Death of a recreational diver after a fall on board MV Elaine

[Tigerman]

If he didn't do himself enough physical injury to have caused his problem, perhaps he damaged his gear in the fall. Any reports on the gear checkout later?

As the linked PDF said, no issues where found with his gear, neither by a different group of divers nor the OEM..

 

[mmadiver]

If he didn't do himself enough physical injury to have caused his problem, perhaps he damaged his gear in the fall. Any reports on the gear checkout later?

Somebody should produce a report with those sorts of details in it, like the one attached...

 

[scubamarketing]

Post title seems a little off, when is a “recreational diver” going to 95m?

 

[Tigerman]

Post title seems a little off, when is a “recreational diver” going to 95m?

Take it up with the guys who wrote the attached report, its their title..

And no, Ive never seen a rec diver in 3 bailouts and a rebreather (but I have seen one in a rebreather - theres a special class and unit for that)

 

[mmadiver]

Post title seems a little off, when is a “recreational diver” going to 95m?

Since the report was produced by a UK Government organization they are likely only interested in reporting if the diver was military, commercial, or recreational (civilian) for attribution and record keeping purposes.

 

[doctormike]

Post title seems a little off, when is a “recreational diver” going to 95m?

Unless he was getting paid to do the dive, he was a recreational diver.

 

[Ken Kurtis]

What I found shocking is that the other divers couldn't get him buoyant and sent him to the surface via lift balloon.

What I find shocking is that he does a faceplant on the boat, has to be helped back to his feet, and - despite him saying he wanted to do the dive - no one else on board thought "Maybe this isn't such a good idea" and at least have him sit for a little while to double-check the gear and double-check himself to absolutely be certain that both he and the gear were still able to do the dive.

- Ken

---------- Post added December 12th, 2013 at 07:28 PM ----------

Unless he was getting paid to do the dive, he was a recreational diver.

I think it's too easy to get hung up on labels. Regardless of which "kind" of a diver he was, this was an advanced, technical (and some would say extreme) dive. There was nothing even remotely recreational about the dive regardless of the label we stick on the diver.

- Ken

 

[Tigerman]

...
I think it's too easy to get hung up on labels. Regardless of which "kind" of a diver he was, this was an advanced, technical (and some would say extreme) dive. There was nothing even remotely recreational about the dive regardless of the label we stick on the diver.

- Ken

By dive agency/certification standards most definetly not.
By intent it seems it was recreational (it wasnt commercial).
Guess thats where an "insider to the sport" and "bystander" have different definitions of whats recreational and not.

And, that said. This is one of the most well documented incidents we've seen here and we still can't really know what exactly went wrong except as always that human error was (a large) part of it..

 

[ianr33]

What I found shocking is that the other divers couldn't get him buoyant and sent him to the surface via lift balloon. I have many many questions about that...

Report stated the loop was out of his mouth. If the rebreather was totally flooded he would have been very negative.
Sending him up with a bag was probably the only thing they could do from that depth. Having an unconscious diver and a huge deco obligation is a lose/lose situation I hope to never encounter.

 

[Ken Kurtis]

By dive agency/certification standards most definetly not. By intent it seems it was recreational (it wasnt commercial).

IMHO, the choices aren't "recreational" and "commercial". The choices are "recreational" and "technical" (or "advanced" or "extended range" or whatever label you put on it). The reference isn't to whether or no the diver got paid, the reference is to the demands of the dive.

I understand what you're saying but I don't think that's the context in which this is being discussed (at least not by me). If you drop a set of keys in 30 feet of water and a friend jumps over to get them for you, that's a recreational dive. If you pay someone to do it, by your definition (and I wouldn't disagree) it became a commercial enterprise. But it's still a recreational dive based on the demands of the dive.

Guess thats where an "insider to the sport" and "bystander" have different definitions of whats recreational and not.

It's not so much that the defintions or perspectives are different. You're just mixing apples and oranges.

- Ken