What's the most intimidating dive you've done or thing that happened to you?
- Thread starter Eric Sedletzky
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That is one of the best statements I have read on here in a VERY long time... bears repeating!
Forewarned is forearmed Thanks so much for the pics and the advice so if I am ever lucky enough I know what to do or not to do!
Bob DBF
Contributor
I've had boots torn up by sea lions and dogs, except the sea lions did it when I was wearing them. My foot had some punctures and had to update my tetanus shot later on the advice of a vet who works with marine mammals.
My buddy went back to the boat after the incident and I was looking over my shoulder for the rest of the dive.
Bob
TONY CHANEY
Contributor
Another one...Yea those darn tide dependent dives can get really tricky but do not let this sway you from doing the Cooper River.
So we hit the Cooper River, SC for a meg tooth dive. The dive is basically solo, very dark and the tide can get ripping at times. You really want to start the dive with some current in order to remove the silt from you view. You also want to super weight yourself down (like 20-30 lbs. of lead) in order to stick to the bottom. some also use large screwdriver or claw hammers to hold themselves in place. You get the picture. This day I was diving a 9/7 mm neo. dry suit, so the max weight plus double 120 steels. I hit the bottom and start to look around and then after finding a few teeth I head out to deeper water. I find one hell of a Meg. tooth and as well as several smaller ones. My bag is full and the current is starting to pick up. I start to head back toward the boat which is anchored along the bank. Current is now ripping. I start to get tired and legs really cramping up to the point I can no longer kick. I start to do a pull and glide but every rock, which are really bricks on the bottom, rips from the bottom and I get flipped back and start the task again and again. I am now breathing hard, working my ass off and making very little headway. I am really starting to think that there is no way I can continue to do this. So I make the decision to get to the surface so my friends can see me and assist. Three are instructors and two of us are dive masters and we are really a tight group. I surface and see the boat still about 40 yards away. I am now using the current and kicking to get me to the boat, pontoon. I reach the side and three of them grab me, big guys BTW, and start to pull me out. I can almost reach the railing but they drop me back into the water. Now I am drifting toward the back of the boat. I grab the line from the back of the boat and remove my reg. so I can talk to my friends. All of a sudden the current really picks up I am now like a fishing down planer. I go underwater, a wall of green water goes over me and I try to get my reg back in my mouth. At first a no go due to the line is wrapped around my light head. Something breaks free and I am able to get the reg back into my mouth. I return to the surface and am able to get aboard. Come to find out that my Goodman handle and light head broke free and the handle was lost. So I got the teeth and all is well. Good news is that about a year later a buddy comes up with my Goodman handle.
So we hit the Cooper River, SC for a meg tooth dive. The dive is basically solo, very dark and the tide can get ripping at times. You really want to start the dive with some current in order to remove the silt from you view. You also want to super weight yourself down (like 20-30 lbs. of lead) in order to stick to the bottom. some also use large screwdriver or claw hammers to hold themselves in place. You get the picture. This day I was diving a 9/7 mm neo. dry suit, so the max weight plus double 120 steels. I hit the bottom and start to look around and then after finding a few teeth I head out to deeper water. I find one hell of a Meg. tooth and as well as several smaller ones. My bag is full and the current is starting to pick up. I start to head back toward the boat which is anchored along the bank. Current is now ripping. I start to get tired and legs really cramping up to the point I can no longer kick. I start to do a pull and glide but every rock, which are really bricks on the bottom, rips from the bottom and I get flipped back and start the task again and again. I am now breathing hard, working my ass off and making very little headway. I am really starting to think that there is no way I can continue to do this. So I make the decision to get to the surface so my friends can see me and assist. Three are instructors and two of us are dive masters and we are really a tight group. I surface and see the boat still about 40 yards away. I am now using the current and kicking to get me to the boat, pontoon. I reach the side and three of them grab me, big guys BTW, and start to pull me out. I can almost reach the railing but they drop me back into the water. Now I am drifting toward the back of the boat. I grab the line from the back of the boat and remove my reg. so I can talk to my friends. All of a sudden the current really picks up I am now like a fishing down planer. I go underwater, a wall of green water goes over me and I try to get my reg back in my mouth. At first a no go due to the line is wrapped around my light head. Something breaks free and I am able to get the reg back into my mouth. I return to the surface and am able to get aboard. Come to find out that my Goodman handle and light head broke free and the handle was lost. So I got the teeth and all is well. Good news is that about a year later a buddy comes up with my Goodman handle.
I agree tide dependent and drift dives are often really great dives. I think the key is to understand what you are getting into and be honest about assessing your skill set. These are the kind of dives that more experienced divers may thrive on.
I am not inclined to give my advice to another diver unless they ask me for it but I have made an exception when it comes to Swansea. I saw a diver getting ready for the dive whose inexperience showed in the difficulty setting up the gear. I had a chat with him about the dive. The dive also has the challenge of multiple sandbars that can vary your depth significantly if you rely on the bottom and can't control your position in the water. It is a dive where you need to be prepared to be separated from your buddy and do a solo dive.
