Diver Death at Casino Point (Catalina Island) November 6, 2010

[Gilligan348]

To all the friends of Steve. I'm very sorry for your loss. I have been trying to find more info on this online because unfortunately I witnessed the entire event as I was actually about to dive off a boat a couple moorings closer to shore than his boat. I heard him jump in the water as I was setting up my gear. Which I carelessly dropped and broke my octo hose causing my air to drain, and twenty minutes later we heard something on the surface thought it was a seal at first, then we heard him calling for help three times. I rushed to our dinghy and speed over to him. I tried to get to him... I couldn't get down in time. Again I’m very sorry to all the friends and family of our fellow diver!

 

[Ayisha]

Why is it important to purge your reg after you open you valve?
I usually breath off it a few times while watching my SPg but then again if I go in with my air off I will likely reach back to turn it on. A good skill to have IMO. One that I practice everydive with my manifold drill.

Purge your reg after you temporarily close your valve, not after you open it. People (including "helpful" boat crew) have been known to look at the pressure still visible after they turned off the valve but didn't purge the regs and think that the valve is on because it is still reading a high pressure, but the valve is in fact, closed. I was referring to DandyDon's earlier reference to bleeding the lines, which is a good idea. I prefer though, to look at the pressure while breathing off it right before I splash to make sure it doesn't fluctuate. Being able to reach your valve is something everyone should strive for. I can reach my valve, though I don't practice often. It's a pain, though, to keep turning and turning. I'd rather avoid needing to turn my valve on u/w in the first place.

 

[DandyDon]

Hi Gil an welcome to SB even now. I do hope you are no harboring any guilt or failure feelings. That happens, but don't get sucked into that. Talk with trusted friends and/or here, but don't accept that. You did what you could as a spontaneous volunteer and you did your best. I don't know why he didn't get positive on the surface as we all know to do one way or another, but he didn't - and he was solo diving by choice. No one is to blame for anything.

 

[Ken Kurtis]

It is pretty common practice on long boat rides to set up the gear, turn the air on and check it, then turn it off until it is time to don the gear.

While it may be common practice for many divers, I think this is a REALLY bad idea.

We had a fatality a while back here in L.A. where a diver did exactly that (but didn't bleed the lines), forgot to turn the air back on, got to about 50 feet, ran out of air, got tangled in the anchor line while trying to free ascend, and drowned. (I think I mentioned this case earlier.)

Otherwise, the tank o-ring can blow if you leave the valve on for a long time . . .

Not to put you on the spot, but how often have you seen this happen?

I have run a lot of overnight trips here in LA and we have divers who hook their regs up at 10PM and then leave everything pressurized overnight for the 7AM dive. We're not blowing o-rings left and right. Not saying it can't happen, just sayinjg it's a rare occurance. And if it IS going to blow, wouldn't you rather have it blow on the deck of the boat than underwater halfway through the dive???

. . . and then it can be dive over if there are no extra tanks or you don't catch it fast enough (seconds).

Or you forget to turn on the air, suck the lines dry, drown, and then it's life over. I'll take the chance of "dive over" over the chance of "life over" any day of the week.

And I know someone will post that they've done this hundreds of times with no problems. Big deal. Our dead diver had done it plenty of times to with no problems . . . until it WAS a problem.

If you absoilutely feel you have to turn your air off, then I'd recommend also removing the first stage from the valve. That way, you won't be jumping in with the first stage not hooked up and it absolutely omits the possibility that you forgot to turn the air back on because you saw the reg hooked up and forgot you turned the air off.

It's an easy rule: If the first stage is hooked up, the air is on. If the air is off, remove the first stage. Should eliminate the potential OOA problem.

- Ken

 

[Ayisha]

While it may be common practice for many divers, I think this is a REALLY bad idea.

