Posted by Wayne on June 07, 2001 at 17:53:12:
Ok so here are my two latest Bone-Headed dive experiences.
On Sunday of Memorial Day weekend I was to be on the dive boat Liberty. My daughter was one of the students getting certified and I was playing DM to the class. On Saturday, she and I packed our gear carefully. I had printed 2 fresh copies of my trusty checklist and we were each going down our lists. Mask – Check. Snorkel – Check. Gloves – Check. And on and on it went. Some of the stuff was not in the garage and we left those items open and came back to them. At one point my daughter was getting something from the house and I asked her to get my wetsuit from the coat closet while she was in there. My 21 year old and 18 year old daughters have the EXACT same brand of wetsuit as I do, by the way. When the 12 year old daughter came back with a black wetsuit, I thought of verifying its size, but failed to do so. She said “Is this yours” and I heard This is yours”.
Fast forward to Sunday on the boat. So the briefings were done and the boat was approaching the island. I started gearing up. But I had a great deal of trouble getting the legs over my ankles and calves. I was frustrated and felt so strangely uncomfortable as I finally got it up to my knees. Then I put my arms in and they had a hard time fitting, too. I am not small, but I am the same size as last time I dove and the same size as when I bought the dang thing. So I stood up and tried to lift my arms to get it on. That is when I realized I had the 21 year old’s suit and was in Deep Trouble. Fortunately, a crew member (a big guy) had his new 7mil O’Neil one-piece with built-in hood with him and took pity on the idiot in the back who was too stupid to check his gear before departure! I promised not to heat the suit up with any natural sources of hot water and was ever so grateful for his assistance.
I was very lucky! It was pretty funny, too. I will never do that again. Like I will never dive with 2 sizes of fins again. That happened last fall. 2 sizes of Jet fins. Other than swimming in circles, it was kinda funny, too.
So who else has had some funny stuff happen. Not dangerous, but just funny experiences. We need the levity here!
Wayne