What basic safety procedures have you let slide?

[knowone]

My mask skills are 100% successful most of the time but I can't remember ever comfortably swimming without one unless I am and the burning red eyeballs in the pub afterwards aren't very attractive even if people do know what you have been doing..

Watching and listening to people helps to avoid mistakes.

Visualising a dive is helpful if you're not into making mistakes twice.

 

[Rescue Diver68]

Definitely I am guilty of diving solo.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I actually teach more safety protocols that I consider basic than I was taught in my OW classes. Some of what I consider basic safety protocols were either not addressed adequately , ie buddy positioning and communication, or frankly not at all. For example if a buddy is using an integrated weight system I want to pull and replace the pockets before we ever hit the water. I want to know if there's a problem do I need to pull straight out, can I pull from either side, and how much force is required. I've recently seen a few brand new bcs that need enough force, due to the new velcro, that it would be easy for a weaker person to have difficulty if they went to quickly dump a person's weights and did not grasp the handles firmly enough. I want to know that up front, as well as the ones that are not as secure and may result in me having to retrieve and replace or help replace one that falls out.

 

[wrybosome]

Thorough buddy checks.

 

[piikki]

Well, given the tendency on Scubaboard for any admission of even the slightest error to be met with vicious eviscerations, I'd be surprised if you get too many people in here openly admitting doing anything wrong! Heck, one guy just got flogged for being ten feet away from his buddy at the surface...another one for forgetting to hit the purge button on his reg when he put it back in his mouth. And that was just in the last couple of days!

At the risk of subjecting myself to yet another classic SB evisceration (and it wouldn't be my first), I will openly admit that my husband and I don't do buddy checks to the degree that we used to. We know each other's gear so well that we don't need to do the whole BWARF sort of thing - I know where his weights and alternate air are and vice versa.

Don't forget the flogging one can get for admitting to being to OCD about checking! There is that too ("If you are that insecure then maybe you should just quit diving altogether")

I admit I do sometimes get sloppy on routine dives, and I do not eg get all of my cutting devices out of their sheaths. I also get lazy pulling everything out of my suit pockets and this has lately bit me in the butt - haven't found everything I expected in there during a dive. I used to always have same things but apparently not any more. Also with my SM rig it is more of a risk to fiddle with the BC dumps the way they are rigged to I will sometimes just skip 'checking' their tightness like I would do with BM if the BC seems to be holding air (I always check buttons and inflate before I even put the BC on to see there is no major hissies).

I do not do valve drills like I used to but it's kind of moot point with sidemount. Also, buddy checks are way more mellow nowadays with regular buddy. It's more in the line of eyeballing each others gear and asking "did you do that and for sure that is done too, how much gas ya have in each tank". For outsider it might appear it was not done, and for sure it would appear no dive plan exists because we always make dive plans prior to arriving to dive site/charter and only amend if needed.

 

[Potapko]

Well, since we normally dive collectively solo, we tend to ignore air sharing drills, and since I went to a hog set-up only some of my buddies know what they are looking at so that has gone to the wayside. I take for granted that I can get my valves shut if needed. Umm, what else. Hey, I always check my lamp before a dive and check my back-up second stage after submerging :shocked2:

I always ask for a bubble check.
Not to hyjack the thread but how many tech divers do a buddy check before entering the water. We also tend to take for granted that by this point we know how to set our equipment up.
I know that doesn't account for senior moments but I'm just confessing here ok

 

[Hawkwood]

I actually teach more safety protocols that I consider basic than I was taught in my OW classes. Some of what I consider basic safety protocols were either not addressed adequately , ie buddy positioning and communication, or frankly not at all. For example if a buddy is using an integrated weight system I want to pull and replace the pockets before we ever hit the water. I want to know if there's a problem do I need to pull straight out, can I pull from either side, and how much force is required. I've recently seen a few brand new bcs that need enough force, due to the new velcro, that it would be easy for a weaker person to have difficulty if they went to quickly dump a person's weights and did not grasp the handles firmly enough. I want to know that up front, as well as the ones that are not as secure and may result in me having to retrieve and replace or help replace one that falls out.

That is a good point and it is something I started to incorporate a while ago as well. With so many different styles etc., I think it is important to get folks into the habit of physically manipulating the "quick release" as part of the pre-dive safety check. It is a bit different story with the zip cord style but at least one can undo the Velcro to get an idea of the force that might be needed. I think more time can be spent looking over a buddy's BCD to know the features...e.g. the Zumas do not have quick releases on the shoulder straps - something important to note during a pre- dive safey check.

 

[TSandM]

Not to hyjack the thread but how many tech divers do a buddy check before entering the water. We also tend to take for granted that by this point we know how to set our equipment up.

Funny . . . for tech and cave dives, we tend to be MORE observant of plans and checks. I have never done a cave dive where we didn't go through the head-to-toe equipment check. And it's not just me being a PITA, either.

 

[redacted]

I/we do not do well organized buddy checks. It is more an awareness of what we are doing and checking for mistakes as we gear up and enter. Checking gas is a verbal and test breath thing with no unnecessary knob touching. The only time I came close to entering with gas off was when I noticed my buddy had reached up and operated my tank valve as we were sitting waiting to jump. He had turned my gas off. "Turned computer on" is done first dive every day.

 

[hudson]

Funny . . . for tech and cave dives, we tend to be MORE observant of plans and checks. I have never done a cave dive where we didn't go through the head-to-toe equipment check. And it's not just me being a PITA, either.

I don't do or demand the GUE call-out locations of everything but that's because I don't really care what my buddy has in his pockets and the contents of my pockets are only safety items that I don't normally pull out during the course of the dive, and therefore don't really change. Everything else (bubbles, lights, regs, reels, location weight release, location and functionality inflators, long hose, backgas, valve manipulation, turn pressure, rest of the plan, danglies - am I forgetting anything?) are covered one way or another, both for me and my buddy.

OW, I typically only check my buddy for bubbles, long-hose/octo setup, location of weight release and inflators. And the dive plan is mainly direction & depth, but I do go over handsigns, positioning and overall speed. I also make sure I can reach and manipulate all my equipment during descent, so that doubles as a backup check for missing items. Valve check is kind automatic for me, I have forgotten to put the reg in once but I had checked my valve prior to submerging without the reg in

One safety check I'm guilty of skipping is that my BC inflator hose can be released quickly. I do NOT want a runaway inflator, yet I'm not thorough enough with this.