Anybody catch Discovery Channel tonight?

[gfisher4792]

I only caught part of it, but The first thought was where was her safety whistle or sausage (unless I missed that part; I turned it on when she started playing her "death tape" and was screaming)? Did she have a buddy?

 

[Rubis]

- 30 lbs of weight with a wetsuit, way too much weight (I guess 10 lbs should have been enough)
- Her trim was awful.
- She was solo diving

Anyhow she made it, so kudos ... The most impressive part is being able to swim for so long and surviving the swells

 

[pentiumchic]

But on a high note they where very good on coving the Hawaiians respect and reverence for sharks even with that attack happening.Let me tell you a bunch of mad Hawaiians can be very persuasive when it comes to protecting somethings.

Jen

 

[Rick Inman]

...this was just another sensationalized, over-hyped, scare-the-uninformed piece of 'entertainment'.

OHMYGOD! People may become afraid to dive... and then... and then, the beaches will empty, the waters will be peaceful and serene, the abalone will return, game will be everywhere, and a few of us will have it all to ourselves... What a nightmare!!

 

[dlwalke]

>>there is no way that should have been an hour long show.<<

I seemed like about a 30 minute show with 30 minutes of commercials for Open Water.

re another comment - she did have a flag in the recreation.

To me, this seemed like a ridiculous show to start off shark week. It wasn't about sharks for one thing...it was about a diving incident. There was some shark activity that contributed to her travails, but it wasn't about sharks.

I too wondered about all that gear she was toting around with her. It certainly seemed to me that she would have been better off getting rid of the camera, the weights and even the tank IMO for the long swim to shore. I personally find it much easier to swim on my back than to swim face down breathing through a regulator or snokel. It was, however, very impressive that she managed to get herself out of that situation alive.

 

[CrazyDave]

I had to turn it off after watching the first 15 min. My god, I have only been diving for a little over a year and a half, yet I was making a mental checklist of everything that she was doing wrong. When the checklist in my head reached 20 I said enough of this garbage.It just seemed that every basic rule that I was taught in O.W class was being ignored or just plain forgotten by this supposed" 6000 dive" photographer.
When she reached the reef at shore they made a big deal about her body surfing over the reef. Yet she still had on her weights, tank and camera. Dump everything and just float over the top. If she was so worried about her camera, attach it to her weights and dump them, then come back later.
It just seemed to me that it was pure luck that she got out of it rather than training and knowledge.
Rant mode off now,

 

[RIOceanographer]

Definite hype.... I had it on in the background while I was doing something else so I missed a lot of it....

One detail I did notice that I thought was interesting was that in all the shots they show her with reg in mouth.... these shots were obviously a re-enactment since they were shot from third person angles.

I don't think she could have still be using the regulator for the swim back. They said she was in the water for something like 6 hours if I recall correctly. Now maybe I am just an air hog but I have yet to be able to get 6 hours out of a tank.

 

[sdwho]

My wife and I watched it and we were wondering if folks would post to the Board about it. I agree with pretty much everything that has been said. I've done 11 dives at Darwin, and I can't believe that anyone would dive that alone. The re-creations really annoyed me. If she was thrashing around as much as they indicate, she'd have exhausted herself pretty damn quickly. And I had trouble believing that if she really had been out of the water so long that she needed to work with at trainer to get into shape, would she pick a drysuit dive in the Galapagos as her return to the water? Finally, what happened to the currents that were carrying her away? Did she really swim against them for three hours to reach Darwin? Very bad "documentary"

sdwho

ps. I also was p.o.'d when they described a whale shark as a "monster" with "rows and rows of teeth" (even though they did later acknowledge they're plankton eaters).

Definite hype.... I had it on in the background while I was doing something else so I missed a lot of it....

One detail I did notice that I thought was interesting was that in all the shots they show her with reg in mouth.... these shots were obviously a re-enactment since they were shot from third person angles.

I don't think she could have still be using the regulator for the swim back. They said she was in the water for something like 6 hours if I recall correctly. Now maybe I am just an air hog but I have yet to be able to get 6 hours out of a tank.

 

[Otter]

OHMYGOD! People may become afraid to dive... and then... and then, the beaches will empty, the waters will be peaceful and serene, the abalone will return, game will be everywhere, and a few of us will have it all to ourselves... What a nightmare!!

Rick,
Not sure if you were responding to my post, but in case you were. My concern was not that there would be fewer divers (there is an impact to the industry, but I won't belabor that). My concern is some govt bureacrat will decide that divers aren't smart enough to stay out of the shark infested waters and put some lame regulations in place to save us from ourselves.

Craig

 

[Otter]

- 30 lbs of weight with a wetsuit, way too much weight (I guess 10 lbs should have been enough)
- Her trim was awful.
- She was solo diving

Anyhow she made it, so kudos ... The most impressive part is being able to swim for so long and surviving the swells

Having not dived the Galapagos, I can't comment from experience. However, I understand that the water temps can be cold so she was likely wearing a 7mm suit -- which was interesting because in many of the re-creations she was in a DUI dry suit and even takled about her new dry suit, but said she couldn't drop her lead because she was in a wetsuit...She appears to be 'bigish' so 10 lbs in a 7mm is probably light and the same time 30 lbs is probably quite heavy unless her video housing is positive.

As for trim, the only part I recall seeing her dive for any amount of time was shooting some whale shark footage. Trying to film, swim backwards, and still make progress to keep up with a critter is tough...I didn see one scene where it looked like she was going to float right into a coral head and just as she neared, they cutaway to the whaleshark...

I agree diving solo especially in those currents is lunatic, at the same time, photographers/videographers are notorious for starting as buddys and the breaking up into solo to shoot. Realistically, the only real way to accomplish this would be to have a paid buddy to just hang around...which it not a bad idea (I'd be happy to do that to watch professional's learn!)...but probably considered too expensive.