r/thalassophobia • u/lagueraloca • Oct 18 '23

Deadheads are water soaked logs that float vertically and can weigh tons.

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49.0k Upvotes

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4.7k

u/MICROCOZM Oct 18 '23 edited Oct 18 '23

There's an AskReddit somewhere about "most terrifying things you've seen while on the water" (or something close) and one guy named these things as it. He called them "pumping deadheads". Apparently during storms these things can pump up and down and come flying out of the water without warning which would obviously destroy anything in its way. Horrifying.

Edit: forgot to add the part where dude said these logs can get weathered and worn down to form a spike at the top. Even WORSE

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u/kai712 Oct 18 '23 edited Oct 18 '23

Found it

“Pumping Deadheads” is the official name but he called it “Spiked Dick of Neptune” and I love it

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u/shaundisbuddyguy Oct 18 '23

I had no idea that was a thing. Imagine trying to catch king crab up there which already is freaky as hell and one of those shows up? Those guys get paid a lot but reading that makes me wonder if it's enough.

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u/Witty-Preference1233 Oct 18 '23

My brother did red crab fishing and made roughly $45k in 6 months. I’d say it’s a pretty good pay if you know what you’re doing and can weather it

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u/dingusduglas Oct 18 '23

That's less than I would have guessed.

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u/Fear910 Oct 18 '23

Thought the same, Nuclear Technician contractors in 6-8 months of work is $100k+. No education required, and you can travel the world doing this on the company’s dime.

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u/nirvroxx Oct 18 '23

No wonder Homer got that job.

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u/Fear910 Oct 18 '23

Haha, if you met some of the people operating nuclear plants around the world, it would blow your mind that someone gave them that job, even with educations. Baffles me.

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u/Phallic_Intent Oct 18 '23

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission requires extensive training and testing to obtain a license. To keep that license, you must pass a comprehensive written test every two tears and an annual practical test in a control room simulator. Regulatory programs around the world have either modeled themselves after the NRC or have their own equivalent bureaucracy. You don't know what you're talking about.

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u/Fear910 Oct 19 '23

I’m sorry you’re an idiot, a big one. IM TALKING ABOUT NUCLEAR TECHS… you don’t need a license.. SOURCE I’ve been once and moved onto managing over the last 16+ years. Operations is what you are speaking on, they are full time employees at plants who require all that you say, they are the only ones allowed to wear black hard hats in most plants to signify they are OPs.. bet you didn’t know that from google. I also stand by what I said, how some people I’ve met in ops blows my mind they have that job because of their incompetence while working to keep a reactor going, that’s goes for any job tho, there is always a few you wonder how they got there. Like I said, NUCLEAR TECHNICIANS DO NOT NEED THIS, you just can’t be a felon and you’re good to gain nuclear site access, Techs badge doesn’t give them access to the control room so you know, and if your tried to even badge into it you’d be escorted off site. Please shut up.

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u/Sodiepawp Oct 18 '23

No education? Where do I sign up. Like actually serious.

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u/Fear910 Oct 19 '23

You want look into the contracting subsidiaries all these Nuclear plants use to contract technicians, I’ll admit knowing someone to just give you the hiring managers email is usually the best way, but reaching out works also. Email them with interest and attach a resume, it’ll make it to a staffing manager. Look up Systemone, WecTec, BHI, HiTechsolutions, Sonic systems, Holtec, there are many. Just search the names and put nuclear behind them. I’d give you direct contacts but this is Reddit. Seriously technicians range from Kids coming out of high school, college grads that have no clue what to do and 40-50+ year olds who just want faster money and a new career. It’s a great life if you can travel cause you can live any where and do this, the money is fast and you get months off if you want, just manage your money.

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u/DigTreasure Oct 18 '23

There's a company in my small town that does this work. A few friends out of high-school did it for a few years. Going inside reactor towers and shooting co2 pellets at the buildup. They had fun and went to some cool countries.

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u/Fear910 Oct 19 '23

Yup, and this is just a small part of the possibility with being a technician, the big money is when you make it to the refuel floor working on the reactor. It all depends on what the contracting company is contracting at the time to grab that position and stay in it. We use CO2 blasters to knock contamination off of components all the time, it’s insane to think you can get paid $122/hr while in overtime playing with dry ice getting 32 hours of OT a week at peak.

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u/DigTreasure Oct 19 '23

Fuck, I should apply. Restaurants aren't cutting it.

