Northwest Dive Club

I just did great dive this past evening with some great dive buddies, the kind that are there for the dive not the logistics of we dive how we do. It was nice to have a relaxing dive like that. Thanks to all you know who you are.

we started off at our trucks (dah) and then we all had air only because this was a dive to get narct, love a good narc dive. we went to 150 fsw and hung out for 23.5 minutes and proceeded to our scheduled stops, yes we did plan stops even though we were on air. then we had a blast at our 20 foot stop. I took out of my pocke a Gameboy, yes a Game Boy. I put it in a food saver vacuum packer that i use for my Ling cod and such. We traded off playing tetris and it was a blast that we stayed to play while our scheduled stop was over. then my buddy shut my air while i was playing and then I thought i ran out of air and we all immediatly went into rescue mode and shared air to the surface, only to discover I still had more than thirds left, when he told me that he shut it. i got a high five for handling the out of air situation perfect, We even kept perfect trim (for you DIR folks) to the surface. I know Game Boys are great on the toilet but now you know they are great at depth too.
Maverick

Sounds like fun BJ. I don't see it working for me and Fishtiq though. Get him in front of ANY game console, and you've lost him. Nothing else matters.

I was looking for a smilie, that is kinda deadpan, and you know what I discovered? The only one we have that doesn't do anything, is the girl ..........................how ironic is that?

That's pretty sweet man. What game were you playing? I think the new Nintendo DS can be played between two people. Next time you should each get one going and pass the time, since it's not nice to play Game Boy by yourself and not offer a turn to your dive buddy (I might've turned off your air too if you did that).

DUDE!! What food saver packer did you use!!?? I've been looking for one for my video camera, the one I have now is too dang heavy!!!

I've found that saran wrap works great, I use it to waterproof just about anything I bring with me underwater.

Hey BJ! Good times, dude! And congrats on the out of air rescue properly performed (and I forgive you any trim errors...being as you were still into "game" mode and all that).

AND.....what does that mean that the only "one that doesn't do anything is the girl"???????? Calvin...nailer...FIX THAT!

jackie ppb

Maverick wrote:I just did great dive this past evening with some great dive buddies, the kind that are there for the dive not the logistics of we dive how we do. It was nice to have a relaxing dive like that. Thanks to all you know who you are.

we started off at our trucks (dah) and then we all had air only because this was a dive to get narct, love a good narc dive. we went to 150 fsw and hung out for 23.5 minutes and proceeded to our scheduled stops, yes we did plan stops even though we were on air. then we had a blast at our 20 foot stop. I took out of my pocke a Gameboy, yes a Game Boy. I put it in a food saver vacuum packer that i use for my Ling cod and such. We traded off playing tetris and it was a blast that we stayed to play while our scheduled stop was over. then my buddy shut my air while i was playing and then I thought i ran out of air and we all immediatly went into rescue mode and shared air to the surface, only to discover I still had more than thirds left, when he told me that he shut it. i got a high five for handling the out of air situation perfect, We even kept perfect trim (for you DIR folks) to the surface. I know Game Boys are great on the toilet but now you know they are great at depth too.
Maverick

That's pretty cool. I know people who've done it with keys and other things they wanted or need to take down with them, but wanted to protect. I thought about doing it to my battery pack in case my can ever flooded. I'd think the squeeze would effect the buttons though?

I also have a stupid Rec diver question. For doing this kind of dive weren't you on your 72 dubs? Why wouldn't you go to your backup reg? Or did they got both posts on ya?

Maybe I'm overly paranoid, but to me this doesn't seem like a real safe thing to do ( that artificial OOA I mean, I haven't the skills or knowledge to pass judgment on deep air or the gameboy). Again, I'm not a tech diver, but stunts like this seem less than safe.

I thought that the recreational agencies don't allow the instructors or DM's to pull this kind of thing in classes, even in a pool, anymore because people were getting hurt? What if you hadn't managed the OOA correctly and had bolted? With that long of a dive on air, even doing your deco, couldn't you still wind up with some DCS if you had to do a rapid ascent from that depth?

Thanks.

Jake

Nwbrewer wrote: I also have a stupid Rec diver question. For doing this kind of dive weren't you on your 72 dubs? Why wouldn't you go to your backup reg? Or did they got both posts on ya?

Maybe I'm overly paranoid, but to me this doesn't seem like a real safe thing to do ( that artificial OOA I mean, I haven't the skills or knowledge to pass judgment on deep air or the gameboy). Again, I'm not a tech diver, but stunts like this seem less than safe.

