Alexander Springs...

[The Chairman]

I had a bit of an altercation today at one of my favorite teaching sites, Alexander Springs. I went with a remedial student for some one on one training and things were "OK" until our second dive.

A free diver came down and signaled "OOA" and my student without hesitation handed him a reg. The guy had maybe one breath when I firmly pulled it free. I gave him and my student the finger wag, and pulled my student away as the diver surfaced. The student knew about this ahead of time, as I made sure that they knew to not share air with an apnea diver. Still, the diver came down a half dozen times after that and got more aggressive with each attempt. On his final attempt he grabbed my octo (which is bungeed on my neck) and yanked it free hurting me in the process. I quickly jerked the reg from his hand and ended our dive.

As we were leaving the water, the free diver began to yell at me and became verbally abusive. I was glad that there was a ranger at the water's edge and I calmly told her what transpired. We left as she started to deal with him.

I bring this up since the free diver made quite a few claims. First and worst, he claims to share air all the time in Alexander Springs as well as other springs. I have never seen it at Alexander (and I am there twice a month in the summer) and have only seen it one other time when a scuba diver offered air to me when I was free diving in Blue Springs.

Is there anyone in our little community that actually edangers free divers like this? (yeah, I loaded the question). If so, I sincerely hope that you STOP the practice, no matter how beligerant the free diver becomes. Most free divers have no idea how Boyles Law can kill them.

 

[OneBrightGator]

Hmmm... interesting story, I personally have never seen anything like that, I can't imagine a freediver being belligerent in that situation, you handled it much nicer than I probably would have. I did give my octo (before I had a longhose) to a freediver, but he is one of my regular dive buddies who wasn't on scuba that day.

Ben

 

[The Chairman]

and know that they are qualified... that's OK in my book.

I had not interacted with this individual before this occured. He might have been Jacques E for all I knew, and that was the point. It's sort of like when you see some marine life follow you (like turtles). It's obvious that they have been "trained" to get freebies from divers.

 

[Bob]

I've never ran into that problem either, but you are correct in your reasoning and the way you handled it. Divers shouldn't be donating air to free divers as this does bring Boyles Law into play. I may not have been as nice to this guy as you were Pete. :tree: Bob.

 

[OneBrightGator]

I didn't figure you'd object to it.

Frankly, I don't care who the freediver is, Pipen, Streeter, JoeBlo, you grab my gear, ESPECIALLY my reg, and your hand might not be coming back. Hopefully the ranger straightened this guy out.

edit, 'cause I think this needs saying:
Doing this is a serious safety hazard to both the scuba and free diver, the list of things that could happen to both is extensive.

Ben

 

[The Chairman]

was up to the free diver. When he saw her on the shore he started heading to the other end. She and I talked briefly, and she had no clue why I was upset about it. She asked me if I wanted to press it as assault, and I declined. She had no problem intercepting him. :tease: Somehow, I think he was getting far more than he bargained for. It confused the crap out of my student, and I think he will need one more dive before he hits saltwater. I would have stayed to make a few "points", but my first responsibility was to my student.

BTW, as cold as it was, we had a number of "bathers" out there. No one else on scuba, which was great for the vis.

 

[dvrgaryc]

WOW!

I've heard of that happening before, I can't remember where I heard it but it stuck in my mind. I've been using it as a hypothetical diving situation when teaching open water students about why they shouldn't share their equipment with untrained divers.

If this happened to me, I think I would've grabbed the idiot to keep him from swimming away and hurting himself with an air embolism, escorted him to the surface, and then given him a piece of my mind.

Of course, punching the guy's lights out would probably get the point across a little better, but it wouldn't look very professional since you had a student with you.

 

[BILLB]

This apparently is an urban tale that was presented to me during my OW class. Free diver swims down to the training platform, takes a breath and is dead on the surface. You probably could ask just about any diver who has trained at Dutch Springs and they would respond that their instructor used it as a "training aid".

This is the first time I ever heard of a free diver actually trying this (OOA sign). I would have definitely called the dive right then and surfaced. There is something to be learned and unlearned on the student's part. The violator should have been dressed down in public view and ear shot of everybody. What the free diver did was stupid and places an instructor in jeopardy (liability).