This story takes me back to my second dive ever. (I did it all wrong and have since repented and gotten my certification so no flames please.)
We were fighting the first gulf war and had some R&R. One of my crew was a divemaster and talked us into going diving with him. I'd never been diving and knew nothing about it so I initially objected but he persisted and the allure of the deep overcame my common sense. Plus, I was young, dumb, and bullet proof.
On long missions he would teach scuba basics. Later we went to a dive shop (acting like customers) to talk about how the gear worked. Then he made me a dive card by cutting and pasting some graphics from a dive website together with a passport photo and laminating it. I still have it.
My very first drag off of a regulator was in 60' of water in the Gulf of Oman. To date one of the prettiest and by far the shortest
dive I've ever been on.
On my second dive, my co-pilot went with us. So it was me, breathing just a little slower now, the divemaster, and Chris.
Chris didn't descend belly first. He descended butt first and when he hit the bottom he put his hand down right on an 8 inch sea urchin. The spines went right through his hand. Mike and I spent a couple of minutes calming Chris down while separating him from the urchin and then did a normal ascent. To this day I can still remember the look on Chris' face during this entire endeavor.
24 hours later we were supposed to be flying a mission. Not being able to fly under the circumstances could have very serious ramifications. So we took Chris to the flight surgeon who understood our predicament and pumped him chock full of antibiotics.
Other than some nasty blue polka-dots all over his hand and a lot of pain for a couple of weeks, Chris did amazingly well. And best of all, I didn't have to share near as much stick time!
I dove all over the world with that card and, thankfully, never had anything bad happen. When I decided to get my family certified, I took the PADI class too. Learned a lot of good stuff that sure would have been good to know if I'd ever had an emergency!
In the words of a highly respected high school football coach I know, "Don't do stupid!"
HM
