Alki Jerks strike again

[sparkyjames]

For you that dont know
this is site is a park with set boundries
do a a ferry that crosses next to the site

Hi Guys:
I just thought I’d relate the experience that my dive buddy Tim Murphy and I this weekend at Alki Cove two. Tim and I camped out at the KOA camp grounds in Kent
for the holiday weekend and did a lot of diving in the Seattle area, dive reports to come soon as I have time to post them.
But on Saturday 5/30/04, Jay and I decided we would take advantage of the low visibility of late and do a navigation dive at Alki Cove Two, No sooner had we found a parking space and walked to the railing in order to show Jay how the Park was laid out.
I explained to him about the Water Taxi lane and pointed out the boundaries to him.

When Jay pointed to the spot where the Taxi ties up to the dock and ask me then I take it those two divers are out of the park. I told him that was the exact spot the taxi tied up,
it seems two divers had managed to wind up in front of the dock. I turned to another diver there and said to him look at these two. He told me his instructor I did not get the name of the instructor was on his way over to say some thing to them.

when the two “ lost divers came ashore at the entry point I went over and as politely as I could ask them. “ what had gone wrong with there dive that they had wound up deploying there lift bags in the Taxi lane? “
Before I give you there answer let me tell you what I seen .
both divers were using what I will classify as advanced diving setups ( lift bags back plate and wings hell one of these clowns was using doubles ) It was plane to see these were either Tech or want to be tech divers.
So any way after asking what had gone wrong on there dive that they wound up so far off course they smiled at each other and one of them replied to me and I quote him here “psssst” like it was nothing to worry about. I actual got the impression that that rule about staying in the park did not apply to him or so he thought.

and then to rub salt in the wound I swear it was not ten minutes latter when Jay and I seen two other divers float lift bags in the Taxi lane and hang out long enough to do there safety stops then swim back in to the park.

So here is my thought on this I will be kind to these 4 jerks and assume they are in-fact
trained Tech Divers and know what they are doing.

I would strongly suggest that they go back to there teachers and ask for a refresher course,

Here is why,
#1 plan your dive.
If this was not part of your dive plan then you did some-thing wrong.
#2 Dive your plan.
As I said above was entering the Taxi lane part of the dive plan ?
And if so why for what purpose?

#3 Was a safety stop in the water column necessary?
And If so why did you not ask for help when that instructor came over to the dock to speak to you ?

I had though of taking a picture of the truck they were in and posting it on the web sites I visit with this post but for some reason changed my mind.
then after thinking the hole thing over I now wish I did so,
Consider your self warned if this was you or your friends next time you pull this stunt while I am at the park your photo and truck photo and plate number will be all over the internet. As soon, as get home.

and here is why as I had said, Jay and I had planned to do a low visibility dive.
our Dive profile was this.

#1
to swim under water from shore to the white buoy after finding the anchor chain,
#2
we would turn and swim under water to the lone pilling that sticks out of the water,
#3
at the base of the pilling we would head on a course that ran parallel to shore.
( I should note here that at this point if we did not pay close attention to where we were it would have been easy for us to end up in the Taxi lane as well. )
My point is this I am only a open water cert diver and have less the 50 dives and we never left the park. and I was dong the Navigation while Jay monitored our depth,


I am not saying I am a better diver then these jamokes but I am apparently a better navigator. As we ended our dive with in about 20 feet of our planned exit.
with our maximum visibility reaching about 10 feet to maybe 15 feet.

We had better do some thing about these BAD DIVERS using our dive sites
and fast when Jay and I came up at the end of our dive there was two police boats
working the Taxi Lane .
I give these Jerks one year and they will have us run out of Alki Cove 2.
unless we ban together and act now.

I think my first step will be to call 911 next time I see this happen.
at least the paper might report that the stray divers were reported by a concerned diver

that did not want to see the park and the divers that use it held accountable.

I am sorry I went on so long but as you may be able to tell I’m pissed.

Sparky

 

[scubasean]

For you that dont know
this is site is a park with set boundries
do a a ferry that crosses next to the site

Hi Guys:
I just thought I’d relate the experience that my dive buddy Tim Murphy and I this weekend at Alki Cove two. Tim and I camped out at the KOA camp grounds in Kent
for the holiday weekend and did a lot of diving in the Seattle area, dive reports to come soon as I have time to post them.
But on Saturday 5/30/04, Jay and I decided we would take advantage of the low visibility of late and do a navigation dive at Alki Cove Two, No sooner had we found a parking space and walked to the railing in order to show Jay how the Park was laid out.
I explained to him about the Water Taxi lane and pointed out the boundaries to him.

