What basic safety procedures have you let slide?

[TSandM]

I posted about not checking that my tank was full before a dive a week or so ago. Today, somebody posted about having a tank fall over and damage the regulator. I've spent a lot of time on boats where nobody did a buddy check, or a dive plan.

Which basic safety procedures that you were taught in OW have you let slide? Anything you think you ought to tighten up a bit?

 

[fjpatrum]

Two of my first three dives after cert I forgot to turn my computer on before the dive. Still had a bottom timer and a plan so figured I could get the stats from the guide after the dive. Still, bad policy to let that one go. I actually turned the computer on for the first dive but the timer elapsed and it turned itself off again before I hit the water... didn't realize it until I was already at 20 fsw.

 

[stakanak]

Yeah...OOA situations.
For some reason my two good dive buddies so not appreciate that I always want to practice ooa situations. One thinks its funny and the other gets kind of stressed out when I do it.
I thought this was the one thing that needed to be practiced on a consistent basis.
Am I wrong?
Do you guys with hundreds of dives still practice ooa situations?
Get Wet!

 

[TSandM]

The answer is . . . not as often as I should! I went out and did a skills practice dive last night, and did air-share and valve drills, and realized I need to do them more often, because I had lost a lot of smoothness.

 

[tstormdiver]

I found that I let a lot slide before I became an instructor (buddy checks, planning & even some emergency drills). Now, that I have to set the example for my students, I've become very aware of these safety procedures & follow them as I teach them I do not & have not ever believed in "do as I say, not as I do". If I'm going to teach it, I'm going to make it a solid part of my diving.

 

[Leejnd]

Well, given the tendency on Scubaboard for any admission of even the slightest error to be met with vicious eviscerations, I'd be surprised if you get too many people in here openly admitting doing anything wrong! Heck, one guy just got flogged for being ten feet away from his buddy at the surface...another one for forgetting to hit the purge button on his reg when he put it back in his mouth. And that was just in the last couple of days!

At the risk of subjecting myself to yet another classic SB evisceration (and it wouldn't be my first), I will openly admit that my husband and I don't do buddy checks to the degree that we used to. We know each other's gear so well that we don't need to do the whole BWARF sort of thing - I know where his weights and alternate air are and vice versa. We do at least always ask each other if our air is on, and sometimes we'll remind each other to put air in our BCs before we giant-stride off the boat, but that's about it.

We also don't drill like we should. We don't get to dive nearly as much as we used to, and with his knee issues we've had to give up beach diving, so every dive now is a boat dive and therefore precious (and expensive!). We know we should take some of that time to practice skills, but...we haven't.

So, there's my admission. Good reminder to get back to some basics! This is actually one of the reasons I'm planning on more training (either Rescue or GUE/UTD Fundies - not sure which yet). It's been 4 years since I took any sort of training - it's been all play and no work!

 

[Thalassamania]

I think I can honestly say, "nothing." But that is the advantage to regularly teaching courses that include all the critical items including rescue skills.

 

[marinediva]

turning the tank BACK ON.
Most areas I dive there is a bit of walk to get to entry, and can sometimes take a while to get into the water, we do our checks then turn the tank off.
till entry. There has been a number of occasions where I have forgotten to turn the tank back on before getting wet. I know I am being distracted by my camera, and it is a really bad habit, especially when you are diving with other instructors and they give me lots and lots of grief.
Oh the shame of it.

 

[lowviz]

My mask skills get rusty first. Not exactly an OW skill, but comfortably swimming without a mask is the first to go...

 

[Kingpatzer]

If by "let slide" you mean don't do regularly, I think I'm pretty well in the clear -- though like a few others I've been teaching and DM'ing so much that the protocol is in my brain.

On the other hand, anything that can be skipped I've probably skipped at least once.