Mucky Lake Dive in Maine, complete newb ?'s

[dhiggs7]

I lost a couple of valuable items at my camp in a small lake in Maine, and am bound and determined to get them back! However, I've never gone diving before, and even though it's only 8-10 ft deep, it is very dark and mucky. I tried just swimming down over and over with goggles on, and snorkling, but it didn't work, I need to get deeper. I was thinking of trying to get an underwater light and a very small O2 tank to go under, but I have no clue what to get or where. I would be very appreciative if someone could give me ANY advice. I tried looking at scuba sites to see what they had, but couldn't find what I had imagined I would need for a breathing apparatus. Any help on these 2 items or techniques to retrieve my stuff is MORE than WELCOME! Thanx in advance, Dave

If you want to email me, my address is dhiggins@pipeline.une.edu

 

[Ber Rabbit]

You would be better off finding a competent certified diver to help you find the items. Scuba equipment is expensive and you can't rent it unless you're certified to dive because it's pretty easy to get yourself killed without training especially in the conditions you described. Investing in a scuba class when you aren't really interested in diving as a hobby is a waste of money. Click here for the local forum for New England divers and post a thread to see if anyone would be willing to help.
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[cgilyeat]

I lost a couple of valuable items at my camp in a small lake in Maine, and am bound and determined to get them back! However, I've never gone diving before, and even though it's only 8-10 ft deep, it is very dark and mucky. I tried just swimming down over and over with goggles on, and snorkling, but it didn't work, I need to get deeper. I was thinking of trying to get an underwater light and a very small O2 tank to go under, but I have no clue what to get or where. I would be very appreciative if someone could give me ANY advice. I tried looking at scuba sites to see what they had, but couldn't find what I had imagined I would need for a breathing apparatus. Any help on these 2 items or techniques to retrieve my stuff is MORE than WELCOME! Thanx in advance, Dave

If you want to email me, my address is dhiggins@pipeline.une.edu

Potential Darwin Award????

 

[ChrisA]

I tried looking at scuba sites to see what they had, but couldn't find what I had imagined I would need for a breathing apparatus. Any help on these 2 items or techniques to retrieve my stuff is MORE than WELCOME! Thanx in advance, Dave

You need to get training. No way is anyone going to sell or rent you scuba equipment unless you are a certified diver. (They'd be nuts to do so because you'd die and your family would sue) Breathing compressed gas underwater when you don't have the required training is a good way to kill yourself. learning is not hard. Some places can teach you in as little as two full weekends for a cost of about $250.
After that you can rent equipment for between $50 and $100 per day or buy for about $750 to $2k

Diving in low visibility requires some skill. More skill than you will get in the basic Open Water class. It will take a number of dives to obtain this skill. One of the things you will learn in the class is to never dive solo. You will need a "buddy". Divers dive in pairs.

OK now that you are a certified diver, have gained some experience and met enough other divers than you can find a dive buddy to help you, you can then use any of several common search techniques like (1) "expanding squares (follow compass heading for a few kick cycles make 90 degree turn follow new heading for a slightly longer distance and keep going in an expanding square (2) Use a reel and line. one diver hold reel you swim a circle, unreel a meter more line do another circle. (3) The "lawnmower" pattern works too. Some more advance technique involves setting up a grid underwater. But learning to handle line underwater in near zero visibility is not an easy skill to learn. A beginner could entangle himself badly. All of this requires you to be able to navigate in near zero visibility by use of compass and distance estimation. Swimming around at random is quite ineffective. You need one of the above very systematic methods but before you can do that you need some trainning and then some more experience and practice. You could be there in a couple months if you work at it.

By the way, O2 is toxic at depth, Basically you black out with no warning. It is almost always fatal. I would recommend using a different gas such as air.

I'd say that unless you will have a continuing interest in scuba diving you need to find an expert. Not all divers are experts at under water search and recovery, most just swim around in warm clear tropical waters and look at fish. But ask around most would work for peanuts just because it is fun.

I don't know what you lost but if it is a $10K Rolex watch in a mud bottom lake, good luck. It will require a very methodical search basically by "braille" and you can expect to spend hours under water.