Dumbest things you've seen a newbie diver do

[Hotpuppy]

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.

It's good to hear stories like this. You and your husband are doing the right thing by making sure folks realize safety is important. It's better that they not get certified then to be certified and unsafe.

 

[CaboJim]

This winter, I was lobster diving with some friends, at a local shore break.
We weren't the only ones diving this reef.
After we finishing the dive & removing the gear. we watched this diver come out of the surf, with his mask on top of his head. As soon as he broke the the surf, a wave rolled him. He came up with...no mask, The poor guy looked high & low to no avail.
The lesson learned is that when coming out of any size surf, tuck your mask around your neck...

 

[4runner]

while on vacation this winter, we had to walk to the anchored boat maybe 60 ft.
one of the diver no newbie here walks in with his dive computer in his fin foot pocket... bad idea
wave send the computer in the ocean, we tried our best to help him find his computer
no luck.

 

[SteveAD]

This winter, I was lobster diving with some friends, at a local shore break.
We weren't the only ones diving this reef.
After we finishing the dive & removing the gear. we watched this diver come out of the surf, with his mask on top of his head. As soon as he broke the the surf, a wave rolled him. He came up with...no mask, The poor guy looked high & low to no avail.
The lesson learned is that when coming out of any size surf, [-]tuck your mask around your neck[/-]...KEEP YOUR MASK ON YOUR FACE WHERE IT BELONGS

Fixed that for you

 

[CaboJim]

Fixed that for you

You keep it on your face, I'll tuck mine
Thank you very much....

 

[tiggrr]

The dumbest thing I ever saw a noob do was to blame everyone and their mother for a bad dive, write a scathing letter to the Charter blaming them, and break down in hysterics when questioned on her own responsibility for the dive. All in one day. Exhausting.

Diving and D R A M A do not mix!!

 

[japan-diver]

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.

If you are seeing this on a regular basis I would have a chat with the person who is doing the instruction- bolting to the surface on dive 1 or 2 should not be happening. I have been teaching full time for over 15 years and can not remember the last time I had a student bolt. This is not stupid on the part of the student diver its stupid on the part of the instructor who is taking unprepared divers into open water. At least new divers have the excuse of newness when it comes to mistakes this is an instructor who should know better.

 

[toddthecat]

Worst thing by a newbie I've seen was at the start of confined water 3 the student strapped the BC onto the tank upside down. Took a little while to figure out the problem on that one...

The most entertaining I've seen by an experienced diver was actually performed by a guy during an IE. PADI really puts emphasis on Project AWARE and the environment nowadays. Everyone was in a very large, circular sandy area surrounded by coral. He started a demonstration of the CESA right up against the coral and when he took off he absolutely demolished a sea cucumber with his fin when he took off. The examiner was VERY displeased...

 

[Darcey]

Holding up their inflator even after all of the air is dumped and they are submerged. I didn't understand this one but tried to attribute it to nerves. I kept giving the "look at me" signal followed by exagerated moves of lifting up my inflator, pointing to it and then dropping it followed by holding my hands together in front of me. I don't know how many times I did this...and finally gave up. They couldn't check their SPG 'cause their left hand was busy holding up their inflator and doing air checks was a joke. I tried talking to them after the dive about relaxing and dropping the inflator but it was like talking to a wall and seemed to be engraved into their skull from their OW certification. It made me want to go hunt down their instructor from a competitor shop in the are and give them a nice WTF. I can only hope they'll come over from the dark side and get some extra training.

 

[GatorJoe]

went to cozumel and two people from denmark were on the boat w/ me and my wife. we went down to 110ft to look at a sweet reef system. saw the couple right in back of us at the same depth. when we got to the surface, the one person mentioned that while she was descending, her computer (which gave her her air consumption) stopped working. she didnt tell anyone, she just kept going.

so problem here:

1. a new diver (w/ only her 4 OW dives) went down to 110ft.

2. her computer stopped working at beginning of dive and she continued the dive.

#2 was dumber imo...