Nothing bad is going to happen...

[DanLW]

• Not having gear serviced frequently?

In my experience (not in diving, but just general life experience), this is the easiest one to fall into. In all things, probably most of us meticulously care for our things when they are brand new, but gradually take less and less care of them once the newness wears off. I service equipment for a living, and when learning, every step gets followed verbatim. But after performing a task for the umpteenth time, we start rushing through, doing steps from memory, etc. The problem is, most of the time this type of thing won't get somebody killed, so this type of thing gets overlooked. But in diving, it can get somebody killed. That's why pilots have checklists they have to follow. If you do things by memory, you tend to forget little details... like remembering to put the landing gear down.

Do any of you actually have a printed checklist of some sort you go over before a dive, or is that going a little overboard? I suppose for a simple OW dive that only goes down 50', it's not as important as surfacing is relatively simple be it through buddy breathing, or a controlled emergency swimming ascent. But how about for the more technical dives?

 

[Teamcasa]

All new divers do "trust me" dives to one extent. That's the nature of learning to dive. The major difference is deciding on who to trust.
New divers should do a little more research on the Shop, DM and location before accepting the "It will be fine, I dived this site before." proposal.

 

[Kingpatzer]

General poor dive practices: bounce dives, going into over head environments without any training, and so forth.

 

[yarik83]

I am honestly guilty of not doing a buddy check but I always make sure to ask "Do you have your air turned on". Through 5 years of diving most divers I have seen are very apprehensive about anyone touching their gear. Myself included. I check and recheck and re-recheck my gear. I also dive with a 19cuft pony and spare air so I have tertiary and quadruple security precautions (secondary being a dive buddy of course).

90% of my dive ascents I always surface alone but only because people in my group ALWAYS dive with 100 steel tanks while I dive with 80 aluminum tanks. I always surface with 1000psi even on shallower dives, however.

I refuse to dive in conditions I am not comfortable with. I never dive beyond my limits and HAVE called off the dive on more than one occasion because I did not feel safe.

My biggest issue so far is diving with insta buddies if and when I travel. You never know if you can rely on them if and when necessary unless you see them in action. Trust me... I have dove with so called "certified 25 years ago feeling like I can dive a 80ft dive after 25 years of not diving" people and those were always regrettable. Instead of enjoying the dive I either babysit them because they forgot how to dive or I have to rescue them because they are crashing into reef and cant maintain their buoyancy.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I am honestly guilty of not doing a buddy check but I always make sure to ask "Do you have your air turned on". Through 5 years of diving most divers I have seen are very apprehensive about anyone touching their gear. Myself included. I check and recheck and re-recheck my gear. I also dive with a 19cuft pony and spare air so I have tertiary and quadruple security precautions (secondary being a dive buddy of course).

90% of my dive ascents I always surface alone but only because people in my group ALWAYS dive with 100 steel tanks while I dive with 80 aluminum tanks. I always surface with 1000psi even on shallower dives, however.

I refuse to dive in conditions I am not comfortable with. I never dive beyond my limits and HAVE called off the dive on more than one occasion because I did not feel safe.

My biggest issue so far is diving with insta buddies if and when I travel. You never know if you can rely on them if and when necessary unless you see them in action. Trust me... I have dove with so called "certified 25 years ago feeling like I can dive a 80ft dive after 25 years of not diving" people and those were always regrettable. Instead of enjoying the dive I either babysit them because they forgot how to dive or I have to rescue them because they are crashing into reef and cant maintain their buoyancy.

If that was me, my biggest issue would be surfacing alone 90% of the time. Is that common in Florida? Around here, if I surface alone it's either because I'm solo diving or I made a very poor choice for a dive buddy. If the latter, it's unlikely I'll be diving with that individual again ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[TMHeimer]

I am honestly guilty of not doing a buddy check but I always make sure to ask "Do you have your air turned on". Through 5 years of diving most divers I have seen are very apprehensive about anyone touching their gear. Myself included. I check and recheck and re-recheck my gear. I also dive with a 19cuft pony and spare air so I have tertiary and quadruple security precautions (secondary being a dive buddy of course).

********

A verbal only buddy check can be done. But I think you have pointed out a big reason why people get out of the habit. A buddy check is just that--a check. If everyone geared up correctly every time it would be redundant. In fact, why can't everyone just do a "buddy check" on themselves after geared up-- same thing, no? Have to admit though, I have forgotten to turn my air on 3 or 4 times--fortunately all shore dives.
It was just me and the charter's DM diving in Panama--no buddy check. He got down 40' with an empty tank.

 

[TSandM]

I think where I have fallen into complacency is diving with small gear malfunctions. Something's leaking a little . . . well, I know the natural history of that problem and "nothing bad is going to happen". So far, it hasn't bitten me, and I do NOT have the same approach to cave diving or staged decompression diving.

I do buddy checks before every dive (NW Grateful Diver and kathydee know this!) and darned if, even though I obviously go through everything on the tailgate before going to meet the team, I don't find things that are disconnected or otherwise not as they should be when we conduct them. If one could reliably run through a mental list of things, there would be no such thing as buddy checks or checklists.

I have friends who have evolved a diving style that deviates significantly from mainstream teaching and assumptions, and they've based it on, "We have x number of dives and nothing bad has ever happened." I worry about them, sometimes a lot.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

This "confessional thread" is kind of like going to "scuba church." Reading the original post, I proudly thought to myself how I do not offend in any of those ares. However, upon further reflection, when Debbie and I are off diving on our own for a week somewhere, the thoroughness and specificity of each dive plan declines through the week, and the very thorough buddy check of dive 1 does degenerate to a "ready to go?" check by dive 8 or 9 a few days later. Thanks for the thread, causing me to "search my own heart" and to tune up my practices so that they conform to what we teach, and to what we know is right.
DivemasterDennis

 

[SailNaked]

The worst skydivers or pilots or divers are the ones that have done enough dives to know that nothing bad will happen but not enough to know that eventually it will.

I have several hundred dives with the same three people over the last few years, and our dive plan is completely unsaid. it is not complicated and is always the same but sitll I am not sure the rest are thinking much about it anymore. They sometimes look to me and ask what way we are going if there is a choice because I am the only one checking for current. The one time I ran into a little issue they assumed I was just trying to get every last second under water.

I run safety thoughts through my head before every dive but we never discuss it. I know their gear but they have never asked about mine.
I know their air consumption relative to mine, but I have not asked them for an air check in many many dives. I carry a safety sausage, and my buddy has a backup but none of them have ever practiced using it.
we are so bad that when his (other buddy pair) all in one air guage fails, and it does about every 50 dives, he just keeps diving and occaisionally checks one of our air guages or asks us for an air check.

these are provided for learning I see the error of my ways. complacency kills.

 

[redacted]

You forgot one very common bad habit: Having gear serviced unnecessarily.

I don't check the fluid levels in my car every day before driving.