dumpsterDiver
Banned
- Messages
- 9,003
- Reaction score
- 4,652
- # of dives
- 2500 - 4999
This incident happened about a year and a half ago and really scared me. I had tested a friends DIY scooter for a few dives and is worked quite well. He used a boat trolling motor and propeller which was sealed in a hand-made fiberglass housing. It was my friends first attempt and it ended up being big, heavy, underweighted (positively buoyant without clipping weight off to the outside) and the trim was off a little. However, it was more powerful than my Dacor/Apollo Scooter and it had 2 speeds depending on where you grabbed the handles. It was turned on/off by a magnet placed inside your glove which activated the fast or slow magnetic reed switch. Since it had worked well in 80 and 100 feet, my buddy had requested that I try it out on a deeper dive; so I took it to 190 in the ocean.
On the way down it must have flooded because it got very heavy and kept running when I took my hand off the trigger point of the handle (I assumed the leaking water shorted it out). I ended up crashing into the bottom with a powerful scooter that wouldnt stop. The extremely rapid descent (due to me riding it straight to the bottom) caused me to lose my buddy. In southeast Florida we usually have strong currents which requires drift diving with a float. We generally attach the float line to the scooter. The last thing my friend said before we splashed was dont let this thing kill you.
I held onto the scooter for a while on the bottom, but decided that since it was attached to a very large boat fender (surface float) by 300 feet of 3/16 poly-line that I would just ditch it and we could haul it up from the boat. I could possibly have tried to steer it straight into the bottom and rig a lift bag to send it up, but I never considered it since I knew we had a float on it. I made the ascent and sent up an extra emergency marker float and got picked up. It was then that we realized that the 1.5-2 kt current had sucked the fender underwater (which had at least 40 lbs of buoyancy). I felt terrible losing the scooter.
Maybe 4-6 months later, another friend shows me video from the wreck we had intended to dive with the scooter. He had found the scooter and it was wrapped up in some light rope and fishing line. I often dove this wreck, so I knew exactly where the scooter was and decided to recover it with another buddy. We usually splash from a live boat about 750 feet upcurrent of the wreck and then swim as fast as we can toward the bottom and level off when the bottom is visible, usually around 140 feet. This allows us to drift into the wreck. On the decent, my buddy and I got separated once again, although I dont remember why. I quickly realized I was on a solo recovery dive, which was not much different from our original plan, since he was going to watch anyway.
I was diving a single LP 121 steel and a small pony bottle, both filled with air. The current was around 2 kts and the vis was around 60 feet which is pretty normal for this dive. We carried no float ball, since I expected to be sending the scooter up on 2 lift bags to act as a marker for our drifting deco.
I drifted to the wreck and quickly located the scooter. My buddy who found it had warned that it was pretty tangled up in fishing lines and such, so I was pleasantly surprised that when I examined it, it didnt look too bad (remember this is air at 190 in a 2 kt current). I cut all the fishing line off and was extra careful not to get tangled in it and then moved it a little to make sure it was ready for the lift bags. It took a little longer than I thought to get it free, but everything does when deep.
The scooter was very negative, probably 60 or 70 lbs negative. I own 2 crappy lift bags, one with a 75 lb lift and another that is 20 kg or something. Before the dive I suspected that neither lift bag had sufficient capacity and was worried that since they are open bags the air would dump on the surface. So my plan was to rig both lift bags, partially filling both bags until the scooter got light. Then I was going to clip my reel to the scooter and swim 10 feet above it while letting some line out off the reel. Then I had planned on inflating my BC and use the reel line to pull the scooter off the bottom. I figured that once the ascent started, the air in the bags would soon expand and I could then stop swimming upward, rapidly dump my BC and then move aside as the scooter ascended and I would remain neutrally buoyant and let the line spool off my reel as it ascended above me.
I carried out my plan and everthing was working perfectly. The scooter was slowly ascending, the bags were expanding and I was pulling it up with the line from my reel and then about 25 feet off the bottom, I had a problem. The scooter stopped the ascent because it was still tied to the bottom by some heavy fishing line that I had missed. My BC was full or nearly so, and the scooter with its bags was positively buoyant and the whole mess was now tied to bottom with fishing line.
Then, I felt line around my ankle tighten and realized that I was now also somehow tied to this buoyant mess which was somehow secured to the bottom. The line got very tight around my ankle because my BC was full and I was effectively being drug through the water by my ankle at a speed of 2 kts. It was painful.
Things started to happen very fast and I was really not sure exactly how I got myself into this situation or what to do. I remember that as I tried to figure out what was caught on my ankle, I had allowed the current to spin my body a few times, so I was definitely caught now and was narced, scared, breathing fast and all alone.
I quickly decided that I no longer cared about my lift bags or the damn scooter and got the knife out to cut what I thought was monofilament around my ankle. I quickly realized with a few slashes, that it was not monofilament that was looped around my ankle, but rather stainless steel fishing wire which my knife was not cutting. Now I was very close to panic.
I stopped flailing around (it takes a lot of effort to just reach down to your ankle when being dragged by a 2 kt current) and looked at the wire and could see that about 10 feet away the steel line was attached to a swivel and then it connected to heavy monofilament below that. I somehow pulled myself down the wire and was able to reach the monofilament. This was extremely strenuous. I gave it one swipe with the knife and was immediately cut free of the bottom.
During this whole ordeal, somehow I had forgotten that my BC was full. Once the line was cut, the scooter and lift bag shot upward as did I. Now I was in a very fast ascent and somehow managed to keep the reel in my hand too. The reel was unable to spool fast enough to keep up with the scooter rocketing upward above me, so it pulled me upward (although it did not jam) and the auto dump valve of the BC was screaming in my ears. I shot upward a good 70 feet or so and got my buoyancy under control at a depth of around 90 feet. I know I was breathing very hard. At this point, I felt the lift bag hit the surface because the reel stopped spinning and I finally realized that I was gonna survive my salvage dive, although I was unsure if I was going to be bent. I stopped at 90 for a few minutes and then barely had enough air to complete the deco shown on my computer.
