Ohio man drowns - South Lake Tahoe, California

[SlugLife]

Good morning,

It was my friend Jack who died in this tragic accident in the Lake Tahoe and we still can t figure out what did happen.

He was wearing a wetsuit so hypothermia was not possible (i guess) and at 10 feet the water is not super cold too.

First time he tried the equipment everything went well, went back to see his wife and then he went for a second dive. He did change the battery and after 20min his wife saw him trying to grab the floater but unfortunately he didn't make it. By the time help came it was too late....

FYI he was using some equipment for breathing :

BLU3 | Ultra-portable dive systems — BLU3 Ultra-Portable Dive Systems

With this equipment you can go max to 10 feet (3 meters). He also had a padi licensed open water.

He was wearing a weight belt (they told me he was wearing 12-15lbs and he was a 195lbs) but i know when u are wearing a wetsuit u can float easily.

I did some digging online and I saw that the max weight for freediving without a tank it's around 3lbs or 4 max. Could the belt be an issue ? I'm also a padi diver too and I remember that removing a belt it's pretty easy (maybe not in a panic situation).

It could also be a Freediving blackout but if it was that then he wouldn't have tried to reach the floater ? And 10 feet it's nothing when you try to go to the surface ? Or the weight of the belt was way too heavy to go back to the surface ?

Well as you can see there's so many good damn scenarios but hyperthermia is surely none of them and I have no idea what could go wrong. Even the equipment at 10 feet if something goes wrong u can easily go back to the surface.

Thank you for your time and help by trying to understand what happened back there... But unfortunately we might never really know... =(

Lionel

Sorry to hear about your friend.

The article says "Family members said he was an experienced diver" My initial hunch is that he may not have been a certified SCUBA-diver, and that "experienced diver" according to family members, means something very different than it would in the scuba-community. Do you know if he was scuba-certified? Did he frequently dive with full scuba equipment?

Anyway, a few wild guesses, many of which could be way off:

• He could have been experiencing hypercapnia (too much CO2), if air wasn't circulating correctly.
• The device could have run low on battery, or operating at not-100%, leading to difficulty breathing and by the time it became an emergency, he didn't have enough energy and oxygen to surface.
• Water could have entered the system, causing him to breathe water, causing him to suddenly and unexpectedly start drowning.
• If he wasn't scuba-certified, he might not have been prepared for handling various emergency scenarios, such as knowing to dump weights, or how to handle losing the mouthpiece, or emergency-ascent procedures.

 

[Bobbyfree]

Sorry to hear about your friend.

The article says "Family members said he was an experienced diver" My initial hunch is that he may not have been a certified SCUBA-diver, and that "experienced diver" according to family members, means something very different than it would in the scuba-community.

Do you know if he was scuba-certified? Did he frequently dive with full scuba equipment?

Yes he was padi open water certified but he didn t dive for a while (i would say more than 5 years for sure).

[QUOTE ] Anyway, a few wild guesses, many of which could be way off:

• He could have been experiencing hypercapnia (too much CO2), if air wasn't circulating correctly.
• The device could have run low on battery, or operating at not-100%, leading to difficulty breathing and by the time it became an emergency, he didn't have enough energy and oxygen to surface.

[/QUOTE]
He did change the battery and the gear was brand new he used it once in a pool to try it that's all (but don t know if he tried both battery tho)

• [QUOTE ] Water could have entered the system, causing him to breathe water, causing him to suddenly and unexpectedly start drowning.[/QUOTE]

That's a possibility but i guess we will never know since they didn t recover the breathing system.

• he wasn't scuba-certified, he might not have been prepared for handling various emergency scenarios, such as knowing to dump weights, or how to handle losing the mouthpiece, or emergency-ascent procedures.

[/QUOTE]
I'm also a advanced Padi and i do remember the excercice of removing the weight belt in case of emergency but in a panic situation who know how to react and the first thing is to go up and breathe i guess but the belt didn t help much to go up at this point

 

[SlugLife]

Yes he was padi open water certified but he didn t dive for a while (i would say more than 5 years for sure).