I am not inclined to give my advice to another diver unless they ask me for it but I have made an exception when it comes to Swansea. I saw a diver getting ready for the dive whose inexperience showed in the difficulty setting up the gear. I had a chat with him about the dive. The dive also has the challenge of multiple sandbars that can vary your depth significantly if you rely on the bottom and can't control your position in the water. It is a dive where you need to be prepared to be separated from your buddy and do a solo dive.
This continues to be a excellent thread. Good posts that provide a lot of good lessons on dive sites worldwide.
Very refreshing that no one is ridiculing or questioning any divers report. I hope that the thread continues in this manner-
quite unusual for SB.
Very refreshing that no one is ridiculing or questioning any divers report. I hope that the thread continues in this manner-
quite unusual for SB.
100days-a-year
Contributor
I am used to sharks harassing me when I spearfish and have seen GW,mako,tiger,bull and most of the smaller species at least once.
A couple years ago I was in about 170' and had accrued a few minutes of deco past what would clear on the way up.I had a few big lionfish and 2 large scamp on my stringer and had just left the bottom when a 10'-12' GW slides into view and heads right at me in really clear water.I had my stringer wedged into the tines on the end of my spearshaft and kept them between us for the 10 minutes of ascent and deco.He would come in,get a few spines in the nose,turn away and come right back.He was obviously interested but the stings worked.I got in the boat as he lost interest and sunk out of sight.For that short time the shark never moved more than 10' away.Epic to see,but a bit unnerving.Moved a few miles and resumed diving a little warily.To date,4 non-cage interactions with them.Not something I enjoy repeating.
We dive the local rivers for megs and other fossils and pass gators sunning on the bank on occasion but even in blackwater with 2 kts of current you are never as aware of your mortality as when eyed by an actual apex predator.
A couple years ago I was in about 170' and had accrued a few minutes of deco past what would clear on the way up.I had a few big lionfish and 2 large scamp on my stringer and had just left the bottom when a 10'-12' GW slides into view and heads right at me in really clear water.I had my stringer wedged into the tines on the end of my spearshaft and kept them between us for the 10 minutes of ascent and deco.He would come in,get a few spines in the nose,turn away and come right back.He was obviously interested but the stings worked.I got in the boat as he lost interest and sunk out of sight.For that short time the shark never moved more than 10' away.Epic to see,but a bit unnerving.Moved a few miles and resumed diving a little warily.To date,4 non-cage interactions with them.Not something I enjoy repeating.
We dive the local rivers for megs and other fossils and pass gators sunning on the bank on occasion but even in blackwater with 2 kts of current you are never as aware of your mortality as when eyed by an actual apex predator.
A couple of experiences spring to mind.
One was when I was a novice diver. I had an AOW cert and I enjoyed the deep diving. I was trained in 1984 and like most PADI divers who were trained at that time we didn't have the benefit of extensive availability to information online, we didn't learn the first thing about gas management, we didn't have computers and we didn't really learn anything about decompression theory other than to be afraid of the NDL's.
During a deep dive we were at about 40m and there was a group engaged in training just ahead of us. We were on a wall and the group ahead was diving in a line. The last diver in that line somehow got tangled up in some fishing line and started losing his buoyancy control. Nobody else in his group noticed it but we did, so we went after him, pinned him against the wall and cut him out of it. Not having a computer, we had blown our depth plan and had no really good idea how to ascend from that. At the time it was incredibly intimidating.
Another one was when I was a divemaster. I was assisting on a deep dive and the instructor had taken 4 students to a platform at 25m. I was one of the divemasters and there was another DM as well. As the students were on the platoform, he intended to do some exercises like writing words backwards and such. Just after we got settled in, a group of divers descending from above to the platform came into view. I think there might have been 6 of them but I didn't get a good look because they started almost literally "impacting" the bottom. They "landed" like silt-bombs.
The instructor signed us to gtfo just before the viz went to zero. I reached forward from where I was and grabbed two divers and dragged them out of the silt storm. That's when I noticed that one of them was our student and the other diver was one of the divers from the group who descended out of control on top of us.
The other DM was gone and when I found the instructor he had only 1 student by him. That meant that from the 4 students we had 2 safely out of the silt storm and we had lost 2 and a DM. We surfaced assuming that the other divers would surface as well, accoording to the pre-dive briefing. Once on the surface the other DM appeared with 1 student and after waiting a minute the other student still hadn't shown up.
I was the DM but also the most experienced diver in the group so the instructor got everyone together to get out of the water and told me to go look for the other student. He would stay on the surface and alert EMS if necessary.
