I went fishing Sunday and launched before the sun came up.  Then, a little before noon, I had had my fill of the heat, so I headed back to the ramp.  The temperature reached a high of 104° yesterday, for context.  I get back to the ramp and I see the local law enforcement's dive team.  There were at least four guys in scuba gear, and ambulance type van backed up on the ramp with the dive team logo on it, a whole bunch of other emergency vehicles parked in the parking lot, four covered awnings with chairs and tables set up, and a bunch of firemen lining the banks and dock.  And everybody's staring at the water and talking to each diver as they surface for about a minute, before the diver goes back down. 

It breaks your heart to see such a thing.  You know it happens, but you don't ever think you'll be witness to it.  I decide to stay back at least 100 yards to give them room to work.  Still, it's already hot and getting hotter.  So I'm hoping they can finish up quickly, but it doesn't look like it.  Everyone's moving slowly and methodically.  I'm trying to figure another way to get my kayak out of the lake. 

 

After 45 minutes, a dad and his kid come up to the ramp and launch their kayaks among all of this.  Then, the firemen start playing country music really loud on these outdoor speakers.  I think I see one of the firemen fishing.  Are they pulling out a grill now?  So I head over to find out what's going on, and a diver pops up from about 10 feet away from me.  I think he's going to say something to me, but he turns to a fireman on the dock holds up a piece of metal and says "I found the Michelob but almost left it because it wasn't a Coors".  The fireman replies "Good man!".   Yeah, they're doing drills, I think. 

 

So I talk to a fireman, and they're doing certification trials for the dive team, and this gets to decide who passes the class and joins the dive team and who doesn't.  So the old guys where making it a bit of a party, I guess to relieve some of the stress.  Which made me feel better.  Still, a little notice would have been nice, so I didn't waste nearly an hour in the heat.  Oh well.  It's as much my fault for not taking the initiative to ask, I suppose.  And, everyone went home, happy and safe, which is not what I initially thought was going to happen. 

They do that often at the ramp by my house because there are two cars underwater and they know where they are and use them for training /education 

@Bankc: well told story! Glad it wasn’t a tragic incident in the end. Probably should have asked them for a burger or dog, lol. 

They do a training thing at my lake where they teach dogs to find bodies in the water.

 

They also do a helicopter training thing where they scoop water up with the helicopter and then drop it on a target. It's hard to pay attention to fishing when they're doing that 😆

You should have asked them why they don't just use Forward facing Sonar.

26 minutes ago, king fisher said:

You should have asked them why they don't just use Forward facing Sonar.

They’ve got it and they do ! Still gotta retrieve what you locate tho 

Sadly, I often see this for the real thing not training exercises. At least the last time I saw them out they were just trying to recover a gun.  I am very glad everything was ok! 

36 minutes ago, Susky River Rat said:

Sadly, I often see this for the real thing not training exercises. At least the last time I saw them out they were just trying to recover a gun.  I am very glad everything was ok! 

Yeah, an off duty police officer drowned at that lake just last month.