Horror stories of exiting a dive on rocks in big surf

[porgyhunter]

The reason I say exiting is obvious....If you enter in big surf, you deserve to get the S%&t kicked out of ya. That being said, how many poor soots have come up ready to finish their dive only to find the fun only to begin? Surf has picked up during your dive and now you have to SURF on to the rocks to get out. You can sure ride a swell in...crash, bang, ting off the rocks. Then try and hold your ground as the water recedes. Only to be knocked ass over tea kettle by the next wave. Gettin too Old for that kinda crap!

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

As a shore diver on a rocky windward coastline, I have. And still have a few old scars to prove it...

But age, and maybe wisdom(?) prevents me from putting myself in those situations any more

The mind may be willing, but the body has gotten very soft and squishy with age, and bruises too easily these days....

In my youth, I've been pinned, like a turtle on its back, in 3 feet of water with my tank wedged between rocks, my reg pinned behind me... wondering if I was going to suffer the embarrasing fate of drowning in shallow water with a full tank, 20 yards from shore.... the next wave freed me.

Be careful diving on rocky coastlines, keep a "weather eye" out for unstable weather conditions and increasing surf, and if in doubt at all.... stay on shore and work on your tan

The ocean will be there next time.

Best wishes.

 

[TMHeimer]

Last May in S. Padre I., TX I was diving on the GULF side of the jetty--not the channel side. Got caught in some kind of current by the jetty--doubt it was a rip current, but not sure. Anyway, after a pretty easy entry from the beach I found myself in that dang situation. Find a fairly flat rock on the jetty (not easy), do the "time the wave" thing. Lunge onto that rock and hold on, flip over, whatever, as the wave receeds. Boy that stuff is fun at 56. Back in '06 in R.I. I was cramping and had to abort (potassium pills after that solved almost all cramping). Off with the unit, slide it up a slope on the rocks (or cliffs, I should say). Somehow ride the wave up into a crevace and asses the damage. Then haul all the stuff back a distance to the car. Boy that stuff was fun at 52.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

[youtubehq]WxCBtwpT1eE[/youtubehq]
I've seen more than a half dozen divers break bones at Marineland in SoCal. I've been slammed into rocks and even made two 180s, landing on my back, but haven't sustained a major injury on the beach in 357 dives there. Just lucky, I guess.

 

[BoltSnap]

The reason I say exiting is obvious....If you enter in big surf, you deserve to get the S%&t kicked out of ya. That being said, how many poor soots have come up ready to finish their dive only to find the fun only to begin? Surf has picked up during your dive and now you have to SURF on to the rocks to get out. You can sure ride a swell in...crash, bang, ting off the rocks. Then try and hold your ground as the water recedes. Only to be knocked ass over tea kettle by the next wave. Gettin too Old for that kinda crap!

Oh boy, you bring back some memories. The one story I will always remember was when I was fairly new to diving in Massachusetts in 1984. My buddy and I decided to go diving at "Norman's Woe" in Gloucester, Cape Ann. What a freaking royal Woe that was.

When we got there, it turned out that we had to walk for about a 1/4 mile EACH way to the rocky entry point. After a couple of trips hauling our equipment, we got dressed up and got into the water. It was relatively calm and high water when we went in. When we came back up at the end of our dive, it was high seas and outgoing tide. We had to pull ourselves up the rock with waves punching us in the back. As I was almost up and out, I managed to get the BC's CO2 cartridge activation string wedged in the rock and it was pulled activating the CO2 cartridge causing the BC to inflate. When that happened the BC inflation caused me to lose grip of the rocks and back into the receding water. I had to endure the pounding all over again to get out of that nightmare.

We finally made it up on the top of the rocks away from the water and waves. We simply collapsed on the flat rocks down with all equipment on for several minutes just to catch our breath and collect whatever was left of our strength to be able to get up and remove our equipment. I was 21 years old then and my buddy was around 26 years old. Schlepping our equipment back to the parking lot was another punishment we had to endure for being so stupid.

There were LOTS of lessons for both of us then but the most important lesson was to never dive Norman's Woe from shore, do it from a boat!!! In fact, in the water, Norman's Woe is a very easy and most beautiful dive. I have dove Norman's Woe many times after that first dive from different types of boats but never from shore again.

I am only glad that I went through this ordeal when I was 21 not now.

 

[g1138]

The video posted by MaxBottomtime is very reminiscent of my dives during my scientific cert class.
The only difference is that we had large chest size rocks to clamber over and wade into.
We spent 3 days at a beach like that, both falling over and just plain struggling to get our fins on and off during out entry and exit.
By the final day the waves were the worst we had seen. Some of us elected to fill our BC's halfway and allow the waves to bring us in and out of the beach (myself included).

The main lesson I took from those dives is that if you have trouble wading into the surf zone, just lay down flat on ur stomach and allow the waves to crash over you and suck you out.

Coming back in, you better hope you have a rock to hang onto while the waves try to suck you back.

And for for the love of god, crawl your asses out! It looks worse when you fidget around to take your fins off only to be sucked up and spit back out again. Speaking from personal experience.
(BTW I came out of that class having a new love for knee pads )

 

[ferretchen]

On Vancouver Island, BC we entered the water while it was more or less calm. We exited to a howling gale with driven snow and crashing surf. A submerged tide ripped us out as the waves tried to drive us ashore; I couldn't stand up even in 3 feet of water. As a new dry suit diver with tons of lead plus camera equipment, I was trapped in the knee-deep water, getting smashed against rocks, staggering to my feet, then getting knocked over again trying to get ashore in a reasonable time. My ego and my gear took a beating! I cracked a camera case, broke a few plastic things here and there, and had some bruises. I ended up submerging in the shallow water and clawing my way to shore on the bottom while my face was pounded into the rocks. My exit was less than elegant - more shipwreck survivor than diver!

Now I use less weight, and would take as much time as I needed to get ashore, no matter how embarrassing. But sometimes, those are the breaks.

 

[Bogie]

I have watched two divers get knocked around at a rocky beach in Monterey. This beach must be watched for a while before you enter. These guys did no preview and just went in. They paid for the stupidity by getting blasted by wave after wave on the rocks. My group was ready to save their butts but they finally got out. I am sure they had some major bruises.

Got to dive with your brain.

 

[Gilldiver]

Well at Cathedral Rocks in Cape Ann, I had a very hard time getting through the surf up onto the rocks where I could take my tanks off. Then as I was climbing the rocks, with a tank on my shoulder, I managed to step between two of them and cracked my tibia. Some say it was because I wasn’t looking where I was walking but at the posterior of a young woman with a very small bikini that was further pulled into the dental floss position.

Dive hazards, you just never know where some will come from.

 

[Doc]

My favorite "Don't do it this way" video....