How many have legitimately used your knife/shears underwater in an emergency?

[Tanked]

I've found myself tangled in fishing lines on numerous occasions. Not quite an emergency, but the knife helped.

 

[Quero]

I swam backwards into a gill net once (I was watching my student) and had to cut myself out. I wouldn't call it an emergency, but I did need to get loose.

As for Nikki's example ewww! I don't believe I'd mind the idea of fouling myself as much as the idea of accidentally nicking an artery in the groin area.

 

[Prostardiver]

A couple of fishing line entanglements that were easily handled.

My favorite one was when my instructor was diving along and saw a hook and line drop right next to his wife's arm. She didn't see it but he did and grabbed it before she got snagged. He wrapped it around his hand a few times and took off. After swimming a nice sized box he took out his knife and cut the line. Later, the fisherman in the next boat was talking about the big one he had on his line.

 

[Nikki McAllen]

I don't believe I'd mind the idea of fouling myself as much as the idea of accidentally nicking an artery in the groin area.

He actually thought about that, but being a male was far more concerned with other parts of anatomy ! Cut just enough to open the rest with his fingers. He said tearing was real easy and quick, when you think about it, it would be. The head-down part was probably just luck from that maneuver !

These things should be covered in a dive briefing when necessary, privately. Seasick clients should know the proper technique to vomit underwater -- aspiration stimulates pnuemo-mucus response like a near-drowing. People with gurgling travel gut should at least be reminded of Baro-ahem, enhancement can happen with surfacing, and that there's something they can do about it. Even pulling out the leg of a tropic shorty is better than nothing, the trick after having seen it is head down for gosh sake !

There can be a bad and worse to any situation. We as dive leaders should measure a person's status and offer info as needed. Not something for every briefing of course ! Such individual client assessment of need is hallmark of a professional IMO.

But I always remind people they wretch overboard: "its considered bad practice to feed the fish"

Always gets a grin, of sorts &;-)

 

[BarrelRoll]

Like any other piece of emergency equipment, the goal is to never have to use it.

I will still always carry one, and pray I don't need to.

 

[ScubaVideo]

On a night dive in Okinawa Japan. There were millions of jelly fish, so many that we had to dive to the bottom and maneuver along crevices. My buddy was too far in front of me and I got snagged in a large spool of fishing line. I could not actually reach my knife for a couple minutes and I noticed my buddy dimly in the distant leaving me further behind. After a few minutes of struggle, I managed to reach my knife. In those days we carried one big knife on the lower leg.

I was so pissed at my buddy that I carried a bunch of the line with me and my knife still out as I chased after him. Just before I caught him, a VW sized tuna whooshed right past me - holy cow. Then as I reached for my buddies fin, I saw a very rare cone shell and forgot all about him. Of course in those days we just took the stuff without regard for its endangerment. After that I forgot about the whole thing until the next day when I pulled out the fishing line from my catch bag. That's when I purchased another knife to keep up on my BC.

I still have that shell, and ScubaPro knife which just sits in my gear bag. I use 4 cutting tools now. A Spyderco Caspian Salt with a modified Halcyon sheath on my waist, a Gerber "rust a lot" in a sheath on my right pocket, EMT shears in my left pocket, and a EEZYCUT Trilobite dual bladed Z-cutter - which I want near my left shoulder but have not placed it yet.

Hopefully I will never have to pull one again, but since I have been wrapped in line a few times I think that is wishful thinking.

 

[divermike1011]

A couple of fishing line entanglements that were easily handled.

My favorite one was when my instructor was diving along and saw a hook and line drop right next to his wife's arm. She didn't see it but he did and grabbed it before she got snagged. He wrapped it around his hand a few times and took off. After swimming a nice sized box he took out his knife and cut the line. Later, the fisherman in the next boat was talking about the big one he had on his line.

A much better game to play is to run around like an idiot with the line like you did, but then tie it off on a rock or something that isn't going anywhere.

I've not had to use a knife to extract myself from any UW situations, but I once had to cut a boat anchor line when a thoughtless captain practically dropped one on my head (and well within 50 feet of my dive flag). I'd have climbed up the line and cut the captain as well but I had students.

Michael

 

[SDAnderson]

I've had several episodes with fishing line over the years. The stores aren't all that exciting - but that's mostly because I was prepared. I used to carry a knife but with the advent of Spiderwire I switched to shears.

 

[Rich Keller]

I have used my knife a few times for fishing line but that by itself did not qualify as an emergency. In my experience it is not the big things that get you in trouble as most people see the big problems and take countermeasures but a couple of small unrelated problems happening at the same time like getting hung up on fishing line while something else has gone wrong. I never go in the water without a knife and a snorkel.

 

[Gilldiver]

I've had several episodes with fishing line over the years. The stores aren't all that exciting - but that's mostly because I was prepared. I used to carry a knife but with the advent of Spiderwire I switched to shears.

I have been in net and mono, but with more use of wire and stainless leaders, shears are always taken. I have also used my shears to cut the barbs off of treble hooks that were caught in a mooring and my hand. Note: always place your hand (never slide it) on a mooring line that may have had fishing activity around it. Rotting bait on a hook that is in your hand can lead to a very nasty infection.

But I always carry a knife on the wrecks, a kife is a tool that can be used for cutting, scraping, prying, hammering, banging on a tank, and I have used them in surge to hold my position on the back or forward flow. The surge pushes you the way you want to go, you stab the knife into the bottom to hold you in place on the back flow, then move with the next surge, etc. If you have 2 knifes you can walk your way against a current that you can't swim against, or would tire you out in a few moments. This can be helpfull around jetties and breakwaters where there may be a strong local current at the wall end.