Equipment Dive Knife in an emergency

[ofg-1]

This is simple. Mike Nelson always had a knife, you should too.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Hello all, I was recently diving in Indonesia and my divemaster got hooked by a fisherman. He was carrying a line cutter but seemed to have a real hard time cutting the line with it.
I personally carry a serrated dive knife and had it out ready to help but he managed to cut free just as I reached him.
I know tech and cave divers swear by the line cutter but I think in this case the knife or scissors might have worked better.
Any thoughts? Anyone else have a similar experience?
I'd like to carry shears but they just rust immediately and don't seem to last very long.
I've seen people recommend garden shears and all types of implements but wanted to know if anyone else has a first hand account.

I use my trilobite line cutter all the time. It cuts fishing line like it isn't even there. I have one on my computer wrist straps and one on my waistband. I find a knife and sheers actually harder to deploy and use.

 

[coldwaterglutton]

And take a lesson from the Marines - keep your blades center mass, not on your extremities. More chance to get to it if you get bound up.

 

[Endler's]

Did not mean to post. 'Sorry to JuLe.

 

[Waterwulf]

There was an incident in the early 70's between our dive club and a drunk charter boat captain, crew and passengers. Our dive club was a "private club". They taught classes to the public as long as they were military affiliated but nobody could join the club unless invited. Every male was military except for me. All females were invited of course and I considered it an honor to be the only civilian male member.

My girlfriend and I were cruising a reef at a hundred foot when we heard the emergency signal from the club boat and it sounded like whoever was banging on it, was freaking out. It was a very high tech device. A piece of heavy steel pipe hanging in the water with a hammer hanging on it. Submarines probably heard that thing three oceans over! We headed for the surface and swam up to the platform at the stern. Holy jumpin' catfish! The stern of the boat was splashed all over with blood.

We rolled up onto it and climbed over the stern only to be greeted by a scene right out of a war. A bunch of people were holding a guy face down on the deck of the boat while they worked on his leg. He was screaming. It was open from just below the knee to the heel and I mean open as in exposed bone and assorted internal leg parts hanging out. There was a huge trolling lure hanging from his foot. They had a tourniquet on it and were wrapping it, lure and all. One lady was taking photo's like crazy. The boat captain was on the radio to the Coast Guard and he was holding the shark gun, a 12 gauge shotgun. My girlfriend grabbed the clipboard and we started checking people off to make sure everybody was aboard. Then we took for the harbor as fast as that old boat could go.

A Coast Guard ship met us about halfway back and transferred out injured guy over to their medic bay. He lost a lot of blood. They took off faster than we could go and we putted along behind them but they left one of their crew persons aboard. A female LT but I think she was some kind of Lawyer from the way she was talking. Our photo lady gave her all of the film that she had taken of the incident. That was also when we got the whole story in order.

Two divers were cruising the reef when one of them just suddenly took off in reveres. His partner tried but was not able to catch him. He was gone! Meantime on the surface, our people in our boat were yelling at the people in a charter boat trolling right past our boat. Then they started circling our boat at slow speed and at close range. Yes, we had multiple dive flags out and we were a big boat. The problem was that they were still trolling but at such slow speeds that the lures were dragging the bottom.

One of them hooked the diver just below the knee on the back of his leg. His knife was on the other leg and he was having trouble reaching it because he was being drug thru the water. He finally cut the line and managed to get near enough to the boat to get pulled in. Meantime on the surface, the captain of our boat saw that they had actually hooked something big and got scared that it was one of us. So he took the shark gun and started banging off rounds over their heads. They took off without reeling in their "big catch".

The Coast Guard was waiting for the boat captain when he returned to the dock. They charged him with all kinds of stuff and he lost his charter boat captain license. Our diver spent some time in the hospital and then was back diving with us after he healed up. Boy howdy, he had a great big scar on his leg! We had to chuckle when he got dressed for the dive. He was festooned with assorted knives.

The next week, all of us had a few more blades on our persons too. That was when I started carrying a tourniquet in my gear. Nowadays, i have a nice pretty red one with a built in tightener stick. Back then, it was a wire cable with handles that looked like a Garrotte. **** happens and it usually happens really fast. Thing is, it's not always you that it happens to. it's better to have and not need than to need and not have.

 

[JuLe]

& like:

'Am always reminded of Vicko's 2022 Post:

tursiops explains perfectly:

'Nuff said.

