The USS Kittiwake is enterable from a few different places as it was purpose sunk for divers and artificial reef. Much of the structure that you could get hung up on has been removed, tables, engine, doors, etc. I really like decending through the funnel, gf for scale.
As a scuba instructor, that person's flailing greatly upsets me.
C'mon. Why are your hands involved? Legs up; frog kick. Slow. Turn with your fins. Don't do a wreck dive if you can't do gentle, smooth movements and maintain neutral bouyancy.
Like we all do little hand corrections and awkward floppy kicks sometimes by accident, but that's a lot.
It's actually a problem in wreck dives or confined spaces btw; any kicking or flailing disrupts the water, and depending how much has settled on the floors and walls around you, throws up sediment. One wrong kick or arm movement and your visibility goes from 'to the bulkhead four metres away' to 'there is a thick soupy haze and I cannot see my own hand unless I touch my mask'. We sometimes even see instructors and divemasters panic when that happens.
They're also not using a line, which makes the above problem ten times as bad. You're meant to have the first person (the most experienced one) taking a line with them, and periodically tying it to stuff. Everyone holds the line. That way if your visibility goes to absolute zero, you aren't trapped blind in a series of narrow underwater tunnels.
Which of you've got someone inexperienced enough to be flailing, should be an obvious major safety issue. Even experienced people die in wrecks, when things go bad. Once the silt is disturbed, it's floating for ages. Very easily longer than your tanks will last.
Sorry to lecture you btw, since your caption suggests it's you, here.
Just... If you're gonna do more wreck dives, don't halfass them, please. Your safety is your responsibility, but everyone's lives are made harder when someone dies in a preventable accident somewhere.
The wreck is very cool and creepy, and I would like to see that IRL.
All good points for safety, however, that wreck is in fact a guided tour, and a considerably easy one at that. It's designed for divers to penetrate with many openings and hazards removed. The person in front of me, my gf, it's their second dive after her certification so of course there will be mistakes. She's also waiting for the people ahead to move through the wreck. Super fun, super safe, been there a bunch of times, in fact I'm returning in January.
When I'm not with a tour group or a dive centre providing an experience I do carry a line and plan my dives accordingly. 21 years of safe diving :)
I sat with this video for a while trying to come up with a nice way to say "WTF is with that noob? They have zero business being in that situation!!!"
Hearing that this is dive #2 for her is even worse. I will acknowledge that she probably wasn't away of all the risks and reasons she should have noped the fuck out and share some of the blame with the DM and the OP for pushing her into it.
Yes, it is a wreck that was modified to be easier to penetrate and but by no means is it a baby town frolics type dive. No gloves, no head protection, no light just a straight up "trust me" style dive that gets people hurt.
Please don't get me wrong here. I LOVE playing around in old wrecks but I took the damn training and built the skills up to do them safe. I keep thinking if she has a random free flowing reg or something it would be super easy to get turned around and slam head first into pipe or get sliced up on the rusty metal. This is how you end up as the subject of a post on the A&I board.
/rant
Wrecks can be dangerous given environmental conditions and the level of hazard presented by where they rest on the seabed/bottom. However, this is a dive site for recreational diving with a guided tour. You have exit points everywhere to the outside, there is near zero turbidity, and we are with a dive operation on a tour. She has considerably decent buoyancy as she doesn't touch the wreck, and waits appropriately for the person in front of us to move. She also has a light, you just don't need it because the wreck is well modified for diver penetration, lots of light... She also has my camera lights which are a bit overkill.
Something you may not be familiar with I should also mention is that in most Caribbean dive sites you are not allowed to wear gloves. This is so that people respect the sea life and don't touch what they shouldn't.
Just fun and safe adventure here for a new diver!
Numpties gonna ruin it for the rest of us who are putting in the time and money. This really is entitled thinking and a wreck is not appropriate for their skill level. Full stop.
I'd suggest looking up the dive site, it can give you a better idea of what is required for skill and gear. Luckily, these considerations are made by the crews and companies that visit this site which hosted myself and 11 others. If you're uncomfortable you can always avoid situations that you think could put you at risk. This site in particular easily sees thousands of divers annually, all enjoy it the same way we did.
That was the first thing I noticed too. If you don't have control over your buoyancy or your movements (frog kick!) and you're not trained, you don't go into a wreck. People think diving is like going to an amusement park, and then they're surprised when they get an issue.
As someone with zero experience seeing all that flailing I was just wondering why divers don't wear webbed gloves lol.
I love when people who know more than me make these long comments on posts so I can learn.
Flailing arms and body around like that in the video is a sign that they don't have the skills to hold themself in the water well.
The image most people have of Superman flying is actually pretty close to how you want to be in the water, just with the arms bent at the elbows. From that position you use your core muscles and fins to change your orientation and direction as well as push yourself forwards or backwards in the water.
That leaves your hands free for useful stuff like holding lights, reels, writing stuff and communicating with your buddies. You can't do any of those things if you are flapping around like a Muppet on meth.
Yeah I thought she was panicking from a murene or something coming out. No control. Maybe she needs a bit more lead?
Sucks to go into a wreck with a large group. All it takes is one guy to overcompensate and the room becomes muddy for the rest of the dive.
That’s a bit unsettling
Cool wreck. However, the filmed driver is way too inexperienced to do something like this. They are a liability for themselves and others. The guide should not have taken a diver of this level anywhere close to a wreck.
I think it's best if you look up the Kittiwake wreck and the operations that exist there...
Watching this gave me the willies! Big nope for me!
USS Kittywake, wiki entry for the curious.
I did notice the flailing arms and lack of frog kicks immediately, but even just reading a couple of your comments it makes so much more sense on the “why” behind those observations. It sucks that people can’t understand nuance and context and mostly that they can’t just be happy for you both and mutually enjoy the experience.
The diver, bubbles, flaky debris, the structure itself. Everything looks like a 3D animation through a VR lens. It's this real?
I just read the book 'from below' by darcy coates and this footage made me uncomfortable
HellNoHellNoHellNoHellNoWHAT ARE YOU DOING DONT GO INTO THE TUNNEL OF DOOM
Isn't this the ship that Dean Hawes reportedly saw the USS Cyclops wreck from in the early 70s?
Gloves, helmet, light, rope for all dives that penetrate. Banging your head or cutting your hand causes panic. Wrecks are not suitable for beginners. Period.
Oh. Hell. No.
Ow