Scuba Snopes

[chrpai]

I'm sure we've all heard our fair share of misinformation coming out of divers / pro's / shop employees. But sometimes you hear something and might be truth or it might be urban legend.

So with that in mind, I introduce Scuba Snopes.

I'll start:


Claim: Around the time of the Scuba Pro MK20 recall, ScubaPro bought every dive shop in the U.S. a torque wrench.
Status: ?


What things have you been told that you've wondered about?

 

[Hockeynut]

If you use split fins you will die.

 

[Kharon]

You need a really good (very expensive) regulator, especially in cold or deep water.

Fact: I've been using a Cressi XS2/AC2 + XS Octo (sub $225 total) both deep and cold (for example 93 feet in Lake George - well below the second thermocline in April & May) as well as in the Caribbean for a lot of years and have never had a hint of a problem. No free flows, no reg seisures, no hard breathing. I think the need to spend $600 on a reg is more hype than anything. Let the firestorm begin.

Note: Some people claim they can hear the difference if a CD has a dot from a marker on the nonplayable side.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

My two favorites, which I've heard for more than two decades are the diver scooped up by a water-dropping helicopter and dropped in a forest fire and the oil rig diver who had a jellyfish pumped into his butt. I still get those emails every now and then.

 

[Bratface]

I get the e-mail about the commercial diver and the jelly fish too. Also heard, all divemasters will deliberately overweight you for their convenience.

 

[Doc]

Cousteau:
Dynamite + Belize = Blue Hole
Octopus in Fish Tank + Diesel = Video
Interns have to share a Glock

Viral Internet:
SoPac DM + Moray = Toethumb

 

[boulderjohn]

Does anyone remember the case a couple of years ago in which an Eagle ray leaped out of the water (as they sometimes do), and through horrible luck collided with the head of a woman who was in a motorboat traveling at high speed? She was knocked backward and hit her head on a metal railing, which killed her.

When I heard it from a friend who could not believe I could scuba dive with such dangerous creatures, the story was that a sting ray had purposely climbed onto a boat and attacked the woman, striking her with its barbed tail as a part of its assault. I said, "Nah!!", but everyone in the vicinity assured me it was true.

 

[redacted]

Claim: Around the time of the Scuba Pro MK20 recall, ScubaPro bought every dive shop in the U.S. a torque wrench.
Status: ?

My understanding was they made the offer. I vaguely recall taking documentation of that offer to my LDS. He declined - one more reason to DIY.

 

[Superlyte27]

CLAIM: A diver swimming in a waterway gets too close to a grate and then gets sucked into the intake pump of a nuclear reactor and only survived because he got diverted into a holding pond instead of the main pump.

FACT! It was the Port St. Lucie Power Plant in S. Florida. I did a refueling of that power plant a few months after the incident. Everyone was still talking about it, and it was listed in the accident/incident log.

 

[Nemrod]

1. Double hose regulators are dangeorus and will kill you.

2. The Conshelf is not the most reliable single hose regulator

3. Jet fins are stiff

4. There are universal "settings" for underwater photography

5. Swimming is not important to scuba diving

6. Divers need a BC

7. A BC serves a double function as a life preserver for divers who think swimming is not important.

8. Regulators need to be serviced every year.

9. "My instructor said ______________ "

10. Nemrod cares what your instructor "said"

N