When Jay pointed to the spot where the Taxi ties up to the dock and ask me then I take it those two divers are out of the park. I told him that was the exact spot the taxi tied up,
it seems two divers had managed to wind up in front of the dock. I turned to another diver there and said to him look at these two. He told me his instructor I did not get the name of the instructor was on his way over to say some thing to them.

when the two “ lost divers came ashore at the entry point I went over and as politely as I could ask them. “ what had gone wrong with there dive that they had wound up deploying there lift bags in the Taxi lane? “
Before I give you there answer let me tell you what I seen .
both divers were using what I will classify as advanced diving setups ( lift bags back plate and wings hell one of these clowns was using doubles ) It was plane to see these were either Tech or want to be tech divers.
So any way after asking what had gone wrong on there dive that they wound up so far off course they smiled at each other and one of them replied to me and I quote him here “psssst” like it was nothing to worry about. I actual got the impression that that rule about staying in the park did not apply to him or so he thought.

and then to rub salt in the wound I swear it was not ten minutes latter when Jay and I seen two other divers float lift bags in the Taxi lane and hang out long enough to do there safety stops then swim back in to the park.

So here is my thought on this I will be kind to these 4 jerks and assume they are in-fact
trained Tech Divers and know what they are doing.

I would strongly suggest that they go back to there teachers and ask for a refresher course,

Here is why,
#1 plan your dive.
If this was not part of your dive plan then you did some-thing wrong.
#2 Dive your plan.
As I said above was entering the Taxi lane part of the dive plan ?
And if so why for what purpose?

#3 Was a safety stop in the water column necessary?
And If so why did you not ask for help when that instructor came over to the dock to speak to you ?

I had though of taking a picture of the truck they were in and posting it on the web sites I visit with this post but for some reason changed my mind.
then after thinking the hole thing over I now wish I did so,
Consider your self warned if this was you or your friends next time you pull this stunt while I am at the park your photo and truck photo and plate number will be all over the internet. As soon, as get home.

and here is why as I had said, Jay and I had planned to do a low visibility dive.
our Dive profile was this.

#1
to swim under water from shore to the white buoy after finding the anchor chain,
#2
we would turn and swim under water to the lone pilling that sticks out of the water,
#3
at the base of the pilling we would head on a course that ran parallel to shore.
( I should note here that at this point if we did not pay close attention to where we were it would have been easy for us to end up in the Taxi lane as well. )
My point is this I am only a open water cert diver and have less the 50 dives and we never left the park. and I was dong the Navigation while Jay monitored our depth,


I am not saying I am a better diver then these jamokes but I am apparently a better navigator. As we ended our dive with in about 20 feet of our planned exit.
with our maximum visibility reaching about 10 feet to maybe 15 feet.

We had better do some thing about these BAD DIVERS using our dive sites
and fast when Jay and I came up at the end of our dive there was two police boats
working the Taxi Lane .
I give these Jerks one year and they will have us run out of Alki Cove 2.
unless we ban together and act now.

I think my first step will be to call 911 next time I see this happen.
at least the paper might report that the stray divers were reported by a concerned diver

that did not want to see the park and the divers that use it held accountable.

I am sorry I went on so long but as you may be able to tell I’m pissed.

Sparky

Are you upset because they put themselves in danger? Or because the park didn't discipline them?

From your description, it appears they did dive their plan (perhaps an unsafe plan...but still a plan).

And, 911 is for emergencies...If you report stray divers to that number, you might cause a person having a true emergency to not get help when they need it. Isn't there a park number you can call? Or at least a nonemergency number?

Maybe I missed something...

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

There is a phone number to call posted on the signs telling all divers about the park restrictions. And if these guys were diving their plan, they planned a dangerous and illegal dive.

He's upset because this is happening far too often at Seattle's most popular and controversial dive site. It's because we share this cove with a fishing pier and a water taxi ... the latter of which is the current Seattle mayor's pet project (he uses it to get to work in the morning) ... and because repeated diver incursions are on the verge of having this popular dive site closed to divers.

We go through this scenario on a regular basis. A few of us have worked very hard to establish a relationship with the City Parks and Recreation Dept ... who runs the park ... to keep this cove open to diving. We've established a well-marked boundary cable to let divers know where the limit of the restricted zone lies ... many use it as a rope trail. We've posted signs at all the entries to the cove ... amazingly, many divers just ignore them.

