Things I learned the hard way

[keytofreedom]

I would love to see some of us post one thing we have absolutely learned THE HARD WAY and we all know what that means - by doing something dumb OURSELVES. It would be interesting to post one diving-related ditty and one other worldly one.

I will, of course have to go first:

DIVING: Never end your first dive day ever with a night dive, overweighted but unaware, and make the "wise" decision, after being heaved up and down while hanging on for dear life to the mooring line, to put your snorkel in your mouth (because your reg is making that god-awful squacking noise) and geniusly grab for that "other line" (the tag line. You know, the one that holds nothing out of the water other than itself!) Down you go and not a damn thing you can do about it. Can you say "panic"???

REAL WORLD: Never lift one foot from the treadmill, while it's in full operation, to close an open door behind you with that foot. The door WILL be closed. It just won't be your foot that closes it.

 

[TSandM]

One of the biggest diving lessons I've learned the hard way: If you are diving a new combination of suit and undergarment and are having significant problems with your buoyancy, you probably haven't lost all your diving skills you ever had. You're probably just underweighted. (This can happen with an OLD combination, if a soft weight falls out of your weight belt pouches. The bottom line is that if all of a sudden you have the buoyancy control of somebody on their first pool session, check your weights.)

Non-diving lesson learned the hard (and expensive) way: Breeding animals is a way to lose an enormous amount of money very quickly.

 

[Cabbie]

Tightly attach strobe(s) to housing before jumping off the back of the boat into swells for a 30m wreck dive. Or be prepared to watch it very quickly disappear...

Agree with TSandM - if something about your bouyancy doesn't feel quite right...check weights. I lost a weight pocket and thought it was just the current making life difficult.

 

[bamamedic]

Hmmm....so many to pick from. Evidently, I'm very fond of learning things the hard way

Diving: If you take your mask off while on the surface, make sure it's secure somwehere...I made the mistake of hooking it around my wrist, then I reached back to adjust a hose...and there went my mask! From now on, I'm just going to leave the darn thing in place when on the surface...I don't care how dorky it looks!

Nondiving: Don't text message while driving on wet roads, with crappy tires, and nonfunctional airbags, in a car that's small enough to be considered a large motorcycle....multitasking while driving is a bad thing, and results in an unexpected meeting with some rather large trees.

 

[tstormdiver]

Diving: Double steel tanks are reeeeeeallllyyyyyyy negative, so don't completely deflate your wings with them. I did that exact thing the first time I dove them. After a very brief, out of control descent, I got myself back under control at almost 95ft (about 2 ft off the bottom of the quarry. Needless to say it scared the h**l out of me. I then spent my next 10- 15 dives in them in the "kiddie pool" (shallow) section of the quarry.

Non diving: A "free dog" is never actually free. I had a Lab puppy given to me & because of her rock & foreign object eating habits, I had HUGE vet bills almost yearly.

 

[thanksforallthefish]

When on a dive you are not leading make sure you navigate also ... not long after I started diving I blindly followed my buddy on a night dive and ended up having a long walk back to the car because his navigating was shall we say not quite up to scratch.

Dont place all your eggs in one basket ... on another night dive myself and two mates got out of the water ... all was fine ... except our vehicle had been stolen ... we were standing there in wet suits and tanks ... no money, no clothes and about 40 kilometres from home ... fortunately there were other people there we knew and could gat a lift home...

... hmmm and people wonder why I dont particularly like night dives

 

[dkktsunami]

Progressed from jacket bc to back-inflate bc to "comfort delux" harness/plate to hog harness. This is an expensive way to learn (the "comfort" harness was the worst).

If you are skinny dipping at night on the beach do not assume that the place you exit the water will be the same place that you entered, the place where your clothes are hiding.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

Diving:
If you shake your head vigorously from side to side to clear a reverse block in your ear you need to hold onto your mask during the shake. A mask shaken off your nose and newly positioned with its skirt way up under your hood tends to suction itself solidly to your face. Removal involves grasping the mask with both hands and pulling while thrashing wildly with your entire body to break the suction as your bewildered buddy looks on.

Non-diving:
When the temperature gauge on your vehicle is reading higher than normal and the heater is blowing cold air you need to get it looked at RIGHT NOW. Don't drive it for two weeks before mentioning it to anyone, you can melt parts of an engine. (I melted 8 glow plugs and 8 fuel injectors in my Dad's diesel pick-up years ago --- that's EXPENSIVE to fix.)
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[D_B]

I think that remembering to deflate my BC when reaching the boat ladder in heavy seas, would be good one (it only took me the last dive to figure that one out :dork: )

 

[Charlie99]

1) SPGs are phosphorescent. I only discovered this after doing several night dives. It's a LOT easier to hold your divelight hard up against the gauge to charge up the phosphorescence, and then use that glow to read the gauge.


2) If your compass has a weird tilt, don't ignore it. If your compass reading make absolutely no sense, rotate the compass a bit to make sure the card is rotating freely. A big bubble under the compass card can make navigation very "interesting".

3). If your planned shore dive spot is full of surfers and boogie boarders, perhaps you should pick another day or spot. Yeah. I personally confirmed the wisdom of this advice.

Charlie Allen