Since no one else seems to have ever screwed up when diving… I’ll just keep going!When I first got certified to Scuba Dive we went the next week lobster diving in 80 ft of water. I found a big lobster in a hole that was on the underside of a low ledge and I somehow worked myself underneath it to get a hold of him in this funky hole. So my left arm is above me in the rock and the hole takes a 90 degree turn and I’ve got the lobster or so I think. I’ve worked myself so tight underneath the ledge and my other arm is on my side pretty much immobile so I can’t do anything to push myself out. So I’m stuck underneath this rock at depth and can’t even see my gauges to tell how long I have to live. I can’t get out, can’t take my gear off, and can’t get my arm out. I’m trying to relax and figure out what to do when I feel a hand grab my ankle and my dad pulls me out by one leg. Back on the boat he says, “Bet you won’t do that again?!?” I am sure I said something smart ass like ‘Yeah next time I’ll take my tank off first before I go under there…’ I was 12 years old. A lot has changed since then and I’ve become a much safer diver. If it hadn’t been for a good dive partner that day I might still be stuck under that ledge.Cameron Kirkconnell
2 Responses to “I learned about diving from that..day 2”
On one of my first shore-dives ever, I was diving alone in about 10 – 12meters of water in the Transkei (Wild Coast) in South Africa.
I had shot a stringer full of really decent fish, a big “Garrick” or Leatherfish, a nice musselcracker and an assortment of reef fish near an exposed rock about 700m offshore. As I was on my way in, I saw a big black musselcracker swimming underneath me. I had a feeling that I had already shot more than my fair share but I just had to dive and give chase.
Mistake 1:
I chased the fish for quite a distance until it offered a shot. I rushed the shot as I was tired after a hard swim and missed. My spear went straight through a clump of redbait attached to a rock as I had stupidly shot downwards towards the reef. I was a little upset with my stupid decision but thought I should recover my spear without too much hassle.
My actual shock came when I wanted to swim to the surface and came to the realization that in my blind pursuit of the Mussel Cracker, I had unknowingly swam towards the exposed rock and was now in water only about a meter deep. So, I stood up out of the water and what greeted me was a wall of water which at the time seemed like the most immense thing in the world. The wave broke over the rock and slammed into me like a brick wall.
Mistake 2: I was diving with a 1.1m Rob Allen reel gun (Still my favorite gun) which I had attached to myself with a 1m Bungee Chord. So, when the wave it me, it washed me back, tumbling about 80m – until all the line on my reel was gone, then, I was pinned to the bottom as the wave kept on pushing over me.
Mistake 3: When I realized what was happening, I decided to cut the line on the reel to free myself. The only problem was that the knife I was using was so blunt that it couldn’t cut through anything. Repeatedly, wave after wave came over, allowing me only seconds to get slight breaths but things were looking bad and I was sure I was a goner.
After what seemed like forever, I clicked that all I needed to do was drop my weightbelt as the gun was attached to it. Et Voila, I was free. I managed the swim to shore and I think I resembled a drowned rat when my friends came to greet me. I was able to swim out again an hour or so later and managed to retrieve my gun, But I learnt some valuable lessons.
1. Don’t dive alone – it’s a bad idea.
2. Don’t shoot more than you need. I think that day Neptune was out to teach me a lesson.
3. Always stay alert of your surroundings and what’s going on around you, even if you’re focused on a fish.
4. Always have a sharp knife with you.
5. Don’t attach a reel gun to your body, unless that attachment point is a belt reel.
6. Don’t think twice about dropping your weightbelt when you need to.
I’ve had quite a few other blunders, but let me think about those first…
I was living on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica, surfing and freedive spear-fishing every day for subsistence. There is an amazing fringe reef system in this town with long swim through, caves, and ledges. Inexperienced and just starting spearing, so I only had a 36″ JBL gun and no back up gear. I found some smallish snapper (10 lb)hiding under what I thought was a small ledge so I shot one. What I couldn’t see was that the “small” ledge was actually the opening to a cave. The bottom at 40′ was sand and the crack/ledge was about about 16″ off the sand. The snapper took my shaft and swam up into the cave to the end of my shooting line(luckily/unluckily) only about 9′. It was too dark to see anything so I rode my bike 30 minutes home to get a torch. With the torch I could see that it was actually a cave and my shaft was way deep under the ledge/cave. Diving by myself (mistake #1), making multiple dives and pushing my meagre abilities (mistake #2), with my mind made up that I was going to recover that shaft at all cost (mistake #3) I managed to wiggle and jam myself all the way under that ledge so that only my fins were sticking out (mistake #4). I eventually cut the tangled shooting line and got the shaft back but it still makes me shiver to imagine 1) my weight belt getting snagged 2) the shooting line wrapping around my hand 3) blacking out and without anyone knowing where I was them never finding my body………….all for a stupid shaft.