Diver dead after accident in Lake Ontario near Oakville

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He was not an expert technical diver....nor a technical diver. He was an advanced open water diver. Things like this are going to ruin the diving industry and screw with people who dive safely.
 
He was not an expert technical diver....nor a technical diver. He was an advanced open water diver. Things like this are going to ruin the diving industry and screw with people who dive safely.

Until we know what happened your comments are a little extreme. We don't know yet if the issue was training/experience related, gear related or health/fitness related.

Until that information is known we can't assume that his certification level played any role in this tragedy.

Bob (Toronto)
 
The details of this are all pretty vague. I know "of" all three involved and believe that they are capable divers. One of them runs a small charter business from his RIB, but it seems that this was just a dive with friends...

There is an ongoing investigation, but so far, very little detail has been forthcoming. Today was the first public mention of the victims name that I have seen, as it had been withheld at the request of his family.

Eric Cooper runs Aquaholics and is a competent PADI Instructor, technical diver and CCR Pilot. He seems to be pretty switched on and has worked with Mike Fletcher on the Sea Hunter television series (and is a member of this Board).

Accidents like this remind us that diving can be dangerous. Accidents happen despite our best made plans and preparation. Until a detailed report is released, I'm not going to speculate. Suffice it to say that my prayers go out to the family. It's indeed fortunate that there were not more people killed.
 
He was not an expert technical diver....nor a technical diver. He was an advanced open water diver. Things like this are going to ruin the diving industry and screw with people who dive safely.

From the Fatalities section of DAN's Annual Diving Report, 2007 ed., based on 2005 data:

Seventy-one of the victims were known to be certified but information on the certification level was missing in half of the cases. The half with information included one student, nine with open water certification, 13 with an advanced or specialty certification and 22 with higher certification.

It seems as though highly-certified technical divers are doing a better job at dying while diving than are divers with only basic certifications. Unless the diver is obviously exceeding depth limits or entering environments for which s/he is not trained, you can't blame the death on a cert level at this time. That being said, I am in favour of everyone training at least until rescue diver.
 
Not extreme at all. Just correcting that he was not a technical diver. I know the diver in question.

My comment about the diving safely...this is a remark towards the industry as a whole if the truth doesn't come out. That's all. I'm sure if the general public was involved, that they would ban diving for being unsafe...meanwhile it is safe.
 
Not extreme at all. Just correcting that he was not a technical diver. I know the diver in question.

My comment about the diving safely...this is a remark towards the industry as a whole if the truth doesn't come out. That's all. I'm sure if the general public was involved, that they would ban diving for being unsafe...meanwhile it is safe.

Point taken!

Cheers.

Bob
 
From the Fatalities section of DAN's Annual Diving Report, 2007 ed., based on 2005 data:

Seventy-one of the victims were known to be certified but information on the certification level was missing in half of the cases. The half with information included one student, nine with open water certification, 13 with an advanced or specialty certification and 22 with higher certification.

It seems as though highly-certified technical divers are doing a better job at dying while diving than are divers with only basic certifications. Unless the diver is obviously exceeding depth limits or entering environments for which s/he is not trained, you can't blame the death on a cert level at this time. That being said, I am in favour of everyone training at least until rescue diver.

It depends on what the definition of "higher certification" is by DAN. You assume it's technical training which is probably not the case. Many people feel that DM's and instructors (even open water instructors) are more qualified than divers who have taken technical training. My guess is that many/most of those "22 with higher certifications" were DM's and instructors diving outside their training level.

Chris
 
Hello Ayisha,

I just wanted to let you know that I have sent your concerns to Raimund and Scott.

Within the 72 hours that the OUC has to put out their incident report, this was all of the information that we had from the two divers who were involved.

As more verified information becomes available we will add it to our report.

Brooke
 
My comment about the diving safely...this is a remark towards the industry as a whole if the truth doesn't come out. That's all. I'm sure if the general public was involved, that they would ban diving for being unsafe...meanwhile it is safe.

Meh, that seems awfully sensationalist to me. Lots of people have died diving all over the place. Are there places that have banned diving? Why is this different? Far fewer people die diving than many other activities. Heck, in most places you don't need any sort of license/ certification to dive at all.
 
Meh, that seems awfully sensationalist to me. Lots of people have died diving all over the place. Are there places that have banned diving? Why is this different? Far fewer people die diving than many other activities. Heck, in most places you don't need any sort of license/ certification to dive at all.


This is in reference to what the public usually does when something happens. They give outcries, then policing occurs, and the people who know what is actually going on have to jump through hoops. Its not in reference to an outright ban for diving...more like restrictions being put in place.
 
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