losttravelerfl
Registered
I would tend to agree with Ana, at least in this instance.
Lost gear at Venice
- Thread starter GulfCoastdiver
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NetDoc:
Ah, so you were referring to me. Unless you are more specific with your criticism, it's difficult to either deal with it or deny it. What you can do is ask for clarification. Thanks for almost answering my question. Would you consider both my posts to be condescending or just one? In the first post, I was asking a question because you are right - we don't know what happened. I don't see how that can be construed as condescending, but if she reads it and thinks it was, I apologize, that was not my intention. In the second post, I was trying to point out in a humorous manner (at least the person to whom I was responding seemed to think it was funny) that I didn't think the lady who lost her gear had likely done so in the manner described as a possibility in the preceeding post. Since that post was not about the person who actually lost her gear, I don't see how it could be seen as condescending either, but if she reads it and thinks it was, I apologize, that was not my intention.
NetDoc:
No arguments there.
losttravelerfl:
Ana's a very smart lady. It's usually a very good idea to agree with her. She's rarely wrong.
Walter, you are a dear friend. If it was only you I was referring to, I would have just PM'ed you. Social awareness, like situational awareness takes time and effort to develop. It's a good skill on a forum as we have so many readers as well as users who are afraid to post because of what they refer to as "forum meanness". I would suggest if you can't spot the intolerance, that you should work on your sensitivity. I want ScubaBoard to be accessible to all and I surely don't want people to refrain from participating because of what they see as an overall meanness on the internet. For our size, we are probably one of the friendliest forums on the internet as well as for all Scuba related forums. We aren't the friendliest, and I think we should work on that.
Pete, if you see a problem, you should point out exactly what it is rather than make vague references to it. We all see things differently. I'm well aware that often I see things very differently from how most other folks see them. That's a blessing and a curse. I rely on friends, like you, Marvel, MaryAnn and many others to point things out to me when they see something I've posted that can be misunderstood. I still don't see anything in this thread that can be taken as condescending, but I've taken your word for it that it's there. As for increasing sensitivity, that can't be done in a vacuum. When you see something I've posted that comes across as mean spirited, please tell me what and why. Do it in a post or in a PM. I can't fix it if I don't know about it.
Bottomfeeder Brodie
Contributor
well I wont be the only one here thats honest enough to say what I really think about the mentality required to lose an entire rig 10 ft from the shore on a notoriously calm beach I dive every weekend....so I'll withhold my type A personality opinion. The sky is not blue today....its purple!
oldtimerbob
Registered
I myself have contemplated many scenerios and am at a loss to explain any possibilities. So I will not try.
mlynch21
Contributor
To be fair we dont know the specifics... if it was from a shore dive or a boat if she was even wearing the gear at the time or if there was an extreme situation (in the divers head at least) that warranted ditching the gear. It is plausible to assume it was lost near the beach, since boats arent allowed near sharkies pier, and that it was a simple shore dive but it is still an assumption so lets not jump to too many conclusions.
I agree that on the surface this is hard to fathom for many of us especially if we dive venice often but I dont think it is hard to come up with some feasible scenarios and I certainly dont think it suggests anything negative about the diver's mentality!
Maybe the little lady with her brand new gear and most likely her brand new certification might have just freaked out a little bit. Maybe the fact that she was near sharkies pier looking for sharks teeth got to her. She could have felt something in the water with sharks on her brain and dropped her rig and took off for shore.
Maybe she forgot to turn her air on and couldnt fill her bc and didnt notice this till she was getting into water over her head? A new diver might take the entire rig off instead of dropping the integrated weights.
Maybe an issue happened underwater and she ditched her rig and hit the surface... low vis and the bc was unrecoverable. I dropped a gatorade bottle full of sharks teeth @ the boneyard once (straight down) and i imediately went after it and never could find it. ( should have been a good find for someone there were a couple megs in it)
Maybe her rig fell off a boat or kayak... Do you guys keep your rigs inflated on the boat or kayak? I don't
All instances are common problems for new divers that under the right circumstances could result in losing the entire setup... I have seen some pretty experienced divers do some funky things in venice with the low vis. They all of a sudden become nervous and claustrophobic... more worried about sharks and creatures because they cant see them coming (not that it makes a difference). Panic attacks... There is a strong link between comfort and visability with new divers.
