The forces of Darwin held at bay

[SnakeRiverPirate]

Yesterday while waiting for the others in my stress and rescue class to show up. I had a chance to sit and chill on the dock. As the others were a bit late, I had to chance to watch 2 late teen males on the adjacent dock. They had grabbed 40-50 pound stones and their plan was to plunge sponge diver style with the rocks and a small balloon inflated with air from a 12-volt compressor.

I noticed this and felt some obligation to ward off to forces of Darwin. I walked up and started chatting with them. They told me their plans and I had guessed right. Both seemed to be motivated by a desire to look cool for their girlfriends. We talked about their plan as I brought down my dive gear. They asked if I was going to be diving. I assured them that a Stress and rescue class was going to meet in 20 minutes so there was a good chance of getting them life-flighted to the nearest hospital or at least recovering their remains should they persist with their ill advised plan.

I then took the time to loan them some snorkeling gear and advise them in its use. They assured me that they would practice in the area between the docks where it runs to a max of 15 feet. They got to save face, as I didn’t correct them in front of the girls. They also got to chat with the LDS owner and find out when the next open water class was.

All in all I thought that it went well. Has anyone had similar experiences?

 

[SteveAD]

Yeah. I can't count the number of darwin award contenders who come into my shop, not certified, don't want to get certified, just want to go a little bit deeper, stay a little bit longer, but don't really want to dive, so what can I buy to do that?

You handled the situation perfectly.

 

[Charlie99]

Yeah. I can't count the number of darwin award contenders who come into my shop, not certified, don't want to get certified, just want to go a little bit deeper, stay a little bit longer, but don't really want to dive, so what can I buy to do that?

How about a Pressurized Snorkel™ by Brownies. If they want to go deeper there's the Third Lung Hookah system.

No worries mate, they have Online Hookah Training

I'm amazed at how many people don't consider hookah as "real diving" and don't realize the dangers involved.

 

[FFMDiver]

How about a Pressurized Snorkel™ by Brownies. If they want to go deeper there's the Third Lung Hookah system.

No worries mate, they have Online Hookah Training

I'm amazed at how many people don't consider hookah as "real diving" and don't realize the dangers involved.

I'm sure that lots of these are sold but that hose looks downright scary....

 

[Zieg]

Back in '68, I had an Johnson Air Bouy, esentially a hookah setup with a fullface mask. I read the manual. Last I checked I hadn't died. Scary hose?

 

[mlynch21]

For the most part hookah divers are shallow divers so the bends arent as big of an issue but i am suprised there are not more hookah divers with embolisms.

 

[stairman]

Lots of things can happen in 30ft of water.The online certification course is scary.

 

[tfsails]

SRP--it sounds like you're a helluva lot more diplomatic than I am. I think I would have probably gone up to them and told them how stupid they were getting ready to be. I wish I had your tact...

 

[ItsBruce]

I guess you did a good thing. But, you may have messed up the gene pool.

I do recall having to sign a waiver form that included a spot where I had to enter the name of my next of kin. I passed on the activity.

 

[SnakeRiverPirate]

I try to be patient. I did some dumb things as a teen. I just didn't want to have to tell their families that they were being stupid and I did nothing to stop them.