Dumbest Moments Diving

[Dive Junky]

jumped in with everything....................except weights

I can relate to that. Only difference is I made it to the wreck at 80', after ten minutes I started to feel a little cold so I added a little air to my dry suit. I almost went for a ride. Thank God for a rocky bottom and big BC pockets. The hardest part of the dive was getting rid of the rocks after the dive. You really don't think I was going to tell anyone did you?

 

[HammerNoMore]

Mine has to be right after I got my backplate/wings. I'd been diving it in fresh water, where, with a shorty I didn't need any additional weight. So I headed down to the Caribean and in the salt water, I needed to add 3lbs.

I'd done a few dives and then we went on a night dive. About 2/3rds of the way through, I started feeling light. Suddenly it occured to me, I'd forgoten to don the weight belt. I was ok, but by the time the dive ended I was really starting to sweat the ascent/safety stop. I had a completely empty BC and was having to "swim down" as we moved.

Luckly, the op I was with hung a basket full of weights at 20'. Not so luckily the strobe he hung on the anchor line malfunctioned. He extended the dive a little longer looking for the anchor line. Finally he figured out where he was as he knew the site and let me know that this was the place to go up.

Well, since I was worried about the ascent, and I didn't see the line that I knew led to the weight, I indicated that I wanted to know where the line was. He swam me up about 20 feet and shined the light on the line, which I then followed to the weight.

I borded with a 3lb weight in my hand and an "I feel like a fool" expression on my face. I'm sure I would have been fine controling my ascent without the weight with a little effort, but to this day I always hold ops that hang weight in higher regard.

James

 

[boydski]

I bent over to put my fins on while wearing a very heavy set of steel doubles, lost my balance, and fell into the water from our Zodiac. My primary reg was floating off somewhere behind my head, mask was still on the back of my head and I was descending fast. Fortunately, my bungied reg was easy to locate, I put a little air into my wing, put my fin on and was able to surface as if I'd planned my summersaulting entry.

Of course my dive buddies KNEW I'd screwed up and to this day give me a bad time about it! :11ztongue

 

[del_mo]

On my resort-class dive I stupidly followed the DM and about 10 other divers through a "long" swim through in Grand Cayman with Bob Soto (since he sold the business it seems okay to mention the name) 20 years ago. It was scarey, ugly and killed any desire for future scuba diving.

Thank God at my age my memory is poor and I don't remember being scared anymore.

 

[D_O_H]

These are great... Here's mine:

It was my second dive with a new, superthick, XXL 7mm farmer john. I was getting a little light on my safety stop on the first dive, so I had just added 2 lbs. to each weight pocket of my Ranger BC. The weight pockets were bulging at the seams with all the weight I had crammed into them, but I managed to get them into their pockets.

Out we go and at about 40' I go slightly head down to check out a pair of hermit crabs dueling in the sand. Thump. Out drops one bulging yellow weight pouch. I had forgotten to zip up the right weight pocket.

By quckly finning down and dumping air from my BC, I was able to snatch the dropped pouch without rocketing to the surface. I flagged down my buddy and, after about 5 minutes of wrangling, we emerged from the giant silt cloud we created with my pouch in place and my zipper zipped.

About 15 seconds later, I went slightly head down again and... thump. Out drops my left weight pouch.

 

[mikkilj]

On my 3rd dive after certification in Cozumel, I was going through my first swim-through. I felt that my left fin was getting a little loose, and before I could do anything about it, it fell off!

Fortunately, my dive buddy/husband was behind me, I waved and pointed at my finless bootie, and he was able to pick it up and put it back on my foot.

Glad we were in a swim-through and close to the "bottom" - if we were over a wall, I probably would have gotten a new pair of fins .

The other part of the story was that after that episode, I was breathing a little heavier and started to float up once outside of the swim-through, requiring the DM to give me an extra weight. I guess few things go wrong in isolation.

 

[Wristshot]

On my first trip to Cozumel I did a really dumb thing. Well, more than one.

On my very first back roll entry from a small boat, I over-rolled and I came up directly below the boat, smacking the top of my head on the ridge running along the keel. That will get you seeing stars.

Not to be outdone by myself, I them hurt myself again getting back into the boat. Once, climbing back into a 8-pak boat on a folding ladder, I held onto the ladder, but not onto the post for the canopy. When I got to the top of the ladder, it pivoted forward, dumping me on my face on the bottom of the boat. I landed square on the face of my mask. My shins were at the ladder, with my feet in the air. My tank was smashing the back of my head, holding it at the bottom of the boat. With my feet in thin air, and all that weight on the back of my head, I had a heck of a time getting out of that predicament.

Also, when I struck the deck, my little knife popped out from the back side of my console (Aeris). I got a little bit of a "look" from the guide.

Now if you REALLY want to know about stupid, you need to read about "Ed the Diver".

Wristshot

 

[CA Diver]

This reminds me of a time that someone at the quarry filled one of their "buddies" BC pockets with "squeeze cheese".

Of course the fish essentially "attacked" the guy when he was in the water as the cheese, mixing with water, was coming out of his BC pockets.

I had a DM put open cans of Tuna in another diver's bc at Molasses Reef in FL Keys. Feeding Frenzy

 

[Charlie99]

My first ever dive was a bit dumb. The first time I'd ever used a regulator was that morning. A DM, a certified couple and me go out on a boat alone.

I run low on air early, of course, so the DM swing back past the anchor line, points it out, then swims off and disappears with the couple. Since there wasn't anybody on board, I just hang on the line by myself for 10 minutes watching the fishies before ascending. DM said I looked "comfortable", so for the 2nd dive he wondered if I wanted to do some swim-throughs and caves. "Sure, sound interesting", was my answer. I found out that breathing affects buoyancy when I sucked in a big breath of air and bounced off the top of a 30' swimthrough.

 

[Web Monkey]

I borded with a 3lb weight in my hand and an "I feel like a fool" expression on my face. I'm sure I would have been fine controling my ascent without the weight with a little effort, but to this day I always hold ops that hang weight in higher regard.
James

It's tough doing a stop if you're significantly underweighted. 3 minutes is a long time to hang upside down finning like he**.

Terry