Diver Death in Cayman

[Leo53214]

When I first read of the latest accident and Diver's Down statistics I was shocked. I just dove with Diver's Down Grand Cayman in March! However, in retrospect, I can share a few thoughts on the topic.

My friend Jayne and I went on a cruise and dove Grand Cayman and Jamaica. Jayne has her OW only and I'm working on my 10th certification. With Diver's Down we were two of four divers on the boat and the DM was the captain. Our first dive was a guided wall dive that got close to 130'. Though I informed the DM before we dove that Jayne was not AOW Certified, he didn't blink at taking her that far down. He moored the boat and everyone on board dove together leaving the boat empty above.

Our second dive was 60 feet and the DM decided to stay on the boat and sent us in alone. The dives went without a hitch but I do remember thinking how odd it was to either leave an empty boat or send out divers without a DM. I also couldn't understand why a DM would risk ignoring divers' experience levels.

HOWEVER, my real shocker was Jamaica. Compared to Jamaica, Grand Cayman was safety central. In Jamaica there was a DM and a boathand, but that was it. There wasn't a first aid kit, cooler, ship-to-shore, oxygen or any sort of ERS equipment at all. When I asked the DM about dive conditions he literally said "you'll find out". The DM was informed that Jayne was OW only. He took us on a 126' wall DRIFT dive, and when we got to the surface the boat was far off and clearly couldn't see us. I used my safety whistle and would have used my safety sausage but the boathand heard my whistle. The DM then asked Jayne if she wanted a "crash AOW course" for $200.

The scariest part is that many new divers will go as far as they are allowed to go out of ignorance or just plain blind enthusiasm. Obviously some will allow you (or encourage you) to do this as long as you are willing to pay for it.

 

[Web Monkey]

Why is this the DM's fault, when his friend, girlfriend, and common sense couldnt stop the guy from going too deep, as sad as it is, he did this to himself, nobady dragged him down there, and if he was a Padi certified diver i promise you he correctly acknowledge his certification limits on at least 3 separate ocasions before he was certified, he heard it in his training video, not to mention what the instructor told him.

The releases are only an attempt to protect the businesses involved (and AFAIK, you can't sign away your survivor's right to sue). They have no bearing on whether or not this guy was actually qualified to do a 100' wall dive. In fact, if you want to be legalistic about it, he was certified to dive in conditions similar to his certification, which given certification limits and where he's from, would have been around 40' max (not sure of PADI's actual depth restrictions for OW dives) in freshwater with no current.

How do you know he wasnt the guy in the class who wanted to see how deep he could go,

If he was one of the people that wants to "see how deep he can go" that should have been a big red flag for the DM who upon learning that, should have parked the boat over a 60' hard bottom. When I get one of those divers, he gets a short talk on how as you go deeper, the brown stuff hits the fan faster while at the same time narcosis is making you dumber. I don't say "Cool, let's go checkout the bottom of the wall".

After a few dozen dives to various depths, maybe by the end of the summer, we'll go see the wall. Or maybe next year.

Terry

 

[whodunit68]

Yes you are certified to go to 100ft with advanced you have to do a deep dive to 130ft to get you cert.

incorrect. check your facts before posting incorrect information as this is far from the truth. My deepest dive to date is 104 ft and I'm both AOW and Deep specialty certified. Now, just because that's what I did doesn't make it correct. However, see PADI's website: Deep Diver Scuba Courses, Training & Adventures - PADI Professional Association of Diving Instructors
"What You Learn

* Techniques for diving in the deeper range of 18-40 metres/ 60-130 feet
Deep scuba diving equipment considerations."
It does not specify that one must dive to 130 ft to get the cert.

 

[Thalassamania]

From another thread but to one of the salient points of the discussion:

.. much of being an effective dive master is knowing how to prevent the emergencies in the first place. It's identifying the still anxious OW diver that got their card last week after 2 days in the pool and a day at the beach and assisting or educating them in so they don't do something potentially stupid. Part of job is to identify and try to resolve the issue on the dock or on the boat before someone gets into a life threatening situation. And that would be really hard to learn and tune in 30 days.

...

Bad idea all around as I see it. - money before all else

Whodonit68: The correction was made a while back and the OP apologized; you might catch up before you catch fire?

 

[Riger]

incorrect. check your facts before posting incorrect information as this is far from the truth.

Respectfully; Read the whole thread before making statements like that. In particular read post# 241 of this thread.

Best Regards
Richard

 

[Web Monkey]

so monkey, you know nothing of this guy, his cert, and

Reading the thread is always helpful. However, since you didn't, I'll catch you up: He was a brand new OW diver with either 0 or two dives, ever (this is back on the first or second page).

ignore the fact that he left the group he was with, to violate his known training standard, in an unfamiliar environment, with unfamiliar gear, fresh out of an ow class, and it is still the dive op's fault,

"Leaving the group" could easily be "narced out of his mind and drifting off into the abyss", which is something that would have been impossible on a shallower dive over a hard bottom.

But in any case, "yes". He shouldn't have been on a 100' wall dive. If it had been a day before on a checkout dive, it would have been a standards violation.

The DM was aware of how new to diving he was and in fact, there was concern about the dive plan from other group members, which the DM ignored.

Terry

 

[Thalassamania]

Among the many realities that you are blithely glossing over is the fact that possession of a c-card doesn't mean squat, and everyone knows that, especially a working DM.

There's plenty of fault to spread around. As I suggested earlier, the interesting question is how much goes to:

The Instructor.
