Divers!! Quick, call 911!!

[MXGratefulDiver]

A couple of my dive buddies like to free-flow their regulators to put enough air in tires they find laying on the bottom to send them shooting surfaceward.

I sometimes wonder what an observer would think seeing a huge swell of bubbles ... followed a few seconds later by an old, silty tire popping to the surface.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[mrjimboalaska]

Rick, TSandM, NWGratefull, GaryD, and all you Pacific Northwest divers....
It appears that our family is heading back home to Idaho next June. Would like to continue diving. Should I be looking at Drysuits, or 7MM's....
Do you guys have a recommendation on cheap, good quality, custom fits(I'm a fat old man and my 3MM I roll the sleeves and legs on )
I can combine camping with the family and diving, so while the water is cold...I should still have a good time.
Jimbo

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Rick, TSandM, NWGratefull, GaryD, and all you Pacific Northwest divers....
It appears that our family is heading back home to Idaho next June. Would like to continue diving. Should I be looking at Drysuits, or 7MM's....
Do you guys have a recommendation on cheap, good quality, custom fits(I'm a fat old man and my 3MM I roll the sleeves and legs on )
I can combine camping with the family and diving, so while the water is cold...I should still have a good time.
Jimbo

Howdy Jimbo ...

Well, I'd recommend a drysuit, but for folks like you and me it's tough to get one that fits unless we go with a custom suit (I'm an old, fat guy too). Divetank.com usually has some good deals ... you might want to peruse their web site or give them a call.

Puget Sound is a long way from Idaho, but if you find yourself passing thru the area, let me know. Would enjoy showing you a dive site or two ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Charlie99]

Anyway, has anyone else had any strange reactions from people seeing your underwater antics?

Not counting snorklers at Black Rock, Maui that I surprise with a big blast out of my reg from below, the only time I've gotten strange reactions is during a rescue class. Luckily we had warned a couple sunbathing on the beach. They later told us that they had stopped at least 4 different people that started to call 911.

Charlie

edit: Not underwater antics, but I just remembered the boogie boarder that I freaked out at White Rock, Maui. When I went in, there wasn't anyone on the beach or in the water. As I'm cruising back into the shore from a 90 minute dive, I see him above me in about 12 feet of water, waiting for a wave. I ascended to ask him to sit out a couple of waves while I went on in. He totally freaked out as I reached up with my hand to hold the board just as I broke the surface next to him. It was a pretty high surf day and he wasn't expecting any divers to be around.

 

[gcbryan]

I was either helping with a Rescue class or I was in it (can't remember) but we had been in the water all day practicing towing divers in. There was a quiet man sitting on a bench watching us. He watched us for more than an hour.

After many rescue attempts and after seeing everyone getting out of the water ok on our last practice attemp he decided to call 911!

It turned out that he was mentally handicaped. I had to go and explain that one to the fire department/medics when they arrived. They were not amused but there wasn't much that they could say!

This was in the category of unplanned and unpreventable.

 

[Rapida]

Don't try that in LA (Lower Alabama)! You'll have four guys leveling thirty-ought-sixes at you and five more with snag hooks after you
Rick

Too true

 

[wallacm]

haha great story

 

[Gary D.]

The original call came in as;

16: 14 :08 110506 RP called back and said the DRIVERS of the BOATS came to shore and said there was no emergency.

______________________________________________________________________

This story gives you an idea of what we have to deal with sometimes. Did you notice that the call went from DIVERS WITH FLOATS to DRIVERS WITH BOATS?

I'm glad this wasn't a boat being stolen at the marina. It may have come out as someone taking a ship at the marina and that could have caused some problems. :mooner:

Gary D.

 

[mike_s]

I actually did this once in the Bahamas. We were doing a shore dive and the surface was too rough to swim out. They towed us out with the jet skis and then followed the flag as we dived and then towed us back to shore. You had too keep the regulator in your mouth because you constantly got water in the face. I was really a hoot, the ride was allmost as fun as the dive.

We did that in the Bahamas once too. They towed us on a rescue sled. I had to put my regulator in my mouth also, but because sucking in 2-cycle jetski exhaust just didn't taste too good.

Originally Posted by Rick Murchison
Don't try that in LA (Lower Alabama)! You'll have four guys leveling thirty-ought-sixes at you and five more with snag hooks after you
Rick

Did you or Tom Smedly have a boater steal a dive flag you were towing on an Alabama lake once?

 

[Rick Inman]

It appears that our family is heading back home to Idaho next June.

Where in Idaho? The Sound is only 3.5 hours from Coeur d' Alene. Lake Coeur d' Alene has some nice diving. Wet suits are OK in the summer around here, but otherwise, what Bob said.