American woman dead - Bell Island, Newfoundland

[rhwestfall]

When I switched to XStreams (from G250v) I had to give it a little thought in any pre-dive-plan discussions.... One thing is where the purge is, the other is the absolute volcano that is going to erupt from it when that purge is pushed... concepts like sticking your tongue into the mouthpiece to push then have the purge air force the water out of the exhaust when purging seem unusual, but the jet of water can cause even more problems in the process...

 

[rjack321]

When I switched to XStreams (from G250v) I had to give it a little thought in any pre-dive-plan discussions.... One thing is where the purge is, the other is the absolute volcano that is going to erupt from it when that purge is pushed... concepts like sticking your tongue into the mouthpiece to push then have the purge air force the water out of the exhaust when purging seem unusual, but the jet of water can cause even more problems in the process...

The Xstreams would really be the ideal reg for Newfoundland in general TBH. Sealed, designed for frigid water, the big center section can be grasped with any mitten or frozen hand.

The top of the wreck Caroline and buddy were diving is about 60-65ft. The OOA exchange happened a little higher up in the water column and Caroline fell back down onto the deck face up/tank down. With an empty to nearly empty tank its obvious in hindsight that she was overweighted. Her "homewaters" were apparently the mid-Atlantic region (NJ to NC) and she added quite a few layers for the 34F/2C waters of Belle Island. As I recall she had on at least 5 or 6 different layers under her drysuit that the resuscitation team had to cut off.

The radical temperature drop was a factor in her exposure protection, weighting, and the initiating freeflow. She was using some type of Aqualung regulator (at least the 1st stage) but I don't know the model or the second stage used.

 

[grf88]

It is in situations like this that a pony bottle and some practice in using it can make a difference between life and death. That is why I get so angry and strident on the pony bottle threads where people claim they are of no use and only a crutch for poor divers who don't have good buddy skills.
I have been diving on the Bell Island wrecks many time and always have some type of redundancy as to air supply. I have also had to donate to my buddy on the Rose Castle but we had discussed how we would handle it beforehand as he had previously had a free-flow earlier that week.
The Rose Castle is the deepest Bell Island wreck.

 

[SlugLife]

re: Purging Regulators:

Something I really feel every OW class should teach is, practice switching to their octo at least 1x each

• Ensures able to quickly and easily find octo
• Incentivizes keeping the octo out of the mud.
• Build strong habits around regulator-switching (including purge)

Speaking from experience, I had a regulator hose come loose, and couldn't find my octo in the bubbles. Then when I started Sidemount soon after (for redundancy), I was quickly "re-discovered" the need for using the purge-button.

There’s arguments in favour of having your pony bottle valve turned off and only twisting it open if and when. I certainly don’t know this surviving divers thoughts on the subject, but I’m pretty content leaving mine fully open the whole time. I loose a few pounds every dive but topping it up every few days is easy enough.

Personally, my pony is ALWAYS on, and I switch to it 1-2 times per dive (see reasons above).

If you're worried about needing to top up a pony-bottle, a transfill whip will eventually pay for itself and also lets you avoid the VIP tax. I built one for about $40 using 2 parts shipped from China.

 

[SlugLife]

re: Weighting

Based on several accident-and-incident threads, I've noticed several fatalities where the drysuit diver is heavily overweighed.

Perhaps I'm asking the obvious, but why/how does a dry-suit diver become so heavily over-weighted? Is it because....

• ....they don't have time to dial in their weights in a new environment? (colder temps, more clothes, salt-water, new dry-suit diver)
• ...a buoyancy-issue short-cut? (I'm too buoyant, slap on 12lbs, deal with proper-weighting later)
• ...for warmth?

I'm not judging the individual divers of course.

 

[SlugLife]

It is in situations like this that a pony bottle and some practice in using it can make a difference between life and death. That is why I get so angry and strident on the pony bottle threads where people claim they are of no use and only a crutch for poor divers who don't have good buddy skills.

Absolutely. IMO, a huge part of being a good buddy-diver is to be self-reliant first. The best buddies (practically) never need rescue, and when an incident does occur, they have better skills and equipment to aid both another diver and themselves. And yes, of course one should practice buddy skills, and there's zero shame in accepting assistance.

Side-note: I have several 3x spare pony-bottles (6, 6, an 19cu) that my dive-buddies are welcome to borrow any time they want, but so far people almost-never take me up on the offer. So much so, that now-days I just leave the spare at home, and tell my dive-buddies to text me before if they change their mind.

 

[Jonn]

re: Weighting

why/how does a dry-suit diver become so heavily over-weighted?

It’s because the buoyancy varies quite a bit, from day to day and over the dive. There was a suggestion this diver was from warmer (but still cold) water and had added a few layers underneath. She needed to add lead for that, deciding exactly how much is a judgment call. A low pressure shore dive will get that sorted but not everyone makes the time. It’s also tricky getting air out of the suit on the way up, you need the right posture and a bit of wriggling to manage the bubble and get it out the valve. A few extra pounds gives you time to do that before you have a runaway ascent. As with most things: experience. Not applicable here but if the suit is damaged it will flood and become very heavy.

I’m wondering why she didn’t ditch her weights. When I feel panicky my hand reaches for that buckle, as it should. It was a rec dive, an uncontrolled buoyant ascent wouldn’t do her body any favours but should have been survivable.

 

[DandyDon]

I’m wondering why she didn’t ditch her weights. When I feel panicky my hand reaches for that buckle, as it should. It was a rec dive, an uncontrolled buoyant ascent wouldn’t do her body any favours but should have been survivable.

I think that most dead divers that are found still have weights attached. If I don't practice grabbing them on the first dive of every trip, it becomes difficult to try.

 

[SlugLife]

I’m wondering why she didn’t ditch her weights.

When diving with a wetsuit, I have my weights dialed in and don't have or need ditachable-weights. However, the time I dove in salt & colder water for the first without weights dialed in, the additional-weights were ditchable.

No drysuit experience or training here yet, but I wonder how much ditchable weights are emphasized in your average drysuit course. It seems ditchable weights would be more vital there.

Perhaps to avoid an excessive uncontrolled ascent, ideally, only some of your weights would be ditched. I haven't really seen standard scuba-training talking about ditching only some weights, it seems as if people are implicitly taught ditching all of your weights.

 

[KenGordon]

re: Weighting

Based on several accident-and-incident threads, I've noticed several fatalities where the drysuit diver is heavily overweighed.

Perhaps I'm asking the obvious, but why/how does a dry-suit diver become so heavily over-weighted? Is it because....

• ....they don't have time to dial in their weights in a new environment? (colder temps, more clothes, salt-water, new dry-suit diver)
• ...a buoyancy-issue short-cut? (I'm too buoyant, slap on 12lbs, deal with proper-weighting later)
• ...for warmth?

I'm not judging the individual divers of course.

It is quite a faff to get buoyancy correct, especially given changes in undersuit. It is also quite hard for people to understand that they are not light. I have had proper arguments with students who insist they cannot get down and who are utterly convinced they have no more gas to dump, when really a bit of stopping and thinking eventually gets them to sink (starting with a near empty cylinder). Many people have unrealistic expectations of how fast they ought to sink too.