Filmmaker Rob Stewart dies off Alligator Reef

[cerich]

Why was he fired? Does anyone know?

he crossed paths with just about everybody in the keys in officialdom..the allegations are he is pretty toxic

Wouldn't the set point controller say exactly what the PPO2 in the loop was vs. depth? Seems if Doctor Beaver was stating hypoxia he might have bothered to find that out before releasing a hypothesis.

he may not have had the controller to check, and may not have know what one would tell him to reach out to nedu to find out.

A FOA would sort out what he did or did not request regards the gear condition

 

[Dr Simon Mitchell]

rEvo uses a constant oxygen feed. Left on, all rEvos would deplete the oxygen tank unless that was specifically defeated.

Thanks. Obviously why I asked. That being the case there is little that we can conclude in terms of causation from the ME report (other than the fact that they did not appear to find an obvious medical cause).

Simon M

 

[LandonL]

@Dr Simon Mitchell Maybe there is more detail in the rest of the autopsy report? All I have seen is the summary.

 

[The Chairman]

he may not have had the controller to check,

Didn't the rebreather go to the Navy Experimental Diving Unit for inspection?

not sure i agree with your conclusion regards the boat crew

In any case, the chance of him surviving decreased dramatically when he slipped beneath the waves unconscious. Like having a heart attack: on the surface your chances are slim, but beneath the surface, they are either nil or nonexistent: take your pick. The crew was not in a position to jump in after him, and considering his final position in relation to the wreck, he went down to 220 rather quickly.

 

[Dr Simon Mitchell]

@Dr Simon Mitchell Maybe there is more detail in the rest of the autopsy report? All I have seen is the summary.

Yes, agreed. I am only responding to what has been provided here. Nevertheless, I would have thought any major findings would have been mentioned in the summary.

Simon M.

 

[billgraham]

I can't remember if it was in one of the news links or if was in the video of his sister's interview, but I believe he gave the OK sign to the boat when he surfaced. That doesn't sound like someone who knows he has a problem, right?

In my experience, it's a reflex.

 

[Diver0001]

In my experience, it's a reflex.

In mine as well. I mostly teach OW courses but I teach students from the very beginning not to give an OK to confirm a sign their buddy is giving. I teach them to repeat the same sign back again.

Repeating the sign tells the person who initiated communication that the sign was received, understood and properly interpreted. An OK only tells you that they saw you wave your hands around.

For example, today I was with an OW student and we were ascending back to the shallows. At 5m I signed to do a safety stop. Here's how it went:

(after making eye contact)

me: level out
diver: level out

me: 3m safety stop
diver: 3min safety stop

me: swim in that direction
diver: swim in that direction

Pretty much no way to get confused right there. it's something that spilled over from my technical training into the way I teach OW.

What you often see, however, is this :

(no eye contact)

diver1 : 3 min safety stop
diver2: OK

diver1 starts swiming
diver 2 follows

You KNOW this is true.... all of you instructors out there know that this is what happens.

The potential for miscommunication in the second attempt is HUGE and miscommunication happens often. I would love to see PADI adopt the Diver0001 method as a standard but unfortunately most divers are not trained that way and end up giving OK signals as a conditioned response to anything someone waves at them, even if they didn't see it or didn't understand it (or thought they did when they didn't).

I'm not going to suggest that this is what happened in the Rob Stewart accident because I literally don't have enough information to make that determination. This post is only to respond to what Bill was saying and to suggest that with good training from the very beginning something of that nature can be avoided.

R..

 

[billgraham]

I don't teach, but 90% of the divers I've encountered in trouble gave me an OK sign when they were not really ok at all.

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

90% of the divers I've encountered in trouble gave me an OK sign when they were not really ok at all.

I don't recall ever having experienced that, and I do teach.

 

[boulderjohn]

I don't teach, but 90% of the divers I've encountered in trouble gave me an OK sign when they were not really ok at all.

I don't recall ever having experienced that, and I do teach.

I have never experienced that either, and I teach also.

In fact, I have encountered very few events with a diver in anything close to trouble. I have never had to share air outside of a class exercise. The closest I have come to experiencing divers in trouble would be people with weighting issues, and they let me know they were having a problem with it. I find it interesting that you have encountered enough divers in trouble that you can make an observation about the actions of 90% of them.