10/09/04 accident at Monastery Beach (Carmel) aka ...

[tiny_clanger]

Not posible to give someone CPR while in the water

actually you can - I've been trained to do it, you dive them down to the bottom to give compressions, then surface for breaths, dive for compressions. Obviously it isnt practical, I was exhausted after practising for 2 minutes in the diving pit of my local pool.

 

[liberato]

actually you can - I've been trained to do it, you dive them down to the bottom to give compressions, then surface for breaths, dive for compressions.

Ha, ha. Good one!

 

[Kim]

It sounds like a very tricky place to dive. I hope that she is OK.
tazfrau - you seem to have more information than was in the news report - is this from the people she was diving with?

 

[Rick Inman]

Last October my wife & I vacationed for 2 weeks in Monterey, and ended up spending most of it at Monastery beach (south). I made about a dozen dives there. We'd arrive in the morning, set up beach chairs & cooler, read and enjoy the incredible view. I'd make a dive, have lunch, nap, make another dive.
I just fell in love with diving this beach. I also dived Lovers, Breakwater,Pt. Lomos, and boat dives on the Monterey Express. Those were also great, but the days at Monastery are what we dream of returning to.
Anyway, one of the interesting parts of spending so much time on the beach at Monastery was watching the various divers. Some entered/exited sub-surface, some on top. Some had fins on and some used their fins on their hands to swim past the surf zone. Some exited by standing up and walking out, some did the Monastery crawl. Some people crawled franticly up the steep sand hill as if the surf was going to come reaching out after them. Funny!
I witnessed some divers getting tossed around in the short surf zone, and without exception, the difference between those who had trouble and those who didn't was one thing: TIMING. Even in the largest surf, if you timed it right (and you were not slow with your fin removal) you could wait for the lull set, swim in between the waves, stand up in 3 feet of water, take off your fins and walk calmly out onto the sand. I always spent time studying the surf on the beach before entry, and just outside the breakers on exit.
Some people must have learned to dive Monastery on the web, 'cause they would crawl most of the way out, stop in the short surf zone panting into their regulators and then get knocked over by the next wave. I watched others trying to take their fins off on their knees in the surf zone.
Before I dived this beach for the first time, I snorkeled it in a wet suit (see pic below). It seemed to me that for someone with basic surf entry/exit training, Monastery was not that big a deal. For the rest, there is Breakwater.
I loved diving (and relaxing on) this beach so much, even as I type this, I am trying to figure out how we can go back this year.
(Note:Wave in pic with bird is deceptively larger than it appears)

 

[DartRay]

I recently talked to a guy who is in touch with this woman's husband.
She is still in the hospital and is not even talking. Her condition has
made very little improvement. She also picked up some sort of infection.

I was really shocked to learn this. I was of the understooding that she
was making a full recovery.

Please pray for this diver, her name is Kristina. And please be careful
diving.

 

[Bobby]

And that was basically my point too. It's not necessarily that having a certification
makes you able to handle Monastery. Point being was that you have something
that one can see as to a diver's desire to continue education and getting their
skills improved. After all, certifications are all we have to TRY and identify a
person's level of skill.

There are shops and instructors I have been told that do some specialized instruction
at Monastery. In fact, this Sunday, there is supposed to be a class there at 8am
which will include 'shore diving Monastery beach training'. There is a definite need
for specific training for Monastery shore diving though.

Ultimately, as I've seen posted many places, your safety is up to you. If you aren't
ready for a dive or don't feel comfortable, you shouldn't do it. But I think Monastery
is a place that can fool anyone the first time out.

Mech and Brian, thanks for the kind thoughts. I hope the same for this girl.
I hate it when any of us guess hurt. Guess we all do, maybe that's why we get a
little fueled up when discussing safety, eh? I just want to have a good time and
come back alive and wet from each dive

You are on the right track with trying to inform people of the dive sight issues. You may want to talk with your instructor and urge them to work on creating a specialty course for this particular dive sight. When they get this done through their cert. agency then they can go to the local gov. agency and pettition to have placards posted at the sight warning of the conditions and that they need the specialty to dive it safely. This is not a troll to create revenue but the actual reason that specialty courses were designed. If someone needs help in creating their own specialty pm me and I will help out.

 

[ShakaZulu]

Dang, just dove there about a month ago, awesome site........hope she's ok.

 

[tiny_clanger]

I meant in shallow water where, for some reason, you couldnt get the casualty out, but you could duck dive them down to the bottom. Guess I forgot I was posting on a scuba board *blush*, when we practiced it, we did it in the deep end of the local pool, about 2m deep. Still tiring though.

 

[derwoodwithasherwood]

I meant in shallow water where, for some reason, you couldnt get the casualty out, but you could duck dive them down to the bottom. Guess I forgot I was posting on a scuba board *blush*, when we practiced it, we did it in the deep end of the local pool, about 2m deep. Still tiring though.

That sounds like a good way to drown the patient. Of course, technically they're already dead...

It is possible to do compressions in-water by placing one hand underneath and one hand in the traditional landmark, but you won't last long before your arms are limp. Better would be to slip a board underneath the patient, as with a patient trapped in a car seat or other soft surface, but it will still be quite tiring.

 

[Scubaroo]

I dived Monastery a number of times. Safest way to exit the water is to deflate your BC and crawl out with your regulator in your mouth. Just like climbing a boat ladder - keep your regulator in your mouth until you're out.