What basic safety procedures have you let slide?

[W8less]

Annual reg servicing sometimes slides to um!! more than a year.

 

[idocsteve]

I no longer practice releasing my buddy's weights on the boat prior to the dive.

Too many dirty looks from boat captains and broken toenails.

 

[BabyDuck]

i checked my backup lights before going on a trip, and still had a dead light on a night dive because i didn't check it before that dive. duh. i brought enough batteries for an island nation, thank goodness.

 

[FritzCat66]

7. Way back before I ditched the snorkel I descended while still breathing on a snorkel... fun.

LOL! Yup, did that not once but TWICE back when I kept a snorkel on all the time. Descending on a snorkel actually works just fine... for about one foot. :bonk:


One thing I wasn't in the habit of doing was the slow final ascent to the surface with hand over head they teach in OW. Then we had a local diver lose his legs from a motorboat on the surface, even though he was next to his flag. Now I am hyper-aware during that final ascent, slowly spinning around, looking and listening v..e..r..y.. i..n..t..e..n..t..l..y.. for props in the water.

 

[JollyWaffl]

Assemble my gear, get suited up, stand up to do a check and suddenly spot my weight belt lying there next to me. Twice.

Buddy checks are an absent minded diver's best friend. Thankfully it's rare that you both forget the same thing.

 

[Blackwood]

Thorough buddy checks.

I certainly don't do it all the time. Mostly, everyone gears up and we get in, make sure we didn't trap the long hose, do bubble checks, and dive.



On a personal level, I only suck vacuum on my regs most of the time; I should do it always (sucks getting in and inhaling water through your reg). I've cross-clipped stage rigging while gearing up in a hurry. I've descended in doubles without checking that the isolator is open (once, never again). Like most, I've neglected to put on my weight belt (I only use it with singles and a drysuit, not doubles or when diving wet). I've negelected to plug in my primary (canister). I've managed to route my long hose through my necklace (not sure how, but it was caught in the aforementioned checks). I'm sure I could go on.

 

[TSandM]

I certainly don't do it all the time. Mostly, everyone gears up and we get in, make sure we didn't trap the long hose, do bubble checks, and dive.

This was one of the reasons I started the thread. Even people who are trained the way you and I are, let things slide. I had to take a buddy to task for not going through the checks before a Tech 1 dive the other day. It wasn't much of a dive for him, but it was for me -- and safety shouldn't be depth dependent!

 

[Blackwood]

This was one of the reasons I started the thread. Even people who are trained the way you and I are, let things slide. I had to take a buddy to task for not going through the checks before a Tech 1 dive the other day. It wasn't much of a dive for him, but it was for me -- and safety shouldn't be depth dependent!

A lot of it I think stems from the general suckiness of standing around in heavy gear and a drysuit in the sun pointing out various pieces of kit we "know" are in place.

Those rare times we're wrong really make us go "damn, I should have dealt with the discomfort."



On some boats (like the one we were on this Saturday), it's almost impossible for more than one diver to be completely geared up at the same time, and it's difficult for any diver to gear up without help. So almost by definition, each diver will have had someone looking him/her over during the gearing up process. But the last diver only has the captain's help, and while he's completely capable and a diver himself, it's not the same as having a member of your team look you over.

 

[BabyDuck]

well, then, you shouldn't do that dive!

kidding. but i'm sure there are some folks thinking it!

 

[Dr Neil]

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. We do at least always ask each other if our air is on, and sometimes we'll remind each other to put air in our BCs before we giant-stride off the boat, but that's about it.

Once you have buddied with someone for so long, buddy checks tend to stray away from the traditional mnemonic. My son & I have evolved our buddy check into a series of Q&A that begins with loading the truck to go diving. It works for us.