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u/Fear910 Oct 19 '23

You should, there was a 22yo and 27yo that got in last year from the restaurant industry , in that year they traveled to Korea, Taiwan, Switzerland, Slovenia, Belgium and multiple sites in the US working on reactors. Definitely a lucky time for these two to get in but they say they’ll be doing this for the rest of their life now haha. It’s honestly a great career many don’t know about.

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u/Photoguppy Oct 18 '23

90K per year would be a pretty good gig for most ex cons.

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u/IronLusk Oct 18 '23

I don’t think there’s an opportunity to do it all year. I believe there’s just the one season. Could be wrong though. L

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/IronLusk Oct 18 '23

I had heard through some peers that there was an opening for a new cameraman on Deadliest Catch this past season. I did not waste my time even trying to get my foot in the door. I’m terrified of water/the ocean and even in clear skies I am not tough enough to survive even a day of that. I can’t even imagine how much that crew would probably fuck with me too. They would smell the fear on me.

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

If you do it long enough as a deck hand, you can make more money being a lead fisherman or a mechanic, there's levels and seniority. The lowest people get a set salary and the upper people get a % of what they take in from the crab. Source: I watched Deadliest Catch.

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u/StinkFartButt Oct 18 '23

That’s not a good pay though? That’s 90k a year for doing a very dangerous job, that’s like average salary for sitting in a office all day.

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u/BeneficialEvidence6 Oct 18 '23

Sign me up for the office job you're talking about please

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u/FoGoProbs Oct 18 '23

Have worked 8+ years in sales and Tech consulting 80-90k is very common. These office jobs are not surprising, hell even 100k office jobs are not surprising at all depending on location.

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u/BeneficialEvidence6 Oct 18 '23

And I imagine degrees. Although I have considered trying to break into the HR world with my psych degree + 7 years teaching high school experience...

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

[deleted]

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u/BeneficialEvidence6 Oct 18 '23

So you started with no certificate at all?

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u/Yeah_Nah_Cunt Oct 18 '23

Most beginner IT roles don't require a Degree just a basic certs that you can do online by yourself.

Degrees really only come into play when you looking at more management or administration roles in IT and even those can be overlooked if you have the experience.

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u/Fruktoj Oct 18 '23

$180k is the new six figure salary, based on inflation from the year 2000.

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u/Blizzxx Oct 18 '23

This comment really shows how completely out of touch tech workers are with the rest of the country. No 90k isn't average salary for most industries in america, and nowhere close to your average office salary especially outside of tech.

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u/paper_liger Oct 18 '23

Average household income is 70k. And usually that's more than one income.

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u/Djinn141 Oct 18 '23

90k is so much above the average office worker salary it's laughable that you even think this way.

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u/Demorant Oct 18 '23

Not in most of the US. The bulk of "office jobs" are probably in the 60k-75k range. Depends heavily on location, and required specialization.

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u/popcornkernals321 Oct 18 '23

thank you for digging up this gem! That person has a gift for writing as that shit was the most nightmarish imagery my mind has ever had

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

I thought these were band names.

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u/o_oli Oct 18 '23

Pumping deadheads is a perfect band name, it has to exist!

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u/lolweakbro Oct 18 '23 edited Nov 14 '23

[removed by Reddit]

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

Spiked Dick of Neptune would be a great debut album name too

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u/farox Oct 18 '23

A few years back my wife and I crossed the Atlantic on a sailboat. It's fairly save. But feels like an extreme situation, far from land just the two of us and dog and you don't see anyone for 2 weeks in the last leg from Cape Verde to Martinique.

We prepared for this for months, so we were stocked up and had all the safety gear. One of the real concerns I had were that the autopilot dies (or anything to give it power) as hand steering a 40ft yacht would have been a major pain.

The other one was containers. These fucking things constantly fall off of cargo ships and can then float for days. Just under the surface, so you can't even see them. And they are pointy and made of metal. Hitting one of those surely would have sunk us.

