Diving Moments Of Grace...

[tiggrr]

First of all, I still do all that stuff....I swear, if its not one thing, its another. Will always be a booby diver. Walking across the entire boat and giant striding in my boots and no fins, almost getting in without my mask, giant stride with no reg in but holding it up when I surface yelling "I got it!" Yea, I'm cool.

About a month or so after I got certified, I went back to FL and was diving with my instructor. He told me we were going to be a buddy team of 3. He was going to spear fish, the other guy was going to hunt lobster, and I was going to hold the flag. I was very nervous/excited to show him how my 'skills' were coming along. It was a 60ft reef drift dive. I was so busy on the decent making sure I was taking care to unroll the line for the flag, I didn't realize how fast I was going. Saw the sand at the last second and landed in a big "POOF" Flailed around looking for my instructor, hoping he didn't see. Found him and other buddy just looking at me. I felt cool.

Oh yea, and 1 more.....about a year and 50+ dives, I decided to dive the fresh waters of Lake Huron for my birthday. And again, with another instructor. Wore my first 7mm and was diving freshwater my first time. I over weighted myself but, so not on purpose. I tell you, I could not get enough air in my bc to make me buoyant AT ALL. So, there is my instructor, perfect and neutral. And then, there is me....dog paddling with a s*** storm of silt behind me. The best part was getting out, my buddy telling me that I looked good. Ya gotta love a guy who lies to try and make you feel better.

I will never be cool.

 

[stormysea]

We were doing our search and recovery AOW dive during the week. We took a small runabout out to wave break and did our first back roll into the water. There was 5 of us in total, 3 students and 2 instructors. 1st instructor did her roll first to show how it was done and was graceful. First student does his roll minus gear and looks less than graceful and comes up going OW! Second student does the same, come up complaining about how it hurt. Instrutor 2 looks at me as if to say, Your Turn! I look back and say "Is there any other way into the water than that??!!"

I slid into the water with even less grace but at least I didn't come going ow!

 

[redrover]

I have probably had others and conveniently forgetting, oh the shame of it all. I do recall on a boat dive, water rough, boat doing some serious yee haw! and was first dive from this boat and it's much lower swim step.

This was the first time with multiple groups I was put with the big people (better divers.) I seek shade so sit near the head, that means I have pinball and booby trap potential making my way to the back.
I don't know what the group designator was thinking but I was a tad bit swelled with pride. Only a tad bit (personal pride) but determined to be worthy of marching past two other groups.

Even considering the bucking boat and maneuvering between others thrusting arms and sticking out trip legs, so far so good, I am worthy.
Almost there I noticed the swim step height as a bit of a red flag but couldn't come up with a reason I should worry so concentrated on the aspect of it also has no stabilizing rail to the edge. And the boat is behaving like a minor league rodeo bronco.
Now there is a line forming behind me as I pause a moment to consider my entrance. I deicide the best is; having visually mapped out the stride, wait for the next impending high rise, reach maximum momentum as hand leaves the rail and one giant step for noobkind.

Now a little side note. One leg is roughly 1 Ž½" shorter with a knee that requires coaxing to bend, not to mention in general, is not one of my stronger points. I always step off with it as the other is more reliable.

So far so good, last step with hand on rail and the boat does an abrupt rogue side kick making my planned two shuffles forward into a bit of side to side back and forth.
There I am teetering in the milliseconds between shuffles, brain asking; abort or carry on? Momentum shouted; You are worthy! To Hell with the timing, Carry On!!
Still so far so worthy, right up to the point where I begin to lift that cranky short knee and the swim step dives under water with my fin pinned to the step.
I recall my eyes growing very large, looking straight ahead, face down into the water.

My personal pride suffered quite a bit of damage with that little moment of grace.

