not pull any real boners this past weekend.

 

[tommm]

Here's something that didn't seem dumb at the time, but in filling out my dive log later, I realized was extremely dumb... It was my last day on the 4th and final day of diving in the Bahamas, and my 8th dive since OW cert (so 13th overall dive).

Since it was just myself and wife (non-diver) on vacation, each day I had to be assigned a new "insta-buddy". Quite a range of buddies, but that's another story. On this particular dive, I actually joined a group of 5 other divers who were all friends and agreed to let me tag along. In hindsight, I should have requested a different situation, but that's not the dumbest thing.

The dive was to explore a coral reef in perhaps 45' of water. Excellent visibility and great conditions, with a slow current. This group didn't do any kind of buddy checks, etc. - they just basically jumped in the water and off they went. In hindsight I should have picked one of them and had them do a buddy check, but that's still not the dumbest thing.

So this group gets underwater and they are not really paying attention to me at all. They are also not really moving very much or doing much exploration of the reef - they seemed more interested in clowning around in front of a camera and trying to "photo bomb" each other. Meanwhile I see a school of jacks and decide to swim amongst them. In a short amount of time I find I'm separated from the group. But I feel really comfortable diving, correctly weighted, with my own equipment, etc. So I end up saying to myself, "screw those guys", and off I go 'solo' exploring the reef. From time-to-time I look around, locate the group and their bubbles, as well as others from the boat, so I figure everything is cool.

Well time is approaching where the DM said for everyone to be back. I look around and see no one - no bubbles, no boat, no anchor line. So I hover over a coral head at 15' doing my 3 min safety stop, still with about 1000 psi left. Finally surface and find I'm maybe 100' from the boat - no problem, I just swim over, hand crew my fins and climb up the ladder.

It's then I realize I'm the last one aboard; everyone else has been back at least 10 minutes, and everyone is already out of their gear and most out of their wet suits. Then crew member comes over to have me initial the clipboard, and of course I'm the only one left to sign. One of the guys from the "group of 5" says something to the effect, "hey man you didn't stay with the group." I replied, "sorry, I got distracted looking for eels" (which was partially true, but I also made the decision to not stay with this group). No one else said anything to me and we headed back to the dock, where I gave the crew a tip, rinsed my equipment and left.

Later I realized how dumb that was to leave the group for at least two reasons. First, if something did happen, for instance, suppose I got stuck in some coral, or got really far from the boat, I'd be in a dangerous situation real fast. Second, I must have really caused a great deal of concern to the boat crew, who has everyone checked off their list except one person! Thankfully they had that checklist (think of the movie Open Water - LOL). Anyway that was DUMB, DUMB, DUMB - and if any of your read and recognize this: my sincere apologies.