How do you help?

[eponym]

Bob (NWGD) is to be congratulated for work on the Annapolis. Anyone who dives artificial reefs (BC and San Diego are my favorite sites) should know how much topside toil and sweat goes into making them suitable for sinking.

Like others, I've gone after car keys, reattached sailboat centerboard cables, and brought up items dropped by boaters at the boat ramps. And some years I help out the local fishing guides by clearing out the line and trash and trees that accumulate in their favorite fishing holes on the Rogue River. It's shallow, cold, and high-current work.

But my best for-free working dives are for Crater Lake National Park. At the end of each season they need divers to drop the tour boat bouys and do other maintenance. Before the next season starts we're in again to raise the buoy chains and help out with boat staff safety training. It's a long day but a remarkable dive site. The photo on my user profile page shows me floating in Crater Lake after such a dive. The color of the water is a strikingly pure blue.

-Bryan

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I freedove crater lake. Man that is a long walk down and back with lead and gear. The visibility was around 125 as I recall.

 

[eponym]

I freedove crater lake. Man that is a long walk down and back with lead and gear. The visibility was around 125 as I recall.

If we're diving at the park's request they drive our gear down and back using a small tractor and cart. Otherwise, yes, the Cleetwood Trail is a 1.1 mile switchback down and back, several hundreds of feet vertically. I only know two who have dived by packing down and out their own gear.

The best underwater topography is found going to the right past the boat loading pier. To shoreward you have absolutely sheer walls composed of innumerable thin layers of shale, very broken, very fragile, going way deep.

-Bryan

 

[CuNanoTube]

In about a week I will be diving along a local shoreline picking up garbage.

 

[CuNanoTube]

Back when I was a golf ball diver, I got a call about a lady who put her cart in the water. I called her back and arranged to work on the recovery in the morning (since I was scheduled to work that course). Unfortunately that particular lake bank, had a steep slope for like 3 feet, then a vertical wall cut into the rock for about 12-15 feet, an honest 90 degree drop.

She called me back later that evening and told me to "never mind" she got some "professional" divers to recover it.

So the next morning, I was working the course for an hour or two (diving other ponds) and curiosity got to me so I made my way to that particular pond. It was freaking awesome.

The divers had got a very large golf maintenance tractor with a chain and were trying to pull the cart out. The tractor had 6 foot diameter wheels and had dug a good foot into the golf course with spinning wheels. They had recovered two golf bags from the cart which were thrown on the bank, they had one guy in a wetsuit holding a yellow rope which was presumably tied to the other diver and they wear tearing the crap out of the course.

Visibility is normally less than 2 feet in this pond. The tractor was going back and forth dragging the chain back 4-5 feet, digging huge ruts and was making no headway. Clearly they had been at it for a while.

I approached the lady and she explained that she had contacted some professional dive instructors from the local dive shop to do the work. I explained to her that there was a vertical cliff underwater and that no amount of pulling was going to get the cart up the wall and over the crest. (of course the professionals probably expected a nice gradual lake bank, but they shoud have know better, once they located the cart).

I asked her if she wanted to pay me $100 or have her cart totally destroyed? She agreed and I went down to take a look. The clowns had taken a BC down and inflated it under the roof of the cart and they had like one 100 lb lift bag on it too. I don't know what a golf cart weighs but it is filled with lead batteries and a BC in the roof ain't gonna cut it!

I had brought no special gear because she told me I was "off the job" the night before. I got them to stop smashing it into the wall and sent the lady back to her house to bring me all her garbage cans. I snagged the crappy yellow rope the divers had been using for a tether, chopped it into several pieces, tied off a garbage can to each corner of the cart (in zero vis), inflated the plastic cans and the cart popped out in a few minutes with a quick pull on the chain.


Easier than picking up 1,200 balls @ $0.08, I guess.

Getting carts out of ponds is a pain. My family own a course, so I have had to help drag at least one cart a year out. I refuse to dive the ponds however (I don't own a H-Drysuit). We normally just use a 50' pole with a hook to attach a line and drag the suckers up. I Guess in the case of this pond that would not have worked.

 

[XNAVYEOD]

There are techniques for searching for things in low viz diving, but I don't know them We are planning to go back for another go sometime.

QUOTE]

One good search technique for low viz situations would ba a circle line.

Simply anchor a float, after which you take about a 20-25' line with knots every few feet apart and connect it to the anchor/weight. Mark your starting point and swim around the anchor in a 360* circle until you reach your mark, move out to the next knot and repeat the process...

I know it's off the thread but I couldnt resist..

As for the question at hand..mostly helping others find lost items..

 

[freewillie]

only a newbie, but eventually when I qualify (need 50 logged dives and rescue diver certification) would like to volunteer at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach CA as volunteer diver help keep the aquarium clean. great excuse get a toothbrush, help clean the tanks, and scuba at same time :cool2: was told if you're there long enough you can even swim in shark tank !!!

 

[spectrum]

Helped a local pond association find a wayward swim buoy mooring.

Did some invasive Milfoil research dives. The scientist needed a buddy by university regulation so we went along and got to help in the work and learn some cool stuff.

Searched for a lost lobster trap

Did a number of clean-up dives at dive sites and marina's

Dives like that with a tactical feel add a whole new dimension above and beyond the usual sightseeing.

pete

 

[Diver0001]

We dove up someone's buddy once after he ran out of air and drowned. Fortunately for everyone, he survived it too!

R..

 

[CuNanoTube]

We dove up someone's buddy once after he ran out of air and drowned. Fortunately for everyone, he survived it too!

R..

So he was dead then resuscitated?
Or was he on the verge and rescued?

Either way,