Diving and lightning

[Former FLL Now MSP Diver]

There's been a few discussions on lightning before. Here's a bit of reading to keep you going.

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19301
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22911
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=38192
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=33122
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=27446
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10479
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7157
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2150
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=2432

Marc

 

[junior diver]

There was once a story, I can't remember where from, about a diver surfacing and getting scooped up by a scoop bucket and putting out exactly 6 1/2 square feet of a forest fire,

 

[MSilvia]

He noticed that a blue halo was around some divers close to him for awhile.

Man... I think seeing St. Elmo's Fire around my dive buddies would seriously freak me out. I've never heard of it under water before though.

 

[Mako Mark]

In my experience, lightnings main effect on divers is to scare the cr*p out of them.

I usually try to stay underwater rather than swim at the surface, then exit the water quickly and get rid of the tank.

I have never heard of of anyone being struck, but I would hate to be first.

I did hear about the divre being scooped up and dropped on a forest fire, I believe that it was either in France or is an urban legend.

 

[headhunter]

Here is a dive report from 2 years ago that was posted on cavediver.net. It was written by both members of the dive team.

Wow! That was an interesting read. Thanks for reposting it here.

Christian

 

[Don Burke]

I did hear about the divre being scooped up and dropped on a forest fire, I believe that it was either in France or is an urban legend.

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/scuba.htm

 

[Don Burke]

You have lots of rubber on with boots and wetsuits so no worry there.

I doubt a lightnig bolt that just jumped thousands of feet of air would be impressed by a few millimeters of wet neoprene.

 

[aquaoren]

There was once a story, I can't remember where from, about a diver surfacing and getting scooped up by a scoop bucket and putting out exactly 6 1/2 square feet of a forest fire,

Too much TV?
There was a CSI episode once that had the story. It was murder

 

[Mortlock]

You'd have to be really unlucky! The chances of getting hurt but lightning while diving would have to so small that it's hardly worth considering.

 

[ScubaTexan]

You'd have to be really unlucky! The chances of getting hurt by lightning while diving would have to be so small that it's hardly worth considering.

Yeah, I'm sure the chances are rather small. But, then again, the chances of Smarty Jones losing last weekend were slim, as well.