What went wrong on your dive today/recently? And what did you learn?

[PEDiver]

Yesterday I learned not to laugh when my wife somehow managed to hit herself in the face with a second stage on a long hose while gearing up.

Been there, done that...

 

[RyanT]

Yesterday I learned not to laugh when my wife somehow managed to hit herself in the face with a second stage on a long hose while gearing up.

Surprised you made that rookie mistake!

 

[Belzelbub]

I had to look that one up... an 'octo' that leaks and causes 'inflation' problems... Didn't know there was such a thing where a secondary second stage and inflator were combined.

Really? They aren't exactly new. I think I bought my first one, then an Octo + back in 2003 or 2004. Most of the big Scuba regulator manufacturers have some form of octo/inflator.

 

[Dan]

Not today, but on my last dive trip. At 20m of our first attempt, I heard jet engine sound on the back of my head, so I reached out & grabbed one of my guide’s fins to get his attention. When he turned to me, I asked him what the dang noise was all about and pointed to the back of my head. The first thing he did was to hold my arm, signed me to let go my 2nd stage, and shoved his octopus into my mouth.

Apparently I blew the o-ring of my tank yoke connector. He then turned off my tank valve and we headed back to the surface to replace the blown o-ring and refill our tanks for the 2nd attempt, which went on without any problem.

After the dive we headed back to Phuket and changed my regulator connector into DIN. Yoke was no more.

To those who still have yoke connector, please take a closer look into your yoke metallic o-ring seal surface. If you see some scratches like mine (see picture, below), that’s what mine looks like after 1500 dives. It’s time to replace it.

With DIN, I don’t have to worry about scratching metallic o-ring seal surface (as it’s no longer sitting on regulator like a sore thumb, ready to be beaten up during rough handling of installation of the yoke connector onto the tank valve.

With DIN connector, I just need to inspect my DIN o-ring (see the picture, below). The metallic o-ring seal surface is protected from getting banged up and tucked inside the valve. The only way to get to it is by screwing the male DIN connector on the regulator into the female DIN connector on the tank valve. The DIN machine screw would self aligned the metallic o-ring seal surface squarely onto the DIN o-ring.

Tuna Wreck, Similan

Dove Tuna Wreck in Similan (Island 5) on 31 January, 2023. Sandy bottom was at 38 m. Top of the wreck (starboard side) was at 31 m.

scubaboard.com

 

[formernuke]

Buddy forgot his undergarments, learned pack my extra set.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Back in December I learned to triple ... quadruple even ... check that I have all of my gear loaded in the car before my 3 hr trip home. I'd somehow missed that I'd left my reg bag behind with both my primary and pony regs and transmitters. Alot of money wrapped up in that bag! Thankfully the boat crew were awesome and very customer focused. They rinsed the regs for me and hung onto them for over a month for me to pick them up on my next trip over. That service earned them an extra tip!

 

[stretchthepenn]

Forgot my suit-heater battery because it was still on the charger.

Primary light's battery died because I'd run it down the previous week.

Learned to charge all batteries when I get back from the weekend's dive, not put off the task until the night before.

 

[inquis]

This weekend I learned that adding an Artic layer on top of a J2+Xerotherm renders a perfectly-sized regulator hose too short for comfort and the decreased flexibility makes it darn hard to reach the butt dump on a Stealth wing. Oh, and 41*F/5*C water makes for cold hands, even with drygloves. Much respect to those who dive in such conditions on a regular basis!

 

[Litefoot]

I've got a new drysuit! Yay, it's been a long saga but seems to have been resolved. Customer service: the problem's long forgotten but the resolution is remembered.

It was its maiden dive along with the custom heated undersuit. Have lots of dives booked from next weekend onwards as the season starts.

Had the usual faffing around with the suit, getting the drygloves sorted out and installing the Thermovalve for the heating battery wire. Quite a lot of distraction.

Finally got the suit on in a diving lake. Lovely. Fins on, sidemount kit donned (can't dive a rebreather solo there). Finally face down, dump the wing, dump the suit, descended down the ramp to 2m/6ft and... felt a load of water on my chest and stomach. Less than 30 seconds and it's leaking :-(

Quickly swam back and realised I'd forgotten the drysuit inflator hose. Maybe it was that thinks he.

Again, as soon as I was underwater the suit began to flood again.

Out. Damn it. Must be the ThermoValve...

Undersuit was soaked. Right down to my underpants; so a full change required.

Hung the suit up for drying and noticed 10cm/4" of the SiTech QuickNeck seal was poking out where the sealing ring had popped out. You know, the one they tell you to check before diving the suit! It was behind my neck, so immediately I was immersed, the water poured into the suit.

Easily fixed that using the SiTech tool.

Now need to try this out again!


Lessons learned:

• It's a new suit; check everything!
• Fixation on the wrong thing isn't great when there's a massive hole in the neck.
• Check the neck seal before donning.

Reminds me of the time I ask a friend if his boots were waterproof. He said “Yeah, except for that hole at the top”.

 

[Vicko]

Well, I dry docked my boat, travelled 5 hours with 50 kg of gear for a dive and the dive was postponed.
I learned to never trust engineers when they tell you something is urgent. I solemnly swear from now on I will always be the one late to a dive.