wadedeeper
Contributor
Since this is a learning forum, I'll add my own miserable experience that happened a few years back for everyone to learn from.
Location: Boat dive in Southern California (San Diego)
Conditions: perfect, calm, sunny day, warm outside, visibility about 40'
Depth: boat sat in approx 150' water, anchor at 140'ish
Description: My father and a few friends chartered a boat and went out for a fun little recreational wreck dive. All divers on board were Divemaster or above (instructors or course directors). My dad was my dive buddy. I jumped in and sat at the surface while he suited up then he did the same. We planned to descend and follow the anchor to the wreck to take a swim around shooting video. As we started to descend, I immediately noticed my dad dropping at an excessive rate. I dumped all air and swam after to assist. He was having major problems trying to neutralize buoyancy so when I finally got to him I equalized his BCD and stopped his descent. He was in wetsuit, I was in drysuit (i was being a wuss). Problem...I had one hand on him and one on his BCD adding air while I kicked. Meanwhile, when I finally got him situated, I came to realize I had yet to add any air to my dry suit and felt the lovely pressure pushing against it, painfully. I added air to my suit and righted the wrong, but the damage was already done. Descending to 130' without adding any air to my dry suit caused the suit to fold and twist against my skin and thermals to cause bruising. when I got up after the dive and took off my suit, I found a lovely spiderweb pattern of bruising that everyone was quick to make fun of me for.
In retrospect: the worst rule breakers for pre-dive safety checks are instructors and divemasters. They immediately assume the other person is fine because of their level and the number of dives they have and don't want to insult by asking. Yet, if I would have asked how much weight he had, he would've realized he miscalculated by far and added way too much then he needed. But since I didn't, and I assumed he was fine, he nearly had a VERY bad day...remember that part of any pre-dive check is not only that you have weights, but how much weight you have.
Location: Boat dive in Southern California (San Diego)
Conditions: perfect, calm, sunny day, warm outside, visibility about 40'
Depth: boat sat in approx 150' water, anchor at 140'ish
Description: My father and a few friends chartered a boat and went out for a fun little recreational wreck dive. All divers on board were Divemaster or above (instructors or course directors). My dad was my dive buddy. I jumped in and sat at the surface while he suited up then he did the same. We planned to descend and follow the anchor to the wreck to take a swim around shooting video. As we started to descend, I immediately noticed my dad dropping at an excessive rate. I dumped all air and swam after to assist. He was having major problems trying to neutralize buoyancy so when I finally got to him I equalized his BCD and stopped his descent. He was in wetsuit, I was in drysuit (i was being a wuss). Problem...I had one hand on him and one on his BCD adding air while I kicked. Meanwhile, when I finally got him situated, I came to realize I had yet to add any air to my dry suit and felt the lovely pressure pushing against it, painfully. I added air to my suit and righted the wrong, but the damage was already done. Descending to 130' without adding any air to my dry suit caused the suit to fold and twist against my skin and thermals to cause bruising. when I got up after the dive and took off my suit, I found a lovely spiderweb pattern of bruising that everyone was quick to make fun of me for.
In retrospect: the worst rule breakers for pre-dive safety checks are instructors and divemasters. They immediately assume the other person is fine because of their level and the number of dives they have and don't want to insult by asking. Yet, if I would have asked how much weight he had, he would've realized he miscalculated by far and added way too much then he needed. But since I didn't, and I assumed he was fine, he nearly had a VERY bad day...remember that part of any pre-dive check is not only that you have weights, but how much weight you have.