Hi all you wonderful scuba divers out there, welcome to scuba diver magazine.
If you’re watching this video then chances are that you’re either new to scuba diving
and you’re doing the responsible thing and making sure that you don’t screw up on any of your
dives. Or, you’re an experienced scuba diver and you’re hoping to not see yourself in any
of these clips, I mean, is this you, For this I’m going to stay away from the
golden rules of scuba diving, they’re too obvious. Don’t hold your breath,
don’t come up too quick and don’t tickle a shark. But some of the more nuanced
things that you shouldn’t do. So, lets dive straight into my top10 Worst Things You Can Do
While Scuba Diving 1
Rely On Others to do things. I get helping your buddy out, doing things for your spouse,
picking up the pair of fins that they drop, moving that heavy cylinder for them. But, if you can’t
set up your own gear or send up a dSMB safely by yourself, then you need to get practicing.
If you aren’t the one that’s assembled your gear then you might not notice something that they’ve
forgotten until it’s too late and you’re in the water without, whatever it is that they forgot.
And if you’re separated from your buddy underwater or, god forbid, they’re unconscious, then you are
the one that needs to get things done. Try not to rely on others to do things for you, it’s nice
when they do but, you can do it yourself. 2
Be by yourself. I’ve spoken about this before in that I believe that you should always dive
with a buddy but, always prepare yourself before the dive so that you can complete the dive alone.
That way should you ever get separated you’ll be fine. That being said, you should never
turn around and not know where your buddy is. Or swim away from your buddy to go do something
without telling them. I’ve stopped to take a photo before and my buddy has vanished. Stay close, give
them a nudge if you’re going to do something and stay by their side for the whole dive, you want to
know where your sentient bailout tank is. 3
Touch things. I know I literally just told you to nudge your buddy to get their attention. But,
other than the ladder on the back of the boat you really shouldn’t touch anything
underwater, either on purpose or accidentally. Pay attention to what’s around you and water movement
so you don’t accidentally bump into some coral and destroy it. Coral has a hard enough time at
the moment without you bumping into it. And if you see something shiny or go to put your hand
out to steady yourself, don’t. A lot of things can badly hurt you underwater either because they’re
sharp on wet skin or they have nasty stingers or teeth so, until you can stop and turn on a dime,
give it plenty of space and keep your hands
to yourself. 4
Not look after your gear. Divers spend ages carefully selecting their dive gear, pay a
decent amount of money for it, set it all up and then just let it dangle through the water and drag
along the bottom. And after the dive they throw it in their bag and forget about it until the
next dive. Keep your gear securely clipped close to your body so it doesn’t get damaged or worse;
snagged on something. And after the dive, wash and clean your kit and let it dry off properly,
then get it serviced at the right schedule 5
Lie to your buddy or guide. Now, I’m not advocating that you divulge all of your deepest
darkest secrets and internet history to your dive guide. But, if you’re running low on gas,
never lie about it. There’s no shame to it but, it’s important that your buddy and guide
know exactly how much gas you have left because they’ll continue the dive thinking that you have
plenty of gas where they would otherwise cut the dive short. And don’t lie to yourself. If
you think that you’re low on gas don’t just not look at it out of protest, tell them that you’re
running low as early as possible and maybe shallow up a little so you’re breathing less gas
6 Overweight yourself. Carrying too much lead
on your weightbelt doesn’t just suck more if you drop it on your foot. It actually increases your
air consumption and shortens your dive. When you dive with excess lead you need to fill up your BCD
more underwater to compensate. As you change depth that air volume in your BCD changes volume more
because you have a larger volume of gas in your BCD and you need to add or vent more than if
you had the correct amount of lead. Do yourself a favour and do a proper, comprehensive weight check
to work out just how little lead you actually need to get down. You should only need to use your BCD
to adjust for a compressing wetsuit. 7
Get too close to a boat propellor. This is a just a general life hack that most people pick up
pretty quickly but it must be mentioned; boat propellors are not your friend,
even Indiana Jones wasn’t brave enough to take on a boat propellor.
Most divers only think about avoiding boat props when you’re just under the surface and they’re
zooming overhead, which is a good behaviour. But, where some divers make mistakes is getting out
of the water and letting their legs dangle under the RIB, if the engine revs it can pull your legs
in and the prop will win that fight. So, keep your legs, hands, everything away from propellors. And
never bow surf. Bow surfing is dangerous. 8
Anger the crew. We do this for a living and you don’t think we’ve picked up some practical jokes
to mess with you if you’re annoying. Nothing that will leave a mark as evidence that could link back
to us but, be nice to the boat crew and dive crew, they’re doing their best to help you out and they
don’t deserve to be messed with. A little fun and games is fine but, don’t cross the line. If you’re
nice to the crew then you’re more likely to get preferential treatment and I’ve had crew members
recognise me after years of not seeing me. But, if you’re nasty to them, you’re just going to get the
bare minimum. 9
Make a ton of noise. Noise carries underwater and the last thing everybody wants is a symphony of
dive computer beeping or your tank banger rattling around like a ghost in a haunted
house rattling their chains for the entire dive. If your dive plan involves going near an alert on
your computer, stay well above it so it doesn’t constantly go off and if you have a rattle then
secure it so it doesn’t rattle every time you move. Be considerate for those divers who want
to explore in serenity and rebreather divers who don’t even have the noise of a regulator to drown
out your noise. 10
Leave your stuff everywhere. There’s a scuba diving saying to take nothing but pictures
and leave nothing but bubbles. Which I’m sure is written on a fancy dive centres wall somewhere.
But, other than the fundamental; don’t litter. Don’t leave your gear draped all
over the dive deck, or whatever dive site you’ve visiting. One, it’s begging to go missing,
either from sticky fingers or a rogue wave rolling it overboard or something heavy falling onto it.
Keep your kit organised and in the right place so you never loose it and nobody trips over it.
Another very important thing is to never touch another divers equipment in or out of the water,
you can loose a finger doing that in some circles. If you’re stopping it from falling or helping
them out with something they can’t reach, then that’s probably ok. But, don’t be fiddling with
another divers gear without telling them. But, did any of these pull a thread with you?,
did you see yourself in any of these? Maybe you do leave your gear all over the place,
the first step is admitting that you have a problem and then we can progress together. If
you have any other scuba diving no-nos then pop them down in the comments section below
and then subscribe to the channel if you haven’t already before heading over to our website scuba
diver mag dot com and consider becoming a channel member to watch these videos early as well as a
few other perks but, ill leave that up to you, thanks for watching everybody and safe diving