Human Like Figures On Dive Sites.

[Elevatorguy2]

A post in the OFWF section rekindled a pet peeve of mine. Divers who place human like figures on dive sites.
Sbrooks wrote, “the guys I was with just happened to forget to mention the manichan - at least I don't remember them telling me.. A little freaky when you approach the legs.”
This reminded me of a dive we did his fall where a diver had placed a skeleton in a wet suit , with a BC and a tank on the freighter we were diving. Our captain knew about it and warned us about it. As we suited up the discussion turned to how dangerous placing human like figures on dive sites can be. One diver mentioned a wreck or a site where someone had put a couple of baby dolls down there. Could you envision coming onto a wreck and discovering a baby?
Fortunately sbrooks only felt a little freaky, imagine the reaction one might have to an unexpected baby doll.
Am I the only one that doesn’t see the humour in this?
PS I think it was Northernshrinkage who “rescued” the skeleton. With the amount of slime, it was easy to tell it was down for a while.

 

[S. starfish]

I can think of some ways in which it could be funny to have human figures at a dive site, like if you dress one up as a pirate and put it at the helm of a wreck - that'd be pretty sweet. But doing something like dressing up a mannequin in scuba gear, or anyting, and leaving it face down at the bottom of a dive site, not cool in my books. Kinda reminds me of those kids who get fake blood, pretend to be really hurt so that somebody calls an ambulance and then run off. I hate those guys.
Man, I really wanna get a pirate mannequin and put it on a wreck now - either that or an inflateable lady, that'd be cool.

 

[bwerb]

So...should I tell the story of a local diver who "tied off" to a dead body (a real dead body, diver had died the day before and wasn't located...overnight the body drifted through the wreck with the currents) on a wreck diving course because they were completely narced...they didn't even realize they'd done this until the rest of their team told them about it upon surfacing...blech!

 

[SteveC]

I agree. I don't see the humor in it. There is a human like head at the bottom of Haigh quarry. It didn't startle me too much, but I didn't think it was funny either.

On another note, my father still tells the story of how him and some friends found a real dead body at the bottom of some quarry around here (Missouri) back in the sixties. He said it was partly skeleton and partly flesh covered. I’m sure it was a very eerie sight, especially with our fairly low vis conditions.

 

[jim T.]

bwerb.
Which wreck was this and when did it occur?
Thanks.

 

[meekal]

imagine the gall of those crazy b@st@rds down in key largo placing that big guy with his arms all spread out reaching for the surface....

http://www.gardencovedivers.com/Christ_of_Abyss.jpg

and now i've heard that the trend is spreading!!!!!

http://www.sternereditorial.com/UWArt.html

 

[sbrooks]

Elevatorguy,
it was sure freaky for a moment .. until I realized what it was! I'm glad Shrink rescued the mannequin. Great move on removing it - he always seems to come to the rescue of seemingly lonely ... I'll stop there.
S.

 

[CrackedConch]

I have dived the graveyard under Lake Jocassee in SC. It was beside a church on a hilltop before they flooded the valley to make the lake. The caskets were exhumed and relocated, but they left the headstones and didn't fill in the graves after they dug them up. So there are depressions in the bottom in front of each tombstone.
Divers have put fake skeleton arms sticking up from some of the graves and a complete skeleton waving at you over by the treeline on the other side of the church.

It's a very cool dive site and the bones and skeleton add a spooky thrill to the dive. There is no way someone could mistake it for real, so no harm done.

So to me, as long as it is absurd enough to clearly be comical or entertaining with no doubt that it is a prop, there is no harm in using human figures.

However, using something like a scuba-suited mannequin in low vis is more than just not funny, it's dangerous. Someone not rescue trained or even someone rescue trained but panicking over the site of a 'body', could get themselves hurt trying to 'rescue' the mannequin by coming up to quick or just panicking, getting lost and running out of air themselves...

 

[terrasmak]

So a mannequin wearing concrete shoes near a dive site would or wouldnt be cool. Seems like the idea would be perfect for Lake Mead scuba park right outaide of Vegas.

 

[bwerb]

bwerb.
Which wreck was this and when did it occur?
Thanks.

I'm actually not sure of the wreck. It was about 7-8 years ago in BC. I know the "guilty" party and she is a totally squared-away tech diver who laughs about how hard it was for her to train deep air prior to her helium certs. It's one of the examples she gives as the lack of clarity and tunnel vision she got before changing her breathing mix.