Leaving expensive equipment down.

[Thanshin]

An interesting post by DevonDiver made me think about this topic.

Do you remember stories (or even incidents or near misses threads) where it was necessary to leave equipment down or where the problem begun when going back to recover some left piece of equipment?

 

[TSandM]

A story I just quoted on another thread, from Northern California this summer, was about a double fatality that began when a recreational diver dropped his camera and went deep to try to retrieve it. He ran out of gas deep and was rescued by a pair of technical divers. Although people made the best decisions they could, the result was that the OOG diver died, and so did one of the tech divers.

 

[ScubaSteve]

I have a friend that lost her camera in a heavy current and had the wits about herself to realize that chasing the camera was not a good idea.....that life (hers and her buddy's) was worth more than the camera. I have been lucky and not yet lost anything expensive on a dive.

 

[g1138]

I lost my pride once.....maybe twice

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

While on a scooter dive with my cheap double strobe rig, I noticed that the strobes were not firing. I had planned specific destinations for double strobe shooting; but changed the plan at 70 feet deep and 1/3 mile from shore.

Took the camera off the tray and left the tray on the bottom. When time came to turn, if I wanted to pick up the tray, I chose not to turn, instead meandering back to a later, direct turn to my exit. Gave me an excuse to go back for the tray the next day.

Another scooter dive, I spun off the WAL for a couple shots, at a similar depth and distance as above. Forgot to pick up the WAL. Again, an excuse to go back the next day.

 

[soltari675]

I try to keep equipment attached some way, like a line and snap or something. Thankfully I've not lost anything except a whistle. *knock on wood*

 

[Garrobo]

What g1138 said plus why would one go down with an unattached camera if it was worth more than 99 cents?

 

[nimoh]

I generally keep all of my equipment attached with either retractors or some type of cord. However, quite often, I will pass my camera to a buddy to get some pictures of me and although I try to do it in two steps (I will usually hold the camera while unclipping/clipping and then pass the camera) sometimes things happen.

The only time I have ever dropped my camera was at 30 feet but the bottom was 35 feet (yes, a little lucky there). I hope I have the stones to leave my camera if I drop it sometime when it isn't so safe to retrieve it.

I suppose though, nobody ever regrets their actions in these cases: If you leave the camera, it is pretty easy to convince yourself after the fact that you made the right decision and it was in fact unsafe, while if you don't leave the camera, you either come back with the camera or are not around to regret anything anyway - I apologize for the dark humor

 

[DivemasterDennis]

Good stories, and good advice. How about a new "department" on scubaboard for lost and found. A diver can post what they lost and when and about where, and if another diver comes upon it and is willing to be a good person, they can check the department for a contact to arrange for the return (at the owners expense, of course). In this regard, see Bleeb's post on the camera reunited with its owner here in the basic scuba discussions! I have found the following items that I have found over the years: Sea and Sea wide angle lens (off Maui); a pair (really!) of yellow full foot fins, again off Maui, two masks with snorkels attached, both off Akumal Mexico, and a ton of stuff at the local reservoir (10 feet of viz on a good day), including 11 weight belts with lead, 2 masks, 7 snorkels, one knife, and three weight pockets with lead. I have lost a macro lens for an old film camera, but that is it. Not only safety, but good manners should limit your search- kind of like in golf. Look for the item for a set period- three to five minutes maybe, if air and ndl's permit, and if not found, play on. But no piece of equipment or set of equipment is worth endangering a life, let alone losing a life.
DivemasterDennis

 

[herbdb]

I lost a camera on a boat dive last summer. Was in the process of passing it to the boat crew when another diver surfaced between me and the boat.

I chased it for about 30', but could see it was gaining on me and gave up. Unfortunately the boat had swung over the edge of the wall and it was way too deep to recover even if it could be found.

I don't know how I will handle this next time. Thinking about having a short line to drop over the side that I can clip it on. This would at least put all of the responsibility on me and would help decrease the possibility of damage getting on and off the boat.