Almost died today--Any captains out there???

[Puffer Fish]

Just to remind you. You said. It might be that the captain went to where everyone would be at the end of their drift dive... In that case... one just has to wait, and you eventually get there.

Yes I did... if the boat was being blown by the wind.. then sitting over the divers in rough water, with the prop turning is not a very safe situation.. imagine, for some reason, someone calls the dive and comes up right into the prop.

 

[Hoomi]

.. imagine, for some reason, someone calls the dive and comes up right into the prop.

Talk about being screwed!

 

[Walter]

I get annoyed when people drop commas when using "and", as in: I bought peas, carrots and tomatoes. I would greatly prefer it that everyone used the traditional: I bought peas, carrots, and tomatoes (even though it is common practice for newspapers to omit the comma preceding "and"). Can we discuss this practice?

I'm guilty. I'll try to do better, but seriously, I was taught in elementary school that both methods were correct. I routinely used the comma for years, but I almost never saw it being used by anyone else and I caved under all the pressure.

Lee Travino would be happy you remembered that joke..

Yeah, but he's been struck twice, don't follow his advice...

 

[waterwarrior]

Once Again I was Blue Anchors dive buddy for this dive, it was probably lost in this ridiculously long thread. I have had trouble keeping up with the forums because I am a busy man, who has a job that does not allow him to slack off on scuba board all day but there are a few things that I have picked up on that bother me(may be wrong bc I have not read the entire tread.)
1) We rose up next to the booey, I used my safety sausage, and shouted like a madman for the captain who I got the priveledge of watching get on a plane shortly after our efforts and haul ass out of there. Wish I had a whistle. Would have loved to go back down to find the others after I found out my dive buddy was ok, but she had ditched her weight belt in a panick. She had done this dive before, it was nothing completely new, she was just feeling really uncomfortable I guess.
2) I was diving with my girlfriend, not shooting every little snapper I saw down there. If Mr. Cobia swam by or I ran into a nice grouper, I definately would have taken the shot, and got it out of there but by no means was it a "Girlfriend watch me spear all these fish dive." Purely opportunistic.
3) I was by no means on "Shark Watch" with my spear gun. For those of you in the area that know much about the ledge this time of year, it is very alive with surface and mid depth fish including kingfish, AJ's, bonito, sailfish, ocasional dolphin/wahoo, and cobia. Looking down while the diveboat was no where in sight was kind of a relief from worrying about getting struck by the overhead lighting for a guy that is obsessed with pelagics. We only had one working saftey sausage and my girlfriend was much less panicky when she was holding it, compared to sitting out there doing nothing. My girlfiends was trying to get me to ditch my gun which was not going to happen, and I guess could only comprehend that I was keeping it for protection? Just know guys that I was by no means snorkling around, looking out for sharks, but was present with her.

 

[cdiver2]

Yes I did... if the boat was being blown by the wind.. then sitting over the divers in rough water, with the prop turning is not a very safe situation.. imagine, for some reason, someone calls the dive and comes up right into the prop.

Yes I did

Is that a yes it was in the Brief that the boat would be at the end of the drift dive in case of bad weather?

 

[300bar]

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

Posts about the comma have been moved here.http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/no...-proper-use-english-language.html#post4473890
Feel free to post there.
BUT do stay on topic here
Thank you

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[sabbath999]

Talk about being screwed!

Cute

 

[roughwater]

I have to ask-do you have much, if any, experience on the ocean? Your comments indicate to me that you are essentially terrified of the ocean. I can kind of see a diver getting nervous when they surface in the middle of a thunderstorm without a boat nearby to grab them. I can kind of see that in a new diver. But, for a SCUBA diver to be concerned about being "eaten by a shark" or "swalled by the ocean" is not normal.

I'm sorry - but I have to disagree with you here. Most new SCUBA divers I've been with have concerns about sharks. (And in some cases even seasoned divers).

There are different levels of concern (or in some cases fear), but it's all there - regardless of the facts and statistics that are taught in class. Over time and as one does more dives the concerns normally lessen.

Bobbing around for 45 mins on the surface (as one poster stated it) - time does go very slow. Your mind can start wondering and it's quite natural for a diver (especially new divers) to focus on different concerns such as whether the boat is coming back, will they be found, or are their sharks in the area. Now add to that a thunderstorm and the risk of lightning strike...

The concerns subsides as a diver has more dives, but over here I know of seasoned tech divers who wear shark shields (an electronic device that emits a pulse to put sharks off if they come too close), especially where great whites are common where they are bobbing around at 5m for decompression for possibly hours at a time - so to have a go at a new diver for being concerned in those situations with added stress isn't really fair in my opinion.

