Gull Lake Michigan Diver Fatality

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Samboney

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Location
Michigan
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I'm a Fish!
Gull Lake scuba diver drowns when his gear becomes tangled in nylon line beneath the surface | MLive.com

According to the local news, Wednesday night (10/6/2010), a diver drowned in a large lake popular for training with many local dive shops. In fact, I did my OW cert dives there.

Not many details released officially. If you go strictly by the media, you will likely move quickly to the conclusion that there were some choices that could have been better. Sounds like an evening solo dive with insufficient equipment.

His body was recovered yesterday morning, tangled in a 1/4" nylon rope. Possibly one of many used in Gull Lake as guidelines linking the many "artifacts" on the bottom.

Reading these recent posts saddens my heart. Continue to advance your training and experience level. Talk out you dive plans with your buddy. If diving solo - do it purposefully and meticulously planned and stick to every detail of that plan.

The argument over solo diving will go on forever. Bottom line of that argument is that solo diving (like diving period) is a choice that comes with risks. As certifierd divers, it is up to us, and not our instructors, to always be thinking through our decisions.

I'm heading to northern Michigan with friends to dive a couple of shallow, easy, pleasent wrecks tomorrow. These older wooden wrecks won't be around forever. I'll be thinking of the passing of these three fellow divers.
 
DandyDon:
"If you can't get your gear free of entanglement, do try a CESA without it."

And carry 2 cutting devices for solo diving.

or don't dive.
 
And carry 2 cutting devices for solo diving.

or don't dive.
Yeah. I really screwed up on my last Coz trip. Took my knife in my bag in case we dived up north outside of the park; we did, and I saw fishing line on the reefs - but had forgotten to pocket my knife, still in my bag. The current was strong and no way anyone could swim against it to help someone, but following my camera - I veered off away from the rest alone. :shocked2: If my home bud had done that, I would have followed - but he just honked his underwater horn, which I never heard. I finally worked my way back to them but I was thinking what-ifs?! I've never done a CESA without a reg in my mouth but willing to try if needed, but would have tried to take my pony & reg with me.
 
When panic sets in all bets are off. When diving solo every move should be evaluated, you are really tickeling the dragons tail.
 
Yeah. I really screwed up on my last Coz trip. Took my knife in my bag in case we dived up north outside of the park; we did, and I saw fishing line on the reefs - but had forgotten to pocket my knife, still in my bag. The current was strong and no way anyone could swim against it to help someone, but following my camera - I veered off away from the rest alone. :shocked2: If my home bud had done that, I would have followed - but he just honked his underwater horn, which I never heard. I finally worked my way back to them but I was thinking what-ifs?! I've never done a CESA without a reg in my mouth but willing to try if needed, but would have tried to take my pony & reg with me.

Wait, I'm confused. Did you get tangled in the line, or just feel bad that you couldn't cut it off the reef? And you wandered away from your buddy because you were focused on your camera, right? What did that have to do with entanglement and not having a knife? So, my question here is also, why would you need to do a CESA if your gear wasn't tangled? Your error was in leaving your buddy. In that, you should not run OOA. IJS.
 
Wait, I'm confused. Did you get tangled in the line, or just feel bad that you couldn't cut it off the reef? And you wandered away from your buddy because you were focused on your camera, right? What did that have to do with entanglement and not having a knife? So, my question here is also, why would you need to do a CESA if your gear wasn't tangled? Your error was in leaving your buddy. In that, you should not run OOA. IJS.
Sorry, my perceived screw ups were not carrying my knife in case I got caught in fishing line, and drifting away from my bud. Nothing else went wrong but I do try to minimize my risks nowadays.
 
My instructor was part of the dive team and he has some doubts about the tangled theory, but sure ideas. He did say that the diver had around 28lbs of weight (roughly twice as I use and I'm not a skinny muscle bound fella either, pretty bouyant actually). That probably wasn't the main contributor, but one issue that should have been better addressed. Like someone had already stated, PANIC can take over if not well prerared in your mind as well as your equipment. Definately, a sad day indeed, I do some solo diving and its always a recurring thought that these things can happen, but they are mostly preventable. It's also what causes me to be almost anal in my preparation.
RIP fello subsea explorer......
 
28 lbs in his tank at the surface could have been too little to get a pull off of when compressed at depth?
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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