Does anything about diving spook you?

[acelockco]

How about this: Your moored up on the wreck there are 9 big white mooring balls - you are geared up - siting on the back of your boat - Ready for entry - You look up and what do you see??? A Boat full of Cubans ( at leat 10 of them on a 20 footer! ) pulling up to the very closest ball next to you - Then all at once they start casting their fishing lines with big bright silver hooks all over and within 15 feet of your entry point. This happens all the time here and it creeps me out.

Don't they know what a dive flag is?

Funny short story:

When I was 14 or 15 years old I was on a dive boat off the coast of NJ. We were doing our SI waiting for our 2nd dive when a large sportfishing boat started heading right towards us. We had divers in the water and dive flags up. They obviously wanted to fish the wreck we were diving on. Our captain tried to reach them on the VHF, but they did not respond or were on a different channel. He then blasted the boat horn a few times, but they did not respond to that. What I saw next I really did not expect.

The captain went below deck and came back up with an AK-47 (it may have been something different, but I am pretty sure it was). He fired about 7 shots in the air (sort of in the direction of the boat heading towards us). Well, guess what, the other boat responded within seconds by making a complete U-Turn and slamming down on the throttle! I don't know the legal issues of something like this, but it definately worked!

[mismail]

Jackson Reef is a wonderful site to dive specially in summer time in the very early morning where you can see schools of hammerheads on that spot. We were a group of divers on a liveaboard, it was our last dive before we head back to the shore after a great diving trip where we had tons of nice sites to visit the best was Thistlegorm. Anyhow,
WE HAD A TERRIBLE DIVE DUE TO:

- BAD INSTRUCTOR PLAN.
- UNCALCULATED RISK FOR CURRENT CALCULATION.
- NO BRIEFED PLAN TO SKIPPERS OR ZODIAC ON HOW TO ALLOCATE US AND AFTER HOW LONG.
- THE INSTRUCTOR WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BUDDY WITH ME WAS THE FARTHEST FROM ME TO SAVE HIS LIFE.
- WE SPENT ALMOST 90 MINUTES STRUGGLING IN A VERY BAD SEA CONDITION, WE WERE DIVIDED IN 2 GROUPS 3 AND 2. FIRST GROUP OSS, HAY AND FAN, THE SECOND GROUP ME AND BAS WHO WAS A DIVE MASTER CANDIDATE ON BOARD WHO USED TO BE A COOK!! BUT HONESTLY HE WAS A REAL SUPPORT TO ME. THANKS TO HIM. To be honest I saw nothing at all but the OPEN WATER 1 movie, i was imagining what could happen to us, my right leg start to be almost paralized cause i had an operation in it in the ankle screws and plate, so it was as if it was not there. So the boat cant spot us, noway of communication , the sea conditions were really terrible, waves of up to 2 meters high, unbelievable very strong current taking us to the huge boats way crossing at high speeds in and out from the Gulf of Aquaba in the Red Sea.

[acelockco]

You already told us this story!

[mismail]

to acelockco
It was in a different forum, i am answering what spooked me. I am not writing a book, the same story can be said in different occasions and forums, and from each you can concentrate on something.
Sorry if i bothered you, but you were not obliged to quote or respond or even read what i wrote. Finally we are grown ups and no need to say silly comments to each other.

[acelockco]

I was aware it was in a different thread, but it was not in a different fourm. Anyway, like I said you already told that story.

[PinayDiver]

Backrolling into the water, I hate the sound of sudden freeflow (because no one wants their air wasted that way).

During a dive, I've been
- startled by dive buddies caught by surprise themselves (ex. I once had this dramatic moment of holding out my hand and finning after an assigned buddy who tumbled off during a drift dive even as she frantically searched for a reef hook in her bc pockets);
- occasionally appalled by DMs with strange ways (one had us finning against the current the entire dive and still we missed the site);
- and horrified by how a surge during a night dive (a storm was then whipping the surface) nearly slammed me into a bed of sea urchins (I had a vision of being a human pin cushion).

While waiting for my turn to get back on the boat, at different times, I've been spooked by: jelly fish, an anchor drop, propeller blades starting to turn.

[acelockco]

- occasionally appalled by DMs with strange ways (one had us finning against the current the entire dive and still we missed the site);

- and horrified by how a surge during a night dive (a storm was then whipping the surface) nearly slammed me into a bed of sea urchins (I had a vision of being a human pin cushion).

While waiting for my turn to get back on the boat, at different times, I've been spooked by: jelly fish, an anchor drop, propeller blades starting to turn.

Sounds like you need to find a different dive operator. The DM should be smarter than that, they should call off a dive when a storm is whipping at the surface, and under no circumstances should they be dropping an anchor or starting the prop. blades when divers are in the water!!!!! This is REALLY bad!

[lottie]

propeller blades starting to turn.

I had something similar to that when I was doing my OW - we were in the house reef and a boat went close by us...luckily we'd (my instructor and I) noticed it, so were able to get right down on the sand and stay away.
Even though we had a Diver down float, it seemed the boat didn't even notice it. Suffice to say, my instructor had a quiet word with the guys on the boat, to be aware that there are divers in the waters.

[PinayDiver]

Sounds like you need to find a different dive operator. The DM should be smarter than that, they should call off a dive when a storm is whipping at the surface, and under no circumstances should they be dropping an anchor or starting the prop. blades when divers are in the water!!!!! This is REALLY bad!

All these happened on out-of-town dives with various dive operators assigning a local DM to us for the day.

We were actually more exasperated with the DM who had us finning against the current the entire dive for nothing (we asked for another DM on the very next dive) than with the DM we were with when the storm hit (there was no sign of it when we entered the water, and he made sure we – although shivering miserably, overcoming the joy of having seen seahorses that night – got back to shore, broken outrigger and all.

As for the anchor and propeller incidents (admittedly the stuff of nightmares), both times, it was the DM who gave the boatmen a dressing-down.

I guess out-of-town DMs are in a way similar to dive buddies assigned on-the-spot...in the sense that they can be trusted to generally either exceed or fall short of expectations (human nature comes into play). Like you guys stress here, the important thing is to be self-accountable/responsible (ah, yes, she knows the lesson in all these, lol).

[littleleemur]

At 135ft & still being sucked down a 350ft wall and not being able to swim out of it, weights already out & my BC's lift already maximized.

Luckily my buddy caught up at 140-ish, made use of his overlarge BC, overlarge mass ( ) & helped me out of it. Once I get my new (bigger) BC, he's swapping his in for his correct (smaller) size

Other than really strong currents I can't swim out of, nothing else spooks me in the water.