Should I be frustrated?

[Whale Whisperer]

Today I performed a penetration dive at a deep local spot called the Seatiger. It's a small wreck less than 200' long and has been worked on to secure certain areas for diver safety but there still many dark tight spaces and tight corners. My gripe here is I'm diving along with my buddy all decked out in my doubles and my full Wreck Kit, happily laying my cave line down checking out the site (Found a huge banded shrimp and a slipper lobster!) . I must have been about 50' inside the wreck in a passage way right next to the engine room access door and out comes these two divers in t-shirts and board shorts and what looked like rental gear! They were silting out the entire engine room and the passage way I was in! Then above all things they come through the doorway and nearly smack my mask off! First thing that came to my my mind was ***!?!?!?! They didn't seem to have a care in the world while they were kicking up all the rust and silt. My buddy asked my what my thoughts were about those two guys, and I said that they weren't very smart at all. Actually I thought they were Jack*****'s. Am I alone here with my opinon?

I'm not a veteran wreck diver. I'm still new to the wreck diving field, but even I knew as a OW diver that there were many hazards to entering a wreck.

 

[MarkUK]

Sadly, you've encountered SPOREs – Stupid People On Rental Equipment – and there are many out there. It does seem inconceivable that these guys didn't understand the potentially life-threatening nature of what they were doing, but I have encountered many, many divers like this on my travels – basic qualifications, basic or rental equipment, and not a clue when it came to heading out for a dive on their own. The problem is, as was this case, they often endanger other people as well as themselves – you were taking precautions, laying a line, redundancy, etc, to cover any eventualities, but you don't plan on running into two of these muppets inside a bloody wreck!

I had a similar situation in a wreck in Scotland – my uncle and I had dived it many times and new all the passageways back to front, but on this occasion, we'd got a new wreck reel, so were trying it out prior to heading up to Scapa Flow. Well, we were down in the engine room, just heading out into the maintenance corridor, and as we turned, I felt the line on the reel go slack. 'Damn', I thought, 'the line has snapped or something', but as I continued reeling in, it tightened up again, then was slack, then tight. As we neared the corner, a solo diver came bimbling around the bend with my screw-shut karabiner in his hand. I stopped dead, totally gobsmacked, and he came up, handed me the karabiner, then turned round and swam back off around the corner. I eventually overcame my shock and my uncle and I exited the wreck, albeit swimming through a nice siltout from our newfound 'friend'. On getting out of the water, we found out he had 'found' our karabiner, figured it had drifted along and snagged (as screw-shut karabiners obviously have a habit of doing!), and decided to follow the line into the wreck!!! For christ's sake!!! How did these people get past DSD???

Mark

 

[texdiveguy]

Sometime '****' just happens....chalk it up as a silt-out training experience--you never know what can happen within a wreck,,surprizes await.

 

[fire_diver]

Sadly, you've encountered SPOREs – Stupid People On Rental Equipment

Mark

I like that, SPORE!! Gotta write that one down so I don't forget it.

You find them outside of wrecks too. My last lake dive, I happened across two other diver heading back to the entry point as I headed out. We waved to each other, then I moved a few feet over to let them pass. And then it was like diving in mud. I couldn't anything. They had kicked up the bottom, and I couldn't do anything but give up on my original plan and go off on a tangent. I ended my surface interval at the same time as them and entered the water right behind them. I was able to follow them around by following thier trail of floating, shredded, underwater plants. Until they got back to the silt anyway.

FD

 

[TheRedHead]

Yes, I would be frustrated. Wreck penetration is a risky enough endeavor that I would invoke Rule No. 1.

 

[amascuba]

Yes, I would be frustrated. Wreck penetration is a risky enough endeavor that I would invoke Rule No. 1.

Don't talk about Fight Club?

 

[Doc Intrepid]

What is equally frustrating is that if you try to inform them, even calmly and politely on the surface afterwards, that they are endangering themselves by silting out the inside of a wreck with neither redundancy nor a line connecting them to the way out; they will immediately get on the nearest scuba board and commence to raise hell about how some arrogant tech wipe had the unmitigated gall to criticize their rigs and their technique in public. They will then declare Jihad against those who wear doubles, long hoses, and wreck reels, proclaiming them all part of a vast Borg Horde conspiracy comprised of egotistical, pretentious gits.

Seeing as it's a no-win situation, I tend to agree with Red. Take three deep breaths and don't bother getting frustrated. Ignore it and avoid any repeat performance...

 

[TheRedHead]

Don't talk about Fight Club?

:huh:

The inexperienced divers could have entangled themsleves in the line and cut it, then the OP would have been in a bad situation. On wreck penetration dives where you have to lay a line to find your way out, it is better to have everyone on the same page. I also find that inexperienced divers tend to follow divers on wrecks if they think the diver has more experience.

 

[ShallowDiverDave]

Varying degrees of intelligence will always exist. However, in senarios such as these, it can be most costly. That being said, even individuals with less intelligence can learn the habits and instincts needed in order to dive safely and effectively. "Unfortunately", one must initially posses a willingness to patiently acquire such behaviors. In the case of these two knuckleheads, and many others, they might be incapable of ever doing this and diving properly/safely in general. This is something we have to live with, afterall, look at all the bad drivers on the road, we have to avoid getting killed by them everyday.

 

[Doubles]

I would be extremely frustrated. They put everyone in that wreck at risk due to their obvious total disregard for safety and what ever training they had received.

As a good friend says "those are divers you will dive for someday, but never dive with"

Im sure you understand why we would be diving "for" them