Scuba diver dies after being found floating at Kurnell, NSW, Australia

[AfterDark]

Someone in this or another thread posted about mentally rehearsing a drill, a drop the weights would be an example. IMO this is a safe and practical to way reinforce the mechanics of the drill. Nothing beats actual hands on drills but this mental rehearsing process if done often should make doing the drill more familiar.

Maybe I'm an unusual camera toting diver but my camera is attached to my harness with a SS cable clipped to a retractor. I let go of my camera any time I need to do something with my hands. The safety of the camera and me is the reason.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Someone in this or another thread posted about mentally rehearsing a drill, a drop the weights would be an example. IMO this is a safe and practical to way reinforce the mechanics of the drill. Nothing beats actual hands on drills but this mental rehearsing process if done often should make doing the drill more familiar.

Maybe I'm an unusual camera toting diver but my camera is attached to my harness with a SS cable clipped to a retractor. I let go of my camera any time I need to do something with my hands. The safety of the camera and me is the reason.

I don't think the camera was an issue in this case. She was in 10 feet of water ... I'm certain Marcia was smart enough to understand that even if you let it go, it's easily retrievable under those circumstances.

FWIW - I use a wrist lanyard ... and my camera rig is bigger than what she was using (and about 3 lbs negatively buoyant). If I need to use my right hand for anything, I simply let go and let the camera dangle while I do what I have to do.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[gee13]

I don't think the camera was an issue in this case. She was in 10 feet of water ... I'm certain Marcia was smart enough to understand that even if you let it go, it's easily retrievable under those circumstances.

FWIW - I use a wrist lanyard ... and my camera rig is bigger than what she was using (and about 3 lbs negatively buoyant). If I need to use my right hand for anything, I simply let go and let the camera dangle while I do what I have to do.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Yeah but you are familiar with your camera setup. Marcia I think may have been using a reasonably new built rig, not sure if she had a harness or not. So theres always a possibility of this, new config another confounding factor in the chain of events. I know when I first moved from basic compact, to compact with 1 strobe, then compact with trays, arms 2 strobes and wide angle lens, then DSLR with all of the above plus longer arms, new untested bouyancy floats and larger dome port.. all of these first dives with new configs were definitely interesting.

 

[tracydr]

I remember a night dive in Bonaire where I decided to take my camera. Just that little added stress of adding a light to my other hand increased my stress greatly. I had not thought through things. I had not actually considered how I would hold the camera,hold the light, adjust buoyancy. Then, getting in and out of the water at night was a little bit harder,too. I was actually very surprised at how stressed I was,especially when I'm very comfortable with night dives in general. Just adding a camera to a night dive made it so much harder. A little point and shoot camera!
This was when I first became aware of the importance, to me, of adding one new thing at a time to a dive. If I had added any other additional things to that dive, well, that could have been a terrible dive.
I now try every new thing in the pool. Even small stuff gets tried in the pool. I'm so glad that I have a pool available to me. Not sure what I'll do when we move, maybe find a shop with a pool or something.

 

[beaverdivers]

What?

It has been stated that she had the dry suit valve in the automatic/Open position.

For clarification, does anyone know what position her dry suit valve was when she was found?

That of course is speculation. She could have also kept her valve as it was and dumped from her BC and then refilled the BC at depth.. but I find trying to descend with an over inflated DS (which it often is on the surface for comfort, rest, etc...) dumping something from the DS comes naturally or you feel a bit like the Michelin man till you achieve depth, which she would not do sufficiently at 10'. I can't see her wanting to feel like that trying to take benthic pictures.

She did not have much air in her dry suit. As she made her final ascent, air would have escaped from the open dry suit valve. As she made her final descent, she probably added a small amount of air to the dry suit for comfort.

gee13 asked about the camera. I've mentioned it several times. I think it could have played a major role in allowing whatever scenario unfold from addressable to unrecoverable. But again, speculation:

First it probably was the cause for deciding to be negative.
Second, it created goals which drove her to make poor solo/extended BT decisions.
Third, task fixation could have caused her to ignore early warning signs.
Fourth, it could have impeded her ability/choice to dump weight (having hands tied up holding it).
Fifth, it could have made swimming up and/or maintaining the surface more difficult (weight and loss of hand movement).

