dive accident catalina 10/1/05 0230

[bwphoto]

Maybe no one was actually treated in the Chamber but C Brasher died on the dive boat and was taken to the coast guard station there in Catalina, this is being checked by her husband Steve who was on the boat with her after which she was sent to USC or UCLA for the autopsy, Steve and (her friends called her billy) are our best friends, and if the story is bogus you better contact steve because he and our family were devistated by the news saturday

We are off to console steve right now, I would hope he doesnt see these messages calling his wife,s death bogus.

I only knew her a Billy. Very sweet lady, who was a pleasure to be around. I talked to Mr. B, this morning. I am glad he has good friends and family around him now. I was very glad that they met him at the dock. It has been a tough couple of days for me, but Talking to Mr. B helped a lot.
Take care of him, and don't let him rush back to soon.

 

[ChrisA]

If they let him surface low on air without following him up then he wasn't diving solo or buddyless, he was flat out abandoned. There is nothing wrong with a group of three as long as they stay a group of three. Letting the third diver fend for himself at the first critical juncture was total horsesh!t.

Condolences to his family.

THis senario is common. Assumming that this dive went like most, "low on air" in this case would not mean "dangously low on air". Typically when a third diver wants to surface and let the other two stay down he has 700PSI or more depending on depth. Most will not go off like that unless it is good enough condidtion where you can see the surface and it's shallow.

For those non-locals who don't know about kelp. It grows straight up from the bottom and makes vertical "stems" or "trunk" the plant has floats long it's lenght filled with gas the hold it vertical. If the "trunks" grow longer then the depth of the water the extra lenght lays down on the surface and can make a dense mat that looks almost like one could walk on the stuff. Surface swimming over it is not easy but not hard either. They call it the "kelp crawl" you go face down, head up and "crawwl with hands over the kelp (actually more like breast stroke then freestyle). But under water you can swimm normally beween the " trunks". Every time I have to go over the stuff I'll ask my buddy if he has enough air remaining to go under it at about three feet of depth. enough air being "well about 500psi." It is _so_ much easier to swimm under a thick mat of kelp than "crawl" over it that I've seen divers go into their reserve but that is wrong. when they say "bring 500psi back onto the boat" there is good reason for using that exact wording
and not something like "surface with 500".

 

[fishnchips]

That's the thing about getting into a bad predicament as a solo diver (which he was).

Correction. He was not Solo Diving. His dive plan was 3 buddy team. So this was an example of buddies diving that went wrong. It has nothing to do with Solo Diving. And his lost reminded us all to be very careful when selecting dive buddies.

My condolences to his family.

If they let him surface low on air without following him up then he wasn't diving solo or buddyless, he was flat out abandoned. There is nothing wrong with a group of three as long as they stay a group of three. Letting the third diver fend for himself at the first critical juncture was total horsesh!t.

Condolences to his family.

Right on ST. Well said.

 

[drbill]

As a kelp forest ecologist who dives in kelp 80% of the time, much of what you say is correct... in daytime. However, this was a lobster dive at night. Personally I would not want to go through kelp on a dark night, either by crawling on top of it or diving just below the canopy. During the day, yes.

Another factor... if a current was moving through the area, the kelp could easily be horizontal. I find that under such conditions, the kelp is often "erratically" swirling around and is very easy to get entangled in even during the day. Usually these entanglements are easily exited, but at night they can be much more difficult.

I find that if I time my night dive well, the lobster are still in the shallows inside the inner kelp line. Far less danger of getting entangled and a greater chance of getting my tummy filled... that is if I hadn't stopped taking the tasty morsels about 30 years ago!

For those non-locals who don't know about kelp. It grows straight up from the bottom and makes vertical "stems" or "trunk" the plant has floats long it's lenght filled with gas the hold it vertical. If the "trunks" grow longer then the depth of the water the extra lenght lays down on the surface and can make a dense mat that looks almost like one could walk on the stuff. Surface swimming over it is not easy but not hard either. They call it the "kelp crawl" you go face down, head up and "crawwl with hands over the kelp (actually more like breast stroke then freestyle). But under water you can swimm normally beween the " trunks". Every time I have to go over the stuff I'll ask my buddy if he has enough air remaining to go under it at about three feet of depth. enough air being "well about 500psi." It is _so_ much easier to swimm under a thick mat of kelp than "crawl" over it that I've seen divers go into their reserve but that is wrong. when they say "bring 500psi back onto the boat" there is good reason for using that exact wording
and not something like "surface with 500".

