Where are my weights?

[traumadiver]

I would take this as a lesson learned rather that a near miss but you can be the judge.

I am usually very good about checking my gear completley. I have always felt, it is my responsibility to check my own gear because it is my own life that is going to need it.
So there we are on the boat, during our surface interval. I had to pop my weights out from my BC in order to exit the water from my previous dive. I also asked the DM to add 4 more pounds in my trim pockets for me.
The swells were kickin that day, spray all over the place but boy was the sun warm.

I have a very set routine on how I check my gear, very systematic. I practice it mentally and physically before a dive. Although some may say that BWRAF that PADI teaches is good, its an opinion, I feel the need to check more. I dont care if the President of PADI sets up my gear, I am going to check it myself.

I checked my gear for this dive, from what I feel is top to bottom. A little rushed though, bouncing from all the swells and such.

Splash, enter the water, everything seems good, signal OK to the boat. The rest of my team splashes and we all say lets get down quick, the swells are pretty bad.

Hit my deflator and cant get down, hmmm, deflate my skinny lungs, still nothing, try swimming down...blah. Get the DM's attention, he gives me a little weight from his BC, still nothing...then I reach for my weight integrated....EMPTY.

Signal to the DM, no weights, going up. We swim back to the boat and the guys on deck see my missing weight pouches.

OK, so lesson learned, do not let outside distractions such as swell, rain, sleet, snow, hot divemaster chicks...etcetera deter me from doing a complete check of my gear. I still cant believe I forgot to check my wieghts...blah on me.

At least it was just missing weight and not something a bit more serious like tank valves.

There you have it.

 

[TSandM]

Well, you found out we're all human!

This is one of the reasons why going through the head-to-toe check WITH your buddy is a good idea. We all forget things in the list, but with any luck, your buddy won't be in the process of forgetting the same one.

 

[traumadiver]

That is very true. I found on this trip at least that many people on our dive charter felt that if the DM/Instructor set up thier gear there was no need to double check it.
In reality I should have taken the initiative to check my buddies gear while I was checking mine.
I think what happened was the water was pretty rough and people just didn't want to take the extra time bouncing around to check thier gear out. I believe I was the only one who did, even though it wasnt a very good job at it.
I take it as a lesson learned. You can bet your bottom dollar that this wont happen again.

Thanks for the input

 

[TSandM]

I've had a variety of experiences where factors made me start to hurry and skip things -- mostly when being rushed by the crew to get in the water, for whatever reason. But with the help of a good friend who sets a perfect example, I've learned just to be a PITA about it and get the checks done. They don't take long, really.

 

[Teamcasa]

We all have done it (in one fashion or another). The best part is that you will likely never forget to do a complete pre-dive check again.

 

[Thalassamania]

... I also asked the DM to add 4 more pounds in my trim pockets for me.

I've never heard of asked the DM to add weigh to a belt or BC. Is this common practice?

 

[gcbryan]

Also, shouldn't you be able to get out of the water without taking your weight pouches off?

 

[traumadiver]

In the dive that I described taking off our weight pouches first and then our BCD to hand up to the DM in the boat were nessesary because we were exiting onto a swim step on the stern of the boat. There was no ladder to climb. We had to "fin up" our bodies out of the water, turn around and sit on the step, take off our fins and get back in the boat. Sea conditions would have made it very difficult to exit otherwise. I dont see any harm in doing that. It wasnt the first dive where that was needed. I dont have enough dives under my belt to say whether this is common practice or not, but I have done it on multiple occasions with multiple operators.

In regards to me asking the DM to add weights, I have never asked before but since they were setting up our gear between dives....I actually did see him put weights into my trim pocket and double checked they were there before gearing up. That was not the issue with this dive. If you are wondering why I needed more weight? I was having difficutly at my saftey stop keeping a hover. It was a groucy free saftey stop. I believe alot had to do with the strong current. Once weight was added I was golden at my saftey stop, there was even a school of sergant majors that wanted to hang out too!

 

[ae3753]

Better you forget your weight belt than having your air turned off

What I have found is that if I'm too rushed to do a heads-to-toe check with my buddy, it usually means that I've already forgotten something. Funny how that works, huh?

 

[Thalassamania]

In the dive that I described taking off our weight pouches first and then our BCD to hand up to the DM in the boat were nessesary because we were exiting onto a swim step on the stern of the boat. There was no ladder to climb. We had to "fin up" our bodies out of the water, turn around and sit on the step, take off our fins and get back in the boat. Sea conditions would have made it very difficult to exit otherwise. I dont see any harm in doing that. It wasnt the first dive where that was needed. I dont have enough dives under my belt to say whether this is common practice or not, but I have done it on multiple occasions with multiple operators.

In regards to me asking the DM to add weights, I have never asked before but since they were setting up our gear between dives....I actually did see him put weights into my trim pocket and double checked they were there before gearing up. That was not the issue with this dive. If you are wondering why I needed more weight? I was having difficutly at my saftey stop keeping a hover. It was a groucy free saftey stop. I believe alot had to do with the strong current. Once weight was added I was golden at my saftey stop, there was even a school of sergant majors that wanted to hang out too!

I don't understand the exiting proceures either ... sounds like a good way to loose your lead. We use weightbelts, but the idea is the same: we take off our belt and clip it to a line, we take off our tank and clip it to a line, we exit and the boat crew retrieves the gear.