Firediving: extreme sport stupidity

[CptStern]

What is firediving:

"Fire diving is when ateam of Scuba or Skin Divers compete with another team on how many divers they can have scooped up by either a helicopterbucket or the scoop of a water dropping airplane. The divers generally wear camouflaged NOMEX wet suits and wait just under the water for the approaching aircraft. As the plane is scooping or the helicopter is dipping we swim as fast as we can to get in the path of the aircraft in order to be scooped up.
The pilots don't like scooping up divers, so they try to avoid it."

Fire Diving Accidents:

A" puzzling discovery was found in the mountains of southern California. Fire authorities found a corpse in a burnt out section of forest while assessing the damage done by a forest fire. The deceased male was found in the top of a tree, dressed in a full wetsuit, complete with tank, fins, mask and snorkel"


I really hoped this was just a fake website but the more I read, the more I'm convinced there's an abundance of people stupid enough to do this "sport"

"official" firediving site

 

[Foxtrot]

It has to be fake...wtf is the point? If they get scooped up aren't they just going to die?
Many of the BCD manufactures have parachute options. The Zeagle BCD's and the Seaquest Quickdraw both have an optional left hand rip cord release for the parachute option (the right hand ripcord is for the weights). Many Fire Divers use a horse collar style BCD so they can have the space in back for a parachute. The current trend for many Fire Divers is to quickly fasten a bungie cord to the aircraft and make a round trip. This is considered cheating in many leagues because some divers try to count this as a second scoop. Veteran Fire Divers simply inflate their BCD's on the way down to fall slower than the water and then land in the water from the scoop, proper weighting is VERY important in Fire Diving.

While some Fire Divers prefer to use dive skins or 3mm suits for streamlining themselves, most of the newer fire divers are now using NOMEX wetsuits , diveskins and even the occasional drysuit. The advantage of drysuits is that the suit can be inflated on the way down softer landings.

Well...guess that answered my question...but still wouldn't they be jumping into the middle of a forest fire? Oh well natural selection I guess.

 

[CptStern]

and to think some people set themselves on fire as a way of expressing civil disobedience ...how dare these "athletes" mock their method of protesting?

 

[Direwolf]

The ol' Scuba Diver dropped on a fire thing is an old urban legend. Its been tested any number of times, and is always immedietly debunked. The biggest problem with it is all models of firefighting planes and helicopters have mesh covers preventing "debris" from coming in.

 

[CptStern]

there seems to be an abundance of websites dedicated to the sport ..still fiction is better than reality ...culling the herd is a good idea IMHO

 

[Direwolf]

Its a favorite of any urban legend database. Give it a look-up.

 

[CptStern]

ya I cross referenced it at Snopes ...still, I think it's a good idea

 

[Foxtrot]

So..anyone up for some firediving next forest fire?

 

[Andy]

We don't get forest fires over here..

damn

 

[CrazyHarij]

Haha, the craziness is out there.

 

[LittleB]

That's not real. Look at what Direwolf said about mesh covers. But well thought out, nonethelesss

 

[CptStern]

ya at this point no one thinks it's real ...although it is funny, in a demented sort of way

 

[Steelwind]

They even made a CSI episode about this. Some diver was found in a tree with all his gear. The speculated that he was "firediving" and was scooped up by one of the buckets. Turns out that wasn't the case at all. Good episode though.

 

[h00dlum]

thats crazy...how can someone even do this by free will?!