Did you ever get entangled/stuck? Please vote.

[flyboy748]

I had a sticky moment in Blue Springs near Orlando a couple weeks ago. A scuba diver was talking about an air pocket in a side tunnel off the main spring vent down around 15 feet. (Jeff I'm sure you know the one!) Anyway, Scot Thompson and I were looking for it, but I was looking on the wrong side of the spring. I saw a hole going back under the logs, turned on the light and headed in looking for this "air pocket," I was sure it would make a good picture! Anyway needless to say that wasn't the right place, and neither was it big enoug to turn around in. Especially with me stuck to the roof due to positive boyancy at that depth! I backed out ok, after a couple nervous seconds, with my fins finding seemingly everything to catch on on the way out!

Re. carring a knife, I always carry one, accessable to both hands. However I've never had occasion to use it. I've never even had it out of the sheath in the water. I guess I really should see how easily I can get at it with my 3 finger mitts...

Good thread.
Aaron

 

[okiecaver]

Just once- not a biggie- got a fish hook thru my glove at a local lake. the line was wrapped around a submerged tree. it's a common hazard around here. Pull out knife, cut line, move on.

 

[Jon]

There was an overhanging beam off the wreck which my head plowed into

I feel your pain on that one!:blackeye

I was using my scooter and ascending next to a wreck, which has listed to one side over time, and ran smack into the smokestack, which was sticking out sideways! I think one of the bubble-blowers even got it on video.

Another time I was trying to be very streamlined and was descending pretty fast onto an old schooner. I was quite surprised to smack, head first, into the side rail of the ship- as I was looking sideways and not straight down. I heard my spine crunch and thought I had just broken my neck underwater! I was sore for a day or two, but fine. The noise was so loud that some divers near me could here the noise through their exhaust bubbles.

Another time, when I was diving with a camera instead fo a scooter, I dropped down onto a friend of mine's trimix class. His student's were coming up to their gas switch at 70' and I wanted some shots of it. I was below the group and decided that I wanted to ascend- right into the chest fo one of the weaker students. He was quite flustered and I now had my snorkel stuck in his hanress.:head I reached up, and untangled myself, gave my best "I'm sorry" shrug underwater to him and bolted for the surface.

Nothing serious and all in good fun.

Jon

 

[Tommy Engfors]

Originally posted by Jon


Another time I was trying to be very streamlined and was descending pretty fast onto an old schooner. I was quite surprised to smack, head first, into the side rail of the ship- as I was looking sideways and not straight down. I heard my spine crunch and thought I had just broken my neck underwater! I was sore for a day or two, but fine. The noise was so loud that some divers near me could here the noise through their exhaust bubbles.

My God. Talk about learning the hard way... Glad you are still with us (goes for Eric F. too btw)!

 

[tylerz]

While attempting to save a turtle's life, tangled in a fishing net, I had a bit of a scare...

http://quietdeep.com/scripts/site/writings.php?writingId=cyprus-4a

 

[naiad]

Tyler, that was incredibly brave! I'm glad to know there are people who care about animals so much.

Best of luck

naiad

 

[Will]

Hi Tyler, what a fantastic story. Full respect for the bravery and persistence.
Reminds me of the time me and my brother rescued three turtles that had been caught and were on their backs in the sand outside a restaurant in New Caledonia (we were kids at the time and didn't know they were meant for someones dinner...)

I think reptiles fill up with gas in their stomachs when they die, similar to mammals (we saw a dead turtle floating past the diveboat in Honduras). Maybe this is what happened to your first turtle.
Also when turtles are checking you out they tend only to use their front fins. I have often wondered at Carribbean turtles that have swum laps around me, one reptilian eye musing over the queer human interloper...

 

[flyboy748]

Tyler,
I tried to send some karma your way, but I gotta spread it apparently...

Great story. Made me almost feel like I was there! Glad you got the ears figured out, that would've been heartbreaking to float on the surface and watch unable to do anything. I can only imagine the frusturation level as you struggled to get them to equalize!

Aaron

 

[tylerz]

Thanks guys!

Glad you enjoyed the accounts. It was truly filled with desperation and sometimes I was just on the edge of feeling hopelessness.

Cheers

 

[ivan]

hi

I have done some pretty stupid things with caves which I have now learnt from my mistakes but I will tell my most scary one.

A few mates and myself had found a set of underwater caves in a local freshwater river. They were only about 2.5m down but there was exits and entrys everywhere underneath. We spent many days finding new paths and hiding in the cave to see who could hold their breath the longest then appear out one of the exits. One of my mates younger brothers who was considerably smaller than all of us found a very small exit, so as we were both sitting in the cave I watched he be the first one to go through and with a bit of effort he got through. I thought stuff it I will try as well and had a go, it was a very small hole and I had to squeeze fairly tight to get my chest through with my arms pointing like arrows out in front. It was only when I tried to keep going did I realise that my hips must have had more diameter than my chest because when I went to exit my hips would not move through. Naturally I started to panic and tried to reverse but I had no where to push from so at this stage I was frantically moving forward and back but I couldn't get my hips through. Luckily god was watching me this day because one of my mates adam realised I was down a while and came over, I remember his shock when he saw me he dived down grabbed my arms and yanked trying to get me out it didn't work so he went for a breath and I think he screamed out to everyone else. He came down a second time and put his feet on both side of the cave grabbed both my hands and yanked really hard which then I luckily came out with a few bad cuts on each side. i have never been so scared in my life.

