A lesson in Karma..or plain stupidity?

[bluecape]

Hi All

Just had a crazy few weeks, and in fact I'm still not quite sure how to take it.
A few weeks ago, we had a clean up day on one of our beaches in Capetown, so volunteered to help out, turned out to be the only diver in really crappy conditions, and whilst I was getting in off a rocky area, I managed to drop a fin without realising it, and went home having lost an Esclapez freediving fin, and pretty unhappy.

Anyway, I own a pair of Sporasub Carbon fins for boat dives, ( too expensive to trash on shore entries!!) so I grudgingly started using them a few weeks ago, as I cannot yet affored to splash out on new fins.

Today, Sunday, was at an area in the Southern Cape coast, and decided to look at a shore entry in rough surf to look for some Mussclecracker.
On arriving at the spot, water was not looking great, big swell, but instead of listerning to my gut, I decided to jump in. I walked out to the furthermost point, and was sitting putting on my gloves and mask, when a freak wave barrelled onto the rock, and although I managed to hold on, yep...my one fin, a Sporasub carbon, had vanished like magic. Furious, I dived with one fin for ages trying to find it, but no luck.

Then, walking back, a group of fisherman on another rocky area called me, and said they could see it about 20 meters off-shore. Like an idiot, and clearly not thinking properly having now thrown away R 3 500-00 worth of fins within a few weeks, I jumped off the rocks and started to look for it, until I realised it was about 100m out, and right in the path of an approaching Southern Right whale !! Feeling the effects of a strong rip, I decided to swim back, and arrrived back at the base of the rocks, in a shallow reef system, in the middle of a huge set of breaking waves. I was tired, and in the ***** and potentially in danger of getting into serious trouble.
After a few minutes, I realised i was trapped in the reef system and getting pulled down by the breakers, and proceeded to ditch my weight belt. That was the answer, and with a good dose of luck I managed to beach myself onto the rocks exhausted...minus a fin and a weightbelt. :waterwork

I bought a fossillised white sharks tooth a few weeks back which I never felt completely comfortable with. ( Legal / illegal ??)
I sat with my thoughts for a few minutes afterwards, watching a beautiful display by the Southern Right whale, and decided that I could make no sense of the fact that I've now managed to lose 2 fins in a month, and now a weight belt, and on top of it, I'd just had a really bad experience. I'm not usually supersticious, but I took the white shark tooth off my chain, and tossed it into the surf off those rocks, and rightly or wrongly, I immediately felt better.

It had all started by not listening to my gut feel this morning. Crazy times.

Be careful out there everyone, things go pear-shaped very quickly.

Jeff.

 

[icarus pacific]

It's neither...

I wouldn't consider it Karma and I sure wouldn't call it stupidity, but rather one of those days that will very occasionally come up and bitch-slap even the best of us with the best of intentions. Ask Jay Styron why the sets of Esclapez open heels I sent him were an odd number. :head

What I think you should be doing is congratulating yourself on having the sense or presence of mind to realize your situation and dirop your belt. That act alone will net you Karma in the way of being around later to collect some. Smooth.

 

[Jez]

Getting in when you know you shouldn't, I'm as guilty as you.

A couple of weeks back I had horrid cold for five days. I thought I felt ok by the weekend and was keen to go out, especially since my first custom Elios suit had arrived (been using surf suit) and I had been housebound all week on my own.

So of course on the weekend I went for a solo mission (naughty I know) telling myself I would only dive shallow as my body might allow and that I could get in some surface shots for some mullet at least. I arrived at my spot, which looked in great condition. I suited up and swam for 15 minutes to the spot (by now roasting in my new suit, love it to bits). As soon as I arrived I climbed down off my body board/float conversion and without realising untill it was too late my mask slipped of the back of my head.

I was only in about 8m of water over a sandy bottom and so thought my chances of finding it again with my naked eyes was pretty good. Of course I forgot to worry about how the depth would affect my sinuses and that I was supposed to take it easy and sure enough, despite equalising ok on the way down, on the third ascent my sinuses felt like they had exploded. After swimming back and hiking back to the car I made it to A&E (ER for our American friends) thanking the gods I could still drive my car despite the tears of pain.

8 days later my teeth are still numb and I'm not sure I'll be able to dive on my holiday to France this week.

I guess the lesson would be to listen to the sensible voices in your head, even if it means missing what seems like a good chance for a dive. :duh

 

[bluecape]

Yep, thought about it a lot last night, and Sven is 100 percent correct, I have to forget the fin and look at the positive side.

Take something positive from the experience, and you've learnt something= helped to become a safer freediver.

Another thing which I did'nt mention in my original post, trying to swim out with just one fin was not that great in the flat water, but when I started to get into trouble with the shore break over the reef, having just one fin became a big handicap!

 

[OceanSwimmer]

Great Story, bluecape
Sometimes the external conditions get us, sometimes the internal ones work us over, too.
I did a first (for me) last week: night diving for bugs. I don't know if it was the night (my night vision isn't good) the unfamiliar beach, the tons of gear, or what....but I realized I was in an uncomfortable situation when I felt like sobbing.....I know, I know, pitiful.
Rather than be a liability to myself or my partner, I exited.
My partner says I made some interesting comments, like, "I may be a coward, but I'm no quitter." <---- !

Sorry about your fin loss, bluecape. I lost my favorite Cressi mask in the surf hunting Corbina this summer. Didn't get any Corbina, either!