Dumbest Thing You Have Done...

[Windwalker]

A couple weeks ago on a boat dive, We were doing the Pinnacle in the Puget Sound. I was doing a Buddy Check, when I noticed he forgot to turn his air on. So I kindly Turned the knob right until it stopped, then backed it off half a turn.

You probably caught that..

My Buddy who is usually an Air Hog did not go through as much air as he usually does, And he found his depth limited.

When we got to the surface he was complaining that he was overbreathing his regulator. Then we noticed the mistake

We are both Dislexic, Him more then me. For those who didn't catch the mistake.. His tank was on, I turned it Mostly off..

Sheez... Glad I didn't have a broken buddy.

Now I read the knob.

 

[grouchyturtle]

Ok I get it. I don't do much boat diving. Still a rookie and not ready for that NJ Atlantic yet, so I've been doing mostly quarries.

The one boat I was on had racks for the tanks with pretty deep boots, so they didn't have to be tied.

And to ad to my list. Getting spring straps that were too big. Finished my first dive with them with both straps hanging below my heals. Damn lucky I didn't lose both fins!

 

[Roncone]

Sitting on a rocky shore during a surface interval, I proceeded to step back into the icy November Georgian Bay water for our next dive.

My buddy then yelled at me that my drysuit sipper was still wide open.

Talk about stupid, and being literally inches from doom!

Ron

 

[vfa]

Grew up in the Caribbean and started SCUBA diving around 12 using my Dad's leftover air. Calm down it was is 5' of water and there was plenty of adult supervision.

That was 28 years ago and over 800 dives later with no formal training. I guess that qualifies at least as wreckelss.

For my 15 birthday my dad got me a 3mm shorty. Since I had allways dove in a T-shirt and was neutrally buoyant , never used weights.

But my first time in the wetsuit was a disaster as I struggled to stay @ 30' so I decided to open the zipper (front) on my wetsuit and started filling it up with rocks. I was doing OK but all this rocks were pinching my abdomen, so I decided to replace them with one or two bigger ones.

So here comes the punchline...

Visibility was not very good that day and in the process of finding bigger rocks I saw this nice long curved piece of dead coral on the reef and as I was about to grab it the "rock" turned and shone its nice teeth on me. To this day I'm very gratefull the the nice moray who let me off with a warning.

BTW. Just got my OWD card.

 

[jerseygirl]

When I first purchased my drysuit, I figured it would be smarter to buy a used former-rental suit from a dive shop than spend the extraordinary amount to order a custom suit from DUI or similar. However, as anyone who has ever been burned by not reading fine print before can attest, it is worth reading descriptions carefully if you are going to make blind purchases! Basically my drysuit is fluorescent pink, white and lavender with goofy pink and white rubber traction-less boots attached. I really don't mind anymore, and actually like the bright suit (I will never get lost!) but it was pretty amusing to our whole group during an ice diving trip this past winter while I was attempting to trudge up a snowy hill still wearing my tank in this zoot suit, slipped and fell, and was flailing around like an overturned turtle!

 

[learn-scuba]

Dumbest thing I ever did was to quit a job teaching diving in the Bahamas on a 60' liveaboard only to come back to the States, take a desk job programming and marry a woman who doesn't dive (and refuses to). But that's a whole different thread. ~smile~

On a more serious note... I've done what Wrinkles talked about and I've seen countless others do it. The standard joke is that the if the diver is planning on take the boat with him on the dive, he's gonna need more weights.

The dumbest thing I ever did was to get complacent. I've told that story about the broken coral head and a wreck hook on another thread. Suffice it to say I came within an inch or two of killing myself and learned the most valuable lesson of all on that dive -- no matter how good you think you are, you're never "THAT" good. Safety always comes first.

 

[DeepScuba]

Oh Windwalker..........that's hilarious!!!! LMAO

Do everyone a favour, don't touch our stuff!

 

[Virgil]

stupidest thing i did was not take the plunge into the scuba world until i was 35.

the more i dive the more i wish i'd started 15 years earlier.

 

[Seahunt100%]

Now this is scary!

On a liveaboard in the Bahamas, my AOW instructor and his girlfriend were using DIN first stages (not sure if that's pertinent).

While on the boat, her first stage SPONTANEOUSLY blew the first stage seal at least 3 times (loud hissing).

Guess what happened at 60ft on a night dive? Luckily he was able to "fix" it (again) while she was on his octo.

I still can't believe they would take that kind of chance. I chalk it up to complacency. Could have been a disaster.

 

[tssplash]

I got married to a beautiful, little, sexy, large busted, blonde sweet thang once that looked like something out of a Penthouse Centerfold. That was a big mistake!

Oh.... you said mistakes while diving. Well, I have to say that the biggest mistake I've made since I was certified was not diving nearly enough, but I've definitely learned from my mistakes. Yes, especially from the one above!

"Splash"