Easy Penetration Dives

[MSilvia]

It may in fact be easy, but unless you are aware of the factors that might make it not so, you're better off avoiding those situations. I wonder how many people throughout history, or even just the history of diving, have been killed doing something that looked like it should have been easy.

 

[Lost Yooper]

No generalization is wholy true not even this one. No one answer works for all wrecks. Some need training some dont.

I agree. The rest is up to Darwinism.

Mike

 

[devilfish]

There have been many cases where curious divers peeking into a cave or a wreck. Visibility was forever. They were tempted just to swim in a short distance and turn around. Little did they know that one careless fin kick started the silt to lift in a "little tornado", rising ever higher. As they turned around vis was zero. Too many divers were found 20 ft from the exit. They never saw it. Likewise, especially in solution caves, a downpour rain outside seeped through the ceiling reducing vis to zero in minutes.
No one should enter an over head environment without proper training and equipment, ever, no matter how tempting or easy it may seem.

 

[sumguy]

I was about to disagree with Devilfish about not entering an overhead environment without proper training and equipment. I was going to argue the case for some simple dives, but then I realized that I actually agree; proper training and equipment is something you should have for every dive. It's the level of required training that I might argue with. Do you need to take a cave or cavern diving course before attempting a large, ten foot swim through? I would say, "no." Others might disagree.

 

[MikeFerrara]

One might be able to argue the difference between a swim through and an overhead invironment but I see and hear about divers going in overheads where they don't belong all the time. I know a DM that took a diver into a wreck. There is 3-5 feet of clearance between the decking and the clay bottom. There are hole in the deck every 20 ft or so. The diver he took in had not dove for about 3 years and only had a handfull of dives total. The DM saw it as an easy penetration. How would that diver have reacted if he snagged his hose and lost his reg in that tight little spot and zero vis(fromthe stirred up clay)? I wouldn't want to be in there with him when it happened. I have a former student (new diver) who was led through a wreck at 90 ft by a DM. This was not a swim through, they left the lighted zone. There were several people on the dive and the only one who had a light was the DM. They surfaced with nearly empty tanks. If I ever came face to face with this DM things would not be at all civil or pleasant. I try to teach divers to stay within the limits of their training and then some Caribbeam $3/day DM pulls a stunt like this leading the student to believe the rules are only valid during the class. I hear these things all the time. I don't mind debating wether the deep air limit is 10 ft your way or 10 ft mine but every day divers enter overheads without adequate training and equipment. Once inside it is to late for common sense to help you. The time to apply common sense is while your still outside.

 

[MASS-Diver]

Tekdiver, not this is fully relevant to this thread, but, my understanding is that Berman died of heart problems (he hated going to the doctor). Some of the comments in that article seem a little out of line. I didn't know Berman, but, I heard Bernie Chowdury speak about his tragic death.