Wreck diving & cave diving are sharing some similarities in safety procedures, protocols and operations. Some of them are related to using of directional & non-directional markers, jumps, lines, spools…
The following material “Zen and the Art of Mexican Cave Navigation“published in GUE‘s blog InDEPTH is a very good reference to analyze, learn and apply in any overhead environment.
Dive Safe!
Following the previous series of “diving etiquette” – Diving Etiquette: Wreck Diving Etiquette & other matters and Diving Etiquette: The Marine Environment, today is time to present you the interesting material from AlertDiver – Divers Alert Network – Diving etiquette – Boats and zodiacs.
Dive Safe!
After talking about “Wreck Diving Etiquette & other matters“, is time to remember and never forget that, we are visitors in the underwater World:
https://alertdiver.eu/en_US/articles/diving-etiquette-the-marine-environment
Dive safe!
Sport Divers tend to attach the cutting device (knife, eezycut, scissors etc) in various places (BCD, body – arms or legs), based on their personal preferences and activity performed.
As Technical Diver, you are performing a different kind of diving, including using of mixed gases & deco obligations or in an overhead environment. Or any combination. And as part of your extended planning, risk assessment should be on your dive preparation planning list. And cutting devices are part of your equipment, by default. Good quality tools!
When performing a dive inside of a wreck (overhead environment: caves, mines, wrecks), or around a wreck, your cutting device plays a very important role in your safety. Lost or handing cables, ropes, fishing lines or fishing nets, even carpets or pieces of furniture may represent a great danger underwater. And even greater when you are obliged to perform a deco stage or you have no clear “physical ceiling” (in an overhead) and you get entangled. And the time is counting down faster! While on the dry land you can easily rich your diving tool in almost any position, no matter where your knife of eezycut tool is placed, underwater is totally a different story.
You’ll be bulky, even in sidemount, sometimes in tight space and therefore, reaching your cutting tool must be easy and with minimum physical and mental stress.
You must be able to access your cutting tools (knife, eezycut, scissor) with both hands. No leg mounted or Rambo style.
Where to secure the cutting tools?
Webbing mounting (in the chest area and/or on the harness belt) where is easy accessible for both hands. Preferable, one device “knife” – small/medium size, and one device Eezycut.
If Eezycut is preferred attached on the wrist/forearm or dive computer straps/bungee cords, use (if possible) one tool for each hand.
Scissor can be stored in the leg pocket.
Try and follow the KISS principles: Keep It Stupid Simple!
Stay safe & Have fun dives!
Costa
Wreck diving is one its kind. You dive, see and learn history, you explore places seen by just a limited number of divers, and you experience something “cool”.
Not many people can have this privilege. Some wrecks are accessible in the recreational diving range; some others are reserved for experienced technical divers only.
No matter what wrecks you are diving, some basic common sense rules apply.
On top of the “Cave diving etiquette” rules (see here: https://www.tdisdi.com/cave-diving-etiquette/ ), please kindly keep in mind the below personal advises:
Cargo ships with lots of heavy storms under their keel and even crew still inside their immersed structures.
Historical ships with hundreds of years in their back, real underwater museums are there for our privilege to explore their stories.
Therefore, treat all wrecks with respect.
Dive sites declared graveyards should remain as they are.
You are in overhead environment and such overhead rules must apply at all times, with no exceptions! Do not trust and blindly follow your dive guide – memories your itinerary, run guidelines, stay inside of your training & gear limits! Be aware of false “light zone” or “false exit” places!
The fact that no serious accidents happened (or not so many) is just because of pure luck.
Do the briefing (and debriefing too) – collect and share valuable and trustable information regarding the dive site (wreck’s status, sea condition, back-up and emergency plans etc). Good idea if a leader (with more experience/higher rank) is established (when the group is not guided under a dive center/dive guide commercial agreement).
Update on #1 (May 12, 2018):
as reported by Greg Piper (a professional photographer & journalist): “Tragedy in Truk because divers still refuse to act responsibly. The famous wreck of the Fujikawa Maru I’m sad to report, suffered another devastating blow.
The famous aircraft in her cargo hold the “Claude” whose tail used to rise up@out of the wreckage is NO LONGER. A diver who, according to local guides, was sitting on the tail, posing for a photo bound to catapult his career on social media past 1000 followers and 100 likes, broke the tail off the aircraft. 75 years of history, the most photogenic aircraft in the lagoon….GONE. Why? Simply because divers continue to treat this place and these wrecks with utter disregard.”
Dive safe!
Costa – ANDI IT #170
ANDI Trimix Instructor L5
ANDI Technical Trimix Wreck Instructor L3/ Exploration Trimix Wreck L5 Diver
Wreck Divers Awareness and Exploration Club®
A question raised up over the time: why regular recreational diver (not trained for overhead environment) are willing to do a wreck penetration, even a light one, but are aware of cave penetration risks therefore they don’t do it? Why wreck is seen as a non-dangerous penetration but cavern, caves & flooded mines – yes?
Is something to do with the basic training & diving education? With the group divers attitude he’s diving with? With social media influence? With his own perspective over the risks assessment?
A penetration in an overhead environment remains a penetration. Does not matter that is cave, cavern, wreck, flooded mine etc. There is a physical barrier (and maybe a virtual barrier too) which does not allow the diver to direct access the surface.
A bad combination of various factors can turn a fun dives into a tragedy: depth, distance of penetration, equipment configuration, gasses used (narcosis & oxygen toxicity), diving techniques (finning, buoyancy and trim), divers skills, penetration space available for moving in-out and around, wreck’s condition [related to other various factors: wreck’s age, depth – water salinity, weather influence (storms, currents, tides etc), diver’s direct influence etc)], wreck familiarization and familiarization with a ship’s construction overall/in general, material of construction (wood, iron etc)… and the list can go on.
Each overhead environment has its own specific factors which must be analyzed and assessed non-stop before and during the dive.
So, remains the question remains in the air: what makes the divers think that a wreck penetration is less dangerous then any other overhead diving environment?
Most of the times, wrongly promoted as “CAVE” markers (only), those little pieces of diving tool are very important for WRECK diving as well, because in fact, are designed for OVERHEAD ENVIRONMENT DIVING!
So, whatever penetration is made, CAVES or WRECKS, the markers are there to be used accordingly, as per your training protocols. Don’t used them without a proper training, this could lead in miscommunication or even fatal accidents of you, your buddy team or other participants in diving activities in that area!
A (vary) basic information about markers can be found here on TDI blog.
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