One could have a whole discussion just on the unintended hazards of photography/videography. I believe a camera is the most dangerous piece of equipment a diver can own.

Agreed! Her camera was an important piece of this tragic puzzle.

 

[diverrex]

gee13 asked about the camera. I've mentioned it several times. I think it could have played a major role in allowing whatever scenario unfold from addressable to unrecoverable. But again, speculation:

First it probably was the cause for deciding to be negative.
Second, it created goals which drove her to make poor solo/extended BT decisions.
Third, task fixation could have caused her to ignore early warning signs.
Fourth, it could have impeded her ability/choice to dump weight (having hands tied up holding it).
Fifth, it could have made swimming up and/or maintaining the surface more difficult (weight and loss of hand movement).

One could have a whole discussion just on the unintended hazards of photography/videography. I believe a camera is the most dangerous piece of equipment a diver can own.

Anything is possible and we will probably not ever know what happened. I can see how task fixation on taking a photo might distract someone from monitoring air. But I just don't buy that carrying a camera is that big of a physical issue that greatly impedes dropping weights etc. I carry a DSLR, 4 arms, 2 strobes, focus light and GoPro mounted on the housing and it just isn't that big of deal. I resumed carrying my camera rig on my drysuit dive #4. My rig is slightly negative but it is still easy (underwater) to do anything with it with just one hand on it. A few times when I need both hands for a second it's no problem to stick it between my legs and hold it that way. I keep mine on a tether attached to my right chest D ring and if I need both hands free for a longer period of time I keep a bolt snap on my left chest D ring so I can keep my camera attached to me and out of the way. That's what I do when I deploy a SMB and reel underwater for instance. And I just don't buy that any reasonably intelligent person has an issue with dropping a rig completely in 10 feet of water if it means the difference between getting air on the surface or not.

A lot of things happened in this chain of events to make a bad ending. The camera could be one of those items. But I just don't buy that it was likely a major issue.

 

[Diver0001]

It has been stated that she had the dry suit valve in the automatic/Open position.

For clarification, does anyone know what position her dry suit valve was when she was found?

She told her buddy that she had the drysuit vent in the "automatic" position, which I assumed meant that it was at least partly open.

However, this was not independently verified.

R..

 

[DaleC]

Again speculation: I suspect there was no one thing that was a major issue, when taken alone. It may appear that, a cascade of smaller events overtook her capacity to cope. Ordinarily a camera won't get you, but add negative weighting, fixation on a subject, perhaps an OOA, unfamiliar gear...

 

[Diver0001]

I'd like to pass along another fact that I think might be relevant.

It turns out, according to information passed along by someone who would know, that Marcia had a history of low blood pressure and fainting.

I'm not a doctor by I have a suspicion that this is something that might not show up on an autopsy. It introduces the possibility that there could have indeed been a medical/physical cause.

R..

 

[xyrandomyx]

I'd like to pass along another fact that I think might be relevant.

It turns out, according to information passed along by someone who would know, that Marcia had a history of low blood pressure and fainting.

I'm not a doctor by I have a suspicion that this is something that might not show up on an autopsy. It introduces the possibility that there could have indeed been a medical/physical cause.

R..

Hrm, I thought about this when someone mentioned that her drysuit would vent if the shoulder valve was open and she went vertical, as she would likely have done quite suddenly if she swam for the surface. Turning suddenly vertical (like standing up from lying down) can bring on dizziness/ fainting in people with low blood pressure. Though, in all the people I've known with low blood pressure, they've had some measure of advanced warning before something like that happened -- not feeling so great for about 30 minutes or more before. But I guess that might not be the case with everyone (or all the time). It certainly sounds like this might've played a part, but I suppose it's another thing we'll never know for sure.