The day I lost a $1200 Kirby Morgan regulator on a 90-foot wreck dive

Had a bad week back in April off the coast of Ventura. We were pulling salvage off a sunken fishing boat, and on Tuesday my primary reg just slipped out of my hand during a gear swap at 70 feet. Watched it sink into the silt and couldn't find it in the 3-foot visibility. Total loss. Then on Thursday, my buddy Dave found a whole tool bag wedged under a pipe, still zipped up with wrenches inside. Same week, one day felt like a disaster and the next felt like a win. Has anyone else had a week that swung that hard between a huge screwup and a lucky find?

3 comments

3 Comments

sethhernandez23d ago

You ever clip your reg to your harness with a bolt snap? I started doing that after I dropped my backup once, saved me a ton of headache. Sucks about the loss though, that's a pricey lesson.

robertb4723d ago

Dang, the ocean giveth and the ocean taketh away I guess. Sounds like you paid the tax on that tool bag with your regulator. At least Dave's find probably covered a fraction of your loss, silver linings and all. I swear the sea floor is just one big yard sale where you have to earn your finds by losing something first.

averymartin22d ago

Not sure I buy the whole "earn your finds by losing something" angle. Dropping gear isn't some karmic fee for finding stuff, it's just bad luck or carelessness. The ocean doesn't keep a ledger of who owes what. Robert found that tool bag because someone else was probably having a rough day, not because he paid some invisible tax with his own losses. The sea floor is more of a lost and found than a yard sale, and sometimes you're just the one cleaning up someone else's mess.