Dead Diver Reported at Spitting Cave

[onfloat]

From the code of the responsible diver:

"Superior divers use their superior knowledge to stay out of situations that would require their superior skills."

Roak

Hey I like that!!!!

 

[mrjimboalaska]

The news reports have been kind of conflicting. The Diver having been a Lt. Colonel in the reserves, was probably generally in good health.. I hope we find out what actually happened but doubt that. One thing that bothered me was in the film footage it "appeared" as though one official was dragging some gear across the pavement, console and reg bouncing away, hope that they dont blame gear after seeing that.......
after surfacing from that drift, I should'nt be so close to the wall that you put yourself or others at risk though, or am I thinking wrong????

 

[Cacia]

I'm wondering what all the hub-bub is about (Pelelieu, sp?, comes to mind).

well, I have done it once. When Mike Veitch says sometimes he "passes" on it, it gets on my radar. (he is a pro photog, lived there). Sometimes, you have to make a judgement based on the information you have to work with.

For me, Spitting Caves is my favorite dive. But I do it only with two captains, who I know read the ocean like no other. He says "only on an in-coming tide and only when no south swell". When I do it, it is a big "Trust Me Dive" and the boat captain makes the call. period. ( Actually sometimes, I try and talk him into it, but this has convinced me that is wrong.)
The first thought in my mind when this happened was "oh ****, glad I did not talk them into it, because it was rough and I was already working on putting my big bid in, because I wanted to see the monk seal. Kind of selfish, yes? But at least I see that.


Sea Nmf, I can tell you my strategy.

I save one third of my air for heading away from the caves, into open ocean (usually perpendicular to the Makapu'u or Diamond Head current). This is critical, or the boat cannot always get you picked up before the waves carry you towards the rocks. Another important thing I do is blow my marker the last third of the dive, so he can plan his pick-up sequence.

(If everyone surfaces in different spots, guess what?.. he now has a BF problem.)

So 1) the captain matters: Captain Joe Zbin and Johnny Pang: I go. 2) too much current: I pass #3) never without a marker on a spool loaded with line. 4) Never surface early unless it is life or death. For the people that love this dive, this is the appeal, calculating this, going somewhere most divers can't pull off, seeing stuff most don't get to see. Swimming into the caves? Gauge that surge a few cycles or do not go. Still, I go half way to the very back but am afraid of the surge causing me to "kiss China Wall" and stop short of going all the way to the back.

The only people that should do this dive on an sketchy day are people that like to be worried. If you do not like this "feeling", my advice is do not go. oh...another thing? If I am not feeling 100%, I pass. If I am really "on my game" I ask how much fuel they have.

My hope is that operator's will stop taking the tourists on this dive. Yes, I still want to go, but I think it should be for locals only. You cannot know this spot from Chicago.

 

[Knight]

The problem I have is knowing which 'expert' dives I can do and which are truly *EXPERT*. I think that divers less conservative than I -- that is, most of them -- might do a few of these easier 'expert' dives and generalize all expert dives to be like those.

So your about to make a skilled dive i.e. THE DEADLY! Spitting Caves (that is a great name for that area) what you should do before diving is see if you can get some or real fact % of how many divers have been killed/injured in that area say in the past 7 years and see if you can find out the reasons for this and just ALWAYS do your homework as if you was about to take a sat test or something. Going over other divers wrong doing such as death/injury or near drowning on the same dives your about to make CAN SAVE YOUR LIFE.

try and tell some people that...they won't have it. most people think they are experts.

(nothing to do with this man)

You are correct. We need to all go on alert at this site before we have more accidents.

Sadly this is sooooooo x10 TRUE....... and I can not say that any better then what this DM Cat says and I see it alot on divers who think there truely experts and I'm sure everyone else does thinking there some sort of dive god then they jump in the water and that is the last you see of em, sometimes the only way for people to learn is death (which they themselves can't learn after that but we can) or end up in a trauma center.

Always descending,
c.h.

 

[onfloat]

Can I ask, where exactly is Spitting Cave? I have dove off the Honey Ann along China Wall and the swell was pretty large by the end of the dive.

 

[BIGG_BUDD]

My condolences to the family...

