"Adventures With a Purpose" Dangerous Behavior

[Eric Sedletzky]

I saw that they found Kiely in a California lake. It was all over the news. I’m actually surprised it wasn’t covered more here.
I’ve never have seen or even heard of their YouTube channel and thought they were like a do gooder Tahoe cleanup type group or something. I had no idea they were doing a reality show, and I had no idea they were that incompetent as you guys describe it. I’ll have to check it out,
It almost sounds kind of creepy what you guys are describing, almost like a scuba jackass or something. Do they plan to get it on video when someone croaks?

 

[broncobowsher]

I remember seeing a couple videos when the first started. If you think things are bad now, it started with even less. The gear they are using is a lot better, they are more expierenced. But it is all OTJ self training. They really need to step back and get a little better training for what they are doing. But that is all but impossible now. There livelihood is based on pumping out youtube videos. You can't stop or you loose your followers and income base.

So either keep doing it wrong, and keep making the money from youtube.
Or stop, learn to do it right, not make the money.

 

[Vicko]

I wonder if they ever saw what a runaway 2t liftbag does to a human body before.
This is just beyond stupid.


Edit: I keep watching and it's just getting worse, if I did this at a build site not only would I be fiered, no one would hire me again.

 

[SlugLife]

I’ll have to check it out,
It almost sounds kind of creepy what you guys are describing, almost like a scuba jackass or something.

I've certainly seen scuba-videos where it's like "scuba jackass" and Dive Talk sometimes comments on those videos. However, A.W.P. is nowhere near what I'd call "scuba jackass." They're not intentionally dangerous from what I can tell.

I might end up repeating myself a little, but they are flagrantly and frequently going beyond their training and expertise, or doing things in ways that are unnecessarily dangerous. There are also commercial scuba-courses for how to do these same things safely, consistently, and reliably.


Perhaps to put things into perspective, I've been critical of the whole "you need a certification to fart in a wetsuit" nonsense, and even taught myself SideMount (with aid of online resources) and solo-dive without a solo-cert. Not saying I recommend self-taught, but I acknowledge it's possible and it's limitations. So I'm fully open-minded to the idea that not everything requires a certification or a class, and some people would criticize me for that. However, a lot of the dangerous stuff I've seen them do, really should be backed by appropriate classes.

I'm no commercial diver, but even I can intuitively understand that a runaway lift-bag, or a 3-ton vehicle above my head isn't something to just hope I figured out the proper safety procedures intuitively or through YouTube videos.

They really need to step back and get a little better training for what they are doing. But that is all but impossible now. There livelihood is based on pumping out youtube videos. You can't stop or you loose your followers and income base.

There are ways they could easily do this. Cycle members through the course. Or even take a short break. Lots of channels I know take breaks from time-to-time, and sure you take a hit, but the channels tend to recover. AWP has even taken breaks from time to time.

 

[SlugLife]

I stopped watching AWP several months ago. The over-dramatization was driving me nuts, and I just lost interest.

Anyway, more recently there are some S.A. allegations and charges against Jared. A bunch of team-members have also come out with their grievances as well; namely stuff around exploiting their fanbase for donations, or the treatment of the families of victims. Not sure how much I care to get into that, but that's the basics to get everyone back up to speed.

I was listening to this livestream when a former AWP member Anthony started talking about the safety, diver-experience, and observations. The interesting part starts around 1:13:40 until about 1:15:30, however you can rewind a little for more context.


A few things he said were (closely paraphrased):

• Some of these members had the very bare minimum of dive certification. (a.k.a. "Open Water")
• Open water is all Jared and Doug had.
• Should have had full-face-mask and dry-suit certs
• Very open about not having, wanting, or needing to get those certs

 

[BlueTrin]

View attachment 740291

I wonder if they ever saw what a runaway 2t liftbag does to a human body before.
This is just beyond stupid.


Edit: I keep watching and it's just getting worse, if I did this at a build site not only would I be fiered, no one would hire me again.
View attachment 740292

What would a 2t liftbag do?

Asking out of curiosity

 

[SlugLife]

What would a 2t liftbag do?

Asking out of curiosity

He might have a better answer. In the mean time, I think 2t means 2-tons, or 4000lbs of lifting force. About equivalent to a very small 2-seater sports car. If there are cables, cords, ropes, straps attached one could get wrapped around you or your gear. It would be somewhat like standing near a bunch of ropes tied to a car that just got thrown off a cliff, one of those ropes could tear you in half.

 

[Vicko]

What would a 2t liftbag do?

Asking out of curiosity

Make the camera guy into a very unhappy shuriken.
Those things are no joke, it's like a car driving into you.

He might have a better answer. In the mean time, I think 2t means 2-tons, or 4000lbs of lifting force. About equivalent to a very small 2-seater sports car. If there are cables, cords, ropes, straps attached one could get wrapped around you or your gear. It would be somewhat like standing near a bunch of ropes tied to a car that just got thrown off a cliff, one of those ropes could tear you in half.

The liftbag stops accelerating once it hits the surface so what's attached to it is not that problematic (to the people on top of the water) but that still leaves the equivalent of 2 tons weight travelling at 50+ km/h.