Another CZM diving death Nov 21.

[ggunn]

I don't much enjoy the wreck and try not to dive it but I think itk is at about 60 or 70 feet, deepest. About 40-50 feet at shallower parts. It is NOT a difficult dive.

I respectfully submit that a dive where there is a fixed point where the whole dive will be spent and the current is ripping (which I have heard anecdotally was the case on the dive in question) can be a difficult dive for many divers.

 

[Thalassamania]

Shut up and dive, how often have you dove in Cozumel? Having dove in a few differents places, I have found in general the protocol to be quite sufficient in Cozumel, and actually better than a couple operators I dove with in Hawaii.. Just wondering how many different dive ops you have spent time with underwater in Coz?

I'd be willing to bet that I have, over the last forty years, made more dives on Palancar alone than you've made total dives anywhere ... but that's neither here nor there, that's just a reward for your overaggressive approach.

The mere fact that someone can die underwater, in good visibility, defines the protocols that are in place as inadequate; I've won, perhaps, a half dozen cases on that single issue. That's the expert opinion of someone who worked for the National Underwater Accident Data Center folr a decade and who personally has investigated in excess of 2,000 fatal accidents. I see your, "Having dove in a few differents [sic] places," and raise you one serious appeal to authority.

 

[Ron Lee]

I respectfully submit that a dive where there is a fixed point where the whole dive will be spent and the current is ripping (which I have heard anecdotally was the case on the dive in question) can be a difficult dive for many divers.

That may also make the option of a solitary diver or buddy team waiting on top hanging on a nonviable option.

 

[RonFrank]

I do not know these divers but their buddy protocol is poor. If you need to have a buddy surface either stay with that individual or in the case of an insta buddy watch them until they have exited the water. This is not the responsibility of the DM.

There sure seems to be some serious violations of buddy protocol of late. This is diver #2 dead and not a buddy in sight, which may have answered a lot of questions had their buddy been there. It may have saved a life. Rather than beating up on Coz authorities we should instead focus on what has happened to scuba being a buddy sport?

 

[DandyDon]

I do not know these divers but their buddy protocol is poor. If you need to have a buddy surface either stay with that individual or in the case of an insta buddy watch them until they have exited the water. This is not the responsibility of the DM.

I wouldn't do that to an insta-buddy nor would I accept it and dive with him/her again. Buddies or Same-Ocean divers...?

Some DMs encourage it, which I do not like.

 

[budaman]

I don't much enjoy the wreck and try not to dive it but I think itk is at about 60 or 70 feet, deepest. About 40-50 feet at shallower parts. It is NOT a difficult dive. Unless the diver was in major distress, best just to hang out at shallower level w/o penetration although hopefully that contingency would have been discussed with DM on the boat before dive began. You can follow bubbles of divers as they move through the wreck over the top of the wreck and meet them when they exit. Even if she stayed at the point where divers begin their entrance, the wreck is small and visibility is usually such that divers can see entering bubbles from the exit point. There's enough to see swimming around the outside of the wreck. Since the report is she didn't want to do second dive, I'm wondering if she felt ill/off and this wasn't a precursor to something else like heart attack, stroke etc.

The Sleeping Shark is a really nice, well-outfitted, well-maintained dive boat. I've been on it a couple of times as it's a "freelance" rented out shops who have an "overload" of divers. I know the DM they typically use and he is a good, careful DM.

When we dove the C53 a few years back while at Scuba Club, the dive procedure was fully explained prior to entering the water. If you didn't want to enter the hull, explore the outside & follow the bubbles. There are plenty of things to keep you occupied outside. There was some current the day we dove, but was less than what I had been lead to expect...I was relieved. Have video of that dive in the link below...hopefully it will give some clarity to Laura as to where her stepmother was. My deepest sympathies.

MobileMe Gallery

Mike

 

[Ron Lee]

I am a firm believer in rescue diver training. Maybe not both divers of a buddy team but at least one.

 

[Thalassamania]

I am a firm believer in rescue diver training. Maybe not both divers of a buddy team but at least one.

Then what happens if the rescue trained diver gets into trouble? Put rescue back into the entry level course, then everybody gets it.

 

[DandyDon]

I am a firm believer in rescue diver training. Maybe not both divers of a buddy team but at least one.

A good idea, Ron - but would not have helped here I don't think. Buddy separation is a failure, and if something goes wrong with the lone diver, and it takes an hour or more to locate the distressed at the bottom, Rescue won't help. Buddies sticking together is OW 101 training.

 

[Ron Lee]

A good idea, Ron - but would not have helped here I don't think. Buddy separation is a failure, and if something goes wrong with the lone diver, and it takes an hour or more to locate the distressed at the bottom, Rescue won't help. Buddies sticking together is OW 101 training.

Assumption is that her buddy would have been with her and adequately trained to assist. Of course we do not know what happened. I recall reading of an accident perhaps in California where two or three people in a family died diving. Recollection is that none were sufficiently qualified to fix some problem.