Boat anchor + garden hose + lost keys in lake = near disaster

AP

[Graybeard58]

I'm not sure that a wet vac could provide enough pressure to get the necessary flow rate of compressed air at the bottom of the hose, but you have the right idea that the air needs to be pumped down.

Nah, you got it all wrong. Use the wet vac to vacuum all the water from the lake and then find your lost keys.

[Kozak]

It's worse then that. Even on the ground he couldn't breathe through a 30 foot hose, his lungs can't move that kind of volume with each breath so no gas exchange is gonna take place.

[not_apathetic_anymore]

Yep...just what you said, plus add the mechanics trying to breath through a 20 foot "straw".

[KSCITYBOY]

We take our keys very seriously out here. I like the guys "can do" attitude, the anchor may have been a little much though.

[DManA]

Even if he could breath, he'd just be rebreathing his own breath. It's be like breathing into a paper bat.

[jamaksin]

Or "boat anchor" as in Hammarlund SP600s, Collins R390As, Rohde&Schwarz EK07s, ..., etc.

As we know, real radios glow in the dark ...

[al baby]

I learend you cant use a hose too, the hard way

[ApplegateRanch]

About 45 years ago, when I was in 8th grade, I pulled a 20-ish guy out of Shasta Lake, doing the same thing...ALONE. In his case, it was his father's fishing rod, 'borrowed' without asking. He had accidentally let go while casting from shore, and watched it sail into the drink.

That brainiac had fastened the end of the hose to a block of wood. Waves from a passing boat's wake flipped it over, and filled his hose with water.

After pulling him out & performing artificial respiration (mouth-to-mouth wasn't yet taught at that time) he insisted on going back in again.

After dragging him out a SECOND time, my ride & I had to leave. We hoped we had argued him out of making a third attempt without us there.

Water pressure builds fast, and will squeeze the hose, pinching it off, unless it has positive-pressure in it. (i.e. Attached to an air pump.) and the same water pressure, deep enough--less than one might imagine--also will keep the ribs squeezed, meaning expiration is easy, but inspiration is blocked. SCUBA was invented for a reason.

[SquirrelKing]

Close, but no see-gar.

[ozzymandus]

A TV news story identified this genius as a diving instructor. I find that a little difficult to believe, but who knows?

[fourdeuce82d]

I would think that the problem is the volume of air in the hose. 30 feet of hose filled with carbon dioxide

no, libstripper is right- try it yourself with a five foot length of hose- can't be done.

[The Duke]

That dude was almost "hosed"! :)

[Tallguy]

I would think that the problem is the volume of air in the hose. 30 feet of hose filled with carbon dioxide would have to be forced clear of the hose so that fresh air and oxygen could go back down. The lungs can't clear the hose at that depth.

You get a cookie. Yours is the first complete explanation for the failure.

[~Peter]

I'm not sure if this guy sucks or blows ...?

Perhaps neither and this is the root of his problem.

[Focault's Pendulum]

"I've think I've got some lumber laying around unused. Maybe I'll build a catapult or something."

Let's you and I combine our spare lumber and build a trebuchet. That could wreak some pretty good havoc against brick buildings.

"So Yard..FP....do you know how to use a trebuchet."
No! But we slept at a Holiday County Jail Express last night!!"

[AnAmericanMother]

30 feet is not difficult if you are a good free diver with a well-fitting pair of fins. I have done as much as 40 feet when I was in practice - but that was in clear water and I imagine this marina was a bit on the murky side.

That said, I have retrieved stuff in murky water (eyeglasses, a watch, an engine gasket that a friend dropped while working on his engine) from anywhere between 15 and 25 feet with no problem. You swim a pattern and search by feel.

In our BSA Lifeguard course, all of us (about 12 IIRC) practiced search patterns with repeated dives in a line in a murky lake. The far end of the line was in about 25 feet of water. No snorkels or masks (you couldn't see squat anyhow in Lake Allatoona, even if you opened your eyes. Silt City.) Nobody had trouble with repeated dives to that depth.

If your Eustachian tubes work o.k. you can use a couple dive weights tied to a rope to get down in a hurry, but you hold it in your non-dominant hand and let your above-water partner retrieve it for you or buoy your line. The buoy makes a nice marker as you swim a pattern through your search area.

THIS guy was just an idiot. He's darned lucky to be alive.

[Petronski]

At least he wasn't diving to retrieve his brand new textbook on scuba diving. That would have yielded irony in lethal doses.

[JSteff]

"He should have used a wet vacuum."

Then there was the Darwin attemptee that makes for one of my favorite idiot stories.

A guy who was going to trade in a car did not want the dealer to get the almost full tank of gas. So the night before, while in his garage, he attempted to use a wet vac to get most of the gas out of his tank.

Well of course wet vac's use electricity and a spark set off the gas in his vac and his untraded trade. Being in a garage the garage also went up. So he not only lost the $10 worth of gas he didn't want the dealer to get but the car he was going to trade and a garage.

You gotta wonder what the guy was really thinking....

[AnAmericanMother]

I can top that one. < g >

Three guys were running a chop shop after hours in their employer's fleet garage. One fool cut through the gas line of a Camaro with an oxyacetylene torch. They burned up the entire fleet garage, a neighboring building, three or four trucks, the Camaro, and one of their number. The survivors went to prison for arson and involuntary manslaughter. To add insult to injury, my client (the insurance company that paid the employer's loss) then sued them for damage to the building! Were able to collect something from their homeowners liability policies, amazingly enough, despite the criminal act exclusion. We argued that running a chop shop didn't cause the fire - negligently cutting the gas line did.

[Yardstick]

LOL - sounds like a plan ;0)