Abalone diver missing - California

[DandyDon]

Search continues off Sonoma Coast; diver presumed dead | The Press Democrat

An abalone diver who disappeared off of the northern Sonoma County coast remained missing Tuesday night and the man is presumed dead, said a Sonoma County sheriff's official.
“There's no sign of him yet,” said sheriff's Sgt. Ed Hoener late Tuesday afternoon. “We're basically treating this as a recovery at this point. We're presuming he's underwater still.”
State park divers and sheriff's search and rescue volunteers, among others, spent the day at Fisk Mill Cove in Salt Point State Park, where the diver was last seen.
The search was hindered by thick kelp in the large-sized cove and only a 5-foot visibility, said Hoener.
Monday afternoon, the man had been in the cove looking for abalone with his wife watching from the shore.
A state park ranger in the area had checked in with her not long before he disappeared and everything at that point appeared to be fine, Hoener said.
At about 5 p.m. the woman called for help when her husband didn't come up for air.
“At some point he went down and didn't resurface. The area is thick with kelp. We don't know if that's a factor or not,” Hoener said.
A search Monday night was underway until dark. It resumed early Tuesday. Low fog grounded an aerial search, but officials hoped to get a helicopter over the area Wednesday and divers back in the water.
While sheriff's officials know his identity, it was not released Tuesday.
Initial reports Monday night indicated the missing diver was believed to be a local resident. Hoener would not confirm his town of residence, saying only he was an experienced diver.
Fisk Mill Cove, south of The Sea Ranch coastal community, is popular with ab divers. “It's a good-sized cove. ... It's a beautiful place to dive,” Hoener said.

 

[Laurie S.]

Guess where the weight belt will be. Sad.

 

[DandyDon]

Guess where the weight belt will be. Sad.

"Willes, who was described as an experienced abalone diver, was still wearing his weight belt, Hoener said. His body was found in a rocky area about 20 feet underwater and about 30 feet from where he was last seen."
Body of abalone diver recovered at Salt Point | The Press Democrat

 

[Laurie S.]

My fiancé and I were abalone diving earlier this month. We both dropped our weight belts the same day when we had problems. Mine was slipping and he was overweighted due to forgetting about his recent weight loss from being ill. But it seems so many of the divers fail to do that. We both recovered our belts and continued diving.

 

[UWPhotoKeith]

No doubt that not dropping a weight belt is too often a contributing factor in abalone diving accidents but also keep in mind cardiac or other health related conditions are also a significant cause in these accidents. Dropping or not dropping the weight belt becomes a mute point in sudden cardiac arrest. It's too early to say whether or not this was a factor in this particular case.

 

[DandyDon]

No doubt that not dropping a weight belt is too often a contributing factor in abalone diving accidents but also keep in mind cardiac or other health related conditions are also a significant cause in these accidents. Dropping or not dropping the weight belt becomes a mute point in sudden cardiac arrest. It's too early to say whether or not this was a factor in this particular case.

True. Nonetheless, too many are found with weights on when dropping them would have saved them.

 

[tracydr]

No doubt that not dropping a weight belt is too often a contributing factor in abalone diving accidents but also keep in mind cardiac or other health related conditions are also a significant cause in these accidents. Dropping or not dropping the weight belt becomes a mute point in sudden cardiac arrest. It's too early to say whether or not this was a factor in this particular case.

Too bad more people don't bother to actually get in shape for the season before taking the plunge. Same with lobster season. If divers would actually work-out before going diving, we might see less fatalities. And, get a check-up with cardiac calcium CT score.
Same with elk and deer hunters. Some of those guys are a walking, smoking,drinking heart attack on the mountain.

 

[Hank49]

I hear the vis isn't usually that good in norther Cal, but diving with a buddy definitely helps too. At 20 feet depth a buddy on the surface could have been very near had they been one up, one down diving.
Rest in Peace diver...

 

[UWPhotoKeith]

True. Nonetheless, too many are found with weights on when dropping them would have saved them.

And not assessing the conditions before committing to a dive.
Reluctance to say "not today" and turnaround and go home.
Diving in conditions outside ones ability
Not streamlining gear to avoid kelp entanglement
Not diving with a buddy including adhering to "one up one down"
Not practicing emergency procedures like dropping a weight belt, camera (my biggest fear ;-), goody bag or whatever else is hindering your ability to deal with the emergency.
Not being in physical or mental shape for abalone diving.
And sometimes when you adhere to all this the man in the grey suit shows up.

All good points and hopefully more people pay attention or I could foresee licensing for ab diving. Not saying that is good or bad, just food for thought.

Cheers, Keith

 

[g1138]

Before we get on the quick and easy "just drop your weightbelt" blanket answer, let's keep in mind there are certain situations where it's not advisable. In a heavy kelp environment, dropping your belt may just lead you to uncontrollably ascend into an overhead tangle of kelp. And for those not familiar with kelp, you have to remember: taunt kelp is near impossible to free yourself from. If you're caught in kelp, you have to back track and relax; allow the kelp to slack and loosen, then slide it off. You can't do that if you have a 10-15lb positive suit pulling you up.

Benefit of the doubt, for all we know the diver in question may have very well known this. That dropping a weightbelt would be a death sentence for his specific circumstance; make the situation worse.

There's more to it gear wise. Once such example is properly weighting yourself, which many abalone divers don't do. Properly weighted, you can have a slight positive effect of your suit pulling you up to the surface, rather than having to fight your negative weight up till the last 5 ft. Be neutral to slightly negative at depth, then kick up 5 ft and just glide to the surface.
If you're not properly weighted, you can be fighting to stay down and rocket on ascent; or you can be fighting all the way back up to the surface.

Too many don't have freedive training, which teaches proper weighting for depth breath hold dives. On the other hand skin dive training usual teaches you to be neutrally buoyant at the surface, which means being heavily negative past 15ft (which is why it is something I don't agree with in my agency's curriculum). Like the old days of diving, you should weight yourself neutral for your max depth. In the case of abalone diving, maybe slightly negative; but definitely not neutral at the surface.

Pretty much all dive agencies I know teach the skin dive weighting method, so I'm willing the bet more abalone divers are too negative at depth, and many are also overweighted. That's one problem in itself, to have to be fighting your way up to the surface under normal situations. Add a stress factor and it becomes a nightmare.

That's just one pre-determined factor out of many. I think the focus we should be analyzing on is NOT how to correct a bad situation (such as dropping the weightbelt), but how to prevent that situation from ever needing to occur.

- Proper buddy contact
.......surface buddy following you from the surface
.......diving buddy staying relative close to the descent spot (because viz usually prevents visual contact w/ surface support)
- Estimate dive time so surface support knows when to signal for help or search
- Staying efficient with dive skills
- Staying efficient with equipment manipulation
- Staying familiar with dive equipment (wetsuits, ocean weighting, ocean surface swims)
- Staying current on dive safety (so the thrill doesn't overlap your safety skills)

Just to name a few.