Underwater gnome threat 'returns' A secret underwater attraction that lured several divers to their deaths could have returned, police say. The "gnome garden" complete with picket fence was removed from the bottom of Wastwater in the Lake District after several divers died a few years ago. It is thought they spent too much time at too great a depth while searching for the site of the ornaments. Now police divers say there is a rumour that the garden has returned at a depth beyond which they are allowed. Pc Kenny McMahon, a member of the North West Police Underwater Search Unit, said the gnomes were well known among the diving community. Dive limit He said: "Wastwater is quite clear at the bottom, but there's nothing to see. At a depth of about 48m, divers had taken gnomes down and put a picket fence around them. "But several years ago there were a number of fatalities and the Lake District National Park Authority asked us to get rid of them. "We went down there, put them in bags and removed the lot. "But now there's a rumour about a new garden beyond the 50m depth limit. "As police divers we can't legally dive any deeper so, if it exists, the new garden could have been purposefully put out of our reach." 'Extra pressure' Wastwater is three miles long, half a mile wide and about 80m deep, the deepest in the Lake District. Dave Dresser, from the Sub-Aqua Association, said different associations had different depth limits but theirs was 50m for air divers, and that was only for very experienced divers. He said technical divers, who used a mixture of gases, could go below that depth. He said: "You have got to be experienced to go below that sort of depth, especially in Wastwater. "It's a very risky thing. In Wastwater, the water is very cold, which puts a lot of extra pressure on your body. It is very clear water which gives you a false sense of security." Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/cumbria/4263761.stm
as someone who has absolutely no experience in diving, i'm going to need people to explain this to me.
I'll explain it. Scuba diving in lakes is so boring that they need to put underwater gnome cities down there to have something to look at and blow bubbles over. LOL
And then basically these idiots go down too low, with the wrong mix, and suffer from nitrogen narcosis and bite it.
I have never scuba dived in lakes before, sounds boring. I love scuba diving though. Man, almost as much as snowboarding.
I've always been afraid to scuba because I don't want to do it wrong and end up killing myself. I've heard if you don't breathe right or something it can kill you....is it really that easy to screw up?
A friend of mine bit it snowboarding a couple weeks back. By "bit it," I mean majorly. He landed wrong, tried to correct himself and push himself back up. When he did, his arms went back, and just snapped basically. He ended up with two broken wrists, an elbow that was broken in five places, a broken arm poking through the skin, shoulder injuries, and a two week (or so) stay in the hospital. He had to have major surgery on his elbow, that lasted probably 8 hours. He has to have surgery on his wrists, too. Anyways, that really sucks to do your senior year. Here's a picture of his elbow after surgery(and a skin graft, because the bone ripped off his skin when it poked through). It may be grotesque to some.
Not meaning to try and sidetrack this thread or anything, and not that anyone cares all that much, but that story is sad because this kid has gotten hurt playing football like every year. I guess one year, he broke an ankle, he's broken his leg, both ankles, arms, wrists, collar bones, just about everything. Last year in football, he broke his neck. The sad part is that he made it through this season without injury(besides an ankle sprain), and everyone was ranting and raving about it. Now, this happened.
Thanks for the clarification, now I can rest easy at night! I wonder if an underwater elf threat is around the corner, here....
Uhh... that guy needs to take up golf. I mean, I admire his spirit, but by now he should have the brains to realize that he can't keep this up - his body can't do it. Back to the scuba... I can't scuba. I have bathophobia (not kidding). -- droxford
They should have put the gnome garden in a shallower spot -- divers would have a smaller chance of dying and more people could go look.
No, nitrogen narcosis affects you once you get around 30 meters deep and it affects people differently but generally causes you to act loopy. Simply ascending will cause the effect to go away and once it has you can descend again. The bends is caused from ascending too fast and not giving your body time to remove the excess nitrogen from your system. The only thing you can do if you get the bends is go into a pressurized chamber and let it depresurize over a few hours. Wiki articles about them: Nitrogen narcosis The Bends
Diving is relatively safe. Breathing is not the concern, it's actually when you hold your breath underwater that you die (air expansion (due to decreasing pressure) blows your lungs out as you surface. So you must exhale (breath normally) as you surface. Also, as was said, if you surface too quickly nitrogen (dissolved in blood) undissolves and gets stuck in your blood vessels. So you must surface slowly. Again, that is an effect of decreasing pressure on the gasses in your blood. It's not hard to learn how to dive. And it is a lot of fun. Expensive. But great fun. Houston has Hammerhead sharks and Manta at your dive sites. At least that's what they say. I hope to one day dive down there. My only harrowing experience, I got stuck trying to exit a cavern in cayman. I couldn't get out the damn hole! I was stuck in the exit for 5 minutes. My buddy got me out. And he said my air hose was caught on the coral. Phew! I have a life debt to my buddy.