How many of you, for that matter, have NEVER lost your cool or forgotten to turn on your air at least once while diving? Someone on the board recently said "If you havn't messed up at least once you havn't been diving very long" We are only human and everyone makes mistakes. Some simple mistake, that many of you have most likely made at least once, probably snowballed into this person losing her gear.
I myself probably had 60-80 dives under my belt before my first extremely low vis dive... its a pretty uncomfortable feeling to get used to. I managed but was not 100 percent comfortable at first. It was an entirely new and different kind of dive and i might as well have been a begginer again. At least the basics were already second hand for me. Prior to that dive i had been to the keys, bermuda, australia and thought i was pretty experienced (kind of funny in retrospect). I cant imagine being a brand spanking new diver trying to deal with everything along with low vis... In the past few months i have been out to venice with 4 or 5 very new divers so i guess i have seen some of this first hand... i wouldnt really consider it an easy begginers dive in comparison to say the shallow reefs in the keys.
One more thing and i will digress... beach dives can be a PITA. You can tire yourself out fairly easily swimming or walking with all that weight... you have to screw around with putting on your fins and mask on in the surf. The surf can beat you up knock you over. Its tough to walk in soft sand. I am 24 and in decent shape but I would rather dive off a boat any day! I think for a newbie this would be one more thing to distract her or wear on her nerves and make mistakes that much easier.
I have to side with netdoc on this one you guys are being a little rough on her... or at least not very understanding.
I agree that on the surface this is hard to fathom for many of us especially if we dive venice often but I dont think it is hard to come up with some feasible scenarios and I certainly dont think it suggests anything negative about the diver's mentality!
Maybe the little lady with her brand new gear and most likely her brand new certification might have just freaked out a little bit. Maybe the fact that she was near sharkies pier looking for sharks teeth got to her. She could have felt something in the water with sharks on her brain and dropped her rig and took off for shore.
Maybe she forgot to turn her air on and couldnt fill her bc and didnt notice this till she was getting into water over her head? A new diver might take the entire rig off instead of dropping the integrated weights.
Maybe an issue happened underwater and she ditched her rig and hit the surface... low vis and the bc was unrecoverable. I dropped a gatorade bottle full of sharks teeth @ the boneyard once (straight down) and i imediately went after it and never could find it. ( should have been a good find for someone there were a couple megs in it)
Maybe her rig fell off a boat or kayak... Do you guys keep your rigs inflated on the boat or kayak? I don't
All instances are common problems for new divers that under the right circumstances could result in losing the entire setup... I have seen some pretty experienced divers do some funky things in venice with the low vis. They all of a sudden become nervous and claustrophobic... more worried about sharks and creatures because they cant see them coming (not that it makes a difference). Panic attacks... There is a strong link between comfort and visability with new divers.
How many of you, for that matter, have NEVER lost your cool or forgotten to turn on your air at least once while diving? Someone on the board recently said "If you havn't messed up at least once you havn't been diving very long" We are only human and everyone makes mistakes. Some simple mistake, that many of you have most likely made at least once, probably snowballed into this person losing her gear.
I myself probably had 60-80 dives under my belt before my first extremely low vis dive... its a pretty uncomfortable feeling to get used to. I managed but was not 100 percent comfortable at first. It was an entirely new and different kind of dive and i might as well have been a begginer again. At least the basics were already second hand for me. Prior to that dive i had been to the keys, bermuda, australia and thought i was pretty experienced (kind of funny in retrospect). I cant imagine being a brand spanking new diver trying to deal with everything along with low vis... In the past few months i have been out to venice with 4 or 5 very new divers so i guess i have seen some of this first hand... i wouldnt really consider it an easy begginers dive in comparison to say the shallow reefs in the keys.
One more thing and i will digress... beach dives can be a PITA. You can tire yourself out fairly easily swimming or walking with all that weight... you have to screw around with putting on your fins and mask on in the surf. The surf can beat you up knock you over. Its tough to walk in soft sand. I am 24 and in decent shape but I would rather dive off a boat any day! I think for a newbie this would be one more thing to distract her or wear on her nerves and make mistakes that much easier.
I have to side with netdoc on this one you guys are being a little rough on her... or at least not very understanding.
Last edited:
dkramer
Contributor
I think the bottom line is, it doesn't really matter how it happened. It happened. Those of us who dive Venice a lot, keep your eyes peeled & maybe we can get the gear returned to its owner.
Of course it matters how it happened. No one can learn from this unless we know what happened.
dkramer
Contributor
I'm sorry, but I thought the point of this thread was to issue a look out for the gear.
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