Death at Blue Springs State Park, Florida

[Nirvana]

It is quite shocking that the octopus was stowed in such a way as to make it "unavailable if needed", as the report says. It begs the question: was it put like this intentionally or was it in fact not "stowed" like that but in truth got its hose trapped by the BCD's straps when it was put on? Either way, it was a serious oversight on the part of both divers, which compounded with other mistakes to produce a truly unfortunate result.

 

[Doppler]

Incidents such as this one are caused in the vast majority of cases by a series of small breaks in the system... in this case, these divers exceeded their training, began their dive with the wrong attitude (signed a form saying they would not exceed 18 metres / 60 feet depth and choosing to ignore it), did not do an adequate buddy check on the surface (fouled octo and gas not fully turned on), ignored the training one of them had at least and did not do a a bubble check and S-drill at 10 feet (this would have shown up the octo problem... and remember one of them was cavern certified... they teach s-drills at that level), and seemed to have insufficient skills to avoid and then deal with a rather ordinary emergency (two things... the dead guy's SPG was probably fluttering throughout his dive, which had he enjoyed ANY level of situational awareness would have triggered a little reg flag for him; and secondly, the victim did not attempt a CESA... I do not agree with the practice but in this case, he should have dropped his weight belt and tried it perhaps).

One death, one guy scared for the rest of his life... and probably scared ****less that his arse is gonna get sued. And all because neither had ever realized that if you **** around with this stuff, make no mistake, you will die.

 

[FinnMom]

Which way is "air on"

I told my kids to picture that the tank was designed so that your air would always roll "on" if you accidently brushed it against something while diving. Picture that you are horizontal and moving forward (your direction of movement the vast majority of the time). If you move under something solid and it makes contact against your valve hard & steady enough to roll it, in what direction does it turn? That direction is usually/almost always "on". Visualizing this should make it much easier to remember: the backstory makes it more interesting and lodges it in one's memory better.

This doesn't hold true for the left post in a doubles set. If you dive doubles you should be practising valve drills and know perfectly well which valve opens in which direction. This aside, in doubles your primary reg is generally on the right post & one reason is arguably because it will tend to roll "on" when rotated by accident.

 

[Jon_R]

Incidents such as this one are caused in the vast majority of cases by a series of small breaks in the system... in this case, these divers exceeded their training, began their dive with the wrong attitude (signed a form saying they would not exceed 18 metres / 60 feet depth and choosing to ignore it), did not do an adequate buddy check on the surface (fouled octo and gas not fully turned on), ignored the training one of them had at least and did not do a a bubble check and S-drill at 10 feet (this would have shown up the octo problem... and remember one of them was cavern certified... they teach s-drills at that level), and seemed to have insufficient skills to avoid and then deal with a rather ordinary emergency (two things... the dead guy's SPG was probably fluttering throughout his dive, which had he enjoyed ANY level of situational awareness would have triggered a little reg flag for him; and secondly, the victim did not attempt a CESA... I do not agree with the practice but in this case, he should have dropped his weight belt and tried it perhaps).

One death, one guy scared for the rest of his life... and probably scared ****less that his arse is gonna get sued. And all because neither had ever realized that if you **** around with this stuff, make no mistake, you will die.

Usually one failure makes a compelling personal story. Multiple failures makes the news and possible legal proceedings.

In this case I would think a civil suit would be hard to win. No evidence I have seen that the deceased did anything other than jump in with his tank almost off and panicked.

 

[Bob DBF]

Vansickle said he passed his regulator to Slack so he could breathe from it.

But when Vansickle motioned for the regulator’s return after about 30 seconds Slack held on to it, the report said. Vansickle told deputies he then pulled away from Slack, got control of the regulator and swam to the surface.

Buddy breathing is a skill that is discussed, but not actually trained for enough to do any good. The most important part of training is the ability to control the situation, retrieve the reg, take a couple of breaths and hand it back to someone who has no intention of ever giving it back to you. No wonder the octo was, and is, so popular.

I only had one bad buddy breathing experience ( other than training ) and if I wasen't such a harda** at the time, the result would have matched this incident. Only what is now considered hazing can prepare you for the nightmare of dealing with one reg and a panicked diver.

I feel for all involved, but it seems like there is a clear line of mistakes leading to the accident. Both divers overlooked basic safety checks and procedures, then Poseidon claims the unprepared.



Bob
------------------
SCUBA is only safe if you make it that way.

 

[ianr33]

I've posted many times that, IMHO valves should be either full on,or full off. If you can breathe, it's open. If you can't, it's shut. KISS

I really don't care about the remote possibility of possibly,maybe, damaging an inexpensive valve by not turning it back 1/8 turn!

 

[boulderjohn]

Buddy breathing is a skill that is discussed, but not actually trained for enough to do any good. The most important part of training is the ability to control the situation, retrieve the reg, take a couple of breaths and hand it back to someone who has no intention of ever giving it back to you. No wonder the octo was, and is, so popular.

A study done a couple of decades ago showed that it took on average 17 successful buddy breathing practice experiences for both buddies to be proficient in its execution. It also showed the skills were perishable. If they were not regularly practiced, they were lost. The belief that buddy breathing is about as likely to produce two fatalities as save one life is the reason that some agencies do not teach it at all at the basic level. They would much prefer that the OOA diver do a CESA than create a potential double fatality through buddy breathing.

This is only the second buddy breathing case I have heard of in the past two years. The other one did indeed result in a double fatality.

 

[grey2112]

To me, at least, this is a major reason why I have an Octo vs. the popular (so it seems to me lately) all-in-one BC inflator/deflator/secondary air BC vests I am seeing more and more of lately. Imagine trying to control a panicked diver and having him THAT close to you either breathing off the secondary from the BC or from your primary while you try to breathe off your BC hose.

 

[Skittl1321]

To me, at least, this is a major reason why I have an Octo vs. the popular (so it seems to me lately) all-in-one BC inflator/deflator/secondary air BC vests I am seeing more and more of lately. Imagine trying to control a panicked diver and having him THAT close to you either breathing off the secondary from the BC or from your primary while you try to breathe off your BC hose.

Do the people who use the BC incorporated secondaries not typically use a long hose primary?

Buddy breathing off a shared primary sounds like a recipe for disaster, as the OOA diver is almost certain to be panicky. On my recent dive trip the dive plan was that the DM would take the first LOA diver up for a safety stop and their buddy could repair with another diver- as long as the group stayed together. My husand out-lasted me by several hundred PSI and buddied up with another diver who had been just tagging as part of the group without a dedicated buddy. I was just about done with the safety stop when my husband joined me, so I hung out for another 3 minutes and we surfaced together: when he went to make sure the guy understood they were a buddy pair he realized this guy (the only person that day not on the rental gear) didn't have an octo and the extra time underwater wasn't worth it. Without a doubt, in a group still of 5, including the DM, he would have been fine. But as a 'buddy' he wasn't interested.

 

[boulderjohn]

Do the people who use the BC incorporated secondaries not typically use a long hose primary?

No. People who use an alternate integrated into the inflator typically use a standard primary hose. People who use a long hose primary typically use an alternate regulator that hangs near their chin from a bungeed "necklace" around the neck.