How serious a screw-up was this?

[RIdiverMike]

Certainly agree with the general sense that it's up to the diver. One time when I was a newbie on a skiff in Curacao and hanging over the edge ready to backroll, a dive shop attendant who was holding me on the edge reached over and shut off my air literally 1 second before I went over. He told me he was just checking my air but he wasn't!! I didn't really feel him turning the valve off but that's what he did - he acknowledged it afterwards. I of course realized this as I hit the water, got half a breath and then nothing. However, I simply popped back to the surface and asked him to turn it back on! We were both embarassed. I had set up all my own gear but he caught me in a moment of weakness, at least at that point in my newbie career. So I might add to all other good advice that you remember to hit the water with some air in your bc! And now I'm very conscious of others touching me - keep your hands off my kit!

 

[Jim Lapenta]

It isn't necessarily unspoken pressure. I have experienced an OWSI loudly mocking me on a boat: "Same reg I used last dive? Yup! Same BC I used last dive? Yup! Good to go!" Peter had to get noisily in the face of an instructor/guide who complained, "At this rate, we're going to be doing a NIGHT DIVE . . ." because we were doing an efficient and quick buddy check -- which no one else on the boat was doing, or had done.

That was not an OWSI. That was an OWAO- open water anal orifice. He'd a got an earful from me as well. And maybe a double one finger salute as I questioned his poodle jacket.

 

[shmuggy]

On most boats, they do not turn on the air when they switch out the tanks. There may be a long interval before they are needed for the dive while the boat motors out to the dive site. You should always check your own air- sometimes a tank isn't switched out or refilled on a liveaboard- or the tank could have had a slow leak and it is seriously short. Yes, nearly all DMs will do a check on your air before they tell you it is OK to go off the boat- but it is still your responsibility. I do not think that you should sweat this too much though. It doesn't take long to realize you have no air when descending.

 

[MarineResearch]

Couldn't agree more. I don't know if buddy check procedures vary but here is what would have happened if you had done the one I was taught.

B - BCD - Infate and deflate BCD -- Not OK, but assume there was enough air in the hose to cover up the tank being off so ... OK
W -Weights - Check that weights aren't entangling, and the belt is right hand release - OK
R - Releases -- One..Two...Three ....Four --Please turn 90%. Check the tank release by tugging on the backplate --OK
A - Air -- Check that the air is on -- OOPS -- please turn your gauge away -- Turn it on --OK. Turn back, check gauge with both buddies breathing --OK Return Octo.
F - Final Check -- Scan from head to toe and look for specialized items - OK

If you had done a proper buddy check, this wouldn't really even count as an error, and you probably would have forgotten it happened before the end of the dive. In my opinion, the only screw up here was not doing the buddy check. My instructor who has 40 years and thousands of dives experience put his tank strap on a little bit off-level, and the tank came lose. I caught it in the buddy check. It wasn't truly an error because we did the buddy check and caught it. Imagine what would have happened if his tank had come loose at 100 ft with only me, the student, to help? It could have been disasterous, if not fatal. Make a promise to yourself that you will never skip this again.

Yup. BWRAF is more than just a sound made by someone that is seasick.

 

[Suzuki416]

Nearly the same thing happened to me in the Maldives a few years ago.
I was a Padi AI with about 140 dives at the time.
I had finished my buddy check with my regular dive buddy (soon to be wife) including reg test of both primary & secondary regs then took off my bc as I was then asked to take my Video camera on this dive. This was 3 steps from me but needed assembling (took 2-3 minutes). As the camera system weighed nearly 18kg, I didn't want to wear all my kit & have to fiddle with that.
I slide out of the BC, got the camera ready, put the BC back on, along with fins & mask, attached the camera to me & took the 1 step to the door.
The Current was 'ripping' so we were asked to do a 'negative entry', bottom was 40M ish. No problem "!"!"
I stuck the reg in my mouth (both hands were holding the camera) & took a quick giant stride into the water - I was first in... & straight under water due to no air in the BC.

At 15m, (45ft) I "discovered" my reg was now not giving me any air .

& I'm still descending.

