Safety and Experience in Diving

Hi all - so I was having a discussion the other day with a student and we both agreed that as a diver builds experience, safety takes a backseat to getting in the water. The conversation was prompted by an experience we saw on a boat where the diver (who had a LOT of experience) strided off the boat without letting the divemaster check his gear out. He basically said "I'm okay" and jumped.
The diver jumped in the water without his air on and without much air in his BCD. Although he was able to stay afloat at the surface, it could have been a disaster. In talking with the divemaster afterward, she said that it surprised her that he just walked past and jumped off the boat and she had gotten ready to dive in and bring him back to the surface. Digressing slightly, this is a great divemaster in action, but unless you watched closely at what happened, you never would have known there was an issue (this is why divemasters deserve those tips).

Once the diver realized the issue, he came back to the boat, Divemaster was able to turn his air on and the diver was able to inflate and head out on the dive with the group.

In discussing this, we figured that we see this a lot, missing pre-dive safety checks. And to be honest, both of us have done something like this before, been happy not to get hurt and used it as an object lesson moving forward.

There is a balance to strike with something like a pre-dive safety check, it can be both fast and thorough. I know my buddies gear, I know what problems to watch out for and I know how to do a buddy check. On the cattle boat in the Keys, with my rent-a-buddy, it is going to take longer, but then at the same time I don't want to have gear issues with my buddy that either slow down my dive or make it so I have to rescue my buddy. That extra one to two minutes is pretty good insurance. Greg