Dumbest things you've seen a newbie diver do

[Mattleycrue76]

I was doing a wreck dive in the NorthEast and a young lady was doing her first dive in this area. She was nervous and it showed. I usually dive solo as do most, because the visibility is usually quite poor and it makes diving with a buddy problematic.

I offered to dive with her and she readily accepted. I explained that I would set my reel and she would follow me, always maintaining contact with the reel at all times.

We dropped down the anchor line, I deployed my reel, and we began the dive. The current was strong and the visibility was less than 10 feet in murk. A few minutes later I turned around and she was GONE. By the time I got to the surface they were doing a "rescue"- she had let go of the line for reasons unknown and was swept off the wreck by the brisk current and she made a free ascent and ended up away from the dive boat. The DM was swimming out to her with a life ring, and pulled her in.

She joined me once again on the second dive. I told her again to NOT let go of the line! We agreed that if she wanted to end the dive early she was to follow the reel line back to the anchor and ascend, I was more than happy to have her dive with me but I was not going to end my dive early. This is what she did...and when I got back to the boat...yup another rescue in progress. This busy dive boat uses two lines to the wreck...white is the "down" line and "yellow" is the upline. They're tied in to each other on the wreck and selecting the correct one is easier than making a left or a right turn at a fork in the road.

She forgot which one to use...and she started up the downline, and when she saw other divers coming down..she...let go. And she was swept off the line and made a free ascent and surfaced away from the boat.

So to sum it up:

1) You think that diving in low viz makes good buddy skills impractical

2) You buddied up with a new obviously nervous diver in challenging conditions and didn't bother to look at her for a few minutes - at which point YOU had lost contact with her

3) You then buddied up with her again and let her go back to the upline alone even though she was clearly struggling and had required a rescue under similar conditions on the previous dive

4) And you seem to think that SHE's doing the dumbest things here?

Are you Serious?

 

[gcbryan]

I don't really retain images of the dumbest thing I've seen a novice diver do...it's the other's that I remember.

DM's and instructors insisting on using snorkels for surface swims and then not being able to swim in a straight line because of it.

Insisting that if any problems occur that the correct procedure is to get down on the bottom to a firm surface to solve the problem.

People who insist on group diving even when it's not working. Surface swims when there is no reason to. People using equipment and/or techniques that they don't understand.

OK, I do have a newbie story...I was diving with a buddy who happened to bring along a new diver that was at the dive shop and needed someone to dive with. This guy had maybe 1 or two dives other than his OW class.

He showed up clutching a dive flag float and a reel of line. This is in a protected area and in an area where dive flags/floats aren't the custom in general. It was a little windy and therefore choppy so there was some water movement as we chatted while on the surface. I had my doubts about the float/reel but didn't know him so I didn't say anything. This guy was very quiet as well.

While we were on the surface going over the dive plan I noticed a troubled look on his face and just as we were going to drop down he mentioned that he was a "little" tangled up with the line from his dive flag/float. He was so quiet we had to ask him to repeat himself. My buddy said no problem and went down below to untangle him and stayed down...I then dropped down and saw that somehow in the few minutes of just going over the dive plan he had managed to become completely tied up in the line and I'm talking about half of the line on the reel was now wrapped around his body...all the while he never said anything!

When we finally got it all undone and my buddy was in control of the reel and float now the new guy wanted his line back before we dropped down! My buddy just said I'll take care of this for you and hand it back after the dive.

 

[jen_b]

On my second open water check out dive I was really overweighted and playing with my buoyancy. One minute I was pointing out something to my instructor, and the next I watched her getting farther and farther away from me until I felt the waves tugging at me. I had floated up to the surface from 40 ft. A bit embarrassing.

 

[scubamikey]

I first got certified in the early 80's, when I was in 8th grade. The instructor told us that when ascending, since the air in your lungs will expand, you must continuously exhale. He even suggested that I hum, as this was a good way to slowly let air out of your lungs.

We finish the pool sessions and move to the open water dive, on the dive deck at 30 feet. It's time to go up. I remember what he said perfectly, and I ascend, nice and slow like we were taught, doing exactly what he said, humming and exhaling continuously.

Did you notice I didn't say anything about inhaling?

He didn't say I could do that.

Have you ever tried to exhale continuously for 1 minute?

I was sooo happy to reach the surface.

Luckily I re-discovered scuba in 2005, and apparently nowdays you just have to breathe continuously. I sure am glad times have changed...

 

[idocsteve]

Are you Serious?

Yes, quite serious, thanks.

 

[dktexas54]

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.

everybody makes mistakes no matter how many dives. to list them would bore you. you gain experience by doing. conversely, you can't gain experience without experiencing situations you have never been in before. each time you push the edge, you learn. unfortunately, sometimes people push the edge without understanding what their limits are and what potential risks with that edge their pushing. diving is inherently dangerous and can kill you. so can driving the freeway etc. diving requires constant attention to detail. My instructor taught " plan the dive, dive the plan" it sounds cliqiue, but i do my best to follow his teaching. i have been diving since the late 60's and i'm still here. if you decide to become certified, promise yourself to obtain at least a rescue diver cert. promise yourself to keep all your manuals and reread even the most basic info. get refresher courses with your local dive shop. best money spent is having an instructor spend an hour with you at least once a year observing you and pointing out any bad habits you may have developed. listen and learn from those more experienced. however, be carefull! there are many 1000 + log dive divers who have dove the world who have developed very bad habits while there are some relatively new divers who practice good skills and safety who i would listen too before the guy who has been everywhere and done that. step in, find a good lds and instructor and get wet!

