Your personal experience

[stevetim]

Per my own experience(rather..lack of)

1. Don't dive while you are tired from lack of sleep or whatever. It's amazing how many things can slip your mind in this state of mind, like holding onto your mask while jumping off the patform.

2. After a surface swim from shore to your dive spot, perform the same equipment checks as you did before you got into the water. It sucks snorkeling all the way out to a dive spot and trying to dive with the snorkel still in your mouth.

3. Dive as much as you can to make diving instinctive, not practiced. It sure feels good not to freak out a few feet under water accidentally trying to breathe from a snorkel and just calmly performing an arm sweep to grab the regulator.

I'm still such a newb, but I learn so much every dive and every day coming here. Which leaves me to:

4. Keep reading Scubaboard!

 

[vjongene]

Being very new (never even been in the water with a tank yet), I would find a lot of added value if the veteran divers (those with at least a couple dives over their heads) would share their personal experiences (as some have). I'm even talking about the simple ones of not properly attaching accesories and loosing them to the most extreme cases of bodily harm. This way, if anyone had a specific question then they could get an answer directly from the person who experienced or witnessed the incident/accident.

Many of the replies have been lists of dos and don'ts. So here are a few personal experiences:

- Diving from a RIB in Madeira. I had opened my tank valve before boarding, but it took a longish time getting to the dive site (the boat needed tanking up, etc), so the crew closed the valves on all the tanks. By the time we finally got there, I was in a hurry to get into the water. Did a back-roll with empty BCD, when trying to take my first breath there wasn't any air. I never imagined that I could fin up so fast... That was scary!

- My first and only dive in Ras Mohammed, near Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt. Also did a back-roll off the RIB, only this time I didn't have a weight belt. No way I could make that dive. My only consolation was to watch the pictures my son took.

- Dry suit shore dive in the lake of Geneva. Wading in, I feel cold water seeping in. The dry suit zipper was not closed all the way. I was a little wet, but not enough to call the dive. About 10 min into the dive, the screen of my air integrated computer goes blank. I check my SPG - forgot to re-mount it after reconfiguring my regs. Check my bottom timer (normally on right wrist). Forgot to put it on! Definitely time to call the dive.

OK, there are more, but this is enough embarassment.

 

[Charlie Brown]

When planning on diving all summer, make sure to check with your friend (who is leaving for Europe and won't be back till the next school year) that you both have the right gear. It sucks diving with XXL booties on a weekend trip when you normally wear an M/L.

 

[east-ender]

never over weight yourself so much that you need to do the above! You should be 4 lbs negative when diving a single alum 80.

Your treating the symptons not the problem and that is just stupid.

well he did say "new diver" and as far as experience and comfort level goes, being a new diver myself , i would rather be bobbing on the surf for a few (waiting for my buddy) than sinking , even slightly, at 4+ neg. by the way your experience with numbers makes you sound like an ***.

 

[jenazah]

If you're seasick prone like me. Never underestimate 3 things: Fatigue, Cold and Hunger. You can take all the medicine that you want, use all the patches. If you don't have a good night rest, not enough exposure protection (both over and under the water) and have an empty stomach you will get sick.

 

[starpilottom]

Love all the posts here and like to add that along with the batteries in your camera there is also the memory stick thing you need for didgitals. I was recently on a livaboard trip and came up saying to the other divers "Wait till you see this shot I got of a cleaner shrimp" Flash and shutter settings perfect. I could see it was going to be a great shot on the small screen. Too bad that I couldn't read the message accross the SMALL screen that said "no memory stick" Always click off a shot on the surface before you go from the camera table to the camera tank.