Thanks.

Jake

I don't think it's a stupid Rec diver question, nor do I think you're being overly paranoid. Considering the newer divers that frequent this board it's probably a good idea to be careful about posting dives that are "on the edge" or pretty potentially unsafe - something that folks who have done before have gotten reamed for.

Exercising some caution is a good thing - from another "Rec Diver".

Yeah, well, that's just Maverick. He says a lot of stuff. If you know what I mean.

What really pisses me off about him is that he hogs the damn gameboy on deco. I could have beat his high score on "donkey kong" on that dive, but he wouldn't let me have my turn!

Yeah but I'll kick all your asses on the VR3's "squirt"

There is a lot of goofing off that happens in the water at times. When I was diving off of Sipadan, Malaysia - the DM and divers in our group used to take turns pranking each other.... there were tank valves turned off simultaneously with mask and fin-jackings. People hanging on each others' tanks when trying to climb out of the water onto the dive boat, inflating someone else's BCD and then flooding their mask so they had to dump and clear at the same time. I don't recommend any of this, as it was extremely stupid and dangerous, but it was all in the name of pranks and fun and when doing 5-6 dives a day for weeks.... you start to get very comfortable with your dive buddies as well as the surroundings. I also did a dive to 175fsw on an aluminum 80 that had been sitting out in the sun on the beach all day w/ no pony bottle. Yes, the diving I do now requires a ton of preparation and muscle memory to do safely and properly, but I always keep this in perspective in terms of the extremely wide range of regard toward personal safety and respect toward standards. Even the most "maverick" divers here (pardon the pun) adhere to much safer practices than are common in some corners of the world, even if you're just talking about gear maintenance (for instance, Cuban dive gear is not well maintained, as they haven't had access to spare parts in probably decades - I know, because I've had multiple equipment failures on this gear at depth!).

Pulling pranks is all well and good ... but once you get to the point where you're doing deco dives, I think it's prudent to minimize risks. Deliberately putting yourself in a situation where you may have to ignore your obligation and seek the surface is probably up there with drag racing on Aurora Ave ... it's all neat fun until something doesn't go as you expect it to.

I also don't think it's a good idea to post this stuff ... too many impressionable new divers read this forum. Although you may be capable of resolving it routinely, most divers wouldn't be. A couple people ended up getting killed trying to do deep bounce dives at night off of Lobster Shop Wall because somebody more experienced than them made it sound like a lot of fun.

You guys are welcome to dive however you like ... you're experienced enough to handle it (I hope so, anyway). But I wondered what was the objective of posting it. I wouldn't want to give anyone the impression that turning off your buddy's air is a particularly safe way to dive ... many recreational divers would most likely panic and bolt for the surface if someone did it to them ... and that's when a prank turns into a tragedy. I'd prefer not to promote that sort of diving on a public forum ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Honestly, I think BJ is yanking some chains here . . . I checked to see if the post was dated April 1st.

There is a guy local to me who is permanently crippled because while working as a commercial diver his surface support "buddies" decided to prank him by giving him air instead of trimix. They thought it would be cool to get him really narced. He was so narced he couldn't follow his schedule and now he can barely walk.

Let's see.... going down the list, hmmm... where are we..."think outside the box", "paradigm shift", "epiphany", "trifecta"... Oh yes, here we go: 2008 phrase of the year "UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES".

-Ben

Always a good reminder Ben, thanks for telling the story.

Nwbrewer wrote:

Maverick wrote:I just did great dive this past evening with some great dive buddies, the kind that are there for the dive not the logistics of we dive how we do. It was nice to have a relaxing dive like that. Thanks to all you know who you are.

we started off at our trucks (dah) and then we all had air only because this was a dive to get narct, love a good narc dive. we went to 150 fsw and hung out for 23.5 minutes and proceeded to our scheduled stops, yes we did plan stops even though we were on air. then we had a blast at our 20 foot stop. I took out of my pocke a Gameboy, yes a Game Boy. I put it in a food saver vacuum packer that i use for my Ling cod and such. We traded off playing tetris and it was a blast that we stayed to play while our scheduled stop was over. then my buddy shut my air while i was playing and then I thought i ran out of air and we all immediatly went into rescue mode and shared air to the surface, only to discover I still had more than thirds left, when he told me that he shut it. i got a high five for handling the out of air situation perfect, We even kept perfect trim (for you DIR folks) to the surface. I know Game Boys are great on the toilet but now you know they are great at depth too.
Maverick

That's pretty cool. I know people who've done it with keys and other things they wanted or need to take down with them, but wanted to protect. I thought about doing it to my battery pack in case my can ever flooded. I'd think the squeeze would effect the buttons though?

