Diver Missing North Florida

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From what I've been told the search has been called off due to weather. The person I spoke to did have more details. The missing diver was not the only diver in the water. When we arrived at the incident location, there was a disabled boat there. I suspected, but confirmed today that the disabled boat was the boat the missing diver was diving from. They were towed away by seatow immediately before our divers got in the water. I was told today that the diver surfaced, was distressed and having trouble swimming against the current. Someone jumped in and swam the diver near the boat where a second diver was also struggling. They pulled one of the divers into the boat and when they looked back the other diver was gone.
 
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I do not know what caused the problem.....

But: No inflated BCD, no large DSMB, no discarded weightbelt ..................Darwin @ work .
 
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Inflate your BCD when you surface! I just don't get these kind of accidents.
For all you know, he had popped a shoulder dump.

Unless we know for a fact that all his gear was fully functional, of course.
 
It's true; there are divers that could be better about practicing their skills to keep them fresh, I know I've gotten lazy with them lately, but accidents are not something the diver expects. Accidents that happen typically stem from the unexpected (from the victims perspective), nobody starts a dive thinking "I'm not going home today". I find the "darwin @ work" comment to be in particularly poor taste, especially when we know so little about what happened. Somebody is lost at sea and may have lost their life, we should be able to show more respect than that...

This forum has many threads with accidents involving someone reportedly reaching the surface to call for help, only to slip away. Sometimes the solution seems as easy as 'inflate your BCD' or 'drop your weights', but it isn't always that simple. Not everyone starts out comfortable in the water, add to that fighting a current as mentioned above or dealing with any number of possible problems (equipment, medical, buddy, environmental, for example) and even simple tasks become difficult. The stress builds up and can lead to panic. That's why there's an emphasis in these threads about practicing skills such as sharing air, removing/replacing weights and oral inflation of the BCD. So that when sh*t hits the fan you aren't struggling with a forgotten skill and digging yourself further into a hole.

I remember when I was just starting out a few years ago, reading a thread that somehow ended up discussing DSMB use. Someone made the comment that the skill should still be practiced even if you've done it before. I had used a DSMB in my OW class and even bought one myself, but I hadn't used it since. Over the next few dives I decided to practice deploying my DSMB (among other things) at my safety stop, and went from 'I've done it before' to 'I can do it easily'. The practice paid off a few dives later when my buddy and I ran into issues on a boat dive in the middle of a river. Long story short we ended up doing our first bluewater (greenwater) ascent drifting away from the line. Low vis and strong current meant we were never going to make it back. By this point I was able to shoot my DSMB easily and rather than add stress to an unfamiliar and already stressful situation, it made things easier, giving us a visual refrence to our depth. Had I not practiced the skill I would have struggled with it like I did the first few times I practiced. Already being stressed out in that situation and focused on what would have been a frustrating task, it would not be hard to imagine that another (even minor) problem would have put me in a very bad spot.
 
I too find that the Darwin @ work comment was in poor taste. None of us were there when the incident happened. Maybe he did inflate and floated away barley on the surface. Maybe the bc was faulty. Maybe he was panicked and forgot and the lost consciousness. We may never know. The purpose of an A and I thread is to learn something. It doesn't sound like we will learn much about diving here (except maybe practice inflating on every dive so that it becomes muscle memory), but I did hope that boaters would learn about search patterns. That is something I will be glad to know in the event that I am ever involved in another search.
 
@Pinecube. You are taking my "Darin@work" out of context. It was responding to KEVINMN that spoke about BCD inflation. My remark had nothing to do with the case described: I stated "We do not know what the problem was". So please read carefully before beeing so aggressively judgmental.

You say, it is not that simple. I am afraid, it is. You have many options, I named a few. And by the way current is not a problem at the surface. Since you have nor reference point, you are just going with the flow. No reason to go under for this, buddy.

My wife and I have more than 10 times the amount of dives that you have. With my wife we systematically do a "gear match " before we dive. So many people laugh at us because, with our experience, we should not need this. Another case of "Darwin @ work .

I commend you on your DSMB training. Well done. We do it systematically. Most people not. Another Darwin case. They all believe that when there is an emercency or a problem they will handle it but we all know that the DSMB will add to their problems;

I am sorry but I have little empathy for stupid behavior. As I said, I do not know what happened with this poor guy. My comment was not adressed to him.
 
Current is certainly an issue if your boat is disabled and you surface far from it. It's enough of an issue that I would push myself very hard to swim to the boat.
 
Not a cause of going down under, buddy.

As I said, we don't know what happened.............so you can speculate as much as you want, but you will not make a point for me.
 
This came from a guy that works down the hall from me that was in the area this past weekend. Sounds like the house where he was staying/renting at Shell Point was next door to the missing diver's home. I have no idea how accurate it is but he understood that two people jumped in the water to help but were unable to inflate the divers BC or ditch his weights.

if this conflicts with Kevin(if I remember correctly from Orange Grove), I would go with his comments.
 
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