Your biggest "lessons learned"

[Kharon]

Thinking I'm not diving solo.

After many dives I've developed a set of unbreakable rules the first of which is:

1. You are always diving solo no matter how many divers are in the water, or how many buddies you have, or how much experience they have or what you discussed during the dive plan.

It is far safer to consider other divers in the water with you as muppets than it is to feel you can depend on them. You almost always can't - unless you have a team relationship - which is rare. (https://vimeo.com/49259855)

 

[jaybee123]

Soon after getting OW certified, a friend arranged a weekend getaway with a few people to a dive site in the region. None of us had ever dived with that shop before but they helpfully arranged everything and made the preparations pretty easy. Being in Asia, the dive crews set up your gear for you, which helps speed getting into the water when it is time to dive. The first dive went smoothly - keeping an eye on my pressure gauge, when I reached the agreed low air point (while we were still at 20m), I went to signal the DM that it was time to surface. Within a couple of seconds and before I could get his attention though, I inhaled the last 1/2 breath from my tank. I signalled to the DM that I was out of air. He looked at my reg, which was still reading that I had several hundred psi. I insisted I was out and we surfaced together, using his primary and secondary. It turned out that my reg was still reading that it had a healthy reserve, even when it was empty. They replaced the reg for the next dive, but even that one leaked, cutting the bottom time significantly.

Lessons learned:

1. There is no replacement for doing your own diligence of a dive shop before you use them. If I had done a bit of online research ahead of time, I would have uncovered that shop's spotty record. Instead, I blindly trusted the shop that my friend found with a good price.

2. Never take poor safety reviews with a grain of salt, especially if they come from more than one independent source.

3. Even if the crew sets up your gear, check everything. A quick (BWRAF) pre-dive check isn't sufficient if you haven't set up the gear. It's your safety at stake, not theirs. If the air is turned on when I arrive to suit up, I always turn the air all the way off, drain the regs and turn it back on to make sure the gauges are reading properly, the hoses are properly hooked up and the valves aren't leaking.

4. Trust your training. I didn't panic when I ran out of air at depth because my training taught me I still had several options open to get my next breath, with multiple redundancies. The DM happened to be the closest person to get the attention of, but there was also my buddy and others in the group. There was a lot of air down there with me - it just wasn't in my tank.

5. Trust your training. The DM liked pushing the limits and encouraged practices that I didn't feel 100% comfortable with. I know better now what normal behaviour is, what my limits are and that I can have a great time diving and see a lot of really fantastic things staying in those limits. There's no need to exceed them (or if there is, I should get properly trained first).

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Over a period of several yrs I have had the opportunity to watch and dive near few people who Were EXTREMELY HIGHLY regarded in the field of scuba. I got to observe them and people they were diving with.
In each case I was "not too impressed". Compared to some of the good old boys - rednecks who spearfish for work... I was disappointed with the " dive gods" to some extent. I won't even hint at the names .. But these were interesting lessons for me.

 

[Altamira]

Over a period of several yrs I have had the opportunity to watch and dive near few people who Were EXTREMELY HIGHLY regarded in the field of scuba. I got to observe them and people they were diving with.
In each case I was "not too impressed". Compared to some of the good old boys - rednecks who spearfish for work... I was disappointed with the " dive gods" to some extent. I won't even hint at the names .. But these were interesting lessons for me.

No real surprise there. People rarely live up to their hype, or our expectations.

 

[kafkaland]

I don't have the experience of some on here, but my best advice is: if there is any doubt, there is no doubt. Meaning, every time I have started a dive with even some trepidation about something (minor gear issues, conditions, buddy qualifications, etc.,) it has never gotten better during the dive. I haven't had any of those devolve into a major crisis, but I don't think any of those dives have ever turned out to be enjoyable, after all. Too much anxiety, and Murphy being your eager dive buddy in these conditions gave taught me that the best time to call a dive is before you splash. And the second best time is whenever something is clearly not going right during the dive. It isn't going to get better, no matter how much wishful thinking.