He did change the battery and the gear was brand new he used it once in a pool to try it that's all (but don t know if he tried both battery tho)

That's a possibility but i guess we will never know since they didn t recover the breathing system.

I'm also a advanced Padi and i do remember the excercice of removing the weight belt in case of emergency but in a panic situation who know how to react and the first thing is to go up and breathe i guess but the belt didn t help much to go up at this point.

Thanks for the response & additional info.

The difference between most scuba "accidents," versus just an "incident" is usually the combination of multiple preventable things going wrong at the same time. We often try to have as much redundancy and contingencies as possible, because even the rare incidents can be life-and-death (or severe injury) if not handled properly. Afterall, if all (or most) incidents were accidents, I'd probably stop diving. When analyzing incidents or accidents, we often try to remain objective and neutral, where the goal isn't to place blame or make anyone feel bad, but rather determine what we can learn from the incident for the purposes of preventing future accidents.

There are a few things I'm noticing, from a safety perspective:

• A 5-year break is a very long time, and does suggest his skills had atrophied severely. In particular, the knowledge & habits of what to do in an emergency.
• It appears he had no dive-buddy, which is strongly discouraged by the majority of scuba-training-agencies. There are solo-diving classes, which also include additional equipment requirements, training, and skills.
• His equipment configuration was very non-standard for SCUBA, and therefore lacking safety features (such as an octo) we're trained for.
  • as a side note: Devices like "Spare Air" get a lot of skepticism and criticism, and rightly so. I own a spare-air, and have done a few short & shallow-dives (~30seconds, 20ft) with it, and it was super-sketchy. The product itself is built fine for what it is. The problem is the lack of standard scuba-features, like an easily readable pressure gauge, or octo, and that I lack training or experience for that style of dive. Though I'd prefer a spare-air over that device.
  • I'm reminded of the full-face-masks for scuba, which intuitively seem easy to use at first glance, but actually require training, because if something goes wrong, you need a completely different set of skills to manage the emergency.
• Whatever sparked the incident (lost mouthpiece, equipment failure, etc) will almost certainly remain unknown. However, incidents happen, such as someone kicks your regulator. What keeps us scuba-divers relatively safe is being prepared for those inevitable incidents.

I'm reminded of a video I watched recently, of a guy almost drowned at a shallow-depth. Arguably, losing the regulator wasn't his biggest problem, but rather how he responded to losing the regulator.

 

[Shasta_man]

One thing to note is that Lake Tahoe is particularly cold given where it is and the source of its water. It's not a normal lake you think of that has warmer temperatures. Googling shows temps between 50-70 degrees F and I speculate water temp for the victim was likely in low 60s. It's ~53 degrees in the ocean off Monterey. Not the entire reason but contributed.

 

[KevinNM]

A spare air is perfectly suited to do what it is designed to do. Which is to help someone get out of an upside down and sinking helicopter.

 

[Bobbyfree]

Hi guys,

Kinda good news today coast guard got back the equipment and sent it back to the family.

And expert will have to check if something went wrong with the equipment i will let you know once i will have an update.

There are a few things I'm noticing, from a safety perspective:

• A 5-year break is a very long time, and does suggest his skills had atrophied severely. In particular, the knowledge & habits of what to do in an emergency.

I do agree that's when u go to a dive center they always ask when was your last dive and get a refresh (i would also need one)

• It appears he had no dive-buddy, which is strongly discouraged by the majority of scuba-training-agencies. There are solo-diving classes, which also include additional equipment requirements, training, and skills.

Yes he didn t have any dive buddy and they do recommand in this lake to have one but for 10 feet ?

• His equipment configuration was very non-standard for SCUBA, and therefore lacking safety features (such as an octo) we're trained for.
  • as a side note: Devices like "Spare Air" get a lot of skepticism and criticism, and rightly so. I own a spare-air, and have done a few short & shallow-dives (~30seconds, 20ft) with it, and it was super-sketchy. The product itself is built fine for what it is. The problem is the lack of standard scuba-features, like an easily readable pressure gauge, or octo, and that I lack training or experience for that style of dive. Though I'd prefer a spare-air over that device.

I never tried this kind of equipment so i have no idea.