Some of the divers who stray are from out of town, and don't appear to either know, or care, about the restrictions. But there are also repeated violations involving classes from local dive shops ... some instructors take the attitude that it's no big deal and that those of us who are working so hard to keep people out of the restricted zone are just uptight, or obsessed with a non-problem.

We've had problems in the past with classes shooting lift bags ... and with scooter classes ... because they do a lot of mid-water work and can't see the boundary cable. Although this site is not known for current, there is still more than enough ... sometimes even just wind-induced surface current ... to push a diver well into the taxi lane during a normal ascent from 40 fsw on a lift bag (which, if you do it right, will take 4-5 minutes). We have repeatedly recommended that instructors teaching these kind of classes do so at other locations, where these restrictions are not an issue. They ignore our requests.

At this point there's nothing left to do except wait till the Parks Dept. gets tired of the repeated violations and hoists the NO DIVING signs. Frankly, I expect it to happen sometime during the next few months.

The few of us who've been spending a lot of effort trying to maintain access to this site are burning out ... our efforts just aren't getting through to the community. So it's time to just let it go.

If we lose this site, it'll be because we ... the diving community ... couldn't do such a simple thing as observe the posted rules. Diving in the taxi lane is dangerous. Diving near the fishing pier can be.

But Sparky ... don't call 911 ... it'll only draw attention to the problem and make the closure that much more of a sure thing. Of course, if the water taxi does hit a diver, then you can call 911.

Just enjoy the park while you can ... the few who can't obey the rules are winning this battle, and I'm tired of dealing with it.

As Socrates once said ... "Against stupidity, the gods themselves stuggle in vain."

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Uncle Pug]

So far I've only heard of one dive shop connected with the transgressions of the boundary lines... perhaps there are others and folks are automatically assuming the wayward divers are from this shop.

I think the only solution is peer pressure but as Sparky found out talking to them at the scene hasn't been effective. I do know of one case where the shop was identified on a local board and apologies were forth coming.

Perhaps we should begin taking notes on trespass incidents, identifying shop affiliation, if any (particularly tech classes) and then posting that information to a thread on Orca Bait.

We would then send the link to the posting to the shop in an email.

Let me think about it and discuss the idea with the other supervisors. In the mean time remember that name calling is not only unproductive but is against our TOS.

 

[MechDiver]

We've had problems in the past with classes shooting lift bags ... and with scooter classes ... because they do a lot of mid-water work and can't see the boundary cable. Although this site is not known for current, there is still more than enough ... sometimes even just wind-induced surface current ... to push a diver well into the taxi lane during a normal ascent from 40 fsw on a lift bag (which, if you do it right, will take 4-5 minutes). We have repeatedly recommended that instructors teaching these kind of classes do so at other locations, where these restrictions are not an issue. They ignore our requests.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

In this case, I would think an email or phone call to the QC department of the shop agency would be in order. If the shop/instructor is putting students in a known and posted danger zone, if would be a definite violation of standards for any agency I'm familiar with.

If the shops won't listen, I'm sure their agency QC departments will.

MD

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Thanks ... but I've decided to stop playing scuba police. If people can't be responsible, they can just lose their playground.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Grizz]

a playground with Sixgills.

its gona be a shame

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

So far I've only heard of one dive shop connected with the transgressions of the boundary lines... perhaps there are others and folks are automatically assuming the wayward divers are from this shop.

That would be an erroneous assumption. I know of four shops who's staff have violated the restricted zone just so far this year. Most were accidental ... people who agree that they should stay out of there, and just screwed up. Some were people who don't really believe it's a problem.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[kalvyn]

a playground with Sixgills.

its gona be a shame

I've been toold that sixgills are reliably seen off of Owens Beach here in Tacoma. I plan on finding out if this is indeed the case!

Jimmie

 

[sparkyjames]

I never told any one these guys were with a shop
As far as I could tell these four guys were in two seperate buddy groups.

i do which shop and one of the divers truck plate but never sayed a word about that.
the instructor was from a nother shop ( Notice I AM NOT NAMEING ) with a class
he did do the right thing he told his class to waite here and went to talk to them.
I am sorry but he is to be comended.

I gess Bob I right I know I seen these guys brake the rules with out regard to others
and I have a plan to stop it.

I will not use the 911 line but will call the cops just the same

Sparky