And as for some of the other posts that have been replied here - there seems to be a few macho people on this thread who forget where they've come from and have a little too much testosterone behind their posts and are quite willing to prod and put down the O.P and her boyfriend.

Plenty of experience is great - but we've all been new to diving at some point in our lives. We all started somewhere, and we all had to grow in confidence and experience.

I wrote in my previous post to the O.P. that they have a choice from here. They can decide to complain / have a go / etc about the bad experience or they can try and learn from the experience.

I guess posters here also have two choices. They can either put down and attack the O.P. and her boyfriend, or try to post something constructive and helpful. I'm sure the O.P. came here hoping for the latter, and I'd live to see more of the latter too!

_________________________________________________

As for what to do in that situation, one thing that concerns me is the SMB's during a lightning storm. I read only a couple of weeks ago about diving / boats and lightning. I wonder if the SMB could possibly be a lightning attracting device (especially if it's higher than the waves) and even if you were down at 20m hanging onto the line - could the charge be conducted down the line and into the diver, even if the lightning hit nearby and not the SMB?

Obviously during lightning storms we don't see dead fish on the surface afterwards, so maybe depth helps to subside the shock.

Would it be better if the OP (or anyone following this thread) was caught in a lightning storm to stow away their SMB and remain at a safe depth until the storm had passed?

 

[I Dive]

I'm sorry - but I have to disagree with you here. Most new SCUBA divers I've been with have concerns about sharks. (And in some cases even seasoned divers).

There are different levels of concern (or in some cases fear), but it's all there - regardless of the facts and statistics that are taught in class. Over time and as one does more dives the concerns normally lessen.

Bobbing around for 45 mins on the surface (as one poster stated it) - time does go very slow. Your mind can start wondering and it's quite natural for a diver (especially new divers) to focus on different concerns such as whether the boat is coming back, will they be found, or are their sharks in the area. Now add to that a thunderstorm and the risk of lightning strike...

The concerns subsides as a diver has more dives, but over here I know of seasoned tech divers who wear shark shields (an electronic device that emits a pulse to put sharks off if they come too close), especially where great whites are common where they are bobbing around at 5m for decompression for possibly hours at a time - so to have a go at a new diver for being concerned in those situations with added stress isn't really fair in my opinion.

And as for some of the other posts that have been replied here - there seems to be a few macho people on this thread who forget where they've come from and have a little too much testosterone behind their posts and are quite willing to prod and put down the O.P and her boyfriend.

Plenty of experience is great - but we've all been new to diving at some point in our lives. We all started somewhere, and we all had to grow in confidence and experience.

I wrote in my previous post to the O.P. that they have a choice from here. They can decide to complain / have a go / etc about the bad experience or they can try and learn from the experience.

I guess posters here also have two choices. They can either put down and attack the O.P. and her boyfriend, or try to post something constructive and helpful. I'm sure the O.P. came here hoping for the latter, and I'd live to see more of the latter too!

_________________________________________________

As for what to do in that situation, one thing that concerns me is the SMB's during a lightning storm. I read only a couple of weeks ago about diving / boats and lightning. I wonder if the SMB could possibly be a lightning attracting device (especially if it's higher than the waves) and even if you were down at 20m hanging onto the line - could the charge be conducted down the line and into the diver, even if the lightning hit nearby and not the SMB?

Obviously during lightning storms we don't see dead fish on the surface afterwards, so maybe depth helps to subside the shock.

Would it be better if the OP (or anyone following this thread) was caught in a lightning storm to stow away their SMB and remain at a safe depth until the storm had passed?

You don't need to apologize for disagreeing with me. That doesn't bother me a bit. However, I am having a really hard time drawing the parallel between a seasoned Tech diver employing a shark shield in Great White country and a new diver nearly having a nervous breakdown over a 45 minute float to wait for a boat and declaring the situation a near-death experience.

 

[DIVERHERB]

I have not read all the posts on this but wish to chime in. I am curious why the dive operation would let a novice diver on the boat to do a drift dive. I have been on many dives off Lauderdale, Jupitor, and the west Palm area and it can get rough over there pretty quick. I have also been picked up by charter other than my own. There are so many operators over there that even if your boat could not locate you someone would.
I know how it feels when you surface and do not see any boats around to pick you up.
The first time I did a drift over there I was a little uneasy, but I had already logged a "few" dives. All I can say is stick with it it does get better and you will become more at ease. I know divers who still feel uncomfortable floating topside waiting for the pickup. I think your b/f should have picked had you do a few more dives before putting you in this situation. If the blame lays on anyone (and I dont think it should as we are all responsible for our own actions) it is the b/f as he is the one who's judgement you trusted. Just my 2 cents