I also have a stupid Rec diver question. For doing this kind of dive weren't you on your 72 dubs? Why wouldn't you go to your backup reg? Or did they got both posts on ya?

Maybe I'm overly paranoid, but to me this doesn't seem like a real safe thing to do ( that artificial OOA I mean, I haven't the skills or knowledge to pass judgment on deep air or the gameboy). Again, I'm not a tech diver, but stunts like this seem less than safe.

I thought that the recreational agencies don't allow the instructors or DM's to pull this kind of thing in classes, even in a pool, anymore because people were getting hurt? What if you hadn't managed the OOA correctly and had bolted? With that long of a dive on air, even doing your deco, couldn't you still wind up with some DCS if you had to do a rapid ascent from that depth?

Thanks.

Jake

Jake I was on my double 98's and yes they got both. I had my Iso open so it would n't have helped to grab my secondary because you dive with it open and I knew mine was open so I knew i was out of air. Although it puzzled me because at my gas switch i still had 1650 pounds. anyway yes it was dangerous and not Kosher, but I eat Bacon so it was ok.

Maverick wrote: anyway yes it was dangerous and not Kosher,

Thanks for saying so, BJ.

Maverick wrote:but I eat Bacon so it was ok.

I just went drag racing on Aurora yesterday in fact! But yes, I don't recommend driving fast or doing anything unsafe underwater. We all have to make our own decisions at the end of the day and live with the consequences, be they tragic, fun, hurtful or benign.

tangfish wrote:I just went drag racing on Aurora yesterday in fact! But yes, I don't recommend driving fast or doing anything unsafe underwater. We all have to make our own decisions at the end of the day and live with the consequences, be they tragic, fun, hurtful or benign.

You're right, and I've got no problem with people having to live with the consequences of their own decisions ... but when someone else decides to turn off your air without your knowledge, that's not your own decision ... it's theirs. But you still may have to live with the consequences ... like Ben's neighbor did.

That's kinda my point. When your decisions start affecting the safety of other people, then perhaps it's time to reconsider.

I had someone sneak up behind me and turn my air off once ... then swim away thinking it was a pretty funny prank. They didn't realize I was teaching a class at the time ... and that the two people I was diving with were also my responsibility. Fortunately, THEY didn't have to live with the consequences.

And FWIW - I know you guys, and my comments aren't really directed at you. You're young men, with pretty good diving skills and a sense of adventure. More power to ya. I'm commenting for the benefit of the folks reading this board who may not know you ... this isn't just a small, local community anymore, after all ... which is why I think promoting safe diving practices is important.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

I completely understand and respect where you're coming from, Bob. And I hope that readers become smarter as a result of seeing that there are more options available to them than the views that a) doing stupid shit is ok and encouraged or b) if you break trim you and all your friends will die.

tangfish wrote:...there are more options available to them than the views that a) doing stupid shit is ok and encouraged or b) if you break trim you and all your friends will die.

Agreed. Aristotle said "moderation in all things".
That applies to those who would be overly serious/elitist as well as their provocateur, the Mav.

Everybody be friends. :occasion5: (that's me on the right, but the beverage is non-alcoholic)
Moving on, lets hear more about the drag-racing (the moderation rule has an exception for horsepower, lateral grip, braking, and acceleration).

-Ben

Although this one was human instigated, left post rolloffs happen for real.

Before you pat yourself on the back too much, remember you missed that.

airsix, was it Aristotle or Buddha who said that? Probably both (actually, I think in Buddhism it's referred to as "the middle path").

About the drag racing, HP was around the 355-70 range (exhaust kit adds a little I think). I hit 135mph on the way back from Vegas this past weekend, with the top down. It was scary, but exhilarating, zooming through the empty highways in Utah. Here's a photo of the new ride taken during a pee break just outside of Bryce Canyon.

Calvin,

I'm an excellent chauffeur if you're ever in need. Red X-scooter testdrive for a Porsche testdrive..... think about it :p

Sweet. :hello2: Get it off the street and go do PCA or POC club racing, or SCCA time-trials! That car is to good to go in a straight line.

-Ben
M3 sedan (stealth daily driver)
914 (scca open street prepared track beast)