Anybody have fun(and safe) pranks??

[scuberd]

I was on the reciving end of this, but in retospect it was funny:

during a dive in the bahamas, while looking at a small fish a ramora of at least 2.5 feet attached itself to my leg. needless to say it startled me. on the next dive at about the time more ramoras were swiming around us, but buddy swims up quietly and puts her hand on the same spot the fish had been earlier. the DM was laughing so hard his mask was full of water the rest of the dive

 

[SM Diver]

Here's one that's a lot of fun. On a spearfishing trip my buddy and I take off for the bottom of a wreck, which was 130 fsw to the dirt. I put a sticker on my tank in the boat that said "40%", although it was really 29% oxygen. When we got to depth, I started banging my stringer against my tank to get his attention, gave the "something's not right" hand signal, pointed to the sticker, and proceeded to spit the reg and fake a seizure.

That's a classic!

 

[SM Diver]

Before anyone chides me, I didn't do that, and I agree with Uncle Pug. Now, a joke topside in the boat, I guess that would be all right. We've done some pretty funny things on the way back to port.

 

[The Chairman]

that promoted unsafe behaviours. It is alright to have fun, it is not alright to put your buddy in danger. OOA drills are NOT pranks. An OOA with the wrong person could cause an esa, with the possibility of drowning, embolism, and DEATH. Not my idea of a prank. If you want a "prank" go dive with Walter... he will push your situational awareness without ever compromising your safety. It's not so much of a prank as it is a tool, but he never ever puts you at any risk... except of becoming a better diver. What does he do? He will slip a rope onto your valve and let you take him for a ride. Everyone in a dive group knows where everyone else is.

Other than that, I agree with the Pugster... most "pranks" belong on shore. Even then, most pranks probably don't belong anywhere.

 

[zimbar]

Here's what I've done. On a recent trip to Kew West I found knock-off Spanish coins in the suvenier shops. They were priced real cheap so I bought a ton of them (50 or so). Once my buddy and got underwater, I burried then JUST under the sand and kept one in my hand. I got my buddy's attention and showed him my coin and pointed to the site where I "found" it. Bill put his hands into the sand and came up with a hand full of coins. I could actualy hear him vocalise thru his regulator "HOLLY SH..!!!" He thought he was the next Mell Fisher!

 

[peter k]

If you can get it organised this is a cracker. You go in the water as usual with your buddy but there is another 2 teams already in. As you carry on with the dive the other teams creep up behind you and your buddy. The 1st one gently grabs a hold of your buddies pillar valve. The 2nd one grabs a hold of the 1st ones pillar valve and so on. Your buddy then ends up towing 4 divers about wondering why the h*ll his finning seems so much like hard work. The trick is being gentle when you're grabbing a hold of a valve.

Peter

 

[Charlie99]

My "prank" was really just a humorous recovery from being a bit forgetful. I forgot I had on my sunglasses until I had waddled down to the exit gate and went to put my mask on. So I just stuck the glasses inside my front zip shorty.

At the safety stop, I removed my mask and handed it to my slightly confused buddy. Then I donned my sunglasses and headed over to the swim platform. The real trick was to nonchalantly climb out of the water pretending that I always dove with sunglasses but no mask. The boat crew were still kind of staring at me dumbfounded, when my buddy spoiled the effect by surfacing with my mask in hand.

 

[Charlie99]

The first time I did this, it was unintentional.

I was doing a shallow night dive in front of a Cozumel hotel with my lights off when a couple of divers hopped in the water and headed my way. I stopped finning and let the current carry me down into them, not realizing that my sudden appearance out of the dark would be very unsettling.

When a half hour later I did this to another pair of divers, it was more intentional, just to see their reaction. After they literally bumped into one another in their haste to back away I decided it wasn't such a good prank after all.

 

[Iruka]

1) when someone is at the boat ladder or vertical in shallow water, put your reg mouthpiece in their wetsuit (where it meets the boot) and hit your purge button. If they have a tight wt belt, their wetsuit will puff up like the michelin man (don't do it deep, where the air trapped in the wetsuit might cause buoyancy/ascent problems.)

2) if the diver has a snorkle, "stealthily" swim above him/her and blow INTO the top of the snorkle....this will release a bunch of bubbles right under their chin & they'll be wondering what's going on with their reg.

3) carry (ok, some preparation involved) a little rubber snake or whatver in your BCD pocket....when behind the diver, hold the snake by the tail & slowly wiggle it just in front of the divers's mask...so they see only the snake & not your hand.

I suppose with anything done NOT at the surface, you want to be sure that your friend is competent enough that none of this would cause him to panic, of course.

Oh...just thought of one more, which can be done on the boat...if your friend has that long strap in back to pull up the wetsuit zipper, carefully (usually most effective way, unless they're asleep, is standing side by side & using only 1 hand) tie the strap to either an immovable object (like a rail) or to another diver. I wouldn't tie a diver to a STRANGER, but I'll sometimes "buddy up" a team on the boat this way.

 

[Kaos]

Before I tell, I have seen the diver towing that peter k describes, hard to believe some people fell for it and gave free rides. I guess I'll never know until someone does it to me.

A few years ago a group of us meet for a shore night dive. Two guys are late and after an hour, we give up waiting and enter the water. Most of us had chemical light sticks.

An hour later we exit the water and the missing buddy pair's car is in the lot. We estimate that they must of just entered the water since they had to time to arrive, suit up and enter the water before our return.

One guy cracks his chemidal light stick with his knife and pours the stuff on their car. We do likewise.

About 90 mins later we're at a diner on the side of the road talking about the dive when we see fluorescent orange, yellow, green, you name it, zoom by in the window. Other patrons in the diner ask themselves what the f**k is that, we just can't stop ourselves from laughing.

Don't worry about the car, it was an old clunker that the guy used sepcifically for diving, it already had a huge bump on the passenger's side door from his buddy's doubles on a previous outing.