Your Superman stories about unbelievable skill, bravery, or luck

[NAUI Wowie]

Im new so I have no amazing or near miss stories yet. But I know many here have stories they know of people they know or personal experiences that would frighten or and amaze people.

Who do you know that you would consider a scuba superman or woman? And they can be industry icons and stories of what they have done youve read about. Let us new divers know about some of these stories if possible.

What brought this on for me? Reading about many deep dive record holders and seeing many have passed. Many here have lived through these events and I am in awe of some of the accomplishments of deep water divers and deep cave divers.

But what about some of us new people that have seen some spectacular saves, near misses survived by skill?

If you have a Superman hero or story tell it here. And it COULD be yourself...

 

[JBFG]

My superhero story starts with me breathing under water, staying in trim, and make it back to the surface safe and sound.

 

[JBFG]

You seem to want to treat scuba diving as some kind of competitive sport with elite divers and stories of bravery and amazing feats. Get over it. That is an attitude that has killed others and will kill you.

To the OP, Google deep doc. Or was it doc deep?
Superhero are normally superdead-o

 

[BlueTrin]

Every time you come back alive and had a good dive you did an amazing job

I think OP may be trolling us though.

To the OP, Google deep doc. Or was it doc deep?
Superhero are normally superdead-o

Although this article seems to have written with many points being made in hindsight rather than using a more scientific approach. I think it gives an idea of what some other means about having this gung-ho attitude:

A Fatal Attempt: Psychological Factors in the Failed World Depth Record Attempt 2015

 

[DivealotZA]

You seem to want to treat scuba diving as some kind of competitive sport with elite divers and stories of bravery and amazing feats. Get over it. That is an attitude that has killed others and will kill you.

It depends, he could be referring to things like the Thai Cave Divers' story...(I get that it doesn't initially sound like this)

but I guess he could also look in the following threads for stories:

Accidents and Incidents
Scuba Related Court Cases
History of Scuba Diving: Tales from the Abyss

 

[Neilwood]

Personally I prefer my diving to be nice and sedate - if I am getting excited then I am doing something wrong.

What you do find with the divers at the extremes of depth or penetration is that the successful ones have dedicated years to building their knowledge/skills/ equipment list. The unsuccessful ones are likely to pay the ultimate price (google Doc Deep if you want an example of someone who didn't listen to sound advice or think he needed the training/skill). If extreme dives become exciting then it is often because the divers made a mistake in their planning/execution/equipment.

There is a saying paraphrased by divers - there are old divers and there are bold divers but there are no old and bold divers. Pushing the boundaries of diving can and will come at a cost of lives lost.

One thing to remember is that every diving skill/technique has probably been learned/taught for a very specific reason - someone died or was injured doing something that led to that skill requirement.

 

[kablooey]

I wrote about this incident once before here on SB.

We were making a training dive with mixed gas and stages on a deepish wreck off Southern California. The boat had combinations of tech students and their instructors, and regular tech divers.

The topside and underwater conditions were perfect. We had 50+ viz at depth, which is a great day in this area.
Sunny weather and a calm sea above.

Our class descended on the wreck, and began to run through some drills. After the drills we started to do a circuit of the wreck. The ship sat upright and mostly intact, alone on a soft white sand bottom, easy to see and easy to navigate around.
Just a really fun dive.

But we had to be alert. The wreck had a lot of old discarded fishing nets wrapped around parts of the hull and superstructure. That's a pretty common thing on the deeper wrecks around here.

As we kicked along the wreck we came across two divers with their BFKs out, cutting away at a portion of ragged old net.
I recognized them as two well respected and experienced of the tech divers onboard that day.

We curiously watched them for about five minutes as they cut and sawed away at the thick fishing net.
We were all trying to figure out why they were wasting their dive doing this.

Eventually they moved back and pulled open a big hole in the net. Out of the hole swam a large Leopard Shark that had been trapped inside.
Sleek and graceful, with tan skin and black spots fading to a light gray underside.

It took my breath away to see that beautiful animal swim free.
Saved from certain death.

This happened some years ago, but I still get emotional every time I think about it.
It was the most heroic deed I've ever witnessed underwater... maybe anywhere.

Those two divers deserve some good Karma for what they did.

K

 

[Scuba-74]

Never met him personally, but based on what I read and watched John Chatterton is as close to a diving icon as one can get.

 

[northernone]

I had the honor of sharing the water with a grandfather who signed up to learn to dive as a way of connecting and supporting his grandchild with special needs and some heavy disabilities. If ever there was a superman underwater, he comes close. He hadn't been in water since the 60s when his brother drowned along side him. Neither could swim.

Over the next two weeks he step by step worked towards joining his grandson underwater and their bond in facing their challenges was humbling to share.

Their most epic dive was to 23 ft for about half an hour... A moment in time where they felt at peace.

The grandfather's dedication inspired his grandchild (and us all).

I also respect the experimental divers and researchers. Military, public safety, commercial and scientific divers. As hobby divers we have much to learn from those who lead the way.

Cameron

 

[J-Vo]

Several years ago I spent a week diving out of Bayahibe Dominican Republic. It's primarily a local fishing village. On most dives we would come across fish traps with octopus in them and cut them out. On the last day of the week they told me the local fisherman have been known to shoot people they found cutting traps.