Death by Diving

[VooDooGasMan]

Many Divers have died lately, not just looking on SB but other resources also. Yet right now some are thinking that gas managemnt is a good start when they see the cause of a fatality. Now some are strong in there beliefs on how one should dive. There are many things that are misinformed in diving, and to learn all in the diving that you do, is to never go beyond what you have learned. So how do you go forward in the quest of diving, research and back to basics then advance to your next goal.

Most often at the boat launch I am asked, how long can I stay down on a tank of air? I start going on about it and they just want to know how many minutes, very few are interested in depth and how physical the dive is. These are the same kinda people that decide to get scuba certified.

A few years back a doctor here in washington died from not turning his tank on, there for he more than likely never checked his tankfill when setting up his scuba kit. Here we dive with alot of weight, so properly weighting your self is key. He was found under his boat.

Then another diver from far away was in the san juans diving on charter and ran out of air, when buddy came up, his wife, they waited for him to finish his dive. His bubbles left the area and well he left the world. The charter said that often divers here in the northwest finish there dive alone! There response when asked by coast guard. Yes a few more acts like this and they went out of the scuba charter practice.

Ok now this one is astounding Shari Booth was on a advanced diving course with a walla walla group, from the west side of washinton state. 11 other dive students were in this course, her dive buddy tapped her leg and motioned she was going to the surface, vis was good and the buddy looked down and said she looked ok at 20' deeper, but was'nt sure if she was at 50' or 30'. The buddy boarded on the boat they watched her bubbles and then after a bit a bunch of bubbles poured to the surface then nothing. Search attempts were made she was never found.

I have searched the area for her in the past yet I do not know the exact spot, if she was neutrally bouyant she could travel back and forth with the tides.

The yukon death is a recent death with divers pointing to whos the one to error, diver or charter. There is so much to diving that can go wrong in a second and yet so many divers keep going down!

Will every one on earth that decides to go diving practice basic skills, or be alert of the dive surroundings there going to be in?

Will we ever know how to stop ourselves from making a mistake before we decend or ascend?

My ultimate goal is to make it to the surface after a dive, cause you can always go on another dive.

Happy Diving

 

[Cave Diver]

People will find a way to exterminate themselves no matter how much their actions fly in the face of conventional wisdom or common sense. If you need proof of that, just look at product warning labels that are in place because someone did something stupid and someone else got sued over it.

No matter what happens, there will be a certain percentage of deaths no matter how long we make classes, no matter what regulations we put in place, or how we try to protect people from themselves.

The only way I think there will be an increase in safety is when people start taking personal responsibility for themselves and their actions and quit expecting someone else to take care of them.

 

[TSandM]

You know, I work in an emergency room, which means I see the people who, on land, are the equivalent of people who don't plan dives or don't have the skills to do them, or who do the wrong dive for the wrong reason. On land, those people get hurt, but only some of them die. In the water, the environment is far less forgiving and the stakes are higher.

Short of selective breeding for common sense, I see no way we will ever get rid of deaths through poor judgment or thrill-seeking. But boards like this CAN do a lot to get rid of deaths through simple ignorance. I know that, before Bob posted his gas management article on his website, every time someone mentioned it in a thread, he was inundated by requests for it. So there is interest in learning, and interest in improving safety out there in the diving community.

I give back by volunteering to dive with new divers, and help them sort out their equipment and their skills, and where I can, pass on a little information and a lot of accessible resources. I think there are a lot of us who do things like that. Every little bit helps.

 

[Thalassamania]

...
No matter what happens, there will be a certain percentage of deaths no matter how long we make classes, no matter what regulations we put in place, or how we try to protect people from themselves.

The only way I think there will be an increase in safety is when people start taking personal responsibility for themselves and their actions and quit expecting someone else to take care of them.

...

Short of selective breeding for common sense, I see no way we will ever get rid of deaths through poor judgment or thrill-seeking. ...

