survival came to life and went berserk as it headed for the bottom. Fearing a line wrap, I let the fish go. Suddenly the big sea lion appeared and grabbed my yellowtail. Next, I found myself 15 feet down and going fast toward the bottom. I released my reel but nothing happened and I kept descending. As I got my feet under me to start kicking upward, I saw that my stringer was tangled around the end of my gun. I reached for my knife on my leg, only to find that the stringer had wrapped around the knife’ s release mechanism, preventing me from getting it free.
Still headed down and kicking as hard as I could, I decided that I was going to die. My last effort was devoted to ripping the knife free from my wetsuit which I did, tearing it from its sheath, straps and snaps. Luckily, having the knife off my leg changed the angle of my stringer line enough to allow it to untangle from my gun. I pulled the reel release on the gun, and I made it to the surface just before I thought I would pass out. I managed two quick breaths before the sea lion, reaching the end of my 150-foot reel line, pulled me under again. This time my decision was easy and I released the gun. This would be the fifth and last time I lost that gun. When I meet that sea lion again, I wonder if it will be sporting a spearshaft from its upper lip.
Your line can tangle on almost anything, including you or the bottom. South African Tommy Botha tells a chilling story about diving on the wreck Produce in Durban, South Africa, in 30 meters of water.
When the current slackens enough to allow us to dive, we usually can count on large schools of kob from 15 to 40 kilos. The boat dropped us off up-current from the wreck and
we drifted down toward it. The visibility was good and I managed to shoot a 6-kilogram rock salmon. When I surfaced from my next dive I heard one of the guys yelling,‘ Nick’ s down! Nick’ s down!’
With my heart pumping wildly as I swam upcurrent, I tried to relax for the 30-meter dive I knew I had to make. I was down about 20 meters before I could see the bottom. I swam about 30 meters, just staying high enough to make out the bottom, thus extending my dive time and vision. But I could not see him. Then on my way back to the surface, still swimming up-current, I saw Nick behind a big piece of wreckage. Nobody was watching me, and I knew I would black out if I went down again.
I called for Gyula Plagiani, who was upcurrent, and told him to dive. I grabbed another weight belt from the boat to‘ bomb down’ after them, but decided to let Gyula return first. I spotted him coming up with Nick in his arms and dove down to help. About 10 meters from the surface, Gyula blacked out. I grabbed both divers and swam them to the surface. When we reached the surface, Gyula started convulsing and came to. We loaded Nick on the boat, but in spite of our best efforts to revive him, he never regained consciousness.
Gyula found him at the end of his breath. He was in about 80 feet of water. When Gyula started toward the surface with him, he noticed that Nick’ s float line was caught in his weight belt and that the quick-release buckle had turned around on his waist, winding up on his back. Apparently, he had shot something on the bottom that became tangled, and when Nick swam up about 30 feet, he became caught in his float line.
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