Accidents in your diving ...

[TMHeimer]

I've had a few nervous situations (cramps, currents, etc.) and the odd equipment problem. Walked into a shore dive once with my fins 50 miles away at the campground. But nothing I'd call an "accident". Took a couple of spills in rough surf on rocks, turned turtle twice, losing my dive watch the 2nd time. But again, not an "accident". Just luck, I guess.

 

[chillyinCanada]

@TMHeimer How do you get back when you've landed 50 miles from where you meant to be?

I've rolled without fins, once. I've jumped and descended to 15' without reg in my mouth, once. I've rolled without weight belt, once. I've found my inflator hose disconnected at depth, once and found it disconnected upon return to surface, once.
None of these caused a problem beyond mild embarrassment.

I've experienced some sticky inflator buttons.

 

[Dirty-Dog]

Let's see...
When we first started (I think it was before we actually got certified) I was in a poodle jacket. I didn't adjust it after we splashed, and it road up during the dive. When we surfaced and I inflated it, it constricted around my diaphragm, which made breathing somewhat problematic. How did I deal with? I started to panic a bit and was going to grab a reg from Sue, but I retained enough presence of mind to realize that this was stupid, since we were at the surface. A couple seconds thought and I just popped the cummerbund loose. Problem solved.
On another dive, I was approaching the bottom, went to add a bit of air to halt my descent, and discovered that the corrugated tubing had become disconnected from the BCD. I saw sort of upright till I got over a patch of empty sand then sat in the sand while I reattached it. This was also when we were relatively new, and I didn't trust myself to deal with it while maintaining depth without a BCD. It worked fine during the dive, but disconnected again when we surfaced. I stayed up by kicking and inflated my DSMB. It's also a 30 lb lift bag, so after it was inflated I just laid over it.
I've tumbled a few times on shore dives. I've knocked my mask off while rolling in a couple times, but always caught it. I was on the receiving end of a person rolling off before I got clear of the boat. No real injury, but it didn't feel good.
And I saw a guide have a total o-ring failure at the end of a dive, while about 80; down. I gave her my long hose, we collected the group and ascended normally, including shooting my bag. I will say that could have been worse. There were two (relatively new) divers between me and her, and they were totally oblivious.

 

[AfterDark]

On my 2000th dive I left my tanks tied to the rails AFTER I put them on. That same week I left my weight belt on the boat, cork diver. The trouble with diving is it's done by humans and we ain't perfect.

 

[TMHeimer]

@TMHeimer How do you get back when you've landed 50 miles from where you meant to be?

I've rolled without fins, once. I've jumped and descended to 15' without reg in my mouth, once. I've rolled without weight belt, once. I've found my inflator hose disconnected at depth, once and found it disconnected upon return to surface, once.
None of these caused a problem beyond mild embarrassment.

I've experienced some sticky inflator buttons.

Yes, I did the no weight belt thing once on a shore dive, and once the disconnected inflator hose as well. No problem, oral inflation. Probably some other embarrassing ones too that I can't remember.

My fins were in my trailer at the campground.
I was at the dive site with my car, 50 miles from the campground.

 

[lowviz]

Wow, so far no extremist pedantic has posted in this thread. Refreshing.

"What can go wrong, given time, will go wrong." Add to that, a bit of roughly served advice from my first sea captain: "Stay within your F%$#&!g range."

"You know your range, it comes and goes. Somedays your range is greater, somedays best to stay in the pool. Never BS yourself. Stay within your range."

I swear that he is the one single person who's advice indirectly made me a solo diver. You have to know yourself and your capabilities of the day. In doing so, you assume all liability for the dive. It becomes reassuring.

Diving with another (to this day) creeps me out. I have no idea of their range.

 

[Aviyes]

Forgot to turn my tank on until halfway through the swim out to a reef.

Jumped in without my dive computer, but luckily I store it on my BC when not in use, so just had to move it to my wrist.

Swam up from below to the ladder and the person before me was slow to move off the ladder(stood on the last step out of the water chatting) and I had to bolt to the side quickly, just in case.

 

[nolatom]

You've learned lots the hard way. Glad you got through it all. Mother Nature's a tough teacher, she gives the test first, and the lesson afterwards (that's not my own thought, I heard it somewhere).

As to me? First-ever night dive, 90 miles offshore. I had maybe 6 or 7 post-cert dives at the time. No buddy, it's a "group" dive i figured. At the gate, took my reg out to tell the DM my diver number for his checklist as required, then jumped in-----with reg still dangling out of my mouth ;-) Which reg then bounced up with the big splash and dislodged my mask. Not quite enough air in BC to float, so now I'm underwater, alone in the semi-dark, no reg or mask in place, mostly exhaled lungs and the next inhale would be the ocean..

Oooookaaay, this is not good thought I, but (very) fortunately my next thought wasn't panic, but: "Wait, didn't we cover this in class?" Yeah, we did. They said, "Just remember, if you can breathe, then you can solve all your other problems". Got it--I needed to breathe.

So I reached around back for a reg and swept my arm forward, came up with my alternate. What the hell, air is air, good enough. Had just enough lung left to clear the that hockey-puck reg. Wow, what a blessed inhale!! Air is wonderful stuff.

Then came my second recollection from class: "put mask back on, hold in the top only, exhale through nose, repeat repeat". Did that. WOW, did my eyes sting from the salt. But I knew that would subside, and now with empty mask I could breathe and (almost) see, through very watery eyes. Breathed and blinked a few times. Then, I swept my arm back again, and came up with the primary reg. Okay!! Clipped off the octo, added a little air to BC, surfaced.

My next rookie thought as I looked around-- God, I hope nobody saw me, this is embarrassing. Well, nobody did, and they were still jumping divers in nearby. My little misadventure seemed to take forever, but it probably wasn't more than a minute. Cool, my (undeserved) pride is safe. What to do now??? Well---it's a dive, bud, remember?? Oh, yeah. So I went along the guide line, down the mooring line, my watery eyes cleared, and I joined the crowd, who were making a light show out of Stetson Bank with our dive lights and colorful tank lights.

Lessons learned, the semi-hard way: get a buddy. put reg in mouth "before" you enter the water. Have more air in BC so you at least surface even if you go fetal or get preoccupied.

And the big lessons: Don't panic, just try to work the problem. And--The stuff they tell you in class is important. I was grateful for my (very good) instructor's voice in my head, instead of my own.

 

[Landlocked123]

I once worked for a guy who had been in the Coast Guard for 20 + years. He used to tell me that he was convinced that humans got dumber the closer they got to the water. Not sure if this applies to divers but perhaps we are fighting the stupid gene to some degree on every dive or as we get closer to the wet stuff.

 

[TMHeimer]

nolatom, Great job, and with such few dives under your belt. One thing I rarely heard mentioned in OW courses was to grab your own alternate if you can't "swoop" find your primary. Or perhaps even go for the octo as choice #1?
Wondering how you came up with the octo by reaching around and sweeping? Where do you keep it--not in front, on chest, etc.?