If you read my post, I also stated that I have a knife attached to my BCD. It can be reached using both hands.

 

[coldwaterglutton]

There was an incident in the early 70's between our dive club and a drunk charter boat captain, crew and passengers. Our dive club was a "private club". They taught classes to the public as long as they were military affiliated but nobody could join the club unless invited. Every male was military except for me. All females were invited of course and I considered it an honor to be the only civilian male member.

My girlfriend and I were cruising a reef at a hundred foot when we heard the emergency signal from the club boat and it sounded like whoever was banging on it, was freaking out. It was a very high tech device. A piece of heavy steel pipe hanging in the water with a hammer hanging on it. Submarines probably heard that thing three oceans over! We headed for the surface and swam up to the platform at the stern. Holy jumpin' catfish! The stern of the boat was splashed all over with blood.

We rolled up onto it and climbed over the stern only to be greeted by a scene right out of a war. A bunch of people were holding a guy face down on the deck of the boat while they worked on his leg. He was screaming. It was open from just below the knee to the heel and I mean open as in exposed bone and assorted internal leg parts hanging out. There was a huge trolling lure hanging from his foot. They had a tourniquet on it and were wrapping it, lure and all. One lady was taking photo's like crazy. The boat captain was on the radio to the Coast Guard and he was holding the shark gun, a 12 gauge shotgun. My girlfriend grabbed the clipboard and we started checking people off to make sure everybody was aboard. Then we took for the harbor as fast as that old boat could go.

A Coast Guard ship met us about halfway back and transferred out injured guy over to their medic bay. He lost a lot of blood. They took off faster than we could go and we putted along behind them but they left one of their crew persons aboard. A female LT but I think she was some kind of Lawyer from the way she was talking. Our photo lady gave her all of the film that she had taken of the incident. That was also when we got the whole story in order.

Two divers were cruising the reef when one of them just suddenly took off in reveres. His partner tried but was not able to catch him. He was gone! Meantime on the surface, our people in our boat were yelling at the people in a charter boat trolling right past our boat. Then they started circling our boat at slow speed and at close range. Yes, we had multiple dive flags out and we were a big boat. The problem was that they were still trolling but at such slow speeds that the lures were dragging the bottom.

One of them hooked the diver just below the knee on the back of his leg. His knife was on the other leg and he was having trouble reaching it because he was being drug thru the water. He finally cut the line and managed to get near enough to the boat to get pulled in. Meantime on the surface, the captain of our boat saw that they had actually hooked something big and got scared that it was one of us. So he took the shark gun and started banging off rounds over their heads. They took off without reeling in their "big catch".

The Coast Guard was waiting for the boat captain when he returned to the dock. They charged him with all kinds of stuff and he lost his charter boat captain license. Our diver spent some time in the hospital and then was back diving with us after he healed up. Boy howdy, he had a great big scar on his leg! We had to chuckle when he got dressed for the dive. He was festooned with assorted knives.

The next week, all of us had a few more blades on our persons too. That was when I started carrying a tourniquet in my gear. Nowadays, i have a nice pretty red one with a built in tightener stick. Back then, it was a wire cable with handles that looked like a Garrotte. **** happens and it usually happens really fast. Thing is, it's not always you that it happens to. it's better to have and not need than to need and not have.

Great war story. Which captain lost the license, your charter or the fishing boat?

 

[landphil]

I run a DIR knife on my left waist strap and trauma shears on my right. I’ve never used the knife in the water, but use the shears all of the time, mostly to cut the hooks off of fishing line (I pocket the line and jam the hook down into the sand). I started using XShears after I had a pair of those stamped shears crack apart when I was cutting some webbing. They are 4x more expensive; and I can’t say how long they last; mainly since they don’t seem to be close to falling after many years

 

[Endler's]

If you read my post, I also stated that I have a knife attached to my BCD. It can be reached using both hands.

You are correct. Was trying to edit my post, 'realized yours was good. I tried to back out of my post, but must have accidently posted it. Deleted original. My bad.

 

[Waterwulf]

Great war story. Which captain lost the license, your charter or the fishing boat?

Our boat belonged to the club and was not a charter. The other boat was a chartered fishing boat. That captain lost his license. I only ever saw them from far away since they had already taken off by the time we surfaced.