 

[divin'dog]

... In each case I was "not too impressed". Compared to some of the good old boys - rednecks who spearfish for work... I was disappointed with the " dive gods" to some extent. I won't even hint at the names .. But these were interesting lessons for me.

Some people get sensationalized in articles... And they're made out to be more than they are. Probably not their fault as much as it's our expectations.

I've been in martial arts a very long time. The people written about in the glossy mags get all the students but the teachers you should really learn from, are the ones you need to seek out. They're usually the ones who don't want the publicity. Probably no different here...

 

[Is_907]

The person wearing the gear has the worst view of it. If you see a hose routed oddly, say something. Chances are likely that the person will just ask you to fix it. I was a newbie and he was a DM. He said thanks.

This is also a learning opportunity. Maybe the odd routing or unique choice of item is actually a benefit based on that diver's technique or goals.
Sure it's not likely but it helps if you phrase things inquisitively instead of judgmentally


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Iralub]

5) As an instructor a major accident happened in an unrelated group of divers. A student ran out of air during an AOW deep dive and when he tried to share air with the DM, the DM pushed him away and panic inflated his BCD and left the student behind for dead. My dive team were standing on shore.... completely coincidentally..... ready to dive (and as I alluded to above, my guys are the ones who run into burning buildings.....). When the scene started to develop on the surface I sent them into the water. One of them had a short conversation with one of the divers on the surface and turned to me and said, "CALL THE EMS". They then disappeared under the surface. I called 112 (European 911) and soon realized that living in Holland is amazing. By the time I hung up the phone I could hear sirens and within a space of 10 minutes from the start of it all I had paramedics ... in a boat ... on the dive site.... Fire services divers with 2nd boat on the pier waiting to deploy, police on scene, 2 groups searching, a snorkeler on the surface "in control" of everyone going in and out of the water and trauma a helicopter complete with trauma doctor waiting on shore for the victim. 10 minutes. Lessons learned are multiple but in terms of scuba I choose not to give Rescue courses because of this.... I choose to assist so that I can impart my experience in *all* of our rescue courses instead of just to my own students.....

Ok guys.... I want to hear from other experienced divers about their lessons learned..... let's get this out there.

R..

I'm curious -what happened to the ooa student ultimately?

 

[FinnMom]

I am by no means an experienced diver but I wanted to share an experience that reinforced my need to practice certain skills. At the start of this summer I decided to switch to a backplate and wing with a longhose regulator set-up to further my pursuit toward tech diving. I had told my dive buddies about it so they knew how it all worked. Anyways, one of my buddies (a more advanced diver than I) decided to pretend he was out of air on a dive about 7 weeks ago, just to see how I would react. Well needless to say it did not go great. we were about 60ft deep. He gave me the out of air signal (again he was only pretending but I did not know). I handed him my primary long hose regulator and started using my bungeed necklace. I then reached to extend the primary hose regulator hose and inadvertently pulled the regulator out of his mouth. I immediately handed it back to him. However, had he truly been an out of air diver who was panicking, who knows what would have really happened. This was a big lesson for me. Now when I go diving with my buddies, we typically will make 3 dives a day. 2 will be FUN dives and one will be some sort of training dive. Whether it is practicing buoyancy control, using SMB or lift bags, practicing OOA situations...etc. The theory being we want everything to be second nature for when/if a real emergency calls for it.


My lesson is, even though I thought id be prepared to help an out of air diver, I was not. So yes, have fun, but still practice your skills! Second lesson, make sure whomever your buddy is knows your equipment well.

BTW Remember too that you must repeat the S-drill after fastening something or clipping anything onto yourself. It's important that the long hose isn't trapped under your belt, twisted into your lamp's cord or pinned down by a stage bottle.

 

[Diver0001]

I'm curious -what happened to the ooa student ultimately?

He survived.

R..