 

[Sas]

I've done this before :blush:

Anyway, I am a very clumsy person so I have had a few moments of grace when diving. I have face planted many times coming out of shore dives. Sometimes a group of people accumulate to watch us either enter or exit, and some of my exits have involved crawling back to shore. One time I fell out of a boat (was docked) and my former instructor happened to be on the dock so tried to catch me but instead accidentally punched me in the face. I fell up some stairs once, I knew I was falling (as I do most times) and it is a horrible feeling when you know you are going to fall but you can't do anything to stop it

Another, time the current was so strong when I was trying to get back on a boat, that firstly, I had to be pulled in by a rope. And then I could not bring my legs forward onto the ladder as the current was keeping me vertical. I had to be dragged onto the boat by one of the crew as I didn't have the upper body strength to pull myself back up onto the boat without my legs. It looked hilarious anyway. After this, I was so tired from the effort of getting back in the boat that I couldn't move for a bit and then had to be dragged back to a seat as I was in everyone's way :blush:

I was beach diving too one day and instead of walking a bit further to some stairs I decided to climb onto a small wall and then jump off it onto the sand. I forgot about the weight of all my gear on my back, OWW my knees. :shocked2:

Another incidents include clipping my BC buckles with my finger in the way, jumping in the water without holding my torch properly so it wacked me in the face, dropped a 3lb weight on my knee (still got the bruise from that one), another time I got a swollen lip from a first stage hitting me in the mouth (I don't even know how this happened) and another time someone turned with a tank on their back and hit me in the face.

I've also been hit by a boat but that one was not my fault

I am ok once I am in the water and diving I think that is one of the reasons why I like diving as it is much harder to run into things, fall over or drop them on myself and things like that

 

[herman]

We all have them.

Just as I started a giant stride off a boat on Roatan I realized I had neglected to put my fins on. I am quite sure the DM heard me commenting on the situation....."AH SH!!!T".... hummm you really can talk thru a reg...as I entered the water. Deciding that diving without fins was not an option, I surfaced, got the DM's attention...Can you hand me those fins?

 

[tiggrr]

I've also been hit by a boat but that one was not my fault

I am ok once I am in the water and diving I think that is one of the reasons why I like diving as it is much harder to run into things, fall over or drop them on myself and things like that

OMG! Saspotato, you just remind me so much............. of me. LOL

3 Years ago, I was at my Ex's house and stepped off his back porch wrong. Rolled my ankle so hard inwards that I was bruised all of the way up to my hip. It looked like I had a club foot. I was rolling around in the dirt crying, telling him not to touch me, and he says.....get this "Now I know why you dive. You can't fall while your in the water"

Little does he know...........

Hee hee and you will like this one.... I was trying to exit in Bonaire and getting smacked by waves. I was a little off balance forward and knew the next set was coming. If I didn't stand up right then, the next wave was going to faceplant me right into a rock. So, I scream "GET UP!" and force myself to be standing up enough not to fall. 2 steps later, I look up to see a squadron of gray hairs in speedos just staring at me. Nice. Plus, I have the greatest scar on the top of my foot from that trip. No one else really understood why I fell so much on that trip. Everyone else had it easy.


Lets hear how you got hit by a boat and how it wasn't your fault??? I love it.

 

[seaducer]

I was gearing up for a dive in Belize's Great Blue Hole, I realized I left my booties back in Ambergris. No problem, I left my sandals on. Even got pics

 

[pidgiepoo]

I met two guys at the Fiesta American Cozumel on the first trip I took after OW cert. One was a Masterdiver and the other a rescue diver. They were kind enough to invite me(an inexperienced snorkler) with them for a night snorkel in front of the hotel one night. We were snorkeling for about an hour(and I was getting pretty good at it) when they decided to call it quits. Just then a 5 knot current came out of no where. I could tell I wasn't going to make it to the exit platform..so I zoomed past and grabbed one of the old tires hanging on the side of the dock.There I was just "hangin' around" while those two guys were cracking up. I very calmly told them they needed to put all their experience/knowledge to use and figure out away to get me off that tire because I didn't want to be hangin there in the morning when everyone came down to dive. One went topside on the dock and tried to pull me up, and when that didn't work they tried to get me to walk my hands on the concrete until they could grab me. That didn't work and I ended up just "hangin' out" on the old tire again. Finally, the rescue diver saved me. The next day I gave them some money and told them to have a beer when they got back to Denver... laugh and think about the old lady they rescued from hangin' on a tire one dark night in Cozumel.