There is ample evidence that this simply is not true. The safety record of the science community demonstrates that with adequate training and a system of oversight diving fatalities can be virtually eliminated. Now perhaps people are not willing to pay that price to live ... but that's a different question.

 

[Kingpatzer]

There is ample evidence that this simply is not true. The safety record of the science community demonstrates that with adequate training and a system of oversight diving fatalities can be virtually eliminated. Now perhaps people are not willing to pay that price to live ... but that's a different question.

The safety record of a group who are, by the very nature of their diving activities, not recreational divers, and who are typically brighter than average since typical scientists are not folks without significant education, doesn't really say much about the recreational diving public in general.

Sure, it shows that if you have really rigid protocols, and you have people enforcing those protocols, and you have hundreds of hours of training, and you have safety officers and safety divers and so on, that you can make it really safe.

You can't do that on a grand scale without legislation.

Personally, I don't want to see that. It would be punitive to the vast majority of safe, responsible divers out there for what would be minimal gains. Diving remains a very safe sport. If I'm going to be allowed to drive to and from my dive site, then I'm pretty sure making me pay for a dive supervisor isn't going to change my risk profile for the day very much.

 

[Thalassamania]

I was addressing statements such as:

"No matter what happens, there will be a certain percentage of deaths no matter how long we make classes, no matter what regulations we put in place, or how we try to protect people from themselves."

or

"Short of selective breeding for common sense, I see no way we will ever get rid of deaths through poor judgment or thrill-seeking."

There are ways to solve both these issues.

BTW: there is very little on site supervision except when institutional vessels are involved, so you'd not have to be paying for a supervisor at your favorite local shore diving site.

 

[DCBC]

The safety record of a group who are, by the very nature of their diving activities, not recreational divers, and who are typically brighter than average since typical scientists are not folks without significant education...

You would think that this would be the case King, but I've seen an awful lot of educated people make the most idiotic mistakes... LOL

 

[flots am]

A few years back a doctor here in washington died from not turning his tank on, there for he more than likely never checked his tankfill when setting up his scuba kit. Here we dive with alot of weight, so properly weighting your self is key. He was found under his boat.

There are any number of basic skills taught in any Open Water class that would have saved his life, including

• Test-breathing his regulator right before entering the water
• Inflating his BC right before entering the water (I now expect to hear from the macho "I jump in negative" crowd)
• Verifying tank pressure right before entering the water.
• Being able to reach his own tank valve.
• Diving with a capable buddy

I feel bad for the guy, but my sympathy level is pretty low for this type of error.

Then another diver from far away was in the san juans diving on charter and ran out of air, when buddy came up, his wife, they waited for him to finish his dive. His bubbles left the area and well he left the world.

• Know how much air you have left and surface before you run out.
• Dive with a good buddy so you can share if you screw up and run out.

The yukon death is a recent death with divers pointing to whos the one to error, diver or charter. There is so much to diving that can go wrong in a second and yet so many divers keep going down!

There isn't a single event you've listed that couldn't have been prevented by following the training in any Open Water class. SCUBA does have risks, and if people are unwilling to keep their basic skills sharp enough to remain usable, some of them will die.

flots.

 

[flots am]

I was addressing statements such as:

"No matter what happens, there will be a certain percentage of deaths no matter how long we make classes, no matter what regulations we put in place, or how we try to protect people from themselves."

or

"Short of selective breeding for common sense, I see no way we will ever get rid of deaths through poor judgment or thrill-seeking."

There are ways to solve both these issues.

Really?

How to you regulate "stupid" in recreational divers?

I just talked to a guy at a party last weekend. He still has his "oxygen tanks". From 1975.

What would stop anybody, no matter how long it's been or how poorly they were trained, from pulling out their NASDS C-Card, renting some tanks and making The Last Dive?

flots.

 

[Thalassamania]

Somehow, within the science diving community we have been able to do so ... as least our safety record argues that we have.