Funny story but lesson learned *long*

[Fitzy]

my advice for what its worth:- take up another sport......

 

[jchaplain]

Also, I asked him if he wanted to return and he declined, and said he could handle it. I'm not one to make up peoples minds for them, and as it were, I wasn't going to argue with him since I had spent a good $50 on gear previously that morning.

You really have to re-evaluate your thought process before you continue this sport.
If you can't afford your own gear and the cost of renting is so dear to you that you are likely to throw safety out the window, then you really should leave this sport until you can afford to do it right.
I never could afford to scuba dive until recently...so I know how that goes....but you MUST consider safety first or....simply put.....you will likely die from this sport.

John C.

 

[ScubaDoobaDo]

Dakkar, you are the same age as my son... and you sound just like him.. He scares the be-jesus out of my because he thinks he's invincible like you and your friend. Please understand that you could have died out there and then we all would not have been advising you we would have been discussing a senseless accident that resulted in 2 young adults death..
Not even a good day of scuba is worth dying for....no matter how much money you'll lose......

 

[lorien]

Immediatly I realize we are going to have problems. He doesn't have a BC, all he has is a little strap that holds the tank to his back. I point that out to him and he said it works fine for his pool. Knowing full well this is a whole different ball game, I dismiss it. Long story short, he wasn't at all equipped to do the dive, but we went anyway. .

OK right here, this is your friend, you did not tell him that it was not safe to dive that way and that he and you might both have safety issues? You have not been diving in 5 years and only have about 20 dives total in your history. You are inexperienced and have not been in the water for 5 years. Your friend it just certified so he has little idea what he is doing, less experinced than you but at least he has been in the water recently. (I have to assume (?) that his OW instructor did not let him use his setup in the pool and he is talking about some other pool......otherwise this is even more frightening) You get to the dive site, see your friend/buddy is not at all equipped to do the dive, why didn't you tell him that and drive back to the shop and get him proper equipment? "But we went anyway"????? You say you don't like to make decisions for people but in this case that is exactly what you should have done for both yourself and your friend. Sorry but as others have stated you are both very lucky that you survived with no real incident. Don't count on the same luck next time.

We waddle out to the water and lay on our backs, and his tank comes unhooked and floats to the surface. I told him to turn around and I restrap it for him as tight as I can. .

Again, past time to tell him that he is not properly equipped for the dive and time to either go get correct equipment or go home or to the movies or whatever and write it off as a learning experience.

That was it. We both headed back to the shore along the surface. I was at about half my tank pressure, my buddy who had been swimming as hard as he could due to lack of bouancy control was at I believe around 300lbs. This took forever, because now his tank wanted to sink, and he didn't have anything except muscles to keep him on the surface, so I helped as best as I could..

THAT was it? Man, it would have been IT for me the second we arrived at the site and I saw his gear. I am sure not going to take any responsibility for the safety of a diver who is not properly equipped and I am surely not going to risk my life as well using such a person as a buddy that I might need. If either of you had gotten into any real problems you would most likely both have died. At least one of you probably would have. Sorry but it is true. That being said, I do have to say that I am amazed that your friend did not panic and bolt for the surface....errrrr, maybe he couldn't? And the fact that he could not establish buoyancy on the surface is a great concern, first thing you do for anyone in trouble is establish buoyancy and there was no way that could have been done here. Bad situation any way you look at it.
I really hope you take to heart all the advice that has been posted here. We all love diving, we all want to go diving. But we all need to do it responsibly and with safety foremost in our minds. Please take a refresher course and take your friend along as others have suggested. Learn how to dive safely then go out there and have fun but please, please think about what you are doing and take action before you dive. Anyone can call any dive at any time for any reason. No questions asked, you say dive is over then it is over, your buddy says no and that is that. You should have said NO before you ever got to the water.

 

[Damselfish]

What everyone else says. The title of this thread is wrong - the story really isn't "funny" at all.

 

[DivingCRNA]

WOW dude!

1) I know that full tanks do not float because my wifes tank came off her BC in the ocean. It did not float as I put it back on.

2) Buying your own gear is the least of your worries.

3) 20 dives in 5 years? And I thought I wished I dove more.... That being said-I am at 50 in 9 years. But only because each of my two children seriously slowed down diving when my wife (i.e. Dive Buddy) was pregnant and the babies were wee. And I know when to not go on a dive.