 

[bart73]

I've done this before :blush:

Anyway, I am a very clumsy person so I have had a few moments of grace when diving. I have face planted many times coming out of shore dives. Sometimes a group of people accumulate to watch us either enter or exit, and some of my exits have involved crawling back to shore. One time I fell out of a boat (was docked) and my former instructor happened to be on the dock so tried to catch me but instead accidentally punched me in the face. I fell up some stairs once, I knew I was falling (as I do most times) and it is a horrible feeling when you know you are going to fall but you can't do anything to stop it

Another, time the current was so strong when I was trying to get back on a boat, that firstly, I had to be pulled in by a rope. And then I could not bring my legs forward onto the ladder as the current was keeping me vertical. I had to be dragged onto the boat by one of the crew as I didn't have the upper body strength to pull myself back up onto the boat without my legs. It looked hilarious anyway. After this, I was so tired from the effort of getting back in the boat that I couldn't move for a bit and then had to be dragged back to a seat as I was in everyone's way :blush:

I was beach diving too one day and instead of walking a bit further to some stairs I decided to climb onto a small wall and then jump off it onto the sand. I forgot about the weight of all my gear on my back, OWW my knees. :shocked2:

Another incidents include clipping my BC buckles with my finger in the way, jumping in the water without holding my torch properly so it wacked me in the face, dropped a 3lb weight on my knee (still got the bruise from that one), another time I got a swollen lip from a first stage hitting me in the mouth (I don't even know how this happened) and another time someone turned with a tank on their back and hit me in the face.

I've also been hit by a boat but that one was not my fault

I am ok once I am in the water and diving I think that is one of the reasons why I like diving as it is much harder to run into things, fall over or drop them on myself and things like that

I did'nt know that diving could be so painful!
maybe you should consider buying a helmet as extra dive gear?

As for me: apart from the occasional things as forgetting to connect inflation hoses, items forgotten at home, nothing really happened so far (knock on wood)

 

[Sas]

Hee hee and you will like this one.... I was trying to exit in Bonaire and getting smacked by waves. I was a little off balance forward and knew the next set was coming. If I didn't stand up right then, the next wave was going to faceplant me right into a rock. So, I scream "GET UP!" and force myself to be standing up enough not to fall. 2 steps later, I look up to see a squadron of gray hairs in speedos just staring at me. Nice. Plus, I have the greatest scar on the top of my foot from that trip. No one else really understood why I fell so much on that trip. Everyone else had it easy.

Hahaha. It is funny when a crowd gathers. I think I get worse at exiting then as the pressure is on to do it gracefully

Lets hear how you got hit by a boat and how it wasn't your fault??? I love it.

Well. The local boats don't anchor, and put down a shot line instead. They generally allow a few people to jump off at once when it is in position near the shotline. Only a few can jump off at a time as the boat has to cut its engines when people are jumping off so it drifts away. So me and my buddy jumped off and he started up the engines, and started driving back towards us to let more people in. Before he was in position some guy jumped off without the OK so the boat had to cut the engines as he didn't know where the diver had ended up (I found this bit out after the dive). It was very rough that day and a huge wave hit the boat and without engines it couldn't manouver. All of a sudden my buddy yelled out 'MOVE!' so I turned around wondering what he was talking about and was hit in the head by the bow. Anyway, the only thing I could think to do was descend to get away from the boat so I did that and my buddy followed me. I used up a lot of air at the start of that dive as it scared the hell out of me! My head was ok, little bump. It holds maybe 20-22 people so fairly big and it could have hit a lot harder, so I was very lucky~~