Dumbest things you've seen a newbie diver do

[smootie]

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).

I'm a newbie, so please pardon me if I have this wrong, but the amount of weight you need depends on your body's buoyancy and not weight, right? I am 100 lbs and was positively buoyant at the end of my last dive with 10 lbs of weight. This was without a wetsuit and with an AL63. Admittedly, I have a little extra "junk in the trunk" from too many cupcakes so I'm sure this adds to my buoyancy.

 

[tengsr]

I felt my ancient mask was bugging my nose today, so I decided to "adjust" it. Just like I do with sunglasses... so I pulled it way forward thinking like it was nothin Imagine the shock I got when I got a facefull of water :shocked2: . After the initial wtf did I do that for, everything was good...until I did a second time, seconds after the first time

 

[cloudflint]

you know these big oval masks:

It turns out you can put them on upsideown and they will still seal and be watertight, though its kinda hard to pinch your nose with it like that....nuf said

 

[Scubalibre86]

A new Scuba Diver student made me crazy bacause she totally refused to use fins to dive, saying that for her was much better to dive without and swimming using her arms . I tried to convince her for 2 days, she tried but now way to change her mind...so she quitted the course!

 

[RikRaeder]

I hate to bash on Newbies, and I'll chock this one up to general dumbness, but I wanted to share...

On a rather routine dive an NOT one of my favorite spots, I was practicing my buoyancy control for an upcoming class, just hanging there watching my depth.

One of the other pair of divers raced up and started digging around under a rock. He pulled out a cone shaped snail shell, showed it to me grinning around his regulator, and kicked away to the guide.

I was thinking to myself, 'self; isn't that one of those deadly conical sea snails that can sting you with it's proboscus if you touch it anywhere on it's body, and after that you'll be dead within about an hour if you don't get the antivenom?'

Well, the guide wrote something on his slate and showed it to the guy and judging from the look on his face and how quickly he dropped it, I'm guessing that my creature id was correct. Lucky for him it wasn't home. Of course that's the same guy who tried riding the sea turtle the next day. After the dm finished with him he was probably wishing that the snail WAS home.

 

[ThomasScherrer]

we see it all the time:

swimming with hands nearly as much as fins.
fast rapid movements with arms body and legs.
fast movements with lights.
pointing light at peoples faces.
hitting bottom, stiring up dirt.
wrong fin technique near bottom or other dirty surfaces.
touching and braking corals.
picking up animal life with no or little knowledge about it.
bc expand and fast accent, forget to handle this at erly stage.
wrong weight, so end of dive is at surface.
Gauges and Octo dangling in sand and dirt.
wrong position of tank valve, and also of 1. regulator.
hoses tangled in bc.
jumping from boat with missing parts, or parts not ok.
enter and exit from rib-boat always look dumb when not skilled in it.
forget to bring important equipment from home to dive site, and need to ask for loaners (embarising)

I dont say I am much better, just a little bit offcourse
I know I have done all this, even several times.
the more trained you are, the more you see those kind of ignoring details from others,
and the more you try not to do it again your self.

Let beginners be beginners, dont try to make DM out of them in 2 days,
explain nice and friendly how to improve the details you see are not perfected,
and even show them slowly when needed, they will most likely listen and learn, and you get new friends,
do NOT play king-smart or arrogant, in water/boats or even on forums, those kind of divers makes many mad,
it is ok to know better, but if you can not share your wisdom in a good and positive way, dont !

 

[Jax]

we see it all the time:

<snipped>

Uh, Thomas -- this is supposed to be a humorous 'observation' thread, where people can learn and be amused.

 

[retro-steve]

Well if I had a mirror it would be watching a newbie do a dumb thing...Girlfriend and I were practicing skills in a local pond, only 20ft deep max, so what happened wasn't all that bad. Basically my girlfriend started going up in an uncontrolled ascent, I grabbed onto her hand with my left hand to stop her ascent (note that my left hand not only controls my inflator, but also all my dump valves) and she had enough lift in her BC for the both of us it seemed. While going for a ride I tried to first grab my dumps, which didn't seem to work as she would not release her death-grip of my left hand, and by the time I got to her dumps we were already at the surface (remember it was only 20ft). So yes, future retro-steve will not grab with his dominant left hand and will also be ready to dump air as he grabs

 

[prosdog]

I did something pretty dumb last weekend that I'll share for your amusement. Although I've been certified for 30 years, I'm admittedly a newbie with only 16 logged dives. Twelve have been in the past 2 months since my recertification. I had just bought a used wetsuit from the LDS. Tried it on there and it fit great. Bought one for my recently certified 17 year old son as well, who happens to be much skinnier than me. Went along with a class from the LDS doing their open water testing so I could try the new wetsuit. The wetsuit that fit so well in the LDS was now way too tight. I struggled to get my legs in for about 5 minutes. I then turned to the instructor and said that I had just bought the wetsuits for my son and I and I think I accidentally took his by mistake. Instructor looked at me and said, "you probably have the right wet suit, it helps if you don't put it on upside down!"

That's going to take a while to live down.

 

[ajduplessis]

I have seen an instructor and shop owner giant stride of onto the SS Thistlegorm with no fins in very strong currents. Funniest thing I have seen while diving.