My loser moment

[Ann Marie]

In another post (in an area for Moderators) I posted something stupid I did. :11doh: Another moderator posted something that he did and I thought, 'hey that might make a great thread' at least it should be good for some laughs.

Sometimes we're judged on little things we might do when we're SCUBA diving when we're not thinking, talking with friends, or we just may have a brain fart. Other diver's might not know it was a small accident but think, "Look at that idiot! Who was their instructor!" or "Oh my gosh, where were they certified, I wouldn't go there????" Or worse yet, we do something stupid in front of our friends!!!

I know as an instructor I have these little pet peeves that I tell my student not to do because I don't want people to see my name on their card and think that I didn't teach them better.

So what was your 'loser moment'?

Here's one I did: I was with some students and we were descending on a dive. I was watching everyone descend making sure that they had their regulators in and everything was fine. Would have been better if my regulator was in. Luckily, I just did a beautiful arm sweep and stuck it in!

Here's one my buddy did: We are exiting the surf after a dive and there is a woman on the beach having photo of her taken in her bikini. My buddy is checking her out and forgets to watch the waves. Well, I hollered "Steve, wave!" Too late. He washed up on the shore right near the woman that had captured his attention. He had to crawl a little and was helped up! That still makes me laugh!

 

[Rick Inman]

Jumped into 41 degree water and forgot to zip up my drysuit.

Have descended a few times with my mask off.

Stopped at the dive shop this Tuesday before the dive, talked with employees, other divers, showed them my new hood. 5 miles down the road on the way to the dive, the shop owner called my cell. I forgot my hood. Turned around, went back and got it. Then halfway back to the dive site, I realized that I forgot to fill my tanks! So I turned around and went home.

 

[daniel f aleman]

I've also descended with my mask off.

I have the "little five rule" - if five little things go wrong prior to getting in the water, I know it's not my day to dive, and I sit it out.

As an instructor, there are days when you just can't control your students, for whatever reason (each group dynamic is different). On those occasions, I step back a do a class review of what has been taught and exercised; if I find that the group has settled, we continue with the class.

 

[RonFrank]

I'm not an instructor, but have certainly done some stupood things in front of others who likely consider me someone worth diving with.

I've descended without me reg in my mouth more than once! Thumb the dive down, exhale, and damn where is that reg!

Ascended to about 15 feet, hit my drysuit inflater button, and.... nothing. Stopped the ascent, and spent the next couple minutes finding my inflater hose to connect it. My buddies were wondering what the heck I was doing.

Did a giant stride off the back of the boat only to discover that my fins were still on the boat! The Captain was laughing as he handed me the fins, and my camera once they were on. I was the first one in, so the entire boat had a good laugh.

We all make mistakes, and it's all good. Likely students are less aware of what is going on then most of the folks witnessing my foolish errors.

 

[TSandM]

I've forgotten to turn my argon on more than once -- Results in some frantic scrambling at about 20 feet.

I've done more than one descent with a scooter and splatted into the bottom. (Not so much any more, but in the beginning . . . !)

One of my favorite tricks is trapping my light cord under my waist belt. Somehow I never catch that in the pre-dive checks. I'm most likely to do it if I'm diving with somebody I'd like to impress

 

[1_T_Submariner]

Got to a dive site on Bonaire about (Witches hut I think) and carried Bc's,Weight and Tanks 1/2 way to the entry point and My wife asks. "Do you have our masks?" Since I was incharge of lading the truck our masks where Defogged, safe and secure back in our room. Never did make it back to that site. Maybe in MArch I'll remember our masks.

 

[NancyLynn]

Giant stride off the boat - with my snorkel, rather than reg, in my mouth.

 

[pengwe]

Jumped in without a weight belt a couple of times. When I used to wear a snorkel I would regularly descend with it in my mouth, instead of a reg.

I have forgotten just about every piece of equipment at some point or other, incl, regs, tank, weight belt, boots, fins, compass, computer.

If there's a dumb mistake to be made, I'm just the person to do it

 

[drydiver]

well, ummm, mistook a sea slug that a DM had picked up and was holding in his lap for us to see as something else . . . like a part of the male anatomy. Hey, it was my first sea slug

 

[Zeeman]

the first time I ever inflated my oral inflate SMB, I did not allow for the added lift - also neglected to let it go - luckily my buddy was with it and dragged me back down.

I then sat there, hovering at 6 meters for about 30 or 40 seconds before I realised that "breathing may be kind of nice, some time soon", and decided it was a good time to put the reg back into my mouth.

Z...