Are you helpless without fins?

[Jim Lapenta]

Fins on wrist while on the trail line,grab ladder, get a knee or foot on and up. Nobody is getting my fins. The boat we were on in Puerto Rico asked for fins to be handed up. I informed them that my student and I would not be doing that prior to getting in. The DM was fine with it. I asked him about it on the way back in. He said the reason they did it was because you would not believe the number of people who had never gone up a ladder in training with fins on their wrists that they saw. People either handed them up or put them on the side of the pool. One instructor from the states told him they don't show students slipping fins on wrists until they take their boat diver class. I said are you serious? He assured me he was.

 

[TMHeimer]

Instead of slipping them over the line, why didn't you slip them over your wrist? It would have worked as well with the added benefit of not making it easy to lose your fins and if you fell back in the water, you would've had your fins with you.

Yeah, I was just thinking that as I typed. I suppose if they're on the line it is easier for the crew to grab the loop from you and pull them up? But that does allow for more chance of them falling off the line.

 

[Van Isle]

Face down, in double HP 100s, in a drysuit, my breaststroke is plenty effective without fins or even kicking. So no, I am not helpless without fins regardless of where they go when I am boarding a boat, a pier, or if I lose them in the waves on the beach exit.

 

[Doc Harry]

Many commercial dive boats I have been on ask you to hand up your fins before climbing the ladder. In the thread on the fatality in Islamorada, it was theorized that the deceased may have handed up her fins while still in the water, and then lost her hold on the ladder. One poster noted that she would have been "helpless" in the water without fins.

This thought has been slowly percolating through my brain. Are divers helpless in the water without fins? I would be interested in hearing what you folks think.

I have found it extremely difficult to make any progress in the water without fins given the drag of scuba gear. If there is a current, forget it, I'm hopeless.

 

[randini]

I haven't dove a charter in about 13 years, so I can't say what I would usually do on one. But on my boat (actually work boat, but I'm in charge of it), I usually hand off my weight belt first, followed by the BC. Then go to the ladder, remove my fins, toss them up and climb up the ladder. Swimming in a wetsuit without the rest of the paraphernalia is a piece of cake (even without fins). IMHO breast strike works out best w/o fins.

As for the helplessness without fins, I used to take my fins off and moon walk (a la Neil Armstrong, not Michael Jackson style) along the bottom all the time. You also really learn how to control your body doing this and what different movements do. More recently it's come in handy when having to set up some oceanographic instruments underwater.

 

[binobanana]

Some do that. I don't understand why anyone would actually do it.

Have you tried climbing a ladder with fins on.
so, you hand it to the deck hand. The ladder also have a line to hold on.

No swim needed!!! In case you let go, the boat pic's you up!

Most important: maintain positive buoyancy!

 

[Walter]

Have you tried climbing a ladder with fins on.

I assume you mean on your feet. Why would I do that? I put them on my wrist.

so, you hand it to the deck hand.

Why would I do that? I put them on my wrist.

The ladder also have a line to hold on.

I've seen a few of these, the vast majority do not, but it is irrelevant.

No swim needed!!! In case you let go, the boat pic's you up!

I would rather take responsibility for my own safety.

 

[sschlesi]

In rough conditions or near an area where the boat cannot come and fetch me (e.g. I could get pushed through the surf onto a shallow reef) my fins stay with me. Ideally the boat has a ladder that works well with fins on my feet.

In calm conditions, I can swim well enough without fins, and/or I can float around and wait for the boat to come to me, then I go along with whatever the crew wants to do.

I don't think I've ever been asked to hand up my fins when I thought it might be a real problem. In Egypt I do recall being told quite firmly that fins must stay on until back on the boat. They had really nice ladders and had one crew member in place to help stabilize divers as they stepped onto the swim platform another crew member to remove a divers fins before crossing the transom.

I worry much more often about will happen if someone falls off the ladder onto another diver who is crowding the ladder, than I do about what they will do if they have no fins.

 

[mikemill]

Heck, I not only hand them up but quite often I get them to take them off too. When things are bouncing around it can be hard to hold onto the line/ladder/step while taking off the fins.

What will you do if you fall off the ladder? No one is perfect. Anyone can fall.

Put my reg in, make sure I'm positive (which I already should be), and assess the situation. Most likely I'm still pretty close and can just use an arm stroke to get close. If I'm too far away, well that is what a line and float is for or another diver.

Most do that everywhere. It's a bad habit.

In your opinion. It is an unlikely enough event (falling off the ladder) and not that big of a deal (and if it is I question diving that day at all) that the risk is more than acceptable.

 

[Mike Boswell]

On my own boat, we climb the ladder with fins on our feet because we have an open-rung ladder designed for that. I take my fins off once I am standing on the swim step, and it's much easier than taking them off in the water.

On other boats I have always followed the divemaster's instructions, but I think in the future I will do as Walter suggests and inform the crew that I will be carrying my fins on my wrists. That will save me the added aggravation of having to look all over the boat for them.

I DO think that most divers could swim pretty well without fins, even against a moderate current for a short distance. This would be especially true if they shucked their scuba gear, but I wonder if that would even occur to many people.