Lessons What have you become entangled in?

[Ghost95]

I've been tangled in mono and braid fishing line, braid is worse, trilobite line cutters work great for both though. Also been wrapped up in a shrimp net hanging of a sunken shrimp boat in Pensacola bay with almost zero visibility. Used my BFK to free myself and then free a HUGE redfish that swam under the net. When he started banging into me I had no idea what type of monster was after me. We're both ok.

 

[DogDiver]

This might be a little long. Diving The Cederville in the Straits of Mackinac with planned penetration into the silty engine room. We tied off in open water and I lead in. We had backmount doubles and were cave trained. About 30 minutes into the dive we had enough and turned the dive. As I reeled in traveling across deck which was really going down. All the air went to my feet in my drysuit. I lost buoyancy and birds nested my reel while crashing into the engine room door. Now with a silt out and zero visibility the line was wrapped around both legs and was a mess. 2 minutes later my buddy swam back making love to the line. First I shoved the birds nested reel in his mask. He nodded. Then I shoved my line cutter in his mask. His eyes got as big as saucers. He doubled the exiting line around my hand. I cut myself loose and we existed per plan. My point here is we were both experienced cave divers and practiced entanglement in zero visibility multiple times. This was just like a training exercise.

 

[TMHeimer]

I got a bit of fishing line on me on a beach dive in S. Padre I., TX and there is one place in the harbour where I have to watch out for it here. Other than that, there's really nothing anywhere around here (Nova Scotia) to get tangled in. Haven't had a use for my knife in all my 18 years diving (well, 2nd knife, lost the first).

 

[Tigerpaw]

Dsmb line
Christmas Day 2021 at like 10 pm in the Detroit river got my left arm tangled right at the surface with my head half way on the surface.
Dsmb line was attached to a car that drove in the water, and I was tethered to a shore tender, between the two lines pulling me and the Detroit river current in 35° water pushing me in dark, I was tangled and scared
First time I had ever been tangled, first time I’d ever been scared while diving,
Didn’t dive for a few months after that, was pretty apprehensive about getting back in the water after that.
That was a pretty ****** night

KUDOS to coming back and continuing to dive. How did you get out?

 

[Darnold9999]

Fishing line while transiting a kelp forest solo. The line had multiple hooks. One every couple of inches on a line that was very heavy nylon or something like it. Almost 1/16 “ through. A couple of hooks grabbed my fin near the end of the transit. Pulled the line tight to get out of the kelp and possibly break the line but it wanted to pull me back in. Trying to get to my fin to release the line while carrying a large camera with two strobes in one hand and not get sucked back into the kelp bed or wrap the fishing line around anything else was “interesting”. You really don’t want to be thrashing around inside kelp.

Ultimately I went to the bottom and removed the fin, breaking the strap in the process. I had shears and a knife but removing the fin was the quicker and safer option. Now I had to go back through the kelp with camera in one hand and fin in the other and then climb onto the breakwater rocks with a mild surf trying to bash me into them. Not my favorite dive!

 

[rvojr]

Fishing line, nets and manilla/jute rope attached to anchors and crab traps. I've seen people try to use Titanium and SST knives specifically aqualung snap in ones. They didn't work so well and I shelved mine. Others and I have emt shears with black coating and silicone grease the rivet along with a trilobyte on the computer straps. Most of the times they were used for cutting out dog sharks or fish from nets or just messing around to see what works and does not. Only a few times were serious and luckily were able to cut almost invisible line quickly. A lot of the wrecks in NJ have a ton of fishing line with sinkers to conveniently hold them vertical, lost crab traps and ghost nets along with reel lines. Lots of opportunity to practice.

 

[SpeedyJ]

Does a web of lies my cheating ex told me count?

On Great Lakes wrecks we get downrigger cable - braided stainless wire (often made by ScubaPro's sister company Cannon) with an 8-15lb weight attached to it. When they get snagged on a wreck they have to cut the cable, leaving a nice long trail typically draped over the wreck. If the vis is bad, its quite easy to miss at less than a millimeter of thickness. I've never gotten wrapped up bad, but after a time feeling a strand I missed tug on my SPG I've started carrying medical shears in my drysuit pocket as a typical knife or line cutter can't cut it.

 

[FF / EMT]

KUDOS to coming back and continuing to dive. How did you get out?

So, it was just a cluster fuck of a dive, we were in "rescue mode" to get this guy out, i hadn't closed the gill on my FFM, i opted to go w/o gloves. the dsmb line was preventing me from fully surfacing and each time i tried, i'd get a cold splash of water through the gill. I ended up submerging and rotating counter clockwise. in hindsight, i probably should've cut the line, but I didn't.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

4 pages in and not one person confessing getting entangled in a love triangle. Come on SB'ers! There has to be one of you!

 

[MacDuyver]

Fishing line, nets and manilla/jute rope attached to anchors and crab traps. I've seen people try to use Titanium and SST knives specifically aqualung snap in ones. They didn't work so well and I shelved mine. Others and I have emt shears with black coating and silicone grease the rivet along with a trilobyte on the computer straps. Most of the times they were used for cutting out dog sharks or fish from nets or just messing around to see what works and does not. Only a few times were serious and luckily were able to cut almost invisible line quickly. A lot of the wrecks in NJ have a ton of fishing line with sinkers to conveniently hold them vertical, lost crab traps and ghost nets along with reel lines. Lots of opportunity to practice.

Titanium is a material I've never really understood being used for a knife. Dive knives are the only place I've EVER seen Titanium intended for potentially heavy cutting (ropes). Namely because Titanium, though immensely strong is actually really soft and abrades much easier than stainless. Like down in between Aluminum and mild steel. That's pretty ****** for something you need to be able to cut stuff (potentially tough braided material for an unknown amount of time) with. Stainless steel depending on the alloy mix is anywhere from twice to 3-4x as hard and is MUCH better suited to heavy cutting.