Unknown Coasties searching for missing diver - Pompano Beach, Florida

[The Chairman]

I temember the “donor avatar”. Dem was da days!

It's still "dem days".

I’d have suggested you just cut the cable as to get rid of that feature, tugging on inflator hose to dump air is a dumb feature manufacturers insist on using.

Dive and let dive. I love that particular feature and have it even on my tech BCDs. I've been in passageways where I could not lift my deflator over my head, and reaching my butt release was iffy.

 

[TMurrr]

I've seen others wave off a DM saying their air doesn't need to be checked. I always say "Thank you".

all (most) of my tanks have these installed in some variety or another

Vindicator Safety Handle for Tank Valve

Vindicator Safety Handle-Important: You must order the specific model to fit the brand of the valve. There are different models of the Vindicator Knob, each to fit one or more specific brands of scuba valve.

www.divers-supply.com

 

[The Chairman]

This meaning gave the finger to the boat?
Sorry, English not being first language and never heard the term before to mean jumping off of boat.

He means a back roll, I would think. Why do divers do a back roll off the boat? If they rolled forward, they would still be in the boat.

 

[Marty_C]

While not having the air supply turned on is a possibility, I can attest (14 dives with them since December 2024) that the crew on the LadyGoDiver are very good at ensuring that everyone's air is turned on before jumping off the transom. While not as coordinated as a DM led group exercise as depicted several posts above, the DM (or DM's depending on how many divers are on the trip) check for the air being on when they grab the tank's valve stem to steady you before the jump and prior to releasing you.

But it also could be that the diver lost his regulator when he jumped in and could not locate it or his octopus. The very same thing happened to me (although on the boat and not the water) when I dove my BPW for the first time. I think the tank may ride differently and the usual motion of swinging my arm back to locate the hose was coming up empty. My buddy had to locate it and hand it to me. I quickly made a mental note to get a necklace to ensure that the regulator is not further than my chin, and relocated my octopus to the top part of my right shoulder, also very reachable.

Also, I looked up the conditions on Saturday morning and it was breezy, 14-17 knots, but it was from the West. The seas were running 3 feet and the forecast called for a shift to the south later in the day. So the conditions, in the morning, were dive-able especially for a boat the size of of the LadyGoDiver. However, the conditions deteriorated rather rapidly as the shift to the south happened faster than expected.

I have had dives on the LadyGoDiver being cancelled on the morning of the dive (I dive with them a lot - love the boat and the crew) when the conditions are 5-7 feet waves and higher. So I do not believe it is a scenario of them going out at any cost, I do believe that the conditions were dive-able in the morning. Indeed most dive operators went out that morning.

Having said all that, I am not certain, but is it the DM's responsibility to ensure that everyone air is on? Obviously this is a good practice and should be done, but the question is, is it their responsibility? In other words, is there a gross negligence (they know they have to and did not) claim if a DM does not check for air being on? I was always taught that the responsibility lay with the diver to check their gear - and of course all Liability Waivers specifically denote that everyone is responsible for checking their own gear.

I did not intend to say that the DM was the cause. I meant to say the DM could be one more in the list of things that went wrong and eventually resulted in this young man dying. I believe most people here are not trying to point the finger to assess blame. It is more of a disection of "what happened?" to help ourselves prevent this kind of tragedy from ever happening again.

 

[Marty_C]

This meaning gave the finger to the boat?
Sorry, English not being first language and never heard the term before to mean jumping off of boat.

It means to "roll off backwards" to enter the water.

 

[scubadada]

I do everything exactly the same way when I assemble my gear until I hit the water. It keeps me from making the mistakes that I may make. It has served me very well for a long time. Before that, I made most all of the mistakes, at least once.

 

[Pavao]

I’m unsure of a few things, sorry if I missed it.

Has diver been found/recovered?
Unplugged inflator is confirmed?
Reg came out of mouth, at/near surface or on the bottom?
Was tank closed or just possibility?

I guess if diver hasn’t been recovered it is still hard to answer some of these questions.

I have just had a panicking diver bolt to the surface today from 47ft, everything perfectly fine till about 4 minutes into the dive, freshly certified diver. The one thing about this discussion here relevant to it, the diver in my case was at stage of panic of rejecting gear (removing mask/spitting reg), so really desperate to get to the surface, still, was quite a “weak” kicking to get to the surface, due to poor technique, in my case this was actually a good thing as it made it easier for me to control the ascent since I was also able to hold reg in mouth.

Long story short, what I’m getting at is peoples ability to swim up to surface on a malfunctioning rig, I’m questioning that many couldn’t do it even if they’re not really overweighted significantly.

Another possibility is this diver here experiencing difficulty breathing from a partially open tank, the whole 1/4 turn procedure, which passes all predive safety checks and the issue only reveals itself at depth, this is why I’m asking if diver spit reg at surface or bottom.

To add to the swim up panic comment, once in panic mode, rationale is out the window, whether the diver has droppable weights or not might be a moot point if the panic diver is hindered cognitively to even think about dropping weights. I have witnessed this more times than I’d certainly have liked to, have seen so many divers struggling at the surface for whatever reason, trying to stay afloat, verge of panic, not a single one has ever dropped weights, as I write this, I’m searching my memory for one single instance where a diver has dropped weights, can’t think of one I’ve seen in ~17 years working on boats.
There has been several times where I just reached over, inflated BCD and it worked perfectly fine, all the diver had to was inflate and they couldn’t think of that on the heat of the moment.

To add to good comments about ensuring your tank is open before splashing, I’d suggest you also ensure your valve is reachable while wearing your gear and that you familiarize yourself with opening the tank from that position.

 

[Pavao]

It means to "roll off backwards" to enter the water.

I did consider that, didn’t think people were doing back rolls off of LadyGo Diver.
So, some are backrolling from the sides while others step off the back?

 

[Pavao]

Dive and let dive.

Opine and let opine!

 

[NothingClever]

From the original article in the first post of this thread, updated @ 06:58, Monday, 17 March 2025:

By Sunday night, the USGC said it suspended search efforts for Levine pending the development of new information after searching about 1,470 square miles over the weekend.