Aruba Fatality today 2/26/07

[Onehappyisland]

Latest info I got was that it was a resort course diver on his first open water dive. Apparently he panicked on the bottom, and jetted for the surface. This was the second fatality in 2 weeks at Red Sail Sports in Aruba.

Their normal SOP is 40 divers supervised by 2 diver masters. This is just an accident waiting to happen. No wonder the locals call them Dead Sail.

In Aruba, all the beaches are public property. On the beaches there are small mom & pop operations running six packs. Marriott for one is trying to get rid of them, and steer all the business to Red Sail, which has facilities in the Marriott property. Marriott 's check in package tries to discourage guests from using the beach vendors.

Because of the large number of divers, a 2 tank dive starts at 8:00 in the morning, and returns at 3:00, burning a whole day. Diving with Romeo of Native Divers, we left at 9:00, and got back by 1:00.

Please pass the word. Avoid Red Sail sports.

The accident happened on the Antilla wreck. The diver died later in the hospital.

On Aruba are a few divecenters, only one of them is on the blacklist of PADI. a few are so called cowcattle boats and a few are centers with smaller groups.
Best advice is don't go for the name of a divecenter, but send them a email to see how they act and before you go diving check their equipment, boats and crew.

What happens on the beaches of Aruba (you are talking about the palmbeach area, I presume) is that there are a lot of people who sell on commission base. they sell for for the bigger divecenters because they don't have their own divecenter.

Doesn't matter who sells the divepackage, DM/guide/instructor is responsible during the dive.
On the beach of palmare are just a few divecenters, which have their building located on the beach : Red Sail, Unique, Pelican (who are now together with Unique and Aruba Water Sports center.
Also on this beach you can find some smaller operators like Native divers, private diving, etc.

Just be careful when you listen to 1 person and didn't check out the other companies first.

Who has a bigger change on a accident? a small company with 4 divers a day or a big company with 50 divers a day?
What about those cruiseship divers with 20 dives in 10 years on their belt going drift diving on a deep wreck?

If it was really a instructor with more then 4 students (no assistant) then the instruction agency or family should take care of that legally.

By the way what you can do is fill in a PADI incident report.

Henry

If you don't know the truth then keep still untill you know the truth.

 

[Thalassamania]

What are the PADI standards concerning "discovery dive" supervision?

 

[Tollie]

PADI Standards for an Open Water Discover Dive are:

4:1 Participant to Instructor and 6:1 if the Instructor has a DM.

All skills training on a line in open water must be done 1:1.

 

[Bonuss]

Are you all sure there were 40 people? Their boat doesn't even hold that many people. I dove with Red Sails and they were professional, the groups were kept small (again, when I was there, 1.5 yrs ago), etc. I really really question the 40 people and two dive masters. That is not how they operated when I used them.

No one ever claimed that... this is simply an off the cuff comment that got carried away. "Their normal SOP (standard operating procedure) is 40 divers supervised by 2 diver masters." Just conjecture, nothing more. Sounds like opinions "for and agin" the OP have been posted... Nothing pertaining to the actual incident.

Hopefully more actual info will be posted...

Bob in CO

 

[Scuba-Jay]

I sent this off a few minutes ago and copied the CFO and the Ops manager at corporate. Its always fair to allow the other side to respond.

to: lwade@redsail.com, plusk@redsail.com, info@redsail.com, michel@redsailaruba.com, management@redsailaruba.com, info@redsailaruba.com

Re: scubaboard.com post

Allcon,

You should be aware that a thread has been initiated in www.scubaboard.com regarding an alleged fatal incident at your Aruba location. You should be aware that scubaboard is the worlds largest online gathering spot for scuba divers and posts on this site can have a dramatic if not terminal effect on your business. I am not associated with the post, but as a long time scubaboard member I always attempt to contact dive stores when I see this kind of post gaining popularity so that they may provide their own side of the story. I strongly urge you to comment.

Jay

 

[shakeybrainsurgeon]

I've been out with Red Sail in both Aruba and Grand Cayman several times each ...it was off peak, so the boats weren't crowded at all and the operation seemed professional enough at both places. I agree with Andy, the ratio of DMs is not material for certified divers. In the Keys, I've been on cattle boats who send in divers with no DMs at all except on board ...resort courses are a different matter and whether they should exist at all has been debated in other threads. I suggest that if someone wants to do a "resort dive" they do it by hiring a private DM or instructor to go in with them one on one. It costs more, but being dead has a certain cost too.

 

[Paul Lusk]

I sent this off a few minutes ago and copied the CFO and the Ops manager at corporate. Its always fair to allow the other side to respond.

to: lwade@redsail.com, plusk@redsail.com, info@redsail.com, michel@redsailaruba.com, management@redsailaruba.com, info@redsailaruba.com

Re: scubaboard.com post

Allcon,

You should be aware that a thread has been initiated in www.scubaboard.com regarding an alleged fatal incident at your Aruba location. You should be aware that scubaboard is the worlds largest online gathering spot for scuba divers and posts on this site can have a dramatic if not terminal effect on your business. I am not associated with the post, but as a long time scubaboard member I always attempt to contact dive stores when I see this kind of post gaining popularity so that they may provide their own side of the story. I strongly urge you to comment.

Jay

Response to scubaboard.com message thread:

There was an incident on February 26, 2007 with a certified diver on a Red Sail Sports Aruba dive at the Antilla wreck. Due to the nature of the incident I am not going to speculate but simply report the facts as we know them.

• 59 year old male, NAUI certified diver
• maximum depth of the dive was 60’
• diver was with a group of 6 certified divers accompanied by a scuba instructor
• surface conditions were non-threatening and visibility was 25-30’
• there was no indication of failure in any of the divers’ equipment
• diver was pronounced dead at the local hospital of a heart attack

We responded to the medical emergency as quickly as possible and in accordance with PADI procedures. Sadly the gentlemen expired. Our thoughts are with the family and also with our Red Sail people involved in this tragedy.

We appreciate the purpose of the scubaboard.com site is to disseminate information of interest to scuba divers in an open forum but it is important to remember that a number of posts consist solely of speculation and rumor.

Paul Lusk
COO/CFO
Red Sail Sports

 

[H2Andy]

thank you, Paul

appreciate the information

 

[drbill]

Thanks, Paul. Always good to get the facts rather than speculate. Looks like the incident was quite different from what was suggested earlier. Of course if I go while diving, I hope Scubaboard members will greatly embellish the story and create a legend!

 

[deepstops]

Thanks for taking the time to respond Paul.

So now that we have the facts of the dive, shouldn't "Ken Abucs" be banned for slandering Red Sail Sports??