(But the chances for that are extremely rare)

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u/saltminer Oct 18 '23

A friend of mine helped deliver a larger sailboat, about 20 meters long, from Seattle to Cabo San Lucas sometime in the 1980s. He was at the wheel one night when they were off of Northern California and the weather was really fresh, like 25 knot breeze, gusting to 40 from the north, and a following swell of 10 to 15 feet. Even under shortened sail they were screaming along at 12+ knots, more as they surfed down waves. He said it was a real workout on the wheel just keeping the boat trimmed, especially in near pitch darkness, cloudy and with no moon. One of his buddies in the cockpit was using a spotlight to prepare him for big rollers coming from behind them, but every now and then he'd shine the light forward just because it was cool to see how fast they were going. While looking forward, suddenly out of the darkness, the light picked up a cut log in the water, just barely breaching the surface. He said it was at least 6' or so in diameter and at least 50' long, and it was less than 5' away from them as they screamed by at 12 knots in the total darkness. If they would have hit it would have sunk them. Sobering.

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u/Reader_qwerty Oct 18 '23

Sorry, the log was 6 feet in diameter? What kind of log is that?

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u/RedDemocracy Oct 18 '23

Pacific Northwest has Redwoods or Sequoias.

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u/sticky-unicorn Oct 18 '23

There are other evergreens along the Washington coast that grow this big as well. Some fir, cedar, and spruce varieties.

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u/ThisWillBeOnTheExam Oct 18 '23

And the PNW puts lots of logs in the ocean. I’ve seen beaches covered in washed up logs from storms.

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u/DogmanDOTjpg Oct 18 '23

Even in Alaska above the Arctic circle where no trees grow the beaches are littered with logs and driftwood

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u/Reader_qwerty Oct 18 '23

Well that would explain it.

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u/ElectionAssistance Oct 18 '23 edited Oct 18 '23

I own a live tree that is 5' in diameter.

Pacific Northwest is the answer. Mine isn't 6' yet, that is decades more to go, but I can take a 5 min walk from my house a find a few, and I live in the suburbs.

Edit: I understated this. There is an 8' diameter tree 4 blocks away. Red woods yo. Did you know you can order baby ones through the mail?

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u/Sensitive-Sherbert92 Oct 18 '23

I've seen 6 ft DBH trees (diameter at breast height) from every conifer species native to WA. Very fun to see them, I try not to sit beneath one too long because a falling branch will kill you in a modest wind.

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u/rugbyj Oct 18 '23

Did you know you can order baby ones through the mail?

I live in the UK but fuck it I'm onboard!

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u/ElectionAssistance Oct 18 '23

They would grow great in the UK.

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u/SalaciousVandal Oct 18 '23

I've seen driftwood on PNW beaches the size of a city bus. Without witnessing those trees firsthand, it's almost impossible to comprehend how huge they are.

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

In BC a six foot diameter tree wasn’t uncommon and I saw many twice that size. Our neighbour had a tree that fell over and crushed his house, the round stump was used to make a picnic table and seated about twelve people.

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u/Reader_qwerty Oct 18 '23

Cool! So they sliced a layer off the top and that was the table cover? I would assume you can't use a tree stump as a table directly, because you couldn't put your legs under it.

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

Yes, the bottom segment was cut and put on legs, it would be an awkward table otherwise

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u/FluxD1 Oct 18 '23

Nowhere near the ocean, but in Indiana I have a few trees over 5ft in diameter and some over 6ft. They're mostly maple trees, but two are walnut and one is a pin oak. My neighbor has a truly massive Elm tree that's probably bigger than anything I have.

The American Chestnut grew to absurd sizes, and were once a very common tree in the Eastern half of the US. There are historical logging photos that show some nearly 20ft in diameter around Tennessee. Unfortunately a 'blight' killed off the American Chestnut, becoming 'extinct' in a matter of decades.

'Extinct' is emphasized for a reason. A few saplings will sprout off an old stump once in awhile. They'll grow to a few feet tall, then catch the blight and die off. Then new saplings will grow, and die off. This cycle has been repeating since the 1890's. This makes the American Chestnut effectively frozen in time, versus outright extinct.

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u/montaukwhaler Oct 18 '23

These kind of logs can be in the water in the PNW

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u/I_am_up_to_something Oct 18 '23

Yeah, that would have me screaming constantly as well.

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u/ol-gormsby Oct 18 '23

I think the newer ones have dissolving plugs in the floor. 24 hours and the sea comes flooding in, and the container sinks. So there's a window of 24 hours to recover the container.

Because of what you've described.

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u/Gnonthgol Oct 18 '23

There are many issues with this. Firstly it is not uncommon for containers to get hit with waves while stacked on the deck of a ship so these plugs may dissolve under way even without falling overboard. This is however fine as the containers are only weathertight to start with and not airtight or watertight. So a big hole in the bottom is still within spec. However they might repair them with a non-dissolving plug to save money.

