Deep bounce dive in Cozumel leads to missing diver

[loudives]

Just saw a small bit on tv about a diver lost at tormento Cozumel. Anybody got the dope on it?

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

This thread originally appeared in the Cozumel forum but given the latest information, I have moved it to Accidents and Incidents. Please remember the special rules for this forum when posting to this thread.
Marg, ScubaBoard Senior Moderator

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[gopbroek]

There has been a rumor going around the island that an instructor from either Mexico City or Acapulco had a group of students out on Sunday the 12^th. Supposedly one of the students separated from the group and the instructor went looking for the student, the student subsequently surfaced, but the instructor went missing.

 

[DandyDon]

Spanish article: Sin perder la esperanza

Translation: Google Translate

 

[chipbeebee]

There has been a rumor going around the island that an instructor from either Mexico City or Acapulco had a group of students out on Sunday the 12^th. Supposedly one of the students separated from the group and the instructor went looking for the student, the student subsequently surfaced, but the instructor went missing.

there was an instructor that didn't want to dive with the whole group on the boat so he and his friend who also was an instructor decided to go deep to a depth of 250 feet on 80cf tank of air. when the one guy was coming up the dive master asked him where his buddy was and he didn't know. he said he thought that he had already surfaced. that's the truth of this story as I know the people on the boat he was diving from. he was an instructor and owner of a dive shop in Acapulco. hopefully everyone can learn from his mistake and if your not certified to dive to that depth think twice.

 

[citycountryguy]

I am sincerely sorry for the loss but if that was the intended dive plan it falls into the nutbucket territory....

 

[gopbroek]

My heart goes out not only to the diver’s family and friends for their loss, but also the DM and boat captain for the grief, panic, stress and ordeal they have gone and are probably continuing to suffer through, due to what sounds like the reckless actions of the divers.
I am still a novice diver and do not understand the lure of excessively deep diving on plain air. Several trips back I was talking with a resident in a bar on the East side who told me that she and her husband like to ‘dance with the Devil’ which she explained was dropping to around 225’ and holding for several minutes until they could experience ‘cool / vivid’ visual effects, and then ascend. As I understand it at that point you have 2 devils to deal with, Narcosis and O2 toxicity. If you lose the fight it should go pretty quick, except for the poor bastards on the surface, who have to deal with the aftermath.

 

[Christi]

My heart goes out not only to the diver’s family and friends for their loss, but also the DM and boat captain for the grief, panic, stress and ordeal they have gone and are probably continuing to suffer through, due to what sounds like the reckless actions of the divers.
I am still a novice diver and do not understand the lure of excessively deep diving on plain air. Several trips back I was talking with a resident in a bar on the East side who told me that she and her husband like to ‘dance with the Devil’ which she explained was dropping to around 225’ and holding for several minutes until they could experience ‘cool / vivid’ visual effects, and then ascend. As I understand it at that point you have 2 devils to deal with, Narcosis and O2 toxicity. If you lose the fight it should go pretty quick, except for the poor bastards on the surface, who have to deal with the aftermath.

That is just pure ignorance and as you so appropriately described it, reckless. I don't understand it either - and unfortunately, I have heard the same or very similar version that chipbeebee posted.

Very sad!

 

[Brules]

What a couple of idiots. Sounds similiar to the Scuba Mau catastrophe.....

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Those are the people that give the activity a bad name. And one way or another the sooner they are removed from it the better off everyone is. They put other divers who are not so friggin selfish and stupid at unnecessary risk. When one or more of these idiots has an accident they make valuable resources unavailable to those who may have a problem that is truly an accident. Not the result of reckless, selfish, stupid, suicidal behavior. I have zero sympathy for them. Concern for their families yes. More than they obviously had.

 

[Ron Lee]

Assuming that the info presented is close to correct, my view is that given the fact that they were going to go very deep for air, they did not lower the risks. An 80 cf tank is asinine. Unless the divers were extremely good at air consumption, they probably had marginal air. Add in a contingency like having to go deeper (ala the Scuba Mau event), they were at high risk for a very bad DCS event.

I don't know which is a higher risk at that depth....nitrogen narcosis or oxygen toxicity, but both can terminate the dive in a bad way.

Then there is the issue about the buddy not knowing where the missing/deceased diver was. If you are going to undertake a potentially deadly dive, you better have a buddy with whom you can trust your life.

This is not a primer on doing deep dives but it will happen again. Unless the people doing it want to die or end up paralyzed, they better improve their odds of surviving. Think about the people (family) left behind if things go wrong.