Entanglement Poll

[socaldiver]

when you are just gliding along and the current pushes a strand or two over your back and snagging onto your tank (or your buddy's). Always carry my knife (and a backup in my BC pocket) to slash the plants away.

Haven't had any problems yet (knock on wood) with fishing line.

 

[astrofunk]

I dive Monterey, so getting snagged in kelp is a common occurrence. Getting unsnagged is very straightforward so long as you (1) relax, and (2) let your budy assist you if necessary.

I don't carry a cutting device at present. As for the kelp around Monterey, it snaps if you bend it, and in the worst case scenario, it's no problem to bite through.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

Was diving the local puddle, 18 feet deep and full of pond weed, with someone who hadn't been diving in 5 years. We were doing skills refreshers for him so I treated the dive as a "babysitting" solo dive instead of an actual buddy dive. After the skills set we went cruising through the weeds. They would wrap around your legs and catch on your fin buckles so we had to stop several times to de-weed ourselves. We came across the local Pontiac and I felt a weed grab my leg again but didn't look or reach down to free myself this time. Pretty soon all I could do was dolphin kick because the weed had tied itself around both legs as I slowly kicked over the top of the car while my buddy was looking at the grill. I thought "This pond weed is getting on my nerves!" but still didn't look down or attempt to free myself. Next thing I knew both of my legs were pulled up behind me! My legs were tied to my first stage, I was hog tied by the "weed" and finally annoyed enough to grab it since I could no longer swim. My "buddy" is still poking around the grill of the car, I'm on top of the winshield opening but he hasn't noticed I'm entangled. I reach down and grab the weed and find it's actually an old buoy line that had broken and was hiding in the weeds. I finished untying myself as my buddy looked up and noticed something was wrong.

Luckily no harm was done and we had a post dive discussion about buddy awareness since he was a little rusty. I've learned to look the first time I feel something tug on me even if it does turn out to be nothing more than a little pond weed.
Ber

 

[otter-cat]

...and DEFINITELY the buddy awareness issues.

I've been entangled by both fishing line and kelp (though never both at once, yet) and usually it's not too difficult to untangle myself, or cut myself out with my trauma shears. Sometimes I have been aided by my buddy, other times I could do it myself.

However, one time when I was in a kelp forest in California, I was bringing up the rear in a 3-person buddy team (which is not my ideal buddy situation to begin with, but there was an odd number of divers that day.) One of the divers was a novice, so we put him in the middle of the line so that the other diver and I would both be close to him. My tank valve got caught, and I couldn't go forward. I tried to signal to the other two with my light, but it was daytime and visability was pretty good, and I guess my light didn't stand out enough to catch their attention. They kept swimming forward, and rounded a bend in the rockwall to which we were swimming parallel.

I couldn't untangle myself, so I reached for my trauma shears to cut myself out. I was having a hard time finding/reaching the strand of kelp that needed to be cut, and wondering why my buddies had not returned to see where I was. Eventually I was able to twist my arm/back/shoulder into the configuration needed to cut that rogue kelp thread. I'm pretty flexible, and it still wasn't easy to do, but I did manage to get out. I went to catch up with my buddies, and met them as they had just turned around to search for me.

What had happened was that the experienced diver in front had been regularly signalling to the novice diver between us, who SHOULD have checked on me. Before I got tangled, I had been staying close to him, and had also been signalling frequently with the novice diver. When I no longer signalled to him (because I was trapped,) he apparently didn't realize that if I don't catch him and signal to him, it is his job to turn around regularly and signal to me. So the lead diver was signalling to the novice, who should have been signalling to me, but wasn't, and always just gave the OK sign to the lead diver, who thought that the "OK" had been passed down the line to me and back up, when it hadn't. When they reached a more open area, the lead diver saw that I wasn't behind the novice, and headed back (with the novice) to look for me.

If I hadn't managed to free myself, my buddies would have made it back to me before I ran out of air, but the whole thing could have been avoided if we had done better emphasizing buddy communication and awareness when we briefed the dive originally. Buddies are not perfect, but they are still your best defense against peril once the dive is underway. A good pair of trauma shears on one side of your body and a small knife on the other side are also great things to protect yourself from kelp and line alike.

 

[John Mathieson]

Uncle Pug's comments hit home. Here in Victoria BC, the common place to teach beginners is off a breakwater. About 80% of the water surface is full of kelp, and there are about 872 billion fish hooks all over the place snagged everywhere.

Weird experience - doing a breakwater leap (four foot wide stairs to leap over) keeping your mask on, winding up festooned with kelp up the nose, snorkel and ying yang and then seeing intertwined fishing lines gives one pause to think. What the hell am I doing here? Why didn't I just join the g**d***d Chess Club is a not uncommon thought.

After regaining ones composure, hastily screwing your mask back on to your face before anyone notices, and pulling the 37th piece of kelp out of places you would think a wetsuit would make impossible, you start collecting fishing lures, thinking at least I didn't see many people fishing this morning.

As you go along on your dive, literally BUMPING into sleepy 2-3 foot cod (you could bang them on the head with a flashlight or just poke them with a fork there are so many of the little goofs) you notice line after line just in time to avoid them.

Then, when you eventually surface, you see to your amazement there are now maybe 40 people with their lines everywhere you have just been.

I not sure which was more amazing - the fact you usually DON'T get snagged, or the fact that nobody is catching anything, just as you are brushing the cod-scales off your nice wet or dry suit.

Funny sport. Keep your knife handy.

 

[Uncle Pug]

MikeFerrara once bubbled...
I never said this.

I did... you just mistakenly thought I was being sarcastic.

 

[The Iceni]

Uncle Pug once bubbled...
And to quote kelpmermaid out of context "I wouln't go in without one."

A buddy that is!

I do not wear a knife on my leg any more as it sticks out like a hook but a month ago than monfilament did get me on one of my fin buckles. Before I had the chance to get out my Sea Snips (or my knife in its tidy and secure pocket) by buddy was there untangling it.

I didn't realise just how difficult it is to extract oneself from just one small snag. Like the others I was not concerned at first by that gentle elastic pull even after I had identfied the cause but after what seemed like an eternity I become just a tad worried, but I am reliably informed it was all over in a matter of seconds.

Not easy to touch my toes on land, contortionist I am not!

Quick release mechanisms are a good idea but I suggest fin fixings could be manufactured to prevent this from happening.

All "improvements" have a down side.

Kelpermaid suggests cycle innertube could help but I am not sure that's practical for everyone.

 

[kelpmermaid]

Easy to do on Blades; my sweetie has done it on my Jetfins ( I have yet to figure out how this was done,) but the Mares products...have yet to figure that out. What I mean is just securing the extra fin strap, so fat rubber bands may work, too. That doesn't do anything for your tank valve or body parts, though. Most of the time, I don't snag at all, but when I do, it seems that I have repeat entanglement issues. Maybe it's just California, but is there such a thing as "kelp karma?"

 

[Jarhead]

(No, not the girl) The junk on the deck!

Jarhead

 

[MSilvia]

Absolutely. That's why I made spring straps for mine. I feel they're superior in every way... easier to put on, easier to take off, less entanglement hazard, and much more comfortable.

large_diver once bubbled...
I have used Mares Quattros fins for all my dives up to this point and the buckles on them seem to be like magnets for any kind of line.