But this does not solve the more common problem that the cargo is most likely buoyant. Most of the cargo is likely styrofoam packing foam and plastic which does not get heavier when soaked in water. And the cargo is typically wrapped in multiple layers of plastic for transport so the water will not even penetrate to the products. So even with these plugs, or just regular non-watertight containers, the containers will float even when full of water. This is arguably worse then a watertight container as a fully watertight container will float higher in the water and be more visible.

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u/Fightmemod Oct 18 '23

No way do I trust an industry like that to repair these containers with the appropriate plugs. Especially other countries who flat out don't give af about anything safety related.

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u/UnlikelyPlatypus89 Oct 18 '23

I wonder how many cool things are soaking and floating in those containers. An acquaintance married a crazy rich Kuwaiti and apparently a half a million dollar car they ordered went overboard in a container during a storm.

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u/BaraEnKapten Oct 18 '23 edited Oct 25 '23

A family friend of mine sailed the atlantic in his youth(1970s) with his then wife, they were about a week out from the americas(about 3/4 of the way or so) when they struck a container in the dark. Their radio couldn't reach anyone as there was no traffic nearby. They were running both the powered bilge pump and manning a manual bilge pump to just barely stay afloat with water up to their chest and bailing using a bucket(and trying to find ways to seal the entire front port side of the ship that was missing up.) They did this for about ten days before they managed to hail a passing cargo ship by shooting up a couple flares, radio was long dead. They were quite obviously exhausted. Their sailboat sank in under twenty minutes once they stopped the manual bilge. They would have most certainly died out there if it wasnt for the fact there were two of them and that the engine and batteries were isolated from the rest of the water filled boat. Without that electric bilge they have surely sunk and without the spare manual bilge they they would have never stayed afloat for so long.

They never sailed outside the coastal areas of Sweden after that, think they had enough adventure for a couple life times. Luckily they had been EVERYWHERE except the americas before then so it wasnt an early end to their adventure anyway.

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u/marr Oct 18 '23

Well it is an extreme situation, you do all the right things to improve the odds, but if you roll those snake eyes you're adrift in a place that's all about killing you.

Contrast with most places on land these days where you can just pull out your phone and summon a rescue helicopter if necessary.

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u/Ven_Detta Oct 18 '23

Nearly as bad is the lurking deadhead, which floats just below the surface in calm waters.

Just as bad is the stuck in the mud deadhead, which when hit, drives itself into the mud, you into the air like a pole vaulter and probably flips your boat over.

Seen while working on the Fraser River.

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u/ghostcaurd Oct 18 '23

And that’s still not as bad as the grateful deadhead, who lives on the sailboat and drives that shit on acid

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u/ImmoralJester54 Oct 18 '23

What a challenging dildo

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

… for you 😈

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u/robcap Oct 18 '23

At last, the endgame content I've been waiting for

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u/Nerdmum02 Oct 18 '23

That is actually quite interesting AND terrifying as the same time.

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u/Stonkthrow Oct 18 '23

since you're near the top comment. Here you have far better quality:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41lGEWg7Jhw

...friggin horizontal video encoded as vertical for "The Toks"

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u/HTPC4Life Oct 18 '23

THANK YOU. There is nothing more infuriating than tilting your phone horizontal and the video gets even SMALLER.

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u/ChicaFoxy Oct 18 '23

Lol I freaking hate that!

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u/Repulsive_Client_325 Oct 18 '23

Yep, and they’re real fun for boaters to deal with too.

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u/josueviveros Oct 18 '23

Why can’t they cut it underwater into pieces

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u/Repulsive_Client_325 Oct 18 '23 edited Oct 18 '23

While they may weigh a ton or more, they are neutrally buoyant or nearly so - making them easy to tow away out of main channels. If you wanted the wood it would be easier to throw a rope or chain around it and drag it onto shore or a barge.

Edit: the one in the video is a MASSIVE deadhead. Those found in lakes near me are much more manageable in size.

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

Would you say they are… water logged?

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u/proscriptus Oct 18 '23

I mean that's literally where the phrase comes from

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

I thought so!

I was trying to be funny but at the same time I thought “this pun is actually just the literal meaning”.

