Another abalone diver drowns - California

[DandyDon]

There were 3 one weekend in April, but this is the next one since I think...

Abalone diver drowns in waters off Northern CA | UTSanDiego.com

SANTA ROSA, Calif. — An abalone diver has drowned in the waters off Northern California.
Sonoma County Coroner's Det. Jody Olney says lifeguards pulled the 60-year-old man from the water off Salt Point State Park Saturday morning. Efforts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful.
His name was being withheld pending notification of relatives.
The Press Democrat says ( [url]http://bit.ly/19aYNJW [/URL] ) the state park is a popular destination for recreational abalone divers.
In April, a 36-year-old San Francisco man died after getting caught in a rip tide off the park. Several divers pulled Kenneth Liu to shore but he couldn't be revived.

 

[drrich2]

I'm not familiar with abalone diving. Obviously the seeming recent 'cluster' of deaths in that pursuit seems a bit odd to me, though I'm not informed enough about it for that to mean much.

Is there anything that tends to be more dangerous about abalone diving, or is this just one of those random anecdotal 'false association' appearances that come up from time to time?

Richard.

 

[fisheater]

Every year we lose about 5-8 AB divers.

Reasons include:

- free diving only
- old and out-of-shape divers
- divers who only dive for abs
- unprotected areas open to the vagaries of the Pacific Ocean
- long distance to any facilities or help
- divers from long away who are unwilling to turn back home when conditions are bad (aka The Sacramento Syndrome)
- general lack of a one up, one down buddy system.

 

[Peter_C]

More info including a name.

Press Democrat | Mobile | Abalone diver drowns at Salt Point State Park

Today it was Redwood City syndrome. I just checked the buoy report and it showed around 10.5' early this morning, then dropped down to 8'. Over my maximums. Sounds like the rescue attempts were handled to the best of their ability.

 

[DandyDon]

There were 3 one weekend in April, but this is the next one since I think...

Abalone diver drowns in waters off Northern CA | UTSanDiego.com

No, his link says this makes 5 for the season...

More info including a name.

Press Democrat | Mobile | Abalone diver drowns at Salt Point State Park

 

[Laurie S.]

And they probably all still had their weight belts on.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

There were 3 one weekend in April, but this is the next one since I think...

There was one on May 4. http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20130504/ARTICLES/130509778/0/search

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Every year we lose about 5-8 AB divers.

Reasons include:

- free diving only
- old and out-of-shape divers
- divers who only dive for abs
- unprotected areas open to the vagaries of the Pacific Ocean
- long distance to any facilities or help
- divers from long away who are unwilling to turn back home when conditions are bad (aka The Sacramento Syndrome)
- general lack of a one up, one down buddy system.

I'll also add:

- waters up there are generally not as "nice" as other waters - rougher, much less visibility, and can churn more

- lots of vegetation like kelp to get snagged on

- abalone like to sit in rock crevices. Down in cold, churning, low-vis water + having your body or arm inside crevices + surrounded by tons of vegetation + holding your breath = risk

- abalone can be hard to pluck off. If you don't do it right they clamp down, and some people work on them until they can't anymore, and the exertion and time leaves very little breath left to go back up. If some kelp snags your weight belt on the way up...

- experience - you shouldn't just dive, look around, see an ab, quickly measure it, and then attack it willy-nilly. You've gotta be methodical and take it slow. I dive down, look, and if I see a promising ab or group of abs, I drop my bright yellow ab iron to mark the location and I surface, looking upwards the entire way to make sure I don't swim into a tangle of kelp. Then I circle around up top and look for the safest and most effective angle to get it from (one with the best opening, clearing, vis, etc). I dive down and do some quick ab measurements and remember the ones I want to pluck. Then I go up *again* and recoup. Then I dive down the planned attack angle and work on plucking off the one I planned to pluck. If I screw up and it clamps down, I abort immediately. It won. I lost. Go find another. You can bend quarter inch steel ab irons to 45 degrees and *still* unsuccessfully pluck off an ab that has clamped down. And you don't "pluck" so much as "sweep" them off the rock.

 

[Shasta_man]

<<experience>> sounds like good tactics. I'm certain this level of forethought is unusual for most of the ab divers.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

<<experience>> sounds like good tactics. I'm certain this level of forethought is unusual for most of the ab divers.

Heh, tactics is a result of either experience, having been taught tactics, or both. In my case, I was never taught. When I first went ab diving I just blundered about. I would see an ab, quickly measure, and then go to work on it, all in one breath. And I wasn't very good. In fact, the first time I ever went ab diving was also my first time freediving in a few months, so my skills were a bit rusty. On the way up I didn't look up while gently corkscrewing to make sure I didn't get tangled. Well, a bit of kelp snagged one of my weights, and because I didn't leave much breath left to get back to the surface, I panicked a bit after kicking a few times in vain. It wouldn't let me surface, and of course no amount of strong kicking is going to help you break free - it'll only help you drown faster, just 2 feet under the surface. I quickly came to my senses and released my weight belt and broke free.

Lesson learned and luckily I wasn't *so* rusty that I forgot I could ditch my weights. Also lucky that all things considered, I'm really comfortable being under the water just by default.

So after that and after doing more trial and error I learned that being diligent really pays off. It's all very planned and deliberate. I assume it's also the same with hunting - one doesn't just go into the woods with a rifle and start chasing after the first deer one sees. Ab diving is pretty much just hunting rocks (lol) but the environment is so hostile to you, unlike the woods, so you still need to plan.