 

[JMD123]

Dr Bill... If you found your self at night on the surface with a bunch of kelp and 500 psi in your only tank and you were alone what would you do?

Also what would you do if you were entagled?

Please do not take this as a chaleneg I just see you on the board a lot and you seem very knoledgable

 

[drbill]

First, it is highly unlikerly I would be in that situation in the first place. I do very few night dives here... I save them for the warmer tropics!

Assuming one of the two dive lights I would be carrying worked, I would check to see where the boat was and take a compass heading (I assume it would also be lit), then submerge to shallow depths and try swimming just under the canopy using my light to guide me through the stipes. 500 psi that shallow would get me a long way.

Depends on where the entanglement occurred. I usually get entangled by my octo screw adjustment knob (easy to disengage) or my valve knob. In that case I would first reach back and try to disentangle. If that didn't work, I'd slowly back out, possibly adding a slight turn in the opposite direction to try to free the kelp from the valve knob.

Prevention is the best cure... I just don't expect to find myself in that situation. I don't dive for bugs, and my night dives are generally in shallow areas free from kelp or over sandy bottoms and reefs at depth in dive sites I'm quite familiar with. Diving on nights of fairly full moons also helps by lighting the upper water column so you can see the kelp and the dive boat better.

 

[ChrisA]

Not a fair question. Someone who does many night dives and has been snorkling and diving for years in kelp and knows the area may likely find the enviroment relaxing and peacfull and be in no hurry to get back to the boat whereas someone on a once a year openning night boat may find themselves in an unfamiar and (therefore) stessful environment

Dr Bill... If you found your self at night on the surface with a bunch of kelp and 500 psi in your only tank and you were alone what would you do?

Also what would you do if you were entagled?

Please do not take this as a chaleneg I just see you on the board a lot and you seem very knoledgable

 

[drbill]

Absolutely correct, ChrisA. The same situation will be experienced differently by different people. Despite 36 years of kelp diving, I prefer not to make many night dives in it myself. Someone whose dive experience is more limited might feel even more uncomfortable.

 

[dumdiver]

Being a person intimately familiar with both incidents, allow me to clarify, without going into conjecture or intimate details. First yes there were two fatalities about 9 hours apart.
2am: I was diving from Siren's Buddy Boat and the buddy to the diver who discovered the male deceased. Much of what Siren wrote is probable conjecture, but frankly no one knows what happend after the divers seperated. I wish I knew what happened, so that it may be a lesson to others.
Diver #2 The female, a fellow con-ed student in a class, succombed to a probable cardiac arrest after a valiant effort by the crew, her instructor, and an EMT also in the class. My sympathies go out to both families.
Unfortunately the families of the deceased are not the only ones affected by incidents like these. Those involved in both incidents are affected by the outcome as well.

 

[ablake]

Maybe I'll see you at the club meeting tonight? I was the assistant for the class. I was with her counting her pulse when it stopped..
When i am feeling better maybe i'll post what really happend.

Billy (Christine Brasher every one that really knew her called her Billy) dove off the Cee Ray with Her husband Steve. Steve dove with the class taking some underwater photos. Billy stayed hand in hand with the Instructor (who by the way Steve says did a great job with Billy, and that he (the instructor) is very torn up about it shouldn’t be.)
Through out the dive, about 15 min into the dive Billy signaled the Instructor she was having trouble breathing, at that time Billy and the instructor surface with out delay
Seeing that Billy and the instructor went to the surface Steve followed when he reached the surface Billy was in tow by the instructor towards the back of the boat
When Steve got to them he asked Billy if she was ok. Billy said she was exhausted and felt week the guys on the boat were great and got her aboard allowing her to lie on the deck of the boat, at that point she stopped breathing and her heart stopped
bay watch was called who responded very quickly and while taking her to the chamber kept tiring to revive her, Apparently someone was flown from the main land and arrived at the chamber where they decompressed her four times Steve said,

Steve also said that every one did what they could, and that he was truly impressed at how so many people worked so hard to save the life of some one they didn’t know.

Steve love's to dive and Billy loved diving as much, maybe more.
The dive community is very small, and Steve thanks everyone that tried to help that day. It was her time. Steve's Thought is that she had a great dive saw alot of the world that she loved to visit came up and went to sleep.