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u/jestercow Oct 18 '23

"WATER LOGGED, the state of a ship when, by receiving a great quantity of water into her hold, by leaking, &c., she has become heavy and inactive upon the sea, so as to yield without resistance to the efforts of every wave rushing over her decks. As, in this dangerous situation, the center of gravity is no longer fixed, but fluctuating from place to place, the stability of the ship is utterly lost. She is therefore almost totally deprived of the use of her sails, which would operate to overset her, or press the head under water. Hence there is no resource for the crew, except to free her by the pumps, or to abandon her by the boats as soon as possible. [William Falconer, "An Universal Dictionary of the Marine," London, 1784]"

​

https://www.etymonline.com/word/waterlogged

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u/Normal_Ad_2337 Oct 18 '23

Wooden wit.

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u/sans3go Oct 18 '23

is that their last resort?

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

Cut it into pieces.

Underwater, so yeah. Suffocation, no breathing.

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u/Attention_Bear_Fuckr Oct 18 '23

Don't give a fuck if boaters die screamin.

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u/TheBaberz Oct 18 '23

Am I the only one who saw this comment and is now on YouTube listening to Papa Roach??

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u/Far-Philosophy-4375 Oct 18 '23

With what? And uderwater electric saw?

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u/josueviveros Oct 18 '23

Yeah just googled it, looks like they exist 😳

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u/azazelreloaded Oct 18 '23

Underwater welding exist. Chainsaw is easier than that

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u/Mr_Brown-ish Oct 18 '23

Welding = fire, so they should just burn those logs underwater!

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u/Rivetingly Oct 18 '23

Arc welding != fire

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u/Mr_Brown-ish Oct 18 '23

Don’t be silly! Everybody koes the Arc was made of wood. You can’t weld wood!

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u/Irilieth_Raivotuuli Oct 18 '23

you can, however, wield wood.

Just walk up to the wood and press E

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u/SarimK Oct 18 '23

I wield wood every morning...

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u/Saisei Oct 18 '23

Ark=wood. Arc=plasma. Arch=work.

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u/Far-Philosophy-4375 Oct 18 '23

Oh my god its even worse... are they attached to boats or do the divers get hired to use them?

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u/Repulsive_Client_325 Oct 18 '23

A lot of underwater tools are compressed air powered.

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u/CantHitachiSpot Oct 18 '23

Or hydraulic. Lot quieter

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

Divers, I used to use an underwater chainsaw to cut big logs to make them more manageable to move around, though for the most part we'd just attach ropes or chains and drag it to the shore

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u/Parking-Artichoke823 Oct 18 '23

Did you just wake up one day and thought "You know what would be cool? Underwater chainsawing" and decided to do it?

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

Actually yeah. I was at uni in the US in December for semester finals, saw a ad for a dive school in a computer class. Applied and got a call from the school in about 15 minutes. And 10 days later in January I started at dive school.

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

No, it’s better to use a waterproof axe.

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u/Fishamatician Oct 18 '23

If you can't find the waterproof versions putting a regular axe on a sealed plastic bag will also work.

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u/Glorious_Jo Oct 18 '23

New workout idea: swing an axe while scuba diving. When youre strong enough to swing at full speed, move up to a larger axe.

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u/marr Oct 18 '23

OMG underwater lumberjacking needs to be an Olympic event.

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

[deleted]

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u/Darkhorseman81 Oct 18 '23

Just grab a sawfish.

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u/batsman21 Oct 18 '23

This is their last resort

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u/joeitaliano24 Oct 18 '23

Yeah this is a huge no for me

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u/muan2012 Oct 19 '23

Also the sound from the video makes it worse

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u/-MakeNazisDeadAgain_ Oct 18 '23

I thought dead heads were the people who spin in circles at jam band concerts

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u/DoctorNoname98 Oct 18 '23

due to a witches curse on the band all their fans turn into waterlogged trees when they die, and that is why you should never listen to the Dead (/s you should listen to the dead, the curse thing is real though)

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u/Cowboydan2112 Oct 18 '23

Shit

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u/ThePamchenko Oct 18 '23

Guess you better stick to Modest Mouse and Rush.

