Search results

Very good article. Hits on the most important tool, which is training, and all the other stuff you might need. I've seen the results of people getting in "over their heads." They should have read an article like this beforehand and taken it to heart.

Thanks so much to all who replied. :thumb: Current seems to be the big concern. Though I am very experienced, strong current is strong current. My younger brother passed away a number of years ago and his name was Duane. Though he was not a diver, not in the Coast Guard, and had no...

Getting married in February and going to dive the USCG Cutter DUANE off of Key Largo during my honeymoon. Any thoughts from folks who have been there and done that?

I just have to mention there is no ocean shore diving in Texas. ;) LOL

I, ________, take thee ______, my dear dive buddy to be my wife/husband, and before God and these divers I promise to be a faithful and true life-long dive buddy." "Will you, _______, have _____ to be your wife/husband? Will you dive with her/him, share air and gear, plan all dives together...

My two cents: I've written a bit on ScubaBoard in the past about my distinct preference for a jacket BCD (after much dive experience with wings) in the Public Safety Divers forum, so I won't go into a detailed argument here. However I must say I cannot agree with your statement above based on...

I'm from Pittsburgh and dive Lake Erie fairly regularly. Just took a charter and dove two wrecks last weekend.

The wreck is only 50-75 yards offshore, not 200. If I remember right, only one of the three parts is only 75 yards off shore...LOL...thanks for the reminder...but there is more further out... ;)

P.S. The hotel cost us about $100.00/night and the reason directions to the dive site are so important is that there were no marker bouys identifying the locations of the wrecks (the are two wrecks there, one just broke in half forming a triangle, hence the name).

Mel, I spent a couple of nights in a Holiday Inn near Kitty Hawk when I was there diving. The hotel was nice, but the rates were cheaper because we were there early in the season, I think it was the April timeframe. And it was several years ago. From what I can remember, and it might be a...

Also make sure you get accurate instructions on how to find them...a dive shop clerk gave me inaccurate instructions and I spent a tank locating them. He gave me the wrong landmark to start my dive.

Mel, I've done the triangle wrecks. Not bad for shore diving. Dave

As a public safety diver who dives in rivers that are strewn with debris and entanglement hazards, I never dive with a snorkel. It's just something else that can be an entanglement hazard and it could catch on something and rip your mask off. Seeing the snorkel more as an entanglement than a...

To add my two cents: I do about 30% of my dives solo, 50% with a buddy or buddies, and 20% with my public safety dive team. I'm thoroughly committed to PSD because I crave the challenges. I thoroughly enjoy buddy diving because I like the social aspect of getting together with friends and...

stsomewhere, Thanks for your comments, but I think your "are you kidding" comment might be a tad strong considering where I was going with my post. I think you'll see we're actually on the same page: I firmly agree public safety divers should be thoroughly trained for the specific type of...

Wouldn't it be nice if there was some type of federal or state legislated minimum training requirements for all public safety divers, both paid and volunteer types? I think that it would make things much safer for everyone involved. Any thoughts?

Sorry for writing so much. I just looked at what I wrote and I thought "holy-$hit." LOL

Gary, I certainly appreciated your comments about getting another boat and side scan sonar. I think checking with local boat dealers for a demo or used boat and sharing the cost of SS sonar with other agencies/communities are fantastic ideas and I'll pass them on to my chief. Thanks...

Gary, Here are the answers to your questions: We use standardized full face masks and comms, but regarding BCDs and suits: we dive our own stuff. No funds for standardized stuff (yet); hoping and saving to purchase a better boat and side scan sonar before we go with standardized gear...

I just ordered a Scubapro Classic Plus for PSD diving to replace my Scubapro S-Tek Harness with back inflation. I don't like the fact that it is harder to don over my dry suit, but for me jacket-style bcds are the way to go for PSD. Personally, I found I do not care for back inflation after...