• • I'm reminded of the full-face-masks for scuba, which intuitively seem easy to use at first glance, but actually require training, because if something goes wrong, you need a completely different set of skills to manage the emergency.

I hope they do notice it in the equipment list....

• Whatever sparked the incident (lost mouthpiece, equipment failure, etc) will almost certainly remain unknown. However, incidents happen, such as someone kicks your regulator. What keeps us scuba-divers relatively safe is being prepared for those inevitable incidents.

I think he never thaught something will occur with this dive because in a lake at 10 feet it does look easy but i guess it wasn t...

 

[coldwaterglutton]

Very sad. Usually these medical even diving fatalities occur to people over 50, but it goes to show it can happen at any age.

I turned 50 over the winter and have two cold water deep dives this weekend, I wish I had not read this!

 

[SlugLife]

Yes he didn t have any dive buddy and they do recommand in this lake to have one but for 10 feet ?

I think he never thaught something will occur with this dive because in a lake at 10 feet it does look easy but i guess it wasn t...

"Intuitively," it seems like it should be safe and easy, because an untrained person can free-drive to 10ft without issue, and the surface isn't that far way. That device even appears to be marketed at non-scuba-divers. However, there are some subtle differences, such as holding your breath versus breathing underwater, or wearing weights, or expecting to go up vs staying down.

The video I posted earlier was of another diver with "100 dives" who almost drowned at a similar depth (I think it was 10 to 15ft). Now, I strongly suspect the diver in that video also had atrophied skills, and didn't have "100 dives" worth of skills.

A good example of unintuitive danger might be Full Face Mask Snorkels. And snorkelers drown too occasionally despite being close to the surface.


Full Face Snorkel Mask Dangers - The Scuba Doctor

As far as buddy-diving, it's probably unrealistic to expect people using that type of equipment to buddy-dive the way scuba-divers might air-share. That equipment is more of an enhanced snorkel. The buddy-diving comment was perhaps a sub-point, where you might need 3+ things to go wrong or be neglected at once for there to be an accident.

Someone who teaches a solo-diving course could probably give you a better answer. However, lets say someone asked me "Do I need a dive-buddy for a 10ft dive with this equipment configuration?" The response would be "are you prepared and ready to handle an emergency or equipment malfunction?"

For example, I just started "sidemount diving," and the last time I was in the water, I started practicing skills on the surface face-down, and then around 15ft, right by the shore. I'm fairly confident I could have easily gone 130ft deep just fine and felt safe. However, I was diving in an unfamiliar configuration, with equipment I had never used before. For me, it's not about what I can do in general, but rather what I can very reliably handle in an emergency. Solo divers are generally supposed to carry a lot more redundancy, so they're prepared for the worst anticipatable emergency or equipment failure.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

He was wearing a wetsuit so hypothermia was not possible (i guess) and at 10 feet the water is not super cold too.

I made a dive on Memorial Day at Lake Tahoe one year. The water at ten feet was 46° with the air temperature of 90°. I had to get under a blanket on the beach for thirty minutes to stop shivering.

 

[Bob DBF]

His equipment configuration was very non-standard for SCUBA, and therefore lacking safety features (such as an octo) we're trained for.

However, it is standard for hookah, surface supplied, diving. The unit is not able to

It appears he had no dive-buddy, which is strongly discouraged by the majority of scuba-training-agencies. There are solo-diving classes, which also include additional equipment requirements, training, and skills.

Hookah diving rarely involves a dive buddy, as most are used for solo working dives. They were made for solo operation as an alternative to scuba. This particular unit is made for use by only one diver, in order to make it more easily portable.

Although Brownie's suggest a hookah diver get dive training, most don't, and use the instructions inclosed with the unit, as was done with SCUBA back in the early days when I started. There is no requirement for dive training for scuba or hookah.

Since he had training, and no doubt read the hookah instructions, I believe it was a medical event, possibly a heart attack, made worse by the conditions. Once someone has panicked, they will not drop their belt. If one is having a heart attack, have debilitating chest pain, can't get enough to breathe, are 10' underwater, and then having trouble staying on the surface, one will not remember they have a weight belt on.