DevonDiver
N/A
... you did cheat slightly: I said what has happened to *you*: you did not experience hypothermia, yourself. I am curious to know if you imagine that *you* could have this as a danger, diving in conditions like Monterey or Casino Park, for yourself?
I've had hypothermia, of varying degrees, several times in my life. I'd count that as transferable experience - which has allowed me to avoid that situation whilst diving. Those experiences did, however, teach me the potential dangers posed by hypothermia when underwater - not least, the difficulty you encounter in recognizing the onset of serious symptoms.
I've not dived in Monterey or Casino Park, but the incident I quoted occurred in 'relatively' ambient temperate waters - about 12 celcius. The root cause was a 'borrowed' wetsuit - slightly too large - that allowed too much water flow inside the suit, coupled with insufficient experience to recognize and react to the immediate/initial symptoms. The location (Brixham Bay) is a very popular shore-based dive site - frequented for many OW courses, with many non-diving onlookers, in shallow water (<10m) and not directly subject to currents or rough water. In all other respects, it perfectly fits the definition of 'a safe area' for solo... and yet Murphy still choose to appear there.
I actually did a rescue at the same site - an experienced (rescue qualified) diver got 'over-turned' by surf when leaving the water.. and panicked. It sound inconceivable - but the individual was sat on the bottom in 30cm depth, getting hit in the face with small waves - inspiring water spray and rapidly reached a state of significant emotional and respiratory distress. There were hundreds of onlookers (busy beach, in summer). After a few minutes of observation, I concluded the diver was in serious distress and at risk (research: dangers of inhaling water spray) and went to assist. In knee-deep water, I reached down and unclipped the diver's BCD quick-releases - thus freeing them of being 'trapped'. After recovering, the diver was mortified that they needed rescue/assistance, which is understandable. I was more mortified that nobody else on the beach had recognized the diver in distress or acted to assist them.
The reason I quoted these incidents is because it illustrates a simple over-sight that had not yet been identified in this thread (by those quoting 'safe' conditions). In particular, it is illustrative of a particular 'type' of diving incident that causes a rapid decline in diver response capability - thus, if not swiftly recognized and responded to, negates or degrades the opportunity for self-rescue. Contaminated air, only (and rapidly) symptomatic at depth, might be another example of that. As would the use of certain medications, that may cause side-effects at depth - I did have a very bad experience with decongestant containing pseudo-ephedrine when I was a novice diver, doing a cold-water deep dive. Panic, under any circumstance, renders a similar situation.
As an instructor/guide, I've performed hundreds of 'assists' to divers of varying experience levels - normally because the diver concerned has entered some stage of panic and been unable to rectify the situation for themselves. In many cases, those assists were all that stood between 'embarrassment' and catastrophy. A 200+ diver who entered from a boat without LPI properly connected and not wearing fins, who insta-panicked when he wasn't positively buoyant at the surface (threw a life-buoy... another mortified and embarrassed diver), the 450+ CMAS 3* diver who 'forgot' to check their SPG and ran out of air (another red-faced diver), the 1000+ BSAC 'Advanced Diver' who nearly lost his weightbelt and got into severe distress on the bottom trying to retrieve/re-attach it (consuming a phenomenal amount of air in the short space of time before he was assisted), the Divemaster (300+) who got chased by a Triggerfish and sucked his air down to near-zilch in a panicked 4 minutes... the list goes on.