To the OW divers I "met" at Jackson Blue last weekend

[MXGratefulDiver]

Good on ya for being a jackass, John ... but you're probably right about them going back ... there will always be those who think they can outsmart Darwin ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[SoccerJeni]

Had the same sort of incident back in the 80's at Peacock. My wife thought I was being a real jerk. Over lunch I told her I was saving the guys life, She asked how I knew for sure he wasn't cave certified and I told her that cave certified divers don't wear snorkels or dive caves with single 60. After we had left the area the guy did the dive anyway, recovery team found his body the next day.

Wow. Heartbreaking.



Good job CD! Hopefully they will think over it and it will sink in!!!!!!

 

[ZenDiver.3D]

Good job.And you didn't make friends, but you did exactly the right thing. I have intervened before too, and it is never appreciated by the ones who needed it. They can hate you for jumping in on them, but that's fine. They are alive to be pissed, and that is all that counts. Let's hope they stay that way.

 

[windapp]

Cavediver...just to let you know there are some new divers who listen to their instructors, I won't even swim under a broken mast on a wreck, let alone enter a cave without training.

 

[freewillie]

there is no protecting those who will succumb to social darwinism. Horace Greely a newspaper editor in 1850's once said, "common sense is very uncommon."

almost all accidents happen because someone was attempting something they had no training. while many may get away with it, accidents happen because the person then did not have the experience or training to deal with the situation once something went wrong. training is not necessarily about being able to handle a dive, it is how to handle the situation when the dive goes wrong.

Cavediver may have saves the diver's lives that day. What is sad is they are probably too ignorant to know just how dangerous diving in overhead environments can be and how close they were flirting with death to appreciate his intervention.

good job Cavediver, keep speaking up when you see something unsafe. there are a few of us out there who will listen and appreciate the concern. besides, what would you have thought if you read about their deaths in the papers and realized you should have said something.

safe and fun diving to all.

 

[Frosty]

CD please (really really please) take this as intended not as a criticism of what you did do to save their lives.
Actually I'll start by saying thank you.
Personally given that YOU were there and able to offer assistance I reckon you would have been better to "encourage" an octi or two to hook up in a comparitively safe place and where discretely possible a bit of silting up.
I know that is utterly non PC but I've "been there done that" so many times with boneheads like this that I've come to realise that after the first few words all most of them are hearing is "BLAHH BLAHH BLAH"
But they are suddenly a heck of a lot more receptive when they have just dealt with the results of their stupidity.
My reasoning being that from the sound of things they will go back in there and like as not will end up dealing with those situations without someone like you there to help out.
In other sports its amazing how attitudes change to us "nanny" types lecturing when they have just burried a freind.
And Mon GOOD ONYA :worship::worship: FOR TRYING TO GET THROUGH TO THEM.

 

[ScubaSteve]

Are you suggesting he should have "hooked" their reg and then silted the area up?

With zero knowledge of their certification, skills mastery, comfort...,.,.need I go on?

CD please (really really please) take this as intended not as a criticism of what you did do to save their lives.
Actually I'll start by saying thank you.
Personally given that YOU were there and able to offer assistance I reckon you would have been better to "encourage" an octi or two to hook up in a comparitively safe place and where discretely possible a bit of silting up.
I know that is utterly non PC but I've "been there done that" so many times with boneheads like this that I've come to realise that after the first few words all most of them are hearing is "BLAHH BLAHH BLAH"
But they are suddenly a heck of a lot more receptive when they have just dealt with the results of their stupidity.
My reasoning being that from the sound of things they will go back in there and like as not will end up dealing with those situations without someone like you there to help out.
In other sports its amazing how attitudes change to us "nanny" types lecturing when they have just burried a freind.
And Mon GOOD ONYA :worship::worship: FOR TRYING TO GET THROUGH TO THEM.

 

[wilderydude83]

The problem is that sign is easily out of the cavern zone at jb (maybe it is right on the cusp). Plus how many people even care when they see those signs

Uh, I care. I wonder if those guys were SB'ers. If I didn't parooze through these theads and read this kind of info on a daily basis, odds are I would be a more careless diver.

 

[knowone]

And sometimes there is just no way to get through to some people.

Very good.

 

[Cave Diver]

Personally given that YOU were there and able to offer assistance I reckon you would have been better to "encourage" an octi or two to hook up in a comparitively safe place and where discretely possible a bit of silting up.

You know, that thought did briefly cross my mind. I also thought about just following for a bit without my light on and seeing how far they'd go before they turned the dive. Several things stopped me from going that route.

First and foremost, it would have put me in a liability situation if my attempt to "scare" them caused one to panic and bolt and subsequently got hurt or killed.

Secondly, while I had close to 175 cft of gas left, I wasn't in a position to share air with two divers at once if they ran out. Especially inexperienced divers that might be panicky if they ran out of gas in an overhead environment or with no concept of buddy breathing with 3 divers on 2 regs. I did have a buddy bottle with me that weekend, but had elected not to use it, so I wasn't carrying it at the time this happened.

Third, with two divers in there and me alone, I wasn't in a position to help both of them if they got separated.

Fourth, I was in a rental drysuit because I ripped a seal on mine. It had molded boots two sizes larger than I normally wear. I was diving the suit with unusually high amounts of squeeze because air getting in the boots made my fins very ineffective. While I was able to dive the suit, it was by no means optimal for mobility if I had to effect a rescue.

While I'm certain that an "experience" might have taught a valuable lesson I don't feel that it would have been the right approach for me to facilitate it.

Not to mention, Donna and Sam would never live it down if they let their SB dive buddy go into a cave alone after a couple of OW divers and I didn't make it back out.