Entangled for the first time!

[Darnold9999]

Caught in kelp solo, don't care how much air you had. Controlling the panic and working your way out will not be the result for all divers. Glad you were on top of it. I love shooting (pictures) in kelp but it can grab you and be very unforgiving if you are not calm and deliberate.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

watchmanjc,

Thanks for posting your incident.

Can you think of anything you would/could have done differently to prevent the entanglement?

I think it is really valuable whenever you have a close call to step back and look at the "what" and "why" of the incident, so you can avoid it in the future. You obviously handled the situation just fine, but if you have any thoughts about what went wrong, throw them out there. Some of the folks here have done kelp dives (I have not) and may have some thoughts/suggestions.

Best wishes.

 

[JohnAC]

watchmanjc,

Thanks for posting your incident.

Can you think of anything you would/could have done differently to prevent the entanglement?

I think it is really valuable whenever you have a close call to step back and look at the "what" and "why" of the incident, so you can avoid it in the future. You obviously handled the situation just fine, but if you have any thoughts about what went wrong, throw them out there. Some of the folks here have done kelp dives (I have not) and may have some thoughts/suggestions.

Best wishes.

A brother from another forum suggested that I should have swam down as kelp floats and might have untangled. As I recall, it was very surgy, and avoiding the kelp all together might have been the best course to take.

 

[StevenN]

Thanks for posting your story.
Keeping a cool head and avoiding panic in any situation can be the key to survival. We've all seen stories where someone died in a situation that was close to safety because they panicked and couldn't see the solution to the problem even though it was right in front of them.
I'm glad you're still with us to share the story.

 

[VooDooGasMan]

The Kelp here in the puget sound does not break as easy, I was a little worried on catalina in the stuff, and to my surprise it ripps off easy. So I would not go as far to think all kelp is tearable. Now the current plays a toll when tangled, and now there is a treat. Last year a 30 pound cabezon on stringer and speargun, Then in the kelpbed to thick to get through, thought this a lot kelp to cut through, as the sharks were circle for my dinner, I said to myself I just want to go to the surface, and what a grand Idea that was I aired up bladder and it took me to the surface and brought the kelp up to what it was growing on.

Now mind you I have dove this kelp for over a decade, and alot of divers have died in it. so this was not new for me, but always a new way to get out of it.


Happy Diving

 

[pwr2al4]

Why do you guys rag on a guy after he comes out and posts something looking for help? neither of you have ever gotten panicked before? Tons of divers die for no other reason than they have a touch of panic that leads to a bad decison that snowballs into a fatal flow of errors, depth is of no importance. Plenty of perfectly good pilots in perfectly good airplances die as a result of controlled flight right into the ground or side of a mountain, all a result of some initial panic. tons and tons of people drown in 4 feet of water and the only difference between a drowning vic and the person that saves their life is the mindset of the rescuer and their ability to remain calm.

I've been entangled a bunch of times as I also often dive solo when spearfishing and its both very nerve racking and one of those things that the more you panic the more tangled you become. In aviation the first thing that is pounded into your head when a sudden problem comes up is most important thing is always 'stick and rudder and just fly the plane' in other words dont lose sight of whats important, when diving whats important is your air supply and your ndl, the next thing to do is just stop and start thinking. you said yourself you had plenty of air, you realized you were in an entanglement, and you made a decison about how to get free.

around here I always dive with 3 cutting tools, and I make sure that I can reach at least one from any position and either side, knife on inner ankle, trauma shears in drysuit pocket and 3rd knife on bc. I also make sure to keep one wrapped in paracord so I can keep it on my wrist if I need to do somethign else with my hands. glad you kept cool.

 

[ZenDiver.3D]

5 ft deep, 2000 psi, caught on some kelp.. Sounds terrifying, glad you survived.

He said 5 ft. Vis. And in any case, ft Deep may as well be 100 ft. if you can't get your head out of the water. People die within arm's reach of the cave entrance, or in 3 feet of water. All it takes is a little panic and neither depth nor amount of air can help.

 

[FritzCat66]

I seem to remember a DAN accident report from years back (I love reading those things) about a solo diver searching for something in a pond, and I take it they used some kind of anchor and attached line to systematically examine the floor in the extremely poor viz. So, apparently this diver somehow got themselves wrapped up in their own search line and was unable to extricate themselves, exhausted their gas supply trying, and drowned. The reason that particular account stuck in my head is because when they eventually found the diver, the diver's head was just like one or two feet shy of the surface.

Even us rec guys are diving regularly to 100', so it's easy to forget that you can drown in less than one foot.

 

[porgyhunter]

Your right panic kills, Stats show must scuba deaths occur with air in tanks and belt on. We just had an entanglement death here in Mass last week!! Diver had air left. We dont have kelp issues out here but lobster trap lines fishing line netting and worst of all wire line. again your right STOP,THINK, P.S. Nice catch.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Don't mock the guy. Accidents happen.

I was taking a bubble bath once and I got soap in my eyes and I started freaking out because I couldn't find the wash cloth. I stood up, slipped, grabbed the shower curtain, fell back in the tub, still holding the shower curtain that had ripped right off the rod...now I was in a full scale panic and I thought I was a goner!

Luckily I was able to get a hold of the rim of the tub and I pulled myself up and over and landed on the bathmat. I blindly reached out and grabbed a bath towel and wiped the soap out of my eyes and as my vision cleared and my heart rate returned to normal I was quite proud of myself that despite the difficulty, my training kicked in, and I was able to get through it in one piece.

That's the last time I jump in the tub without a redundant wash cloth.

This is what sidelined John Glenn as an astronaut, a fall in the bath tub which led to a head injury it took him quite some time to come back from.

SeaRat