4) You have some nutz. I hope they don't get you killed.

5) Look in your OW cert book if you cannot remember what a second stage is called. Asking in the forums seems like a great way to get a new one torn for ya.

Don

Wow this got quite a few more replies than I expected.

I am a certified diver, as was my buddy. He had not been diving, like I said, since his open water cert. The details may be a little fuzzy to me, but if I had a camera to show you, I would. As for the descrepancies in my story relating to physics... I don't know what to say. Perhaps I remember things backwards, or maybe at the end of the dive he was too tired to keep himself afloat, but his tank was pointing at the surface, bottom closest to the surface for a good 30 seconds before I noticed.

Also, I asked him if he wanted to return and he declined, and said he could handle it. I'm not one to make up peoples minds for them, and as it were, I wasn't going to argue with him since I had spent a good $50 on gear previously that morning.

I'm also certainly not one to call off a dive due to jellyfish, sure, it's a little painful, especially in the eyes, but definatly not worth casting my money away for.

I agree, we probably shouldn't have done that dive, however, I am glad that we did, because we, well I, learned more in that dive than I have in any of my previous dives.

I'm happy some of you enjoyed the read, and I appreciate the concern of those who expressed it. Perhaps I need to venture out of my circle of diving friends, although I assure you none of my dives in the Keys went this bad.

Edit in my own defense: Just wanted to reiterate the fact that I have never purchased my own equipment, and it has been 5 years since my last formal training. I would not have posted in another forum if I thought it would point fingers at non-existant dive training. I was asking in that forum because I am actually finally thinking about buying my own equipment and couldn't for the life of me remeber what a second stage was. Sorry for the confusion, please don't mistake me though I'll hopefully be posting more on these boards in the future and I don't want start off on the wrong foot.

 

[Henry]

Wow this got quite a few more replies than I expected.

<snip>

Also, I asked him if he wanted to return and he declined, and said he could handle it. I'm not one to make up peoples minds for them, and as it were, I wasn't going to argue with him since I had spent a good $50 on gear previously that morning.

<snip>.

I don't usually wade in to this type of conversation because it's pointless. You are either going to learn or kill yourself. Neither of which matters to me. Having said that I want to put your $50.00 worth of gear rental in to perspective. The following is my cost for a cave diving trip to Tulum.

Plane ticket from Vancouver, BC to Cancun, Mexico $1,400.00CDN
Room at hostel for 2 weeks $200.00
Tank rentals and air fills for 2 weeks of diving $350.00
(not counting all the other incidental costs)

Sitting on the dock at the cenote with my twins on and have my partner turn to me after an hour of dive planning and say "I am mentally not in a right place to do a cave dive. Let's go sit on a beach and drink beer". Priceless.

Broke or not. Alive is better.
Henry

PS. Anyone can call any dive, any time, for any reason.

 

[Xarifa]

Plane ticket from Vancouver, BC to Cancun, Mexico $1,400.00CDN
Room at hostel for 2 weeks $200.00
Tank rentals and air fills for 2 weeks of diving $350.00
(not counting all the other incidental costs)

Sitting on the dock at the cenote with my twins on and have my partner turn to me after an hour of dive planning and say "I am mentally not in a right place to do a cave dive. Let's go sit on a beach and drink beer". Priceless.

Broke or not. Alive is better.
Henry

PS. Anyone can call any dive, any time, for any reason.

Henry;

Your STORY is priceless--thanks for sharing.

I hope you both enjoyed your beer, and planned to dive another day.

 

[lostinspace]

Hey folks, give the guy a break.

I think he realises he's been an idiot.

He's sharing his story to show how idiotic he was. He's posting in the lessons learnt section. Berate by all means for any future planned idiocy, but that he had the temerity to post his stupidity for all to see shows a certain amount of responsibility - maybe he is just beginning to grow up. Let's hope this is the case.

 

[Diver0001]

Hey folks, give the guy a break.

I think he realises he's been an idiot.

It's too late. He hasn't signed on since the lynching began in earnest.

Sitting on the dock at the cenote with my twins on and have my partner turn to me after an hour of dive planning and say "I am mentally not in a right place to do a cave dive. Let's go sit on a beach and drink beer". Priceless.

Henry, Kudos to your buddy for calling that dive after going to a lot of effort and expense to get there. How did you respond to him when he said that? Did you make the dive another day?

R..