Using marker line as a tow line?

[TorontoDive]

Hey all, I was out diving on the weekend and would like to relay an experience I had. We did a shore dive to a wreck where you swim in from the shore to a buoy, descend the line and follow the line on the bottom for about 100 feet to the wreck itself. The dive itself was great, nice wreck, decent visability and warmish water temperatures.

The "problem" happened as my buddy and I were returning from the wreck to shore. We were swimming back following the line hovering about 2-3 feet off the mud bottom maintaining eye contact with the line, when suddenly the line just jolted up off the mud floor nearly hitting both of us. Then a few seconds later we see two divers come ripping at us using the marker line as a tow line going hand over hand like a shark was chasing them, the lead diver actually collided with my buddy, gave her a dirty look like "get out of the way" and just kept going!! Needless to say that in order to follow the line back, we had to stay very close to the line as the previously clear water was now a silt storm. In all of my short time diving I have never seen anything like it. Is it normal for divers to use the marker line as a tow line? I personally feel it is inconsiderate for the reasons above but am curious to know what diving practices are like where you are?

 

[Bill51]

Inconsiderate – yes, common – too much so.

I’m not sure if the divers that do it are just uneducated or lazy.

 

[gitterdun]

Okay, I am also a new diver, and there were a bunch of us diving a wreck in Barrie last week. Vis was 1 foot at the greatest, and we were behind two other divers. We descended down the line, and found the wreck by darn near bumping into it. We stayed down for a short time, then decided to call it, as there was absolutely no vis., and the silt had been kicked up. We found the line and did use it to come back up. Even with flashlights you couldn't see anything in front of you (I lost my buddy for about 30 seconds, and he was only 2 feet away). I stayed pretty much attached to my buddy, and if it wasn't for his bright yellow tank, I probably wouldn't have been able to stick with him. For us, holding the line seemed to be the only option, as you couldn't see it otherwise, and had no way of seeing anything. Is that wrong? Just wondering, as I said, I'm new.

 

[TorontoDive]

Okay, I am also a new diver, and there were a bunch of us diving a wreck in Barrie last week. Vis was 1 foot at the greatest, and we were behind two other divers. We descended down the line, and found the wreck by darn near bumping into it. We stayed down for a short time, then decided to call it, as there was absolutely no vis., and the silt had been kicked up. We found the line and did use it to come back up. Even with flashlights you couldn't see anything in front of you (I lost my buddy for about 30 seconds, and he was only 2 feet away). I stayed pretty much attached to my buddy, and if it wasn't for his bright yellow tank, I probably wouldn't have been able to stick with him. For us, holding the line seemed to be the only option, as you couldn't see it otherwise, and had no way of seeing anything. Is that wrong? Just wondering, as I said, I'm new.

In your situation I think holding onto the marker line would be okay. In my case we were in the St. Lawrence so vis was pretty good - between 20-30 feet and there was no problem before those two came by and caused a huge cloud of silt. We encountered at least 10 other divers on the line coming and going as this wreck is a nice easy shore dive and these were the only two that towed themselves on the line.....geez, how lazy can one be?

 

[gitterdun]

In your situation I think holding onto the marker line would be okay. In my case we were in the St. Lawrence so vis was pretty good - between 20-30 feet and there was no problem before those two came by and caused a huge cloud of silt. We encountered at least 10 other divers on the line coming and going as this wreck is a nice easy shore dive and these were the only two that towed themselves on the line.....geez, how lazy can one be?

Gotcha. In that case, it does seem pretty rude!