Old Garden Beach

[jjdig]

Had a great Father's Day dive today with 2 dives at Old Garden Beach in Rockport with my son.
The original plan was to do Back Beach but it was packed at 9am and there was no parking.
Old Garden was great! There was lots of sea life - lobsters (one keeper), flounder, crabs, moon snails, small fish, schooling fish and winter skates. Vis was up to 10 feet at times and water temp was 54.
While surfacing at end of 1st dive we came across a distressed diver clinging to a rock and yelling for help about 50 yards from shore, we swam him in using our dive float. He was separated from his buddy and appeared exhausted.

 

[divin'dog]

What was his story after you got him on shore?... Why was he so exhausted? OGB is rather benign...

 

[jjdig]

In Reply to your post [post=7147787]#7147787[/post]

What was his story after you got him on shore?... Why was he so exhausted? OGB is rather benign...

When we got him to shore we had to drag him out of the surf because he couldn't stand. So another bystander helped me drag him out and on to the sand. We took him out of his gear. Old Garden is an easy dive and at that time the tide was coming in so he shouldn't have been fighting the tide. He still could not stand when his buddies finally caught up to him on shore so they had to help him off the beach and up to the grass. Another bystander called an ambulance even though he said he didn't want one (he later refused transport) and was seen walking to his car. On the beach he was gasping for breath but denied chest pain or injury and blamed the incident on being out of shape. He said he separated from his group and started to head in before them and got caught in the current and became exhausted, he had been clinging to the rock and calling for help for about 5 minutes he said. When I was towing him in to shore he kept letting go of the float and my son finally had to help him hold on. Not too sure if he was in an OOA or some other panic inducing situation.

 

[Malpaso]

Old Garden is probably my favorite Gloucester/Rockport area dive. I try to only go there on week days because of the parking though. There's a huge rock at about 1 o'clock that we usually surface swim out to. Saw a good size torpedo ray there last summer.

 

[xroirat]

Good for you for helping the fellow out. Sometimes newbies try to fight the ocean and simply wear themselves out. There is usually a bit of a current running N->S at OGB but if you know to head out in the right direction then it is not a problem getting back in. My buddy and I helped several of the members of a dive class out of the water a few seasons back after they had spent themselves kicking back in against the wind and the current.
Jim

 

[divin'dog]

Good for you for helping the fellow out. Sometimes newbies try to fight the ocean and simply wear themselves out. There is usually a bit of a current running N->S at OGB but if you know to head out in the right direction then it is not a problem getting back in. My buddy and I helped several of the members of a dive class out of the water a few seasons back after they had spent themselves kicking back in against the wind and the current.
Jim

Well that just answered my question about any current. I've never run into much current at OGB on my dives. Sometimes it's been rough at the surface but never had an issue with current. Good thing jjdig was at the right place at the right time.

As for helping a dive class out of the water, that's one lucky instructor to have had you around... I'll be looking for a current the next time I'm there. Never noticed one before.

 

[Malpaso]

I've never noticed current either. jjdig, was the diver to the left, center or right facing the water?

 

[Mr.X]

In Reply to your post [post=7147787]#7147787[/post]


On the beach he was gasping for breath but denied chest pain or injury and blamed the incident on being out of shape. He said he separated from his group and started to head in before them and got caught in the current and became exhausted, he had been clinging to the rock and calling for help for about 5 minutes he said. When I was towing him in to shore he kept letting go of the float and my son finally had to help him hold on. Not too sure if he was in an OOA or some other panic inducing situation.

Right on to you & your son for helping out a diver in trouble. You saved a life. I do hope he (and his buddies) had some sense to get some medical followup given his high level of distress (which he denied).

 

[jjdig]

I've never noticed current either. jjdig, was the diver to the left, center or right facing the water?

To the left.

Good for you for helping the fellow out. Sometimes newbies try to fight the ocean and simply wear themselves out. There is usually a bit of a current running N->S at OGB but if you know to head out in the right direction then it is not a problem getting back in. My buddy and I helped several of the members of a dive class out of the water a few seasons back after they had spent themselves kicking back in against the wind and the current.
Jim

I didn't notice any appreciable current when we found him and it was a pretty calm day. However, at the end of our second dive I was having trouble navigating back to the beach, it seemed every time I checked my compass we had strayed 40 to 50 degrees from our heading. But by this time the tide was changing and starting to go out and it seemed the current was running from north to south. Once we surfaced though we had no trouble doing a surface swim.

 

[DavidInNH]

What did you get for temperature and depth?