The dive is suddenly getting "very interesting"

Drop camera, unclip chest strap, extend both shoulder clips up on BCD, pull BCD up, reach valve & turn it back on.....

Phew.. air never felt so good.
Signal OK to buddy.... who had been swimming over to me the moment I dropped the camera - its not something I'd normally do - usually have a death grip on it.....

& then carried on with the dive.

It turned out that 1 of the Maldivian 'dive helpers' who was walking around the outside ot the boat (so unseen by me) thought he would turn my air on to help me get ready quicker...

Needless to say that practice got stopped after that dive...

I am also of the opinion that NO-ONE else other than my buddy touches my kit.

 

[sgl308]

Could that have been a serious problem, most definitely. And here's why: Without the air on, how could this diver have inflated his BC other than orally? After hitting the water, the diver would sink like a rock unless there was air in his BC, and with no air to breath from the regulator, would have drowned. I have a question about his entry also. Did he put the reg in his mouth as he was falling backwards off the boat?? The way I would enter the water, in any way, shape, or form, I always take a couple breaths off my regulator to make sure my air is turned on and I'm not just breathing off pressurized lines.

As everyone knows, each diver is responsible for his own gear and his own dive. Each diver should set up his or her own gear and check it, and have a buddy check it. If anything is found out of place or wrong, there should be a quick discussion about it and each diver checks the corrected equipment again. And no matter how well you do buddy checks, there is still that potential for someone messing up your gear. I've seen it before. On a boat dive, just as everyone was getting in the water, the divemaster was checking everyone's air to see if the valves were fully open. The instructor, using doubles on a backplate and wing setup was about to do a back roll off the boat and the divemaster checked his valves. He started turning one cylinder off and if it wasn't for another diver noticing, he would have been diving with half the air he thought he had.

As a general rule, I don't let anyone touch my gear. I've had divemasters on boats start to switch tanks for me and I told them to stop, and I'll tip the same no matter who switches my tanks for me.

Other than that, I hear instructors kinda joke about it in open water classes trying to make a point to do buddy checks. It is not a common thing in scuba and can potentially be life threatening.

 

[hypertech]

I've had more tanks shut off by buddies supposedly checking my air in a buddy check.

My policy now is that no one touches my tank after I have verified it is on and I put it on. If you want to do that part of a buddy check with me it mist be done before I gear up and I can see you do it.

 

[Frosty]

Not in any way disagreeing with the general opinion here BUT
I guess one lesson maybee for the Operator discussed by the OP would be a clear policy and statement that each diver is responsible for checking their own gear and they do NOT turn on tank valves. Keep it simple and have one rule for all staff/customers.

 

[shake-and-bake]

Not in any way disagreeing with the general opinion here BUT
I guess one lesson maybee for the Operator discussed by the OP would be a clear policy and statement that each diver is responsible for checking their own gear and they do NOT turn on tank valves. Keep it simple and have one rule for all staff/customers.

But this operator's policy was that they DID turn on the air, and otherwise have the gear ready to go. When they called me to the back of the boat my rig was balanced on the side of the boat and the DM was holding out the straps for me to slip into, expecting me to buckle up and roll over backwards. I'm new and paranoid enough that I made damn sure the air was on and made him do the rest of the buddy check drill (I was traveling alone, so the DM was my buddy), but I got the sense that he thought going through a check was an insult to his professionalism. Over a solid ten days of diving the one screw-up with the other dude was the only time, so far as I knew, that the operator didn't turn on the air.

I really appreciate all the responses. When you're a new diver and the operator is, obviously, highly experienced, it's easy to go with the flow and do what the crew seems to be expecting you to do. I guess my take-away from all this is that it's my ass and my life and I need to be as assertive as I need to be and take as much time as I need to take in order to make sure everything's right before the splash.

 

[SnorkelLA]

Diver: 10. You don't just NOT check your gear. With a new diver this could have gone very bad.

Boat: 7.1426209345849584958409830495830958- It is a very important thing if a dive op is going to set up the gear for them that they CHECK THE GEAR. If injury occurred there would most likely be a hefty lawsuit coming their way, because nowadays everyone sues everyone for everything.