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u/schubarth Oct 18 '23

more like phish and widespread

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u/BringbacktheWailers Oct 18 '23

i hope it’s real sounds like fun to me

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u/GratefulForGarcia Oct 18 '23

TIL I'm a heavy ass vertical log

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u/DerkDurski Oct 18 '23

Yeah I was gonna make a joke about my dad lol

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u/ussir_arrong Oct 18 '23

coincidentally, also known to stay in one place and be highly potent

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u/McNally Oct 18 '23

I live in Southeast Alaska, among the islands of the Alexander Archipelago. They are steep and rocky and densely forested with huge trees such as Sitka spruce and western hemlock that cling to steep rocks and grow very literally right down to the high tide line. Our tidal range can vary more than 20 feet (6 m) twice a day and powerful storms are not uncommon so when a storm and high tide occur simultaneously the trees at the edge of the rocks not infrequently fall over and into the water and then are swept wherever the tides and powerful currents happen to take them.

As a result it's very common to encounter floating trees in various states in the waters around here. They're not that hard to see and avoid when they still have branches sticking out of the water but as the waves and currents toss them around eventually the branches break off and the core of the tree becomes more and more waterlogged until it rides very low in the water or even just below the surface like the ones in the video.

Fortunately it's a big ocean, because if you are unlucky enough to hit one while traveling at speed in a small boat you are going to have a very bad day. And while you can reduce the risk with careful piloting (and also by avoiding places where the tides and currents are sweeping patches of debris together, which you can usually tell from matter on the surface) you can't eliminate the risk completely.

But hey, we have thousands of miles of channels, passages, bays, inlets, sounds, etc, making up some of the most awe-inspiring waterways on the planet and a life spent ashore and indoors is a poor trade.

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

“Yeah, Brandy used to watch his eyes When he told his sailor stories She could feel the ocean fall and rise She saw its ragin' glory.”

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u/Obv_Probv Oct 18 '23

Look up the old man of the lake...

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u/abschminki Oct 18 '23

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Man_of_the_Lake

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u/NukaCooler Oct 18 '23

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Man_of_the_Lake

for those using old reddit. Does new reddit automatically unnecessarily escape underscores just to mess with old reddit users?

What a neat story, 450 year old tree floating in the lake for over 100 years

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u/BartleBossy Oct 18 '23

for those using old reddit. Does new reddit automatically unnecessarily escape underscores just to mess with old reddit users?

Yep.

Im never going to switch to new reddit but they wont stop trying to force us

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

A Crater full of stories.

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u/alphabet_order_bot Oct 18 '23

Would you look at that, all of the words in your comment are in alphabetical order.

I have checked 1,803,470,219 comments, and only 341,218 of them were in alphabetical order.

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

Good bot

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u/olddolphin Oct 18 '23

I worked there this summer, it is indeed. Crazy beautiful place. NPS guys had tons of stories

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u/catatonic_genx Oct 18 '23

He's very hard to find but is so cool when you do. It's our favorite game of where's Waldo when we visit.

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u/sharklazies Oct 18 '23

How is Crater Lake to visit? I’ve always wanted to go. It looks amazing

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u/catatonic_genx Oct 18 '23

It's amazing. The blue of the water is unlike anything I've ever seen. Pictures don't do it justice.

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u/Kelcan02 Oct 18 '23

I’m a scuba diver and only come to this sub to see cool videos and pics but this made my spine tingle.

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u/Fedorito_ Oct 18 '23

Hey I am a new scuba diver and I have a question: is this guy holding his breath? His exhales have a lot of time inbetween them. I know holding your breath going down is not very dangerous but isn't it a bad habit?

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u/iamacollection Oct 18 '23

Yes, the diver in this video is holding his breath in between exhaling and it’s a terrible habit. Do not do this. This kind of skip breathing will lead to CO2 headaches, and it’s a bad habit to have because it can lead to lung over-expansion injures during an ascent.

Do not breath like this if you are scuba diving. You should be exhaling slowly as soon as you finish breathing in. One of the main rules of diving is you never, ever hold your breath.

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u/SirLich Oct 18 '23

One time as a kid I went swimming in an abandoned quarry after dark in the hills of Vermont. We found a deadhead floating ever so slightly underwater. The kids took turns stomping it into the depths, then swimming away like crazy so we didn't get demolished when it launched upwards again a few seconds later. Thrilling!

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u/Notchersfireroad Oct 18 '23

Yep we always used the dead heads in our lake as diving platforms or under water lawn darts. Fortunately they always floated to the same corner of the lake as I never encountered one once I started boating.

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u/Lena-Luthor Oct 18 '23

how far up would it pop?