 

[deadly_risk]

I was a third party observer in all the following:

The instructor was on a floating dock on a lake checking students as they jumped in, in the water were two dive cons. The students had formed a line and had instructions not to jump in until given the OK by the instructor.

The father of one of the students (and a student himself) got a little excited and went around behind the instructor and jumped in. He did not come bobbing back up. When he put his BC on he had gotten the Air2 stuck between his back and the BC and did not notice. One of the divecons went right down after him and found him standing at the bottom (9') breathing normally. He was very lucky we were on a shallow dive lake, and not so lucky after having a new a-hole ripped.

But he did turn on his air!

 

[SteveTW]

dktexas54
everybody makes mistakes no matter how many dives. to list them would bore you. you gain experience by doing. conversely, you can't gain experience without experiencing situations you have never been in before. each time you push the edge, you learn. unfortunately, sometimes people push the edge without understanding what their limits are and what potential risks with that edge their pushing. diving is inherently dangerous and can kill you. so can driving the freeway etc. diving requires constant attention to detail. My instructor taught " plan the dive, dive the plan" it sounds cliqiue, but i do my best to follow his teaching. i have been diving since the late 60's and i'm still here. if you decide to become certified, promise yourself to obtain at least a rescue diver cert. promise yourself to keep all your manuals and reread even the most basic info. get refresher courses with your local dive shop. best money spent is having an instructor spend an hour with you at least once a year observing you and pointing out any bad habits you may have developed. listen and learn from those more experienced. however, be carefull! there are many 1000 + log dive divers who have dove the world who have developed very bad habits while there are some relatively new divers who practice good skills and safety who i would listen too before the guy who has been everywhere and done that. step in, find a good lds and instructor and get wet!

So very well put! Thanks for your input.
Steve

 

[DiveDocMD]

So, my buddy and I are on the dive boat in Grand Cayman waiting for the last divers to arrive. It's a perfect day, warm and sunny, gentle breeze. Five minutes late for the departure a Dad and son stroll down the dock to the boat pulling identical Oceanic rolling dive bags. The dive masters help them aboard and ask if they want help setting up gear. The bags are unzipped and inside........brand new oceanic kits. I mean brand new. I mean still in the boxes and wrappers. Regulators in boxes, octopus in its own box. Tags still on the BCs. Oceanic computers still in the boxes.

The dive operator is known for customer service so they immediately start assembling the gear. Running back to the shop to get the right tools, one of the DM even reading the computer manuals to figure out how to set things up. We had a chuckle as the younger guy strapped a sharp pointed knife to his arm.

Now these guys were probably not brand new divers. They were both on EAN. I may be making a presumption here. Maybe the shop that sold them the gear gave them an all inclusive training deal. In the end, the dive boat left 15 minutes late.

I would not have been as accommodating as the dive operator (but then again, I wasn't working for a tip). I hope they were well compensated by these divers. I did ask one of them afterward about their diving confidence. A DM stayed with them then whole dive.

In my opinion, these were incredibly rude divers. They were obviously not prepared. Who would even think about doing a dive without first personally assembling and testing gear in a more controlled setting? Who would wear and rely on a computer without fully reading the manual?

Any one else have similar observations or experiences?

 

[MikeMarlow]

So, my buddy and I are on the dive boat in Grand Cayman waiting for the last divers to arrive. It's a perfect day, warm and sunny, gentle breeze. Five minutes late for the departure a Dad and son stroll down the dock to the boat pulling identical Oceanic rolling dive bags. The dive masters help them aboard and ask if they want help setting up gear. The bags are unzipped and inside........brand new oceanic kits. I mean brand new. I mean still in the boxes and wrappers. Regulators in boxes, octopus in its own box. Tags still on the BCs. Oceanic computers still in the boxes.

The dive operator is known for customer service so they immediately start assembling the gear. Running back to the shop to get the right tools, one of the DM even reading the computer manuals to figure out how to set things up. We had a chuckle as the younger guy strapped a sharp pointed knife to his arm.

Now these guys were probably not brand new divers. They were both on EAN. I may be making a presumption here. Maybe the shop that sold them the gear gave them an all inclusive training deal. In the end, the dive boat left 15 minutes late.

I would not have been as accommodating as the dive operator (but then again, I wasn't working for a tip). I hope they were well compensated by these divers. I did ask one of them afterward about their diving confidence. A DM stayed with them then whole dive.

In my opinion, these were incredibly rude divers. They were obviously not prepared. Who would even think about doing a dive without first personally assembling and testing gear in a more controlled setting? Who would wear and rely on a computer without fully reading the manual?

Any one else have similar observations or experiences?

DiveDocMD,
I would almost lay money that these guys bought all their gear through one of the online outfits. This is where you get your money's worth for the little bit extra you pay to get gear from an LDS. Had they bought their gear from an LDS, I hope they wouldn't have left with the gear still in the boxes. At least they wouldn't from the shop I work at.

Mike