What are some of your worst entanglement experiences?

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On a day with poor vis, I decided to do a drift dive in the St Clair river. I managed to get tangled in a crane boom laying across the bottom. I had to cut my crotch strap and get out of my tanks to get free.
 
I try to clean up fishing lines when I can, that often results in a bit of entanglement. So far nothing really bad. Entanglements are high on my list of scary things. I carry multiple cutting tools.

Some of @squalus357's youtube videos show truly horrific low-viz entanglement hazards if you're into watching such things.

 
I've been hooked twice by fishermen on shore, each time in shallow water so no real problem. Once in FL and once in NJ.
In SPI, TX I was momentarily caught in fishing line but didn't need to cut it to escape.
Nothing much to get caught in shore diving in Nova Scotia, but diving solo I stay clear of mountains of kelp and really tall eel (sea) grass.
 
Solo diving swimming through a kelp bed I snagged fishing line with my fin. Felt it grab and kept swimming a few feet to get out of the kelp hoping it was light line and it would break. (Close to the edge of the kelp bed). As it was only wrapped in one fin and I could not figure out how to unwrap it I took the fin off - rather than cut the line. Figured the chances of getting more entangled getting the shears out of my pocket, managing the camera and getting to the line to cut it at the edge of a kelp bed were greater than just removing the fin. Managed to break the fin strap getting it off. The line was really nasty stuff with small hooks every few inches and very heavy line.

Pretty stressful dive. In a ten minute dive where at the end I thought my tank would need 500 psi to top up I blew through almost a1/3 of a HP 100. Didn’t think I was that stressed but …

I carry a small knife always on my BC belt strap and shears in a pocket if there is any chance of fishing line.
 
As I was taking off the BP/W I noticed a cable was hooked onto a carabiner on my secondary reel. Somehow the cable "opened" my carabiner and the cable ran through the interior of the wreck with different length keepers against the interior of the wreck hence only allowing me to travel 10-15 feet in either direction. After that I only used bolt snaps. I also wanted to say I had fear and panic at one point but closed my eyes and regrouped mentally to figure out how to get out of this alive. Clearly I have not forgotten

I guess that would be why other divers have been calling though carbiners "suicide" clips. Thanks for the real life is example.
 
665 dives and I’ve never been seriously entangled. I’ve had a couple minor hang ups on fishing line that I could easily clear. I’ve used my line cutter twice to cut line that was slightly hung up on me. I most likely could have untangled it but it was just easier to cut it than mess with it. I’ve used it other times to cut line off of wrecks, reef and a sea turtle once.

I wear two cutting devices on my waist band. One is a trilobite eezycut. These work incredibly well on fishing line.

EEZYCUT Trilobite Line Cutter

I also have a small blunt tip titanium line cutter.

DGX Gears Titanium Tek Line Cutter w/Waistbelt Sheath
 
Recent dive, my buddy snagged a fishing line on the bottom without realising. I got her attention and she decided to pass it over her head (thought it was stretched above her) so instantly got tangled in the 1st stage and hoses. I got her out without cutting the line and we continued. 6 feet later I stopped quick, same line tangled unseen round my gear. We both got our line cutters out and that was that.

A very useful learning experience for us. Eezicuts (or similar) worked well.
 
The entanglement itself doesn't have to be catastrophic event, the trick is reacting to it appropriately.

Like the example from @Wookie that took 22 tanks to clear, you can infer from the description it was just something that needed to be done, so let's get to it.

What works for me is to NOT use force, stop and try to softly follow whatever it is holding you up (line, mono, net, whatever) to contact point.
Many times it is to the 1st stage/tank valve assembly , just relax and softly work it out however you can. As long as you don't panic it shouldn't be terrible.

Granted if you purposely swim into a bunch of fouled nets, you better have lots of air and a reasonable strategy, but typically it will be something you are carrying that is going to wrap around you.

I've seen people loosing their $hitt when the current changes direction and the flag line just touches the back of their head. From there this person proceeded to tangle himself to a tamale.
Over-reacting underwater seldom ends on a positive note.
 
I've seen people loosing their $hitt when the current changes direction and the flag line just touches the back of their head. From there this person proceeded to tangle himself to a tamale.
Over-reacting underwater seldom ends on a positive note.

Oh the number of times I've gotten the flag line wrapped around my foot/fin at BHB :rofl3: I'm sure I look quite humorous sometimes getting untangled especially when it has gotten wrapped around it a couple of times. I refuse to surface even though the depth is so shallow. I see it as a challenge to my manhood to fix it underwater. :cool:
 
On a day with poor vis, I decided to do a drift dive in the St Clair river. I managed to get tangled in a crane boom laying across the bottom. I had to cut my crotch strap and get out of my tanks to get free.
glad you got out of that, never know what is in murky rivers
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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