To the underwater thiefs at Catalina Dive Park: You suck

[Mo2vation]

I was at the park this weekend.

There was a Fundies class going on. There were other training classes there. Its summer, I expect that.

There were divers drilling and chillin. I'll be there next weekend for 3 days with Chica for the same purpose.

There are spools with SMB's deployed. There are line courses for laid out. There are slates tied off for navigation training. The park was full of these tools this weekend.

THIS IS NOT LITTER

There is never a case, and I mean never a reason to ever, ever cut somebody's line.

There is never a reason to come out of the water with a spool that isn't yours.

There is never a reason to pick up a slate that is tied off to a line or a spool that doesn't belong to you.

All of this things happened on Saturday in the park. Lines were cut. Spools were stolen. Slates were stolen.

Anybody with half-a-brain can immediately discern a spool and line that has been purposefully placed and laid out versus a spool that fell off of someone's rig. Anytime a line is laid and a spool is in use, that stuff stays in the water until the person who laid it or the team that is using it retrieves it. That stuff didn't have barnacles on it. There wasn't algae growing on this stuff. I saw it. These were in use.

All of these tools were laid out by people with objectives - training, practice, skill sharpening.

To know that I'm sharing the water with some petty, selfish, cheap, larcenous goober who doubtless deployed his pig-sticker from his calf to cut these lines and made off with these spools and slates makes me sick. And it should make you sick to, you clown (whoever you are.) This isn't a treasure hunt. This isn't a litter clean up. This isn't a joke or a game. Its theft.

And its more than that. Its inconsiderate, its dangerous and its a violation of the code. You never, never cut or remove a line.

If you're reading this, and you have a dive bag full of slates and spools you collected, do the right thing, man. Send me an eMail (ken@divematrix.com) and I'll send you a UPS call tag and a box. Drop this gear into the box and take the box to Staples or Office Depot. No questions asked - and I'll get this stuff back to the owners.

Man up, dude. What you did is not cool, but you can fix it by sending back the stuff.

-Ken

 

[andrewy]

thats cold. pee valve fairy let their pee valves get undone on a 2hr deco.

 

[Mo2vation]

There's a pee valve fairy?

Nice. Did not see that coming.




-K

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

That sucks!
I heard the other day some idiot stole a sand screw holding a float tube for an open water class in the middle of the surface interval at the Breakwater. Some people man!

Maybe it's time to invent a rock salt break away spear tip and go on patrol for enemy goober divers stealing peoples' stuff.

 

[fisheater]

That's really nasty. My heart hurts.

I have such a hard time believing it. (Of course, I know and trust you, Ken.) But, DAMN, I wouldn't have thought that a diver would do that to another diver.

Also, if anyone WITNESSED said thefts and mayhem, PLEASE email Ken and let him know.

And, for rest of us, let's intervene if we see something like this happening. We all trust that other, anonymous, divers will do the right thing -- will come to our rescue, will watch our back, etc. As a community, we can't let this stuff happen.

 

[Mo2vation]

That's really nasty. My heart hurts.

I have such a hard time believing it. (Of course, I know and trust you, Ken.) But, DAMN, I wouldn't have thought that a diver would do that to another diver.

Also, if anyone WITNESSED said thefts and mayhem, PLEASE email Ken and let him know.

And, for rest of us, let's intervene if we see something like this happening. We all trust that other, anonymous, divers will do the right thing -- will come to our rescue, will watch our back, etc. As a community, we can't let this stuff happen.

Let me be clear here: It wasn't my stuff that was stolen.

The guys who lost their stuff came to me, mentioned the incident and asked if I'd reach out to the dive community. I told them I would, and I'd provide an anonymous way for the turd to return the stuff to me so I could get it back to them.

-K

 

[Codyjp]

The whole thing seems odd. I came across one of the reels on my dive and it had become detached and sorta wadded itself into a neat little mess. I nearly picked it up and tied it back off so it would get worse but I just couldn't bring myself to start messing with somebody else's reel.

Bummer. I hope this gets resolved.

For the record I only keep my valuables and a couple open vials of small pox and the plague in my dive box when I get in the water.

 

[NC Wreck Diver]

Ken:

That blows.............I don't know how anyone could do that to their fellow divers. We are a community, interested in a cool sport. To grab someones gear as they are using it is beyond me. It's one thing to find a old knife or related gear that someone has truely written off as lost, but to STEAL someone's new gear on purpose...........just wrong. Bad Karma. What goes around comes around. I hope you get your UPS package. I can't believe people have to look themselves in the mirror every morning to get ready for the day. JO's.............

 

[kathydee]

I hope someone returns the stolen gear. I certainly wouldn't want to dive with that bad scuba karma!

 

[NC Wreck Diver]

I hope someone returns the stolen gear. I certainly wouldn't want to dive with that bad scuba karma!

Hi Kathy:

As I mentioned above, I'm with ya. Life is a balance...............Safe diving to you.