Dumbest things you've seen a newbie diver do

[Mike Boswell]

The dumbest thing I ever saw was a diver who was in a hurry to try out his brand new BP/W. He first anchored the boat so that it drifted into a thick blanket of kelp but didn't feel like taking the time to fix that little problem.

He then rigged up his BP/W and turned on the tank valve, forgot to zip up his wetsuit or his booties, turned "on" the tank valve a second time, yelled at his wife/dive buddy to hurry up. His wife was flustered and they didn't do their normal buddy check.

He went over the side backwards into a thick blanket of kelp with his air turned off and no air in his BCD.

He came up gasping, tangled in kelp, with his weight belt slipped down around his ankles, his wetsuit flooded with freezing water, and his booties unzipped and fins flopping around uselessly.

That diver was me. And I knew better.

 

[CamG]

Greetings Mike and I would like to thank you for your post! I think we all have done things like that! I know I have and I knew better as well. The wonderful thing is we are not alone. But one thing is for sure humility is a good teacher! Our wives would never let us forget it anyway. Safe diving all and never forsake safe diving procedures it will always back fire on you every time.
CamG Keep diving....keep training....keep learning!

 

[Tortuga68]

Holding the rig upside down in front of you, you reach through the arm openings, grab the tank, lift it up and drop it on your back. Easy enough, especially with practice.

Who cares what you're standing in front of?

What happens if you're facing away from the car and standing close to the hood?

 

[victor]

Hot summers day at an Austrian lake fed by a glassier.
Pulled on thick woolly undergarments.
Fought my way in to the dry suit, pushing hands through the tight cuffs, then head through the neck seal.
By this time puffing in the heat decide to sit in the shallow water to cool off.
Slip when entering the water and in up to my neck with the dry suit zip wide OPEN.
Everyone on the shore had a good laugh at my expense.

 

[sydney-diver]

Holding the rig upside down in front of you, you reach through the arm openings, grab the tank, lift it up and drop it on your back. Easy enough, especially with practice.

Who cares what you're standing in front of?

Because he swung rather than dropped it over his head and ended up throwing it through the side window of the car!

 

[victor]

On a serious note.
Diving the Hilma hooker in Bonaire. Deep dive approx 95 ft.
Family are gearing up, mum, dad, and 2 teenagers.
Doing the buddy check they notice that 1 kids tank is only 1/2 full.
Did they change it, nope, did they skip the dive, nope.
I overheard the plan, from dad, dive until you hit 50 psi then find me and use my spare reg.

And thats what they did. Spotted in the hold Dad with daughter on a short hose swimming towards the line.

Maybe Darwin's survival of the fittest was wrong after all.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

When the dive Operator assigned tanks....Noticed that one tank had more air in it... so they switched tanks to give the diver who used the most air the better fill. :doh: the tank with "better fill" was 8L tank and the one with the "slightly lesser fill" was an 12L tank

 

[chrisculina]

Lots of great stories here.

There was this student on an owd course here in Arendal... on one of his ow dives, he was asked to orally inflate his bcd. The student inhales, removes the reg from his mouth, bubbles, inhales 2/3 into the inflator, bubbles, replaces his reg, clears it, etc until he pivots on his fin tips. The instructor is pleased, high five, now let's find that regulator... The student calmly reaches back for his reg - What? No reg? Again, this time not so calmly.. STILL NO REG! The student is starting to panic, looks at his instructor, who just gives him the "what the hell are you doing?" stare. When the student reaches for his octopus, the instructor taps the student's reg - which was in his mouth the whole time. I remember blushing, the instructor laughing and the divemaster shaking his head. Oh, the student was me. I usually tell the story to my students to let them know it's not a competition, and that it's ok to make a fool of oneself.

After surving the owd course, I acquired the humble art of compass navigation through many long surface swims. Never assume your buddy has a clue. Use your compass on every dive!

 

[herbdb]

On my second OW dive I hopped in with no air in my BCD and to make it worse one of my fins came off because I did not have it tight enough.

I managed to catch it and started trying to put it on. I was slightly overweight and slowly tumbled to the bottom while wrestling with the fin. Luckily it was a sand bottom and only about 15 feet.

The instructor came over and wrote on his slate "What was that?" Sometimes we learn things not on the lesson plan.

 

[robint]

I'm hoping you can all shed some light on mishaps you've seen newbie or inexperienced divers encounter. I've read the pet peeves thread but I thought this could be a thread with personal experiences. I'm hoping myself and other new divers could learn from others' mistakes.

Stupidest during OW class- jetting to surface from the dive platform (at 25-30' depth). I see this waaay too often. My husband is an instructor. While he has the students down doing skills, I stay at surface and watch for breachers, especially during Dive 1 and 2. If he has one, he has to bring all students back to surface, make sure the person is okay and has not blown a lung, then he bring the breacher over to me so he can take the rest of class back down. I then have to take the breacher out of water, make sure they are still okay and get them settled down and relaxed. This happens sometimes to students who really don't want to get certified and are pressured into it by a family member. Those people usually never get certified. Others get calm and then once my husband is finished with the rest of the classes dive, he will talk to them about getting back into water alone with him. It usually works and they finish the certification, but not always. Some people just aren't safe as they insist on jetting to surface whenever they get nervous underwater - those people he has the "talk" with and tells them they really shouldn't get certified at this particular time due to their own safety.
Luckily, he has never had anyone need to seek medical attention but we have been there when other instructors had to call 911.

Stupid after certification - not accepting help from other divers. This can be as simple as setting up gear, to navigation, to proper weighting. I see way too many new divers insist that they need a certain amount of weight even though they are using a different thickness of wetsuit or diving salt water for first time when they got certified in fresh water. They end up overweighted or underweighted and have to be rescued by crew or another diver.