Moral of the story dont swim through small gaps :naughty

cheers

 

[Tommy Engfors]

Andrew,

Hands down one of the scariest stories I have ever read. I hope you thanked your buddy with a Ferrari or better!

Would also like to comment on Tylers (brave) story about the turtle. I was wondering - What were the odds?

The poor turtle is in the middle of nowhere, nobody knows it's around. It gets trapped and has only a few minutes left to live. Only thing capable of setting it free from the hopeless entanglement, is an animal friendly human being. Quite unlikely.

At least five criteria must be satisfied:

1. The diver must pass that particular area
2. It must happen within a very limited frame of time
3. The diver must look at the right place when passing
4. Have the ability to dive 10 meters down
5. In case of no scuba - hold the breath for a fair while (2mins)

Even then it can still fail... (because of the equalizing for instance)

What great luck!

 

[Pekka]

I have never got myself caught in a cave, but anytime I see one I have to go chechk it out.. it is like forbidden fruit for me.. I love freediving into caves and holes.. the feeling of diving through a cave even at shallow depth is quite unique...
Deepest cave I have looked at was -24m in Egypt.. bit too far back then for further investigation unfortunately. Now I would love to make revisiting trip to the same spot and take closer look at the thing..

God Bless us all...
happy Easter

Pekka

 

[Alun]

unfortunately, i now have another incident to add to the list!
today i managed to get myself caught at 63. we have just started feeding the rope through a tennis ball, which is positioned about 1-2m above the target plate. i believe this is an idea that originates from Nice and is meant to stop a lanyard from interfering with the target plate. anyway, i went to the bottom, turned then suddently felt i was caught and was beginning to pull up the weight. i immediately realised that the lanyard was caught under the tennis ball, so i quickly pulled the quick release shakle with one hand and released myself and swam up free from the rope. it only added 2 seconds to my dive and made no real difference in the end, but it could have been more serious if i had difficulty in releasing the lanyard like last time (see earlier posting in this thread).

i need to contact the people who use these tennis balls to make sure i'm using it in the right way. i've used it 3-4 times now with no problem. our old system worked fine for months and months, so i'm tempted to revert back to our old system.

....so please take this story as a warning... be very careful when using lanyards. they are good, but make extra sure they won't get caught, and above all make sure you can release the lanyard within 2 seconds using one hand, without even looking.... this is what i did today, and i surfaced without a problem and am able to tell you this story!

 

[Will]

Pearse resurgence

Speaking of caves - who wants to freedive here? This is a resurgence in the North of the South Island, New Zealand...

 

[Tommy Engfors]

Re: Pearse resurgence

Originally posted by Will
Speaking of caves - who wants to freedive here? This is a resurgence in the North of the South Island, New Zealand...

Freedive that?! Ehum... count me out.

Still a member of the Claustrophobia Association...

 

[Tommy Engfors]

Alun,

Couldn't give you karma. Good post. Shows how even the little things can become important in an instant.

 

[Pablo]

Postcard form hell... "Joint me!"

I freedive a few caves in Mallorca... Kind of cool until the day one of the exits become a whirlpool straight out one of your nightmares. We spend more than 20h on the inside system taking photos over a few siphons... and the outside pool connected to the sea pick up some unexpected waves. To give an idea each wave compress decompress the air forcing the alternate condensation of the water on the air (fog... no viz) and a real bad time to our ears.
Pull out wasn't that hard... but with 12 dry barrels of photo stuff he become a russian roulette.

But I had wonderful and really cold experience at the end of a long narrow cave (about 2h of tiny gaps) in the must pure water poll I may have been the firs to dive. Good stuff!

A good friend use to take me with him to this trips. Mallorca is hollow, and is absolutely amazing caves to dive and explore. A lot of them require a short dive, and you then change over to caving tech for the exploration.

 

[Jason Billows]

I had my lanyard get caught up on the weight at the bottom of a training line once. It was only for a moment, but sure gave me a scare.

Since then I have made sure we have a plate at the bottom of the line when using lanyards to eliminate any chance of it getting caught.

Jason Billows
Ottawa, Canada

 

[pyro]

well there was that time, i didnt really got stuck, but it was my first ever dive to -20, there i saw a litle octapuss, so i found a stick and started poking it, trying to make it come out and grab it, but no luck, i was actually entertaining myself watching the poor litle creature taking the stick into its litle hidding stop that i forgot i am actually 20 meters underwater...hehe

 

[nickw]

I have never got caught, but had a scary moment...or as I like to call them, a 'lesson'.
Was diving in the carribbean, there was a swim through about 10 meters down and about 25 meters across. Really rough day at the surface and water was really surgy, it didnt feel relaxed or confident at all. Dove down the go through the cave, hesistated(not good), but said screw it and went through it. Halfway through my heel hit the top of the cave, which resulted in my right fin being torn from my foot and dropping (black teams=lead weight) towards the bottom of the cave. I thought for a split second of going on without it, but didnt want to leave my fin down there with no way to get it. I turned and swam to it which took longer then I thought, grabbed it held it in my had while kicking with my left foot and swimming with my right arm while doing a half breast stroke kick. Needless to say it took forever to get to the surface.
Made it to the surface and thought I was going to BO.
Neve again will I put my life in question for any piece of gear, hell it was time for new fins anyways. I now dive with fin keepers