Diver Death at Weekie Wachee

[JamesK]

One dead in diving accident at Weeki Wachee State Park

One diver has died at Weekie Wachee. It is not related to the shows. No details yet.

 

[ucfdiver]

Please allow a team member time to post an official report. The team consists of several excellent divers and I'm sure we're all dying to see what we can learn. Out of respect for them, I really feel we owe them a night or two of sleep before posting all over the internet. Members of this team were the last to post a detailed IUCRR report when they did the Waynes World recovery, and I fully expect they'll handle this in a manner respectful to the dive community and family.

I have nothing but respect for the deceased diver and beg that everyone refrain from speculating. Usually I'm all for it, but in this case I believe we will get the story, and I'm willing to wait.

 

[lamont]

29-year-old Gainesville cave diver dies in Weeki Wachee dive - Tampa Bay Times

 

[Dive Bug Bit Me]

Shoot, its been a horrible few weeks for caves.
Floridacaves.com makes the site sound like an extremely challenging place to cave dive.

Description:
The spring pool is about 150 feet wide and 250 feet long with the walls of the spring vent deeply cut by the turbulent discharging water. This is a first magnitude spring well known for it's swimming mermaid shows, underwater theatre, and summer water park. The flow is so strong that even the most experienced divers have become nearly helplessly key holed. There are several spots around 100 where the water flows up a wedge with the discharge being too tight to pass through. If a diver were to become caught here, they would not have the strength to pull themselves out. Deco would be horrendous since the only protected spot is rock at 120 until you can get out of the flow around 60. Weeki Wachee Springs theme park was open for recreational divers for 2 years with Neptune Divers operating the tours at the park. Opening weekend was September 25, 1999. Cave and cavern diving were not allowed for obvious reasons. The management of Weeki Wachee Springs decided not to renew the Neptune Diver's contract allowing them to run the diving operations. This site was closed to diving on August 31, 2001. It was a great place to do OW check-out dives as it allowed friends and family to watch from the theater. It is too bad since just a month before it closed the local drought put to flow to manageable conditions for attempts at diving the cave. After a class, I did a few drops to around 150 and could see the system just kept on going. The window probably won't open again for another few years.

Last time I was there I spotted a dive reel sitting on the rock around $150, but could not get past the rock at 120. The only way to conceivably get down would be to take off your fins and get as heavy as possible. The would be the only good place that Heiser tanks would be useful. If you use a drysuit or even fins, you are begging for a nasty ascent and potentially dangerous wedging.

 

[Tao of the Dive]

I know a lot of people knew this guy and that team. I know it hurts, I know people want to protect reputations and save feelings, and protect people. But at the same time, we have to be dilligent at finding out what happened so that it does not happen to anyone else. I too am confident we will get a debreif from the divers who were there. That will certainly put to bed any speculation.

 

[cruiser]

[h=1]Weeki Wachee drowning claims expert cave diver working on research team[/h]By Mike Brassfield, Times Staff Writer

Published Sunday, April 1, 2012

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WEEKI WACHEE — Weeki Wachee Springs is a beautiful place where women in mermaid costumes frolic in the water to entertain tourists. But deeper beneath the surface, there's a cavernous underwater world that can be dangerous.
An experienced, certified cave diver accidentally drowned in that world Saturday while diving with a research team at Weeki Wachee State Park.
Marson Kay, 29, of Gainesville apparently became disoriented during a dive in Weeki Wachee's main spring and got wedged in an underwater cavern, authorities said. He died despite a last-ditch rescue attempt by his fellow divers, who couldn't free him.
Kay was part of a dive team with Karst Underwater Research, a Tampa-based nonprofit company that maps underwater springs for Florida state agencies and water management districts. The group has been exploring Weeki Wachee Springs for years and has discovered that it's the deepest spring in the United States.
"Cave diving was his passion. In the cave diving community, that cave is like Mount Everest," said a friend, Tampa diver Ed Jackson. "It's already a very dangerous sport, and that's the hardest of the hard. At that depth, there's no room for error at all."
The Hernando County Sheriff's Office gave the following account of Saturday's accident:
Kay and five other divers entered the water shortly after 3:30 p.m. and descended into the springs to an underwater cavern. They went about 175 feet down. That cavern contains several tight rock formations at a depth of about 100 feet.
During an ascent to the surface, it appears Kay became disoriented and took a different path back up. He got stuck in a spot where the opening of a rock formation was too small for him to swim through, said Hernando sheriff's Lt. Cinda Moore.
The flow of the spring water may have prevented Kay from freeing himself from the cavern, officials said. Divers explore the spring's lower depths only during drought conditions. That's because rain increases the flow of water until it's too strong for divers to maneuver into the narrow crevices that lead into the spring's deepest parts.
Kay's fellow divers found him and tried to free him, but they were unsuccessful. They ascended to the surface and notified Karst's research director, Brett Hemphill, of the emergency. A rescue team went into the water and reached Kay in two to three minutes.
When they arrived, Kay was lifeless, with his mask on his forehead and his regulator out of his mouth. The rescue divers had to cut Kay's equipment off to free his body from the cave. They surfaced just after 4:45 p.m.
"The guys who were down there with him tried to free him," Moore said. "The rescue divers got there very quickly, but by that point he had already passed away."
• • •
The Karst diving team uses extensive safety precautions, according to a 2009 Times article about the group. Divers affiliated with Karst described how treacherous the Weeki Wachee Springs could be. "It looks peaceful but it can be a very dangerous place," dive safety specialist Walter Pickel said then.
Pickel was the dive safety officer who coordinated rescue efforts for Kay on Saturday.
"Marson was a very experienced cave diver who died tragically," he said. "His death will leave a permanent mark on all that knew him."
Kay's fiancee was at the scene, he said.
Kay was known as an expert diver. In 2010, he was one of a group who volunteered to search for missing diver Ben McDaniel in Vortex Spring near Ponce de Leon in Florida's Panhandle. Despite repeated efforts, McDaniel's body was never found.
Because Kay lived in Gainesville, he was able to dive in nearby cave systems two or three times a week, said his friend, Jackson.
"He progressed really quickly because he had the opportunity to do so much diving," Jackson said. "He's gone much further than I've considered going, with his ability and his nerve — although I didn't consider him reckless by any means."
The Weeki Wachee Springs cave is difficult because of the strong current, Jackson said. "Even when you can get in there, it's like climbing with a fire hose being blown at you."
Mike Brassfield can be reached at brassfield@tampabay.com or (727) 445-4151.

