What are some of your worst entanglement experiences?

[Landau]

Descending from a buoy along its anchor chain my buddy managed to get his BCD oral inflator hose mouthpiece wedged into the links of the chain at about 10 feet. He couldn't ascend or descend more than the length of his inflator hose.

I was leading, saw he wasn't following and ascended to see the look of more than worry, but not yet panic on his face and the inflator hose sticking out an odd angle.

It was wedged in pretty tight and I needed one hand one the chain and one on the mouthpiece and a fair bit of force to get it unstuck. We went back to the surface and talked it over for several minutes before descending again for our planned dive.

 

[Snoweman]

How many years have you had it? Looks fairly compact and versatile. Any rust? I haven't quite grokked all the different values for stainless steel.

I think I have had it for about six or seven years. A little rust on it, but just dots. I learned to coat the blades in petroleum jelly to keep them from rusting.

 

[dmcutter]

I was diving the local quarry with my grandson a couple weeks ago (he got his OW cert last September, a day before his 12th birthday) and we headed into the school bus at about 35'. He swam in through the front window and was messing around with the air pocket in the ceiling and I was hovering over the hood with my shoulders just inside, maybe 8' away from him. There's some old hardware for the rear view mirror and the hose for my octo got caught on it. Not just hooked, but there was something that pivoted and actually closed around the hose. Thankfully I could see it and got myself extricated, but my first thought was "what am I going to do if I have to cut that hose?" I was maybe 1000 psi into an HP130 so I had plenty of gas, and I'm confident my grandson would have been able to get it unhooked if I hadn't been able to, but between the time I realized I was hung up and the time I assessed the situation, it was a very uncomfortable feeling. That was the 6th time we had been in the bus in a week and a half, so it's not like it was uncharted territory. My biggest takeaway is that stuff can happen even in benign and familiar environments and you can't ever get complacent.

 

[Ghost95]

The worst was diving a shrimp boat that sunk during a hurricane in the bay. Viz was about 3' and silty. I was swimming along the sand next to the hull when i went to cross over. I ascended into one of the nets that was on the outriggers at the time of sinking. Got totally wrapped up and viz went to 0'. It took a minute to calm down and cut my way free. It required cutting, removing gear, and cutting some more.

Second worst was diving a tug. Lots of line but dive was going fine. Noticed a dead turtle tangled in the lines near the end of my dive and thought how sad that was. Then started to head up and was stopped dead by multiple lines. Oh ****...Lines were wrapped in BC, regulator, and fin buckles. Managed to cut myself free but decided then and there to have MULTIPLE cutting tools on hand. Air got low but I survived. Same day same ocean buddy system you know.

 

[Doc Harry]

My worst

I was solo diving in my local reservoir. I had twin AL80 tanks on my back. Visibility was about 4 inches, and it was completely dark at 40 feet where I was diving along the bottom. I was headed out to the drop-off at 120 feet that would take me into the deep central channel.

I was finger walking along the bottom with one hand, and had my other hand out in front of my face. Then I ran into a vertical tree trunk. There were still some dead trees standing up on the reservoir bottom.

I started to back away from the tree trunk, but I got snagged in the branches. Remember it's totally dark with 4 inches of visibility with my light.

I tried to flatten on the bottom and back out, but I was snagged good.

I fooled around for a about 10 minutes before I got myself disentangle from the branches.

 

[Subcooled]

As a new diver I think one of my biggest fears is extreme entanglement in fishing line or a net.

Oh well,

If you do swim into a fishing net, then
1) do not assume vertical position
2) do not rotate or turn
3) just reverse (eg. by sculling, it's easy)

If you manage to get entangled then relax and start cutting the net in a slow and controlled fashion. It will take a little bit of time, but that's OK. Make sure your dive knife (or scissors) is sharp and short. You can't swing a sword in a net.

I do (almost) always carry a cutting device, sometimes two.

 

[Nitrox_DiverNY]

Descending from a buoy along its anchor chain my buddy managed to get his BCD oral inflator hose mouthpiece wedged into the links of the chain at about 10 feet. He couldn't ascend or descend more than the length of his inflator hose.

I was leading, saw he wasn't following and ascended to see the look of more than worry, but not yet panic on his face and the inflator hose sticking out an odd angle.

It was wedged in pretty tight and I needed one hand one the chain and one on the mouthpiece and a fair bit of force to get it unstuck. We went back to the surface and talked it over for several minutes before descending again for our planned dive.

damn, Im glad that he didn't have to ditch his kit. Ive been doing some diving descending on a mooring chain in the last few days and now im going to be paranoid about getting hung up in it! thanks for sharing

 

[Nitrox_DiverNY]

I was diving the local quarry with my grandson a couple weeks ago (he got his OW cert last September, a day before his 12th birthday) and we headed into the school bus at about 35'. He swam in through the front window and was messing around with the air pocket in the ceiling and I was hovering over the hood with my shoulders just inside, maybe 8' away from him. There's some old hardware for the rear view mirror and the hose for my octo got caught on it. Not just hooked, but there was something that pivoted and actually closed around the hose. Thankfully I could see it and got myself extricated, but my first thought was "what am I going to do if I have to cut that hose?" I was maybe 1000 psi into an HP130 so I had plenty of gas, and I'm confident my grandson would have been able to get it unhooked if I hadn't been able to, but between the time I realized I was hung up and the time I assessed the situation, it was a very uncomfortable feeling. That was the 6th time we had been in the bus in a week and a half, so it's not like it was uncharted territory. My biggest takeaway is that stuff can happen even in benign and familiar environments and you can't ever get complacent.

that is a very good take away, becoming complacent can really get us in sticky situations. Glad you got yourself out, thanks for sharing

 

[Nitrox_DiverNY]

The worst was diving a shrimp boat that sunk during a hurricane in the bay. Viz was about 3' and silty. I was swimming along the sand next to the hull when i went to cross over. I ascended into one of the nets that was on the outriggers at the time of sinking. Got totally wrapped up and viz went to 0'. It took a minute to calm down and cut my way free. It required cutting, removing gear, and cutting some more.

Second worst was diving a tug. Lots of line but dive was going fine. Noticed a dead turtle tangled in the lines near the end of my dive and thought how sad that was. Then started to head up and was stopped dead by multiple lines. Oh ****...Lines were wrapped in BC, regulator, and fin buckles. Managed to cut myself free but decided then and there to have MULTIPLE cutting tools on hand. Air got low but I survived. Same day same ocean buddy system you know.

damn, I think I would freak if I went right into a net and got totally wrapped in low viz. you must have really had to compose your self and think logically. I agree about multible cutting tools, especially after reading everyones experiences here. Thank you for sharing

 

[Nitrox_DiverNY]

My worst

I was solo diving in my local reservoir. I had twin AL80 tanks on my back. Visibility was about 4 inches, and it was completely dark at 40 feet where I was diving along the bottom. I was headed out to the drop-off at 120 feet that would take me into the deep central channel.

I was finger walking along the bottom with one hand, and had my other hand out in front of my face. Then I ran into a vertical tree trunk. There were still some dead trees standing up on the reservoir bottom.

I started to back away from the tree trunk, but I got snagged in the branches. Remember it's totally dark with 4 inches of visibility with my light.

I tried to flatten on the bottom and back out, but I was snagged good.

I fooled around for a about 10 minutes before I got myself disentangle from the branches.

wow that's deep too. Im glad you got out, thanks for sharing