Worried Onlookers

[DeepBound]

How do you avoid scaring people who happen to see you out in the water alone? There's the "I'm OK" signal, but thats only understood by scuba divers.

Let me give you the example that happened to me today: I entered at my campsite and dove across a shallow bay, which is about half a mile wide. I dove about 3/4 to the other side, following an underwater structure, then turned around, and got to about maybe 500 yards from shore and was getting low on air, so launched my SMB so I wouldn't get hit by boats, and ascended. I could wade part of the way back and surface swim part of the way back.

Anyway, after a long surface swim back, I realized that people at the campsite were watching me and very worried. I felt awful. I had a feeling that might happen... so at one point I stood up in a shallow area in case people were watching, but I couldn't really see. ANyway, I feel terrible, and wonder how this could be avoided? Any ideas?

 

[Rick Inman]

On the rare times I solo, my wife is usually on the beach relaxing with a book. Inevitably someone ends up talking to her about my diving, and she reassures them that I'm nuts.

-ah, I mean, I'm competent to dive alone, which I guess is the same thing.

Anyway, having a shore patrol is prudent when diving solo, and also takes care of the bystanders.

 

[SwimJim]

Don't feel bad. You don't have the problem, they do. Just wave and smile. The number of fingers depends on how you feel.

Jim

 

[Doc Intrepid]

How do you avoid scaring people who happen to see you out in the water alone?

"...then turned around, and got to about maybe 500 yards from shore and was getting low on air, so launched my SMB so I wouldn't get hit by boats, and ascended. I could wade part of the way back and surface swim part of the way back.

Anyway, after a long surface swim back, I realized that people at the campsite were watching me and very worried.... ...I had a feeling that might happen...

Any ideas?

Dude,

Lets ponder.

500 yards is about 5 football fields in length. Five football fields is one hell of a surface swim.

Screw what other people think for a minute. If you plan on solo diving, its incumbent upon you to realize that occasionally things simply happen that are beyond your control. Nausea, a thunderstorm with lightning, a leg cramp, whatever. Planning a solo dive that leaves you five football fields away from the shore when you surface low on air is not the type of solo dive plan that might be described as "conservative".

Frankly, unless you really enjoy surface swims in full gear for several hundred yards, this might be something you want to avoid in the future. Its possible to surface from any dive feeling fatigued for one reason or another, and having a serious surface swim to get back to the shore can induce cramps and a host of other issues that you likely don't want to deal with.

One great way to reduce anxiety of bystanders is to plan your solo dives so that - should, god forbid, something go wrong (particularly something you can foresee in advance potentially happening) you aren't hanging it out there quit so far over the edge. If you're going to solo dive, great, ...but remember the objective is self-rescue if necessary. One thing that will freak out bystanders is feeling that - if you DID have a problem - no one has any way to get out to you to do anything about it.

Dive safe - especially when solo diving.

Doc

 

[Diver Dennis]

I solo a lot near my home in Mexico, I can walk down to the beach in a couple of minutes. It's not so much me getting out of the water by myself, it's the worried swimmers seeing my bubbles before I surface.

 

[DeepBound]

I should clarify, the bay had spots here and there where it was shallow enough to sit down on the bottom, rocks practically sticking up. This is why I felt it was a reasonable swim / wade back.

But,the onlookers didn't know that, so point taken!

Dude,

500 yards is about 5 football fields in length. Five football fields is one hell of a surface swim.

Doc

 

[fire_diver]

I say, don't worry about about what other people are thinking. Why do you think they were worried? Maybe they were just curious at seeing a diver.

I got a few looks from other divers today, but I was too far away to tell if they were curious or horried. I don't care, I did a back roll off my boat and had a nice solo dive.

FD

 

[DeepBound]

Well, they were yelling at me when I got close to shore, about how they thought I was drowning I didnt know what to do but say sorry and look down and continue wading to my own campsite.

I say, don't worry about about what other people are thinking. Why do you think they were worried? Maybe they were just curious at seeing a diver.

FD

 

[DeepBound]

Hehe I wanted to wave or something to say "it's ok, this is what I do for fun" but I was afraid that any signal I sent like waving could be interpreted as a sign of distress, or asking for help. Especially waving, since its actually the scuba distress signal.

What could make you look at ease to onlookers... maybe a big pop-up sun umbrella to hang over me while I leisurely lie on my back and swim back to shore? heh

Don't feel bad. You don't have the problem, they do. Just wave and smile. The number of fingers depends on how you feel.

Jim

 

[Doc Intrepid]

You WERE towing a dive flag, weren't you?

The dive flag should be a clue to the onlookers.

Umm, in the absence of a dive flag, they would have had little ability to know exactly what was going on.

Not only is towing a dive flag a wise idea from the point of view of boats, onlookers, etc., but you can attach cell phone in a ziplock or drybox on the dive flag float so that you can make a "Help Mr. Wizard" phonecall if things deteriorate to that point.

I solo dive, but I tow a float or otherwise mark the dive site with a dive flag. If people don't know what the dive flag means, thats a different problem altogether!

FWIW...YMMV