Lobsters 3 divers ?

[PapaBob]

Matt:

A few years ago I was running a dive boat when they had decided to experiment with mini season on a weekend rather than the middle of the week. I told my group to be on the lookout for distressed divers. That weekend we picked up 7. Most had been attracted by bugs but had not been diving for some time. A common thread was enter the water, swim with current, surface and wonder "where the hell is my boat?" Unfortuanately, bugs will attract divers without current skills and with careless attitudes.

---Bob

 

[Matt P]

Ahh Matt, you spoke too soon and haven't seen anything yet...

Want to guess what's going to happen on Sunday August 6th which is opening day of regular season?? Just image it. A beautiful day with the family barbequeing at the beach, dad and son, who have already kicked back a couple of beers, untie the boat and push off with all 12 of their family members in it. They'll dive to get some lobsters to put on the grill at the beach, but neither of them have been diving in over a year and they have duct tape over one of the hoses because it's leaking.

I think August 6th will kill more divers than both days of mini-season combined, let alone there will be a waiting line at the chambers.

Yikes...that sucks

 

[scubapolly]

Hate to say it, but for the most part it is diving darwinism.

 

[matjo1]

Things I have seen or heard in the last week at the dive shop I work at while dealing with people getting ready for mini-season...
- "I don't want to pay $120 for a new pressure guage, I'll just surface when it gets hard to breath"
- About half of all the tanks that were brought in to be filled were out of visual by at least 4 years.
- Skinny guy walks in wanting to rent weights, tells me he won't be wearing a wet suit, and then procedes to argue with me when I tell him that he does'nt need 14lbs.
- Customer walks in and tells me his reg is free-flowing. After testing it, realizing that the HP seat has failed and telling him it would be very dangerous to dive with it, he says; "I won't be going that deep!"
- I took a trip for the mini-season, we hunted bugs in 70 feet of water, and not a single person came back to the boat with more than 300 psi, including one guy with who I had to buddy breath on the final ascent...TWICE!
Natural selection?...yes!

 

[scubapolly]

matjo, I've heard most of those responses as well. And you aren't even mentioning the hundreds of people who ask if duct tape will seal a leaky BC, or want to rent everything including a set of goggles.
And the countless stories of the people who are renting boats who have never been on a boat let alone opperated one in their life, and think that dive flags are the buoys for the slalom course. Just read in one of the articles that some guy severed an artery in his leg when the boat he had just jumped off of backed up over him and got him with the prop.

 

[Loneranger]

It seems the strain of "bug fever" that went around this year was a little more deadly than usual. Sad to see, and just tarnishes the image of the sport. At least two boats sank in Ft. Lauderdale one was a 26' cat tied to the Lauderdale marina with no plug in it.

 

[mtg]

Sounds like one, an uncertified diver, ran OOA and tried to ditch his weight belt to go to the surface, but instead ditched his kit and kept the weight belt. That is one we might read about in Lessons for Life.

or the darwin awards...