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Old 05-08-2008, 05:10 PM   #34
LAfreediver
LAfreediver
 
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Join Date: Apr 2007
Age: 39
Posts: 81
Re: 100 Ways for a Rig Diver to Die

It’s a no brainer, you would think commonsense would intervene and tell you to simply hit your purge valve, rite? But I find your brain works a lot differently when its oxygen deprived and pounding on the “O SHIT” button. This reminded me of a near death experience I had a few year ago. It was the last rig in a set of small single post rigs (satellite rigs). I hopped over and wasn’t seeing much worth shooting accept the usual 5-12lb mangroves, so I readied myself for a dive. I dove and slowly sank to the bottom at around 75ft. there was zero bottom murk, which is my favorite for hunting (nowhere for the fish to hide). As I settled on the sandy/mud bottom nearing the end of my breathe hold, a group of cobia came over to investigate. I picked the biggest out which was about 55-60lbs and let her have it. As I headed to the surface the reel locked up completely at about 60ft. I did everything I could to unlock the reel, but with the reel line firmly in place I kicked like hell for the surface as the fish fought for the bottom. Once I made it to about 15ft hypoxia started taking effect. My lung contractions seemed to stop I started to feel very lazy and euphoric and my body tingled, I knew these where the last seconds before SWB. I let my brand new $900 gun go and made it to the surface. Right after I took my first breathes and my oxygen starved brain started to function again the very first thing I thought of was my KNIFE! Why didn’t I just cut the reel line?!!?!?!?!?!
I’m not sure if this is the best comparison to Rocks story, but my point is; when you’re in a life or death situation where you can’t breathe it becomes very hard to NOT think one dimensional(just get your head above water!).
I also wanted to use that story as a catalyst to my next point: freediver safety while rig diving. There are going to be a record number of freedivers this year at the helldivers rodeo. I’d like to invite everybody to practice safe freediving methods this year. This means dive with a buddy, always look up and be aware of your surroundings, when you ascend try to keep one hand over your head when inside the rig, keep a sharp knife there’s lots of power pro and mono to get caught in, if it’s rough stay at least 20ft away from rig legs (I have scares all over from being sucked into stantions by waves while relaxing for a dive), if diving with murk on top hold your gun in front of you while you descend until you break into clean water, when making drops past 100ft I prefer to stay outside the rig, because of less chance of being snagged in something and I like being obstruction free when making long ascents, try not to mix scuba with freediving on the same day, and lastly don’t get caught up in competition, try to enjoy the beauty that is the Louisiana oil-platform.
p.s. WHAT UP ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!
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