Once back to depth the silt storm had grown but I was able to find the platform again. I couldn't see anything but I closed my eyes and I could hear a diver nearby breathing. I couldn't tell the direction but I started moving very slowly and listening to the volume of the sound to tell if I was getting closer or further away. After a minute or two I literally bumped into him. I verified that it was our missing student and took him to the surface.
He told us later that when the viz was gone that he thought it would be best not to go anywhere so that he could be found. He forgot that we had told him to surface if he got separated. I don't know what would have happened had I not been able to find him, but I got some grey hairs thinking about it.
R..
One was when I was a novice diver. I had an AOW cert and I enjoyed the deep diving. I was trained in 1984 and like most PADI divers who were trained at that time we didn't have the benefit of extensive availability to information online, we didn't learn the first thing about gas management, we didn't have computers and we didn't really learn anything about decompression theory other than to be afraid of the NDL's.
During a deep dive we were at about 40m and there was a group engaged in training just ahead of us. We were on a wall and the group ahead was diving in a line. The last diver in that line somehow got tangled up in some fishing line and started losing his buoyancy control. Nobody else in his group noticed it but we did, so we went after him, pinned him against the wall and cut him out of it. Not having a computer, we had blown our depth plan and had no really good idea how to ascend from that. At the time it was incredibly intimidating.
Another one was when I was a divemaster. I was assisting on a deep dive and the instructor had taken 4 students to a platform at 25m. I was one of the divemasters and there was another DM as well. As the students were on the platoform, he intended to do some exercises like writing words backwards and such. Just after we got settled in, a group of divers descending from above to the platform came into view. I think there might have been 6 of them but I didn't get a good look because they started almost literally "impacting" the bottom. They "landed" like silt-bombs.
The instructor signed us to gtfo just before the viz went to zero. I reached forward from where I was and grabbed two divers and dragged them out of the silt storm. That's when I noticed that one of them was our student and the other diver was one of the divers from the group who descended out of control on top of us.
The other DM was gone and when I found the instructor he had only 1 student by him. That meant that from the 4 students we had 2 safely out of the silt storm and we had lost 2 and a DM. We surfaced assuming that the other divers would surface as well, accoording to the pre-dive briefing. Once on the surface the other DM appeared with 1 student and after waiting a minute the other student still hadn't shown up.
I was the DM but also the most experienced diver in the group so the instructor got everyone together to get out of the water and told me to go look for the other student. He would stay on the surface and alert EMS if necessary.
Once back to depth the silt storm had grown but I was able to find the platform again. I couldn't see anything but I closed my eyes and I could hear a diver nearby breathing. I couldn't tell the direction but I started moving very slowly and listening to the volume of the sound to tell if I was getting closer or further away. After a minute or two I literally bumped into him. I verified that it was our missing student and took him to the surface.
He told us later that when the viz was gone that he thought it would be best not to go anywhere so that he could be found. He forgot that we had told him to surface if he got separated. I don't know what would have happened had I not been able to find him, but I got some grey hairs thinking about it.
R..
OP
Eric Sedletzky
Contributor
Intimidating dives are dives that we remember and also learn from. They're a great thing.
As NWGD said, sometimes you don't know what you're getting into, but when the dive becomes intimidating you react to it with the skills you have (in all areas, physical and mental). When we are faced with an intimidating situation that there really isn't any training for we learn on-the-job, and these learning experiences are the most vivid and can hold the most value. Like getting dive bombed by a crowd of sea lions, how do you train for that? Or a sudden high current? PADI doesn't have a high current or sea lion specialty AFAIK.
However, if someone purposely seeks out intimidating dives just for an adrenaline rush and just for the reason that it's intimidating, then maybe that's not so good, I don't know.
But I don't see any of that here, maybe that's why this this thread hasn't devolved into a bunch of name calling. All the stories are great and I think very honest, and lets face it, divers who explore and are willing to push a little and do the dives that might have the potential to become intimidating will learn more and have more memorable experiences, whether positive or negative.
What doesn't kill you will make you stronger, but it helps to have the skills to prevent getting killed.
As NWGD said, sometimes you don't know what you're getting into, but when the dive becomes intimidating you react to it with the skills you have (in all areas, physical and mental). When we are faced with an intimidating situation that there really isn't any training for we learn on-the-job, and these learning experiences are the most vivid and can hold the most value. Like getting dive bombed by a crowd of sea lions, how do you train for that? Or a sudden high current? PADI doesn't have a high current or sea lion specialty AFAIK.
However, if someone purposely seeks out intimidating dives just for an adrenaline rush and just for the reason that it's intimidating, then maybe that's not so good, I don't know.
But I don't see any of that here, maybe that's why this this thread hasn't devolved into a bunch of name calling. All the stories are great and I think very honest, and lets face it, divers who explore and are willing to push a little and do the dives that might have the potential to become intimidating will learn more and have more memorable experiences, whether positive or negative.
What doesn't kill you will make you stronger, but it helps to have the skills to prevent getting killed.
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