So many errors on this dive it is hard to name then all.
On the way down it must have flooded because it got very heavy and kept running when I took my hand off the trigger point of the handle (I assumed the leaking water shorted it out). I ended up crashing into the bottom with a powerful scooter that wouldnt stop. The extremely rapid descent (due to me riding it straight to the bottom) caused me to lose my buddy. In southeast Florida we usually have strong currents which requires drift diving with a float. We generally attach the float line to the scooter. The last thing my friend said before we splashed was dont let this thing kill you.
I held onto the scooter for a while on the bottom, but decided that since it was attached to a very large boat fender (surface float) by 300 feet of 3/16 poly-line that I would just ditch it and we could haul it up from the boat. I could possibly have tried to steer it straight into the bottom and rig a lift bag to send it up, but I never considered it since I knew we had a float on it. I made the ascent and sent up an extra emergency marker float and got picked up. It was then that we realized that the 1.5-2 kt current had sucked the fender underwater (which had at least 40 lbs of buoyancy). I felt terrible losing the scooter.
Maybe 4-6 months later, another friend shows me video from the wreck we had intended to dive with the scooter. He had found the scooter and it was wrapped up in some light rope and fishing line. I often dove this wreck, so I knew exactly where the scooter was and decided to recover it with another buddy. We usually splash from a live boat about 750 feet upcurrent of the wreck and then swim as fast as we can toward the bottom and level off when the bottom is visible, usually around 140 feet. This allows us to drift into the wreck. On the decent, my buddy and I got separated once again, although I dont remember why. I quickly realized I was on a solo recovery dive, which was not much different from our original plan, since he was going to watch anyway.
I was diving a single LP 121 steel and a small pony bottle, both filled with air. The current was around 2 kts and the vis was around 60 feet which is pretty normal for this dive. We carried no float ball, since I expected to be sending the scooter up on 2 lift bags to act as a marker for our drifting deco.
I drifted to the wreck and quickly located the scooter. My buddy who found it had warned that it was pretty tangled up in fishing lines and such, so I was pleasantly surprised that when I examined it, it didnt look too bad (remember this is air at 190 in a 2 kt current). I cut all the fishing line off and was extra careful not to get tangled in it and then moved it a little to make sure it was ready for the lift bags. It took a little longer than I thought to get it free, but everything does when deep.
The scooter was very negative, probably 60 or 70 lbs negative. I own 2 crappy lift bags, one with a 75 lb lift and another that is 20 kg or something. Before the dive I suspected that neither lift bag had sufficient capacity and was worried that since they are open bags the air would dump on the surface. So my plan was to rig both lift bags, partially filling both bags until the scooter got light. Then I was going to clip my reel to the scooter and swim 10 feet above it while letting some line out off the reel. Then I had planned on inflating my BC and use the reel line to pull the scooter off the bottom. I figured that once the ascent started, the air in the bags would soon expand and I could then stop swimming upward, rapidly dump my BC and then move aside as the scooter ascended and I would remain neutrally buoyant and let the line spool off my reel as it ascended above me.
I carried out my plan and everthing was working perfectly. The scooter was slowly ascending, the bags were expanding and I was pulling it up with the line from my reel and then about 25 feet off the bottom, I had a problem. The scooter stopped the ascent because it was still tied to the bottom by some heavy fishing line that I had missed. My BC was full or nearly so, and the scooter with its bags was positively buoyant and the whole mess was now tied to bottom with fishing line.
Then, I felt line around my ankle tighten and realized that I was now also somehow tied to this buoyant mess which was somehow secured to the bottom. The line got very tight around my ankle because my BC was full and I was effectively being drug through the water by my ankle at a speed of 2 kts. It was painful.
Things started to happen very fast and I was really not sure exactly how I got myself into this situation or what to do. I remember that as I tried to figure out what was caught on my ankle, I had allowed the current to spin my body a few times, so I was definitely caught now and was narced, scared, breathing fast and all alone.
I quickly decided that I no longer cared about my lift bags or the damn scooter and got the knife out to cut what I thought was monofilament around my ankle. I quickly realized with a few slashes, that it was not monofilament that was looped around my ankle, but rather stainless steel fishing wire which my knife was not cutting. Now I was very close to panic.
I stopped flailing around (it takes a lot of effort to just reach down to your ankle when being dragged by a 2 kt current) and looked at the wire and could see that about 10 feet away the steel line was attached to a swivel and then it connected to heavy monofilament below that. I somehow pulled myself down the wire and was able to reach the monofilament. This was extremely strenuous. I gave it one swipe with the knife and was immediately cut free of the bottom.
During this whole ordeal, somehow I had forgotten that my BC was full. Once the line was cut, the scooter and lift bag shot upward as did I. Now I was in a very fast ascent and somehow managed to keep the reel in my hand too. The reel was unable to spool fast enough to keep up with the scooter rocketing upward above me, so it pulled me upward (although it did not jam) and the auto dump valve of the BC was screaming in my ears. I shot upward a good 70 feet or so and got my buoyancy under control at a depth of around 90 feet. I know I was breathing very hard. At this point, I felt the lift bag hit the surface because the reel stopped spinning and I finally realized that I was gonna survive my salvage dive, although I was unsure if I was going to be bent. I stopped at 90 for a few minutes and then barely had enough air to complete the deco shown on my computer.
So many errors on this dive it is hard to name then all.