I don't mean to shift gears, but I dove Kauai (Ni'ihau) during the first of May. During that same week, we heard a report of a woman spitting her reg out at 80-100 feet at Vertical Awareness. Supposedly her mask flooded and she freaked.

Last I heard, she was in a deco chamber, but it didn't look good....

Does anyone know the whole story, or what happened to her? Very curious...

Later,

 

[sea nmf]

Sea Nmf, I can tell you my strategy. I save one third of my air for heading away from the caves, into open ocean (usually perpendicular to the Makapu'u or Diamond Head). This is critical, or the boat cannot always get you picked up before the waves carry you towards the rocks. Another important thing I do is blow my marker the last third of the dive, so he can plan his pick-up sequence.

(If everyone surfaces in different spots, guess what? he now has a BF problem.)


Well, sure. I do that, too. But let's say that for SOME REASON, you surface prior to swimming away from the wall underwater, into open water. Wouldn't a full BC and the reg in your mouth be a strategy that would keep you alive? And, of course, a safety sausage is a very good safety feature.

I guess what I'm wondering is if the simple fact of being "in distress" would make you want to remove your regulator. Wouldn't you be in some state of panic to remove it?

If the distressed diver is in panic mode, (no matter who the diver is), then maybe an accident can't be avoided. The best I can hope for is to put these situations in my concsious mind and review them prior to each dive.

 

[Cacia]

Can I ask, where exactly is Spitting Cave? I have dove off the Honey Ann along China Wall and the swell was pretty large by the end of the dive.

You may have been there already. If the current is not swift enough, sometimes you don't make it to the caves, depending on where the captain drops you...South eastern exposure of Ko-ko crater.

Sometimes this is an easy dive. No wind, flat ocean, etc. Because you are essentially following the shoreline, and conditions change very quickly here...you just want to size things up. Joey and Johnny have lived here their whole lives. The area is one big lava wall which creates a "back wash" of the surf that pounds it.

China wall, go east you get to Spitting Cave, then Sea Cave...continue on (say the current carries you off..you drift to Hanauma Bay. If you look at the ocean when driving to Makapu'u, it is wild and beautiful. The current wraps around from the Molakai channel, meets with another current "the wrap-around" and the sea churns, thus the term "Witches Brew". To dive along and look upward at the foaming, spitting sea is awe-inspiring.

I guess what I'm wondering is if the simple fact of being "in distress" would make you want to remove your regulator. Wouldn't you be in some state of panic to remove it?

My impression, not specific to this accident, is that when swimmers, jumpers, surfers, divers are about to get slammed into the wall, they take the reg out to call for help because there are sometimes people standing/fishing on the rocks. It is their last ditch effort.

I have taken my reg out once to scream "hey, have you seen our boat?" I was not in panic, but I was very concerned.

The guy that drowned there last month, probably got pounded on the rocks THEN drowned.

okay, me shut up now.

 

[Darnold9999]

If a dive is for locals only because it is so tough, when do you go in the first time???? You are just as much a rookie as a tourist going in the first time. Depending on where you learned to dive, your local conditions etc. etc. this might not be a particularly difficult dive.

Personally for an "expert" dive I want to dive with someone who knows the dive at another location first, have them evaluate my skills, discuss the dive and then make the call. Pretty much describes how I want to approach any new difficult dive. Having sad that I have made my share of trust me dives, and likely will again

On the what do you do if you surfact in rough conditions too close to a wall. My instincts would be get back down under the surf and use my air to swim away and try surfacing again further out. A full BC, tank etc. would just act as a surfboard on the waves pushing you into the wall. If I was out of air would still not blow up the BC the less surface area the better and in a serious situation would ditch the tank/reg/BC. I do not have a lot of surf/surge experience so I am curious how others who do would handle this situation. (Other than not get into it in the first place.)

 

[Wildcard]

My condolences to the family...

I don't mean to shift gears, but I dove Kauai (Ni'ihau) during the first of May. During that same week, we heard a report of a woman spitting her reg out at 80-100 feet at Vertical Awareness. Supposedly her mask flooded and she freaked.

Last I heard, she was in a deco chamber, but it didn't look good....

Does anyone know the whole story, or what happened to her? Very curious...

Later,

I posted a question about that when it happened and got no response and I found nothing in searching online.