lost regulator, lost mask, forgot to inflace BCD at surface...

[olmic]

Not an accident, but an incident: I was diving yesterday at Kullen in Sweden, water approx 16 DEG C, max depth 22 meters. 2 great dives, lots of crabs, lobsters, codfish, smaller fish and nice rockformations. With us, from another diveshop, were also 10 girls, looked like straight-out-of PADI OpenWater class, and one divemaster/instructor. After the first dive, when they are lying in the surface waiting to be picked up by the boat, one of the girls loses her mask - loses her regulator, and because she has forgotten to inflate the BCD, she starts to sink - and panics!

She did get to the surface again, and somebody helped her ashore, and she was alright after a couple of hours (she did not do the 2nd dive) - but she swallowed quite a bit of water and generally wasn't happy about the situation.

Of course one divemaster to look after 10 inexperienced OW divers is too little, but most important is, that she (and everybody else) should remember to keep the regulator in the mouth, until adequate buoyancy has been established!

 

[plot]

From all the close incidents story's about new divers I've heard from my Instructors and the divemasters I know at my LDS, the losing the regulator and not inflating the BC at the same time seems to be one of the more common. In my OW class, my Instructor specifically told of an incident where this happened to try to fully get it through our heads to keep our regs in until we're absolutely sure it's ok to take them out.

Whenever I surface, I always fully inflate my BC then I take my regulator out of my mouth and hold it in my hand until I know which way I'm headed to get out of the water.

 

[scuba-girl]

don't feel like that girl was the only one. i left on a liveaboard trip on sat. i worked fri and had about 2 full hours of sleep. we were in the water 2hr after arriving. i had new gear, signed up for aow cert. was ready to go and jumped in. some current and swells. i totally forgot to fill my bc. i was struggeling to get to the moring line and could not function i totally asked for help and the rest i do not remember. i just know that lack of sleep played a major role in my dive. next day i was more nervous about paniking then the dive itself. but i overcame it and finished my aow. its just too bad that no one needed their rescue diver.

 

[k4man]

...i worked fri and had about 2 full hours of sleep. we were in the water 2hr after arriving. i had new gear, signed up for aow cert. was ready to go and jumped in. some current and swells. i totally forgot to fill my bc...

Just another reason, when possible, to be COMPLETELY ready (mentally and physically) for dives.

Alcohol, sleep deprivation (we're not Navy Seals), lack of fluids, out of shape, etc. Don't mix well with diving. I'm glad that my fellow O-H-I-O diver is ok!!!

 

[JEScholz]

I think a lot of the problem with inexperienced divers is the lack of training in thier classes. When I went through my basic scuba class, the instructor made us g through a drill of jumping in the deep end of the pool with all our gear in our hands. You quickly learned to turn on your tank and get the reg in your mouth. From that you cleared your mask and went about putting the rest of the gear on then swam to the ladder and climed out with the reg in your mouth until you were on the pool deck. On a boat dives, you kept the reg in your mouth until you were on the deck. This helped to reinforce surfacing with enough air to reach the boat including waiting in line on the trail line for your turn to climb the ladder. Learning good habits at the begining is just the right way to go.

 

[DanBMW]

don't feel like that girl was the only one. i left on a liveaboard trip on sat. i worked fri and had about 2 full hours of sleep. we were in the water 2hr after arriving. i had new gear, signed up for aow cert. was ready to go and jumped in. some current and swells. i totally forgot to fill my bc. i was struggeling to get to the moring line and could not function i totally asked for help and the rest i do not remember. i just know that lack of sleep played a major role in my dive. next day i was more nervous about paniking then the dive itself. but i overcame it and finished my aow. its just too bad that no one needed their rescue diver.

One thing we stress where I dive (also for skydiving) is to add only one new thing per dive to prevent task overload. This means that if you get new gear, only add one piece per dive. Get acquainted with it and then advance. Adding too many new items or tasks at one time can easily lead to confusion.

 

[scuba-girl]

this was a total mental block. i do not function even at work under 6hours of sleep.
this wasn't lack of training this was total sleep depravation. next liveaboard, the flight will be before the liveaboard desembarks. lesson learned!!!! as far as the gear goes i go once maybe twice a yr. our last adventure was a liveaboard and did not want to rent gear. if i lived closer to the ocean or go diving more frequent, i would have bought gear piece by piece but the closest i get is my 150gal salt aquarium and i still am trying to fit my scuba gear in there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!