Have you ever been entangled?

[Scott L]

I was diving with three recently authorized research divers at a location where there is a large permanent gill net that all the divers had been instructed to stay well clear of. We were diving as two separate buddy teams. My buddy and I had completed our dive and were returning to shore on the surface when one member of the other team surfaced alone, near the net. I asked him were his buddy was and he said he did not know, that was why he surfaced. I looked around for bubbles and saw some coming up not far away. I told my buddy and the other diver to follow me and dove down on the bubbles. I found the "missing" diver tangled in the net, struggling to get free. She had gotten into the net as she surfaced since the current had bowed the top of the net over her. She had first taken out her knife to cut herself free but had dropped it, and it was now out of reach on the bottom. She had then tried to take off her tank and had somehow managed to wind her intermediate pressure hose around her neck and was now badly fouled in the net. I signaled the two divers with me to buddy-up and stay clear. I approached the fouled diver, got her attention, and had her shift from her regulator to my octopus. I helped her to complete the removal of her tank and we surfaced together, leaving her tank in the net. After settling her down, my buddy and I submerged and recovered her tank from the net and her knife from the bottom.

Wow! That is an incrediable story. I guess my concerns are not unfounded. She is quite a lucky gal to have had been diving with such an experienced team. It is also quite alarming how many divers I see on charters that do not carry cutting tools. Most seem to be teathered to more experienced divers which is no excuse.

 

[pollywogg]

In my short career as a diver, I have been entangled 3 separate times. Two of the times, it was over at the Blue Heron Bridge. The third time, my airline got fouled up around the prop and rudder on a 53 foot Hatteras.
Both times at the bridge were pretty easily dealt with. The worse of the two was the first. It happened on my first or second dive without my instructor after being certified. The bridge is a very safe place to dive, and my 'buddy' was a girl I knew through school(this was before I got my girlfriend certified). We were happily swimming along under the west end of the bridge, when I felt some resistance across my neck. I stopped swimming and backed up a bit. Instead of backing out of the line, I ended up wrapping it around my neck. I tried to just loosen the noose and pull it off, but it had gotten tangled and wasn't coming off without a fight. So, I calmly grab my BC knife and cut myself free. Buddy was nowhere to be seen. When I found her, she didn't realize we had separated(good thing we were in 16 ft of water ).... I never dove with her again....
The airline tangle was another longwinded story. We use surface supplied air when we're doing boat hulls or piers. Long story short, the lesson reinforced was to solve your problem and be cool.
I think any underwater situation, whether emergency, perceived emergency, or inconvenience, needs to be dealt with in a cool, collected manner. As long as you have gas, you're fine, and if you have a plan, you should have gas.



Oh, and I always carry a small blunt-tipped BC knife and trauma shears when I dive.

 

[ivobj]

A few times... I very often dive with the same buddy, also a wreck diver. Many posters already mentioned what to do, call you buddy's attention, if you can reach hold his fin, if not, wait and as he turns to you signal him entanglement (remember, good practice, always look for your buddy), usually will be easier for him to entangle you, but it is always important to be able to do it yourself as well (imagine the situation in which both of you got entangled, rare, and a lot of bad luck, but not impossible...).

I like to do from time to time an exercise in a pool to help learn how to entangle yourself and avoid panic when that happens by creating a consious of the entanglement points in your equipment and being able to entangle yourself easier.

The exercise consists of making in the botton of the pool a "cable tunnel", you take a big piece of reel cable, put 2 pieces of weight to hold the middle part in the botton, around 1 meter from each other, then you take the cable up, cross it (make like an "X"), then down again, two more weights holding it on the botton, up and another cross, down again, and so on, something like 3 or 4 crosses on top. After you assembled that ,go to the pool with your buddy, both fully equipped, and take turns in crossing through the cable. It is almost impossible not to get entangled, as the cables move freely in the water as you fin. Your task will be then entangle yourself, normally I start with a tour of my hand, moving very slowly, on my potential entangle points, by locating them, I calmly try to feel the cable, how it is in my equipment and then try to take it out. If you got so badly entangled that you cannot undo it, your buddy comes into play and do it for you. I do this exercise at least once a month. Important: cutting the cable is forbidden!!! Of course in a real entanglement if you can, you cut the cable, but the goal is to be able to untangle without that, to give the patience to remain calm in a real situation. Also it is very interesting to do it also without your mask on to increse the stress level.

 

[Thalassamania]

Wow! That is an incrediable story. I guess my concerns are not unfounded. She is quite a lucky gal to have had been diving with such an experienced team. It is also quite alarming how many divers I see on charters that do not carry cutting tools. Most seem to be teathered to more experienced divers which is no excuse.

Naw ... Cathy was good and would have solved it herself in time. She later became one of my instructors and taught on staff for almost ten years.

 

[drbill]

Have I ever been entangled? Why of course, several times... but the woman finally wised up and left me.

Oh, you mean by fishing line, nets or kelp? Yes to all three. The advice given above is sound. I am a slightly different case since I dive solo 95% of the time. The first response is to stop, the second is to ascertain exactly what I'm entangled in. If it is something relatively easy like kelp, I simply untangle it and proceed. I may have to snap it if I can't reach the point of entanglement.

With fishing line, I always carry a cutting tool... although shears are my preference over a knife. Shears are much easier to hold and not drop (critical since I'm diving solo). Generally a few simple snips of the line (turning slowly to locate the trailing end and cut it).

With abandoned fishing nets, I almost always have other divers in the vicinity. They can be much trickier to untangle in many ways. So far on the very few times I've had an issue I've been able to free myself, but I wouldn't knowingly dive near a net without other divers present.

 

[beester]

Yep... see this post of me from last summer

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/near-misses-lessons-learned/250770-trapped-net-trying-ascend.html

What I took away from it is to start diving doubles on wrecks (more redundancy and gas).

 

[Web Monkey]

I found the "missing" diver tangled in the net, struggling to get free. She had gotten into the net as she surfaced since the current had bowed the top of the net over her. She had first taken out her knife to cut herself free but had dropped it, and it was now out of reach on the bottom.

I keep my new "Z-knife" under a loop on a shoulder strap with about an arm's length of cave line wrapped around the handle and clipped to a d-ring. That way if I drop it, it's retrievable.

This started right after I lost my old z-knife and thought "Hey, I might have needed that!"

Terry

 

[crispix]

I got tangled up in kelp during my OW checkout dives. The instructor had covered this scenario in detail, and I clearly remember my thoughts at the time: "How cool, I'm stuck in kelp!" Even for a newbie, it was not a big deal.

Kelp dives are among my favorites. I've found it's inevitable to get caught up in the stuff.

 

[Pearldiver07]

Like most any lake diver (and many of the blue water types), I've tangled several times.

First thing to do? Stop, breathe, and look at your remaining air. This will remind you that you really don't have to rush to disentangle yourself 99% of the time.

Remember, the entanglement is rarely more than an annoyance unless you lose control of yourself composure. Then that loss of control becomes far more dangerous than any entanglement.

 

[masonlc]

I once got entangled in seagrass chasing lobsters. I added a little air to my BC and floated right out of it.