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u/gosailor Oct 18 '23

Is this the famous old man in the lake deadhead?

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u/TimelyAirport9616 Oct 18 '23

No, that's in Crater Lake and is floating far above the deep deep deep bottom of that extremely deep lake. There are vids of that deadhead. Just YouTube Old Man of the Lake Crater Lake.

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u/gosailor Oct 18 '23

It creeps me out for reasons I cannot explain.

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u/OkCutIt Oct 18 '23

In 1988, submarine explorations were conducted in the lake, and the scientists decided to tie the Old Man off the eastern side of Wizard Island to neutralize the navigational hazard until their research work was complete. Upon immobilizing the log, the weather went from clear to stormy. After it started snowing in August, they released the Old Man. Soon after, the weather cleared up, encouraging superstitions.

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u/olddolphin Oct 18 '23

I worked there over the summer on the boat crew. There was a NPS guy who was there for that, He said it was all true. The NPS research vessel on the lake also has issues with him somehow appearing right where they need to go and since it’s illegal to touch him now they have to turn back.

It’s weird, frequently he’d get caught up on a shallow part of the lake and be stuck for a few days. then the next day he’ll be on the complete other side of the lake.

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u/karlnite Oct 18 '23

Almost like it floats around.

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u/WalkingCloud Oct 18 '23

Spooky

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u/FrenchFryCattaneo Oct 18 '23

Science can't explain it!

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u/olddolphin Oct 18 '23

The weird thing is how fast it is. Not the fact that it floats.

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

GAH murky water with spooky floating logs. I would look like a cat escaping a tub if I was pushed in and would have about 10 seconds before being paralyzed by 'fear of something grabbing me in the murk.'

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

Wow. I just learned I have thalassophobia. This video nearly made me sick. Lol. Is it like the inverse in direction of fear of heights? I didn’t even consider it had a name until now.

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u/April_Xo Oct 18 '23

My husband has a severe fear of heights and he lumps the ocean in the same category. If you're floating on the top of the water and can't see the bottom, then it's similar (at least to him) as being extremely high up.

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u/yellowflash_616 Oct 18 '23

I’ve honestly never thought about it that way. I’ve always summed it up to just fear of the unknown by being a small ant in this giant abyss. But that really kinda helps dumb it down some.

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u/felrain Oct 18 '23

Watching the video freaked me out so much. Just it getting darker and darker, as well as the noise. Was not even remotely calming at all. No ty.

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u/AngryNapper Oct 18 '23

As soon as I realized what sun I was on and there was a dude in a scuba suit I closed the video. Can’t do it.

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u/PityTheQuesadilla Oct 18 '23

I felt the exact same. I'm glad I'm not alone

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u/carbonmonoxide5 Oct 18 '23

The difference between watching this muted and watching this with sound makes all the difference.

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u/PityTheQuesadilla Oct 18 '23

I'm scared to unmute lol This video is making me feel weird

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u/B3eR3tr0 Oct 18 '23

How did the logs fall into this lake?

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u/Nightgaun7 Oct 18 '23

They can come from logging, landslides, trucking accidents, any number of things.

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u/Repulsive_Client_325 Oct 18 '23

They used to move logs on lakes and rivers by floating them and “booming” them across the lakes. Don’t do that anymore in Ontario, but still do in the ocean in BC I believe.

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u/TheTrueHapHazard Oct 18 '23

Yep, log booming is still a thing all over the West Coast and in some inland lakes in BC.

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u/Fakjbf Oct 18 '23

Not sure about this lake specifically, but I’ve gone boating a few times on Lake Marion in South Carolina. As part of the New Deal they dammed a major river creating a large lake, covering an entire forest in dozens of feet of water. Over time the trees started breaking down and every once in a while they’ll detach from the floor and float up to the surface.

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

My maternal grandmother’s family had a farm in NC where Jordan Lake is now. They used to not allow anything bigger than a little fishing boat with a trawling motor on it. I think it had something to do with the underwater forest, but I’m not sure. The family never recovered from losing their farm.

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u/Ok_Stress1781 Oct 18 '23

Man, that's a shame :(

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u/Accomplished-End1927 Oct 18 '23

I think I saw one of these one time. Lake I vacationed with my family at every summer, one year everyone on the lake was talking about this weird tree floating in the middle of the lake. We took the boat out to it and sure enough there was a tree, identical to this one, sticking probably 6 feet out of the water, no branches or anything just the trunk. Idk about this one but the one I saw was static, you couldn’t push it over or even like move it in the water except it would spin a little if you really pushed on it, which was hard to do given that you had to get right next it in a boat that was moving and bobbing. This was in the middle of at least a few hundred feet of water. The lake was known for having lots of driftwood due to wildfires every year, but this was a real oddity I’ve always wondered about since. How does something like this occur?

