Knife & light: am I too lite?

[Charlie99]

Arnaud: " Knife & light: am I too lite? "

A 2" folding knife stores nicely in a pocket, and could be invaluable if you, or your buddy, get caught in monofiliment. Just make sure that you practice getting to it and opening it with one hand.

The small light you carry is a great idea.

The other small safety-related gear that I carry is surface signalling equipment ---- a diver on the surface can be very hard to spot. A whistle, a mirror (with a sheet of wetnotes wrapped around to replace the slate), and some sort of signal tube are other things you might consider. Trident makes the simple "orange garbage bag" FM36 signal tube. It is 6" by 8-1/2 feet tall, rolls up into a 6" long 1/2" diameter cylinder, costs less than $10. Small, very visible. I carry mine inside a length of bicycle innertube to keep it from getting torn.

These things are like seat belts ---- I always carry them, while hoping I never have to use them.

Charlie

 

[Soggy]

Unless you are diving in crystal clear carribean water with no possible way to ever get entangled, you need some sort of cutting device, probably two. I carry a knife on my inner left leg and a set of sea snips on my waist strap (wear a DIR knife should go). You mentioned kelp diving..I would imagine that stuff can get you tangled up nicely.

Remember, just because you haven't needed one yet, doesn't mean it won't save your life. I have never pulled my knife or sea snips underwater, but some day it might save me.

The reality is, I wear a knife even in the tropics. You never know what might happen.

 

[Arnaud]

Well, there seems to be a general agreement on the knife. I hear the argument for cutting fishing line. For the kelps, where everybody get entangled a way or the other, you just need to bend them and they'll break neatly.

I also appreciate the fact that "never happened" doesn't mean "will never happen" (that's why we have dive insurance).

 

[Scubaroo]

EMT shears should be an essential piece of divers equipment! These little puppies are so useful underwater. I've never had the misfortune to be entangled underwater, but if it ever happens, I've got two of these - one on a waistband, one in a pocket. During my wreck course I was clearing some monofilament on the Yukon, and I dropped a pair - it was my only cutting device. Sort of sunk in that two are necessary for this type of diving.

But the main use I find for them - rescuing marine life. I've found crabs in Monterey tangled up in monofilament before - just sitting there waiting to die. Couple of snips, put the old line in the pocket, and they're off back into nature. Plus they're handy topsides for general prep - cutting zipties etc.

Only use I see for a knife in my diving is in the event of encountering a shark - you don't have to outswim the shark - just your bleeding buddy :tease:

 

[scuberd]

You should have a knife, I mean, how do you expect to cut your sandwich during the surface interval?

 

[Diver0001]

Arnaud once bubbled...
I don't have a knife. I've never felt the need for it. I don't have to cut cave lines and the kelps break easily.

I don't have a light, except a mini Q4 that I carry in my drysuit pocket. If I dive at night, and that doesn't happen very often, I just rent a light for the evening.

I'm just a rec diver, no deco, no overhead, no doubles.

Am I doing it wrong?

Get a knife.

I'll tell you a story.

This happened to me just a couple of weeks ago. I was swimming along just minding my own business when I felt a "clunk" on my back. I turned to my buddy thinking to myself "WTF?" and saw him looking back at me from a few metres away with big eyes. I looked over my other shoulder and saw a fishing line coming down from somewhere above and to the right of me. I then looked down on the bottom a little to my left and there it was, some kind of monsterous contraption made of steel cables, all kinds of weights and with a dozen or more fish hooks held up by some kind of floaty bait.

And it was coming towards me.

I tried swimming out from under the line but it got hung up on my tank valve. When that happened the fisherman felt the jerk and started pulling. The thingamebob was getting a little too close for comfort. In fact I was bracing for the pain of all those little hooks so I quickly wrapped my arm around the fish line a few times and grabbed on to the line as firmly as I could. And PULLED for all I was worth. I though this would alert the fisherman that there was a diver caught in his thingamebob and I hoped he was going to just give me some slack to get out of it.

But you guessed it.

I could just about hear him screaming YYEEEEHHAAAAHHAAA!!

(apparently some people fish because it's relaxing and some fish because they're not smart enough to do anything else--first of all he doesn't stop to wonder what all those bubbles are about and then he "catches" the biggest thing he's ever hooked and only thinks "I GOT ONE! I GOT ONE" sheesh!)

And he started reeling me in just as fast as he could.

By that time my buddy had circled around me and was busy trying to get the line out of my regulator. But it was too late and suddenly "zooop" I was on my way to the surface.

I carry two small knives on my gear because.....well.....stuff like this happens and there's actually quite a lot of fishing tackle and nets around where I dive. I grabbed a knife, and swish. End of drama.

My buddy helped me get out of the line and we carried on with our dive.

Moral of the story: This could have happened to anyone.

I'll tell you another story.

I once saved a diver from dying. It was either the most heroic thing or the stupidest thing I've ever done. The diver in question got all wrapped up in a huge ball of old fishing line that someone discarded in the water. He didn't see it and swam right into it. The more he tried to get out the more ensnared he became. It got so bad that he wasn't able to reach his inflator and in the struggle he had started to sink.

The incident started at 40 metres and the bottom in this particular location (a wall dive) is effectively bottomless.

He wasn't my buddy but his own buddy didn't notice him sinking so we (me and my buddy) went after him anyway. Caught him at something like 60metres and pinned him against the wall. I didn't have a knife (I never felt the need to carry one) but fortunatley he did. We dragged him back to shallow water and cut him out of the fishing line. He was very happy and I bought a knife the next day.

Moral of the story: even if you don't need help someone else might.

R..

 

[Arnaud]

Diver0001, now I'm completely sold! I wonder what would have happened to my dry suit with all those fish hooks, though...

 

[Rick Inman]

Where ever I go, I carry a Letherman (but NOT on my belt) which has solved a multitude of problems for myself and others. Plus, you never know when you might need a nice cork screw...

 

[diveski01]

Arnaud once bubbled...
I don't have a light, except a mini Q4 that I carry in my drysuit pocket. If I dive at night, and that doesn't happen very often, I just rent a light for the evening.

The mini Q4 is a great little light for recreational diving in clear water. Even a small light can be very effective for communicating with your buddy. It may not seem like the beam reaches them, but as long as they can see the source it does a nice job of emphasizing signals if they can't see your hand signals clearly. An OK signal is very easy to see with a light vs hands only. They are also nice for seeing the true colors of the reef if deeper than 40 ft and pointing out cool things to dive buddy.

A big canister light takes those advantages to a much higher deliverable. The worse the conditions, the better it is to have a powerful light - even in daylight.

 

[gem1]

I dive with a knife (never used it - yet), and a small light even in crystal clear caribbean waters. It is amazing the things you can see in the dark corners and crevices of the reef that you might have missed without the light.

It also serves as a signaling device, tank banger, etc.:wave: