rainbowangel
Guest
I just completed my checkout dives for my OW certification last weekend. Hoooray!!
But that's not what this post is about really. : ) I just wanted to give a little tidbit of advice to all the other newbies, like myself, out there.
When you're in the water pay attention to where all your gear is, especially dangling items like hoses and regulators!!! Why you may ask do I think this is a good piece of advice?
On my fifth dive of our trip (my first dive as an actual, certified OW diver), everyone on our trip decided to go on a night dive. As nearly everyone on the trip had just been certified, we took an hour to go over a briefing of what to do, what to expect, etc, on a night dive... and those in charge of the dive trip made sure we went to a fairly shallow, very easy dive location.
Everyone was really excited about the dive, heebie-jeebies aside, and it was definitely a beautiful night for a dive... virtually no seas at all. So, we make it to the dive site, just after sundown, just barely enough sunlight left to see... everyone finishes getting ready and off we go! I was one of the first in the water, made my way to the mooring line, where I waited for my buddy (my hubby), and then we made sure we were all right and then started our descent to the bottom of the line, where the DM was waiting for the group.
About 1/2 of the way to the bottom, my regulator was suddenly, fairly violently, yanked from my mouth. Knee-jerk reaction I reached over my shoulder to retrieve it, however it was stuck on something... Something that was pulling it. I turned to look over my shoulder, and there was one of the other just-certified divers. She'd simply left her computer dangling at her side (even though she had a bungie to connect it to her BC). Not paying attention to where she was going, she had buzzed right over the top of my hubby and myself... the dangling computer wrapped through my regulator hose, the bungie snagged on my hose and hence as she moved on, it yanked my regulator with it. More afraid that my reg would be damaged than anything else I quickly followed her, tapped her leg to let her know I was there, and unhooked my reg. She apparently never even noticed anything had happened... Looked down at me as I was retrieving my reg and putting it back in my mouth, shrugged and swam on.
I checked to make sure my reg was all right and my hubby and I finished our descent... the rest of the dive was great.
Luckily, if anything had been wrong, I had my AAS, as well as my hubby right next to me with his AAS... so either way, I would have been fine... but her computer could have been damaged, my reg could have been damaged... and if either I or her (if she had noticed something was wrong) had panicked bad things could have come from the incident - that could have easily been avoided if she (or her buddy) had simply checked to make sure that all of her gear was properly secured.
Making sure that my computer and AAS is always attached and not left dangling at my side wasn't something that had really dawned on me as being an important part of the predive buddy check... Now, however, it's something that I vigilently check. It would be a very silly way to ruin an expensive piece of equipment, or heaven forbid, cause someone to be injured. But, since this was something that I never even thought of, I thought perhaps it was a suggestion that might help other newbies like myself as well
Cheers!
Marcia
But that's not what this post is about really. : ) I just wanted to give a little tidbit of advice to all the other newbies, like myself, out there.
When you're in the water pay attention to where all your gear is, especially dangling items like hoses and regulators!!! Why you may ask do I think this is a good piece of advice?
On my fifth dive of our trip (my first dive as an actual, certified OW diver), everyone on our trip decided to go on a night dive. As nearly everyone on the trip had just been certified, we took an hour to go over a briefing of what to do, what to expect, etc, on a night dive... and those in charge of the dive trip made sure we went to a fairly shallow, very easy dive location.
Everyone was really excited about the dive, heebie-jeebies aside, and it was definitely a beautiful night for a dive... virtually no seas at all. So, we make it to the dive site, just after sundown, just barely enough sunlight left to see... everyone finishes getting ready and off we go! I was one of the first in the water, made my way to the mooring line, where I waited for my buddy (my hubby), and then we made sure we were all right and then started our descent to the bottom of the line, where the DM was waiting for the group.
About 1/2 of the way to the bottom, my regulator was suddenly, fairly violently, yanked from my mouth. Knee-jerk reaction I reached over my shoulder to retrieve it, however it was stuck on something... Something that was pulling it. I turned to look over my shoulder, and there was one of the other just-certified divers. She'd simply left her computer dangling at her side (even though she had a bungie to connect it to her BC). Not paying attention to where she was going, she had buzzed right over the top of my hubby and myself... the dangling computer wrapped through my regulator hose, the bungie snagged on my hose and hence as she moved on, it yanked my regulator with it. More afraid that my reg would be damaged than anything else I quickly followed her, tapped her leg to let her know I was there, and unhooked my reg. She apparently never even noticed anything had happened... Looked down at me as I was retrieving my reg and putting it back in my mouth, shrugged and swam on.
I checked to make sure my reg was all right and my hubby and I finished our descent... the rest of the dive was great.
Luckily, if anything had been wrong, I had my AAS, as well as my hubby right next to me with his AAS... so either way, I would have been fine... but her computer could have been damaged, my reg could have been damaged... and if either I or her (if she had noticed something was wrong) had panicked bad things could have come from the incident - that could have easily been avoided if she (or her buddy) had simply checked to make sure that all of her gear was properly secured.Making sure that my computer and AAS is always attached and not left dangling at my side wasn't something that had really dawned on me as being an important part of the predive buddy check... Now, however, it's something that I vigilently check. It would be a very silly way to ruin an expensive piece of equipment, or heaven forbid, cause someone to be injured. But, since this was something that I never even thought of, I thought perhaps it was a suggestion that might help other newbies like myself as well
Cheers!
Marcia
