Can I really cut myself out?

[Rick Inman]

Thanks for the translation, KimLeech!

Anyone wanna buy a pointy titanium Rambo knife in a plastic sheath

Might be good for hacking up gill nets in swimming pools.

 

[BigJetDriver]

One thing about Surface supply, your safty depends on people who cannot see you, and who may be of varrying skills and competences...(Oh so trure!)

I almost drowned in 8 feet of water on surface supply, part of it was my fault, borrowed another person's bailout, didn't check to see if I could reach the valve. But the rack operator forgot to open a valve, and was unused to paying attention to the radio.

I said, "Out of air, Out of air, going on bailout."
and what I got back, after finding out that I could not reach my bailout was, "What did you say? Is everything ok? Do you want us to send down the jet hose now?"

Poetic justice was served when he got a sinus squeeze on his next dive. A bad one.

Gee, PD, so who was the tender for his dive??? (hee-hee-hee)

 

[Uncle Pug]

Pool experience with a gillnet will not teach the solo diver how to get out of it. It will impress upon the solo diver that it is impossible to get out of it.... by yourself.

 

[Rick Inman]

Pool experience with a gillnet will not teach the solo diver how to get out of it. It will impress upon the solo diver that it is impossible to get out of it.... by yourself.

Knew that's what you were saying. So, UP, bottom line, solo diver+gillnet=sure death. No way out. No options. Correct?

 

[BigJetDriver]

Thanks for the translation, KimLeech!

Might be good for hacking up gill nets in swimming pools.

Actually, it isn't. The Z-knife is much better!

Cheers!

 

[Uncle Pug]

I'd put my money on the net every time.

However, I suppose that there could possibly be a slim chance for a very skilled and very lucky solo diver to extricate themselves before drowning.... miracles do happen.

There... feel better?

A soloist armed with a Z-knife and the boldness that comes from never having drowned before fears nothing!

 

[Rick Inman]

There... feel better?

No...

 

[Kim]

By the sounds of these nets they are just as much a danger to two divers as one in a lot of situations. In the Dutch case the woman wasn't solo - but she kicked up so much silt that her buddy lost sight of her AND PRESUMABLY THE NET. He could easily have become an extra victim if he'd blundered around in zero vis looking for her.
A lot of people say that they only dive solo at a site that they know very well. My only solo dive to date was done at a site I'd dived at least 40 times before with buddies, in groups. If you don't know the site you are diving then IMO solo is asking for trouble. Sure - nets can be lethal, but you should already KNOW from diving it before if they are present. In Snowbears original story it was said that there was no fishing done at the location - so there should theoretically be no nets etc. present. I don't call being told that something isn't there the same as actually knowing it from experience. Maybe someone will say - yeah, but it could have changed and someone went fishing the night before - that's true. It also true that you could be diving with a buddy and someone casts a net above you which catches you both. It's all possible - just not very likely.

 

[ba_hiker]

... and very lucky solo diver to extricate themselves before ...

Its always good to be lucky

 

[Uncle Pug]

Yes Kim... gillnets can be dangerous to a buddy pair... though your chances are better... unless both divers become entangled.

No Kim... you can't always tell that the site is clear just because you know the site well and have even dived it recently. A nearby 50'~60' reef that I have done plenty of dives on and know very well occassionally sprouts a new gillnet.

Anecdote:
Years ago we anchored the boat in 20' of water just outside the mouth of the river to have lunch with my family. When we were ready to go I tried to pull the anchor but it seemed to be hung up on something. So I got on my scuba rig and went down to check it out... solo. The viz was <1' and when I got close to the end of the anchor chain I could feel the mass of an abandoned gillnet. I carefully backup up the anchor rode and returned to the boat. We worked together and with great effort were able to pull the anchor up until it broke the surface of the water where we could begin cutting the gillnet off of it.

If I had become entangled in that net not only would I have died but my family would have been left in a nightmare situation as from the bow of the boat they watched my bubbles eventually stop.