Another TrustMe dive experience
- Thread starter Griffo
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
DevonDiver
N/A
t4e
Contributor
The value of hindsight, having gained more experience. Let us know in another 2-300 hundred dives
I look back at my early dives and shudder...
yeah, i know, i'm too new to all this...
No kidding. I remember a "trust me" dive in Florida. We were diving with an operator who had been fine during the day. However, we were being taken to a site we had not dived before to do a night drift dive. The briefing went something like this:
"There are four wrecks in a line. We will drop you at the first wreck which is at 96 feet. There is a pretty good current, so does everyone know what a negative entry is? You'll need to do a negative entry, kick as hard as you can straight for the bottom. If you miss the first wreck, it's okay because the current will carry you to the next one. When you are finished with one wreck, just drift to the next. We'll pick everybody up at the end."
We thought: "96 feet? For a night dive? At a site we haven't been to before? Strong current?" We rationalized: "They wouldn't take us somewhere to do something that isn't safe."
Big mistake.
The four of us did our negative entry, kicked hard to reach the bottom, and we were right on top of the first wreck. The current was RIPPING. Everyone was hanging on trying to gather our wits. As we hung on, we were all hanging horizontal in the current like rags blowing in the wind. We dropped down behind on the leeward side of the hull for protection. We all looked at each other, shook our heads, and all gave the thumbs up signal. We ascended about 5 feet where the current grabbed us and carried us to we knew not where. The boat found us, and it spent the next hour picking up divers who were strung out all over the place. It was awful, and also amazing that no one was hurt or lost.
And that's how we learned that you can't always trust professionals.
DevonDiver
N/A
Kevrumbo
Banned
- Messages
- 5,659
- Reaction score
- 1,366
- # of dives
- 1000 - 2499
Truk Lagoon planning dilemma for the GUE-trained Divers as to overhead protocol: you will either be with a guide who will lead your team on traverses through the shipwrecks' cargo holds, superstructures & engine rooms --all without running line-- or choose to run a reel-line & egress out on reel-line.
The advantage of running a reel-line is of course safety & standard operating overhead procedure as trained; the disadvantage is that you won't have as much bottom time to fully explore the wreck than if you did a through-and-through traverse. In other words, the dilemmas will be whether to do "Trust-Me" dives with a Guide, and also the gas costs of using Standard Trimix Blends vs. Economy 20/20 trimix vs. Deep Air for the deeper wrecks of the Fourth Fleet Anchorage (i.g. San Francisco Maru, Aikoku Maru etc). . .
A compromise solution is to have a "Pathfinder Team" --that is a team laying line with a Guide in front leading a traverse through the wreck; and then having other teams come in later following that line to video/take pictures/sight see etc --and then finally later a "Clean-Up Team" to reel-in the guideline, whilst traversing back in the opposite direction and winding-up reel-line. . .
The advantage of running a reel-line is of course safety & standard operating overhead procedure as trained; the disadvantage is that you won't have as much bottom time to fully explore the wreck than if you did a through-and-through traverse. In other words, the dilemmas will be whether to do "Trust-Me" dives with a Guide, and also the gas costs of using Standard Trimix Blends vs. Economy 20/20 trimix vs. Deep Air for the deeper wrecks of the Fourth Fleet Anchorage (i.g. San Francisco Maru, Aikoku Maru etc). . .
A compromise solution is to have a "Pathfinder Team" --that is a team laying line with a Guide in front leading a traverse through the wreck; and then having other teams come in later following that line to video/take pictures/sight see etc --and then finally later a "Clean-Up Team" to reel-in the guideline, whilst traversing back in the opposite direction and winding-up reel-line. . .
Landlocked123
Contributor
How can it be that a wreck guide enters a wreick without laying a line? Is that not an integral part of wreck penetration? Unbelieveable. Happy everyone made it out. I would never have gone in. Does not matter how "easy the penetration" is according to the guide. I would have thumbed the dive as soon as the real did not come out. Something is just not right here.
There are two theories to wreck navigation. The oldest one is progressive penetration--essentially getting to know the wreck so that you know its ins and outs without the need for a line. The newer technique of using a reel and line was born in cave diving.
The theory is that the guides know their way through all of these wrecks and can lead you through them safely. There is not much in the way of silt, so you don't have to worry about that.
It is done every week of the year in Truk, and it has been done that way for decades. As Kevrumbo implied in his post, that policy puts people (like you) in a dilemma--either use an experienced guide to show you all the good stuff in the wreck (which you consider unsafe), or search for it yourself using a reel (which will prevent you from seeing nearly as much). The guides work with small teams of divers, and you can use them or not use them as you wish. If you don't trust the guides, take your reel. It's your dive--do it your way.
Kevrumbo
Banned
- Messages
- 5,659
- Reaction score
- 1,366
- # of dives
- 1000 - 2499
The Trust-Me Dive goes both ways in Truk --the Guide is vetting you on the initial easy checkout dives, making sure of your general trim & kicking technique as well as your aptitude & temperament for wreck diving. He's gotta be sure that you won't panic when the rust & silt starts "percolating" all around you. . .
!
There will be times where you will be in a tight engine or crew space in a near silt-out; or momentarily lose sight of the Guide around a corner corridor or up through a vertical gangway; or 'Black Hole' caverns -burned out blackened ship spaces that totally suck-out the illumination from your canister light (and where the worst of all zero-viz conditions can occur -"Black Ash Silt-outs").
You have the trust that the Guide knows where you are at all times as well as the all wreck eggress pathways, and the Guide has to know that you won't make an emergency contingency worse by freaking out. . .
! There will be times where you will be in a tight engine or crew space in a near silt-out; or momentarily lose sight of the Guide around a corner corridor or up through a vertical gangway; or 'Black Hole' caverns -burned out blackened ship spaces that totally suck-out the illumination from your canister light (and where the worst of all zero-viz conditions can occur -"Black Ash Silt-outs").
You have the trust that the Guide knows where you are at all times as well as the all wreck eggress pathways, and the Guide has to know that you won't make an emergency contingency worse by freaking out. . .
PfcAJ
Contributor
Any backup plan if the guide has an issue during the dive? That's a lot of eggs in one basket. I do, however, like the 'pathfinder' team you described in your earlier post.
See Kev, every once in a while I like something you write
See Kev, every once in a while I like something you write
Similar threads