Article posted here to keep thread relevant after link becomes inactive.

---------- Post added at 10:51 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:42 AM ----------

Since when has it even come close to being common practice to lock a thread when there has been zero speculation, zero drift from the topic, and zero blamestorming? Especially when everything that has been added to the thread has been factual or relevant? I know a lot of people knew this guy and that team. I know it hurts, I know people want to protect reputations and save feelings, and protect people. But at the same time, we have to be dilligent at finding out what happened so that it does not happen to anyone else. Locking a thread, which you started, serves no purpose, at least not at this juncture. I too am confident we will get a debreif from the divers who were there. That will certainly put to bed any speculation. But locking a thread without cause will only worsen specualtion, as it locks peoples ability to gain new information, which breeds rampant speculation in side circles.

As for the deceased, my heart felt condolences and respect go out to Marson, his family and Fiancee, as well as his team.

Usually if someone wants information sphinctered it's because there's a personal involvement, and that's understandable. However, this forum is valuable because most of the time we can get information and discuss incidents regardless of the usual managed sources.

 

[FritzCat66]

During an ascent to the surface, it appears Kay became disoriented and took a different path back up. He got stuck in a spot where the opening of a rock formation was too small for him to swim through...

How can that happen? Is there no line at Weeki Wachee?

 

[ucfdiver]

From KUR's facebook page

On 3/31/2012 at Weeki Wachee Springs, Florida, KARST Underwater Research (KUR) team members were performing a series of dives which included entering and exiting the cave system. Marson Kay, a two-year veteran of KUR’s all volunteer team, drowned while exiting the cave system. The following information, based on eye witness and forensic evidence, provides some insight into this tragic accident.

Following a successful dive into the cave at 180 feet, Marson Kay signaled he was exiting. From that point, a 1/2” braided white rope leads upwards to 142 feet, where the crevasse area of the cavern begins. Although the cave narrows at this point, the rope, now colored orange with a diameter of 7/16”, is placed in the largest easement leading to a depth of 68 feet, where daylight clearly can be seen at all times. Instead of following the ropes as he had done multiple times in the past, Marson rapidly moved into a highly restrictive area of the crevasse. It is believed that this behavior was not a calculated decision but a reaction caused by the affects of an embolism he incurred while rapidly ascending from depth. According to the coroner's evaluation, Marson developed a cerebral arterial gas embolism prior to his death. Typically, this condition causes profound changes in mental functioning including disorientation, blindness, paralysis, seizures and loss of consciousness within minutes or even seconds of onset. If it occurs after surfacing, it is often fatal or profoundly disabling even with prompt recompression therapy; when it occurs underwater, the incapacity or unconsciousness it causes almost always results in drowning.

Although safety divers were in visual contact and additional safety gas cylinders were in place, he rapidly pushed himself upward into an area where even side-mount divers could not easily access. Several attempts were made to communicate, by means of light signals as well as touch contact. Although Marson was still moving at this time, he did not directly respond to these communication attempts. After approximately 5 minutes, divers reported Marson was no longer utilizing his regulator. A subsequent review of his equipment indicated that Marson had approximately half of his gas supply remaining in both of his tanks and his regulators appeared to be working properly.

Cave diving is an intrinsically dangerous activity, just as rock-climbing, mountain biking and even horseback riding. All cave divers understand the risks of diving in underwater caves and accept them as an inescapable part of the activity they are so passionate about. Marson's accidental death is great personal loss to all that knew and loved him as well as to our team. We will do the best we can to honor his memory.

 

[murse]

If it was a gas embolism, it didn't matter that he was in a cave or in open water. Condolences to family and friends.

 

[Rick Murchison]

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

Several posts in this thread have been removed or edited to comply with the A&I special rules... here they are again for information and guidance.

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The purpose of this forum is the promotion of safe diving through the examination and discussion of accidents and incidents; to find lessons we can apply to our own diving.
Accidents, and incidents that could easily have become accidents, can often be used to illustrate actions that lead to injury or death, and their discussion is essential to building lessons learned from which improved safety can flow. To foster the free exchange of information valuable to this process, the "manners" in this forum are much more tightly controlled than elsewhere on the board. In addition to the TOS:


(1) You may not release any names here, until after the names have appeared in the public domain (articles, news reports, sheriff's report etc.) The releasing report must be cited. Until such public release, the only name you may use in this forum is your own.
(2) Off topic posts will be removed and off topic comments will be edited.
(3) No flaming, name calling or otherwise attacking other posters. You may attack ideas; you may not attack people.
(4) No trolling; no blamestorming. Mishap analysis does not lay blame, it finds causes.
(5) No "condolences to the family" here. Please use our Passings Forum for these kinds of messages.
(6) If you are presenting information from a source other than your own eyes and ears, cite the source.
(7) If your post is your hypothesis, theory, or a "possible scenario," identify it as such.
(8) If your post is about legal action that concerns a mishap, use the Scuba Related Court Cases forum.
Thanks in advance,
Rick