Free diving in a lake to recover lost item?
 

So today, in all of my brilliance, I left my new Sumo pump hanging over the side of the boat as I took off from my dock. And it took an unfortunate dip into the drink. :banghead: I'm about 90 percent sure of where it is, but the water is anywhere from 27 to 35 feet deep in the area.

I'm wondering if any of you have experience with diving for something like this at that depth without scuba gear. Any recommendations or something? I need to get down there asap before algae builds up and it vanishes in the silt. I used to dive for lost stuff for my neighbors all the time, and I've found a pair of glasses for them, but it was always significantly shallower.

Or should I just give up and accept that my idiocy has resulted in a 100 dollar loss? Also, later on, a bird pooped on my head while I was rebuilding our porch... So today has been great.

thats a tough free dive for anyone to have to search in a dark muddy lake bottom. If you can see it from the surface - no problem. But without scuba gear - pretty impossible.
I free dive to set my anchor - so im sure it will hold the enitre day(kindof a fun thing ive always done since i was a kid). Even following the rope all the way to the bottom, its tough to search for rocks around the anchor for the few seconds youve got down there. ITS PITCH BLACK.

Yeah, I imagined so. I have a dive light, but I don't know how much use that'll be. Our part of the lake is awfully murky...

A couple years ago My buddy was handing me the cooler and as I grabbed it my keys slipped off my fingers and plopped into the water. It was May and the first time out and the water was cold so I hesitated to jump in and lost site of them as they floated to the bottom. We all stood there looking at each other.

So all of the sudden here comes this 350 lbs dude swimming in the freezing water pulling a boat with a rope. I yell at him and said, hey want to0 make some money? he says sure what do you want? I said I know it's deep and murky, but if you find my keys I will give you 50.00 bucks. The guy gets out of the water stands on the end of the dock, I point to wear they dropped thinking this guy isnt going to be able to dive that deep let alone see them in the dark water. he dives down and was down for about a minute without coming up. I thought maybe he was dead. All of the sudden he comews up with my keys in his hand. I was laughing cause the dude was a freaking polar bear. Anyway he guessed the water to be around 15" deep. Anything is possible.

My brother in law is an instructor at BUDS/UDT and we were having this same conversation the other day. To free dive 35 feet is certainly at the extreme for anyone but trained professionals. It came up because I keep losing my GoPro cameras.

Once you get passed 20-25 ft it gets serious- especially without fins.

While sunglasses are lighter, my son lost his uncle's sunglasses in the lake in about 4.5-5.5 ft of water. Swimming. We knew exactly where they were too. Three of us swam, stepped and combed over the bottom with our feet looking for about 30 mins. We finally found them, but it is amazing how we knew exactly where they were but they were 20' away making it very difficult and doubling the square footage of our search area. Good luck, but it'll be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Why? Do you not have the floaty door? If not, why not? Just wondering because I have a new GP cam that has not seen the lake yet.

^^^if u have the lcd bacpac or wifi pac dont think that itll float the gopro. Just puttin it out there.

Diving in clear water, is one thing....in the murky lake, is another. I would just get a new pump.


Get a "noodle" one of those pool things, cut a chunk off, and zip tie it to whatever you are using the camera on. I have 2 noodle pieces that I use with the suction cup mount and the head mount. If you drop it, it'll float! Just be sure to mess around with it in a pool or something to be sure your "noodle is of proper length" :rolleyes:

Yeah, you can't it both ways. I've got the LCD and the lake is where I want to use it first. I do not think there is a deep door with the float. Thx

Like the idea. That would work perfect on a monopod.

Get one of these...it floats mine w/ lcd, wifi or suction cup mount. Picture sucks but u get the idea.

http://img.tapatalk.com/c6e4c80f-4d59-26e6.jpg

gofloatit.com

The deepest part of our lake is like 32' and I've gone to the bottom a few times, and it is tough.... that is just going down, grabbing some dirt to prove I made it and coming up.... so to spend time down there and search would be really hard.

Actually its more like this one for a camera not for glasses

http://www.chums.com/category/water-...t/camera-float

I didn't see that one. Thanks.

Try something like this.

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Ninja-Fo...grappling+hook

I made one out if 3/8" round stock to retrieve a pair of sunglasses in about 40' of water. We also found an old lawn chair while we were at it.

Might be worth a try?

27'-35'? No way. That's a long way down without air, no light, and I hate pressure. Worst I've ever done is when I threw a prop coming in to a friends dock. Lost it in 10'-12' of water and it sucked finding it. Took about two hours, prop was black. Only saving grace is visibility in that lake is 30'-35' in good light. Prop was mostly buried in mud under a stump a long distance from where I lost it. For a prop at 12', yes.... For a ballast pump at 35'? No thanks.

I have free dove to 33' and it pushed me to the edge of my ability. I almost did dieded.

I am a NAUI certified diver and I can tell you that lake diving almost always sucks. Not Lake Winnepesauke or a Great Lake - but joe average lakes. They are awfully dark at 20'. And scary. And it's easy to get disoriented and scared down there. X10 if you are freediving. Ever come across a huge rotting oak tree underwater? I have! Picture that tree in Poltergeist.

That said I have had decent luck going down at high noon after something gets dropped in the water. I've gone down and plucked up bracelets, wallets and sunglasses with decent regularity.

Not sure what your point is. If you are asking if you should go down and try to get it from the bottom, yes you should try. Not by yourself, but yes you should try. Did you mark the spot? If you didn't don't bother, because eyeballin' it just won't work at that depth.

this may be a dumb question or just flat out dangerous. but in shallower areas, about 10-12 ft sometimes around 15 i have taken a light anchor (not one for the boat, but one for like a john boat) and held it on the weigh down so i wasn't using energy and oxygen swimming. got down there and had more time to look around, or feel around then a good hard push and swim back up, but i don't know if that would work for 35 ft. if it did then i would even consider puttin a rop around you just in case you were in touble and havin a buddy or two start pullin. like i said may be dumb and/or dangerous but in shallower waters it worked for me.

edit: also i don't know how bad the pressure would be at 35ft, that might be a bad idea, some of these diver guys would have more info on all that.

You would just have to 'clear' more than once but unless you're skilled I would not anticipate being able to do this unless you've had some practice. Some people need to hold their nose, others can just swallow, wiggle their jaw, or chew on their snorkel to clear.

http://mobile.walmart.com/m/phoenix;...2-VDC/14150754

Buy a new one , just over 30$ at Walmart , its not worth the risk :-)

Yeah, I gave up and ordered a new one. Couldn't find someone around here willing to act as a dive buddy. Hah. I did try dragging the bottom though. And I hooked a tree, which was fun undoing from a kayak, but yeah.

Back when I was a young pup(16) I was all about doing anything to impress the ladies. We were out on lake mead chilling n swimming around. Depth gauge read 47 feet. I dove down to the bottom twice. First time they didn't believe me so I went back down again and brought some sand back up with me. Ahhhh the good ol days