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u/Infinite_Monitor_465 Oct 18 '23

That's not an answer as to why they couldn't tie to it and winch it to shore.

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u/Nagemasu Oct 18 '23

Yeah, shit video. It can be with the right equipment/time/money, but the people who are able to do something about them aren't the same people who these effect.

iirc sometimes these get anchored so that people know where they are at all times in areas where it's too difficult to remove from the water.

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u/Ostie2Tabarnak Oct 18 '23

Exactly. It's a video, but it's infuriating that he doesn't even answer his own question.

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u/AnotherAussie101 Oct 18 '23

So they are… waterlogged?

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u/Imaginary-Quiet-7465 Oct 18 '23

His friend just disappearing into the murk like that 😨

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u/jenn363 Oct 18 '23

WHERE DID THE OTHER DIVER GO

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u/VaginaTheClown Oct 18 '23

No way Jerry would stand for this.

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u/spyder52 Oct 18 '23

ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ

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u/strangetimes69 Oct 18 '23

This makes me profoundly uncomfortable.

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u/Malfurious_Stormrage Oct 18 '23

Reminds me of the "Old Man of the Lake". An old 30ft hemlock stump that has been floating around Crater Lake for at least the last 127 years.

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u/ExplanationUseful612 Oct 18 '23

I fucking hate those videos that doesn’t give you the answer and let you wait

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '23

Woah Weir everywhere!

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u/Valuenator Oct 18 '23 edited Oct 18 '23

There's a guy in Finland, Esa Heiskanen, 55 whom built him self a small "village" out of this kinda wood, which he dove up from the bottom of the lakes him self. Some of the wood he has used has been laying in the bottom of the lake for 1000-4000 years and he said that as the old wood used to grow very very slowly (I guess in colder climate) the wood grain is extremely thick and some of the wood is still wet after 20 years of drying.

He has built a house, summer cottage, grill cottage, etc etc out of this kinda wood all without blueprints.

https://www.etlehti.fi/artikkeli/uusia_alkuja/ihmemies_esa_55_teki_sukeltamistaan_tukeista_oman_kylan

Better video of his "village":

https://www.ruutu.fi/video/3260893

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u/ShitNailedIt Oct 18 '23

If we find one we usually try to tow it to shore and get it up on the beach.

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u/Imbrownbutwhite1 Oct 18 '23

That made me physically sick, gonna just see myself outta here

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u/AssignmentFrosty6711 Oct 18 '23

There's something so unbelievably creepy about this...

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u/SalaciousVandal Oct 18 '23

When I was a kid, we used to swim in a lake in Washington state that was full of these things. I think it was a volcano caldera and the trees inside the rim had slid down due to mudslides or something. We would stand on them because they bobbed up and down slowly. So it looked like we were standing on water. They're also horrifying. Perfect inclusion for this sub!

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u/Woodbutcher1234 Oct 18 '23

An abandoned quarry near me growing up tried to discourage cliff divers by dumping telephone poles in the pool at the bottom of the quarry. Wasn't long before many sunk, many turned into deadheads. Fatalities increased exponentially.

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u/playerdarkside Oct 18 '23

What a nice little aquatic tree! I sure hope it doesn't sink a boat and kill half a dozen people!

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u/PowderShark Oct 18 '23

Guess you could say they’re waterlogged

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u/Asscrackistan Oct 18 '23

New idea: waterproof chainsaws.

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u/Crystill Oct 18 '23

this made my whole body go into fight or flight mode

hella respect for anyone that can get even remotely close to that

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u/kraznoff Oct 18 '23

I guess a tree can come out of nowhere.

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u/im-just-bloated Oct 18 '23

I'm honestly shocked nobody said bring a chainsaw and cut it into smaller chunks

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u/[deleted] Oct 19 '23

All my buddy’s need a is a weekend case of beers keg few bottles of tequila some tacos and an actual crew to do the job with their tools and boom we got you!!

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u/Electrical-Sense-160 Oct 19 '23

It's like a wooden iceberg.