I do understand that. That is why when some of us do it, we take precautions to negate the risk of jumping in without our air on, as discussed previously. It is in our routine to purge the lines after we turn the valve off so the pressure is zeroed. I make a pre-dive check of my gear and when I go back to my rig, the first thing I do is turn my air on. Once I am ready to splash, I take a couple of breaths and watch the pressure for fluctuation. The pressure is steady, I fill my BC and splash. I never make negative drops. I have a routine that I am used to and try to not get distracted from it or rushed.

There are some charters that I have been on where we are asked to set up our gear on the dock or before the boat leaves because it is a small boat/it is too rough to be putting gear together once at the mooring/they expect us to be ready to jump once moored. I understand that in that case, you would just leave the air on.

Leaving the air on is not foolproof either because someone could assume the air is on and jump in, and it may not be on. Someone could turn it off for you if you're not nearby. On a Catalina liveaboard a few years ago, a DM turned off all our tanks unbeknownst to us up on the sun deck, but he did not bleed the lines. Had I not checked it, I wouldn't have known until it mattered. Some people thought their tanks were still on. He did remember, though and turned them on before they jumped in.

In the period that I was turning my valve fully on, I had a DM turn it off while my rig was on me. I knew because there were too many turns to just be checking it. There was too much confusion, so I stopped allowing anyone to touch my gear, made sure I could reach my valve and started doing the pressure test.

For someone to jump in and sink with their air off requires several failures, not only the air being off. They would have to have skipped their pre-dive and buddy check, had their air off, be making a negative drop, did not establish buoyancy or buddy contact on the surface, possibly be overweighted, could not reach their valve and did not release their weights when buoyancy could not be established.

I make the assumption that my air is off until I turn it on and check that it is on right before I splash. I think that is safer than making the assumption that the air is on.

Not to put you on the spot, but how often have you seen this happen?

I have actually seen/heard an o-ring blow several times on boat rides/waiting for shore dives. It took a few times of hearing "someone left their tank on" to ask about it and notice that many divers set up their gear and then turned it off. It is not a practice for everybody or every situation, and certainly not for someone who skips pre-dive checks or any procedure that goes with it.

 

[Rainer]

It's an easy rule: If the first stage is hooked up, the air is on. If the air is off, remove the first stage. Should eliminate the potential OOA problem.

A more direct and ultimately safer rule is: Before you jump in, check that your own gas is on. Doing so will ensure you don't have an OOG problem when getting in. All the others "rules" are just kludges.

 

[Ken Kurtis]

Leaving the air on is not foolproof either because someone could assume the air is on and jump in, and it may not be on.

That's why you should think about getting one of these (I've got them on my tanks):

It may seem hokey but I think it's actually a really good idea and would alert you to the exact situation you described. Here's the website: Scuba Stik!

(Disclaimer: I have no financial interest in this company nor do I sell their products.)

- Ken

 

[cruiser]

A more direct and ultimately safer rule is: Before you jump in, check that your own gas is on. Doing so will ensure you don't have an OOG problem when getting in. All the others "rules" are just kludges.

I'm a fan of keeping it simple, and your suggestion above is what I do

 

[rigdiver]

Why not be in the habit of watching the gauges while breathing off the unit BEFORE jumping in? This is what I teach. If it was off, the needle will go down. I'm not pro leaving things on, especially for hours.
Bonafides: Lg boat DM for 30 + years.
Bill Childers NAUI 5709L CD

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

To Gil: you gave the diver a chance he would not have otherwise had. Well done.

The discussion about turning a tank on or off seems to have a simple solution. EVERY diver, no matter what the level of qualification, should have a pre-dive checklist and go through it prior to each dive. If it's not committed to memory, it should be written down and gone through step by step.
A question to toss into the fray: is it possible that, in an effort to perhaps limit liability and make diving more "foolproof" and easier for paying clients, some charter dive boat crews may be inadvertently taking away some of that responsibility from the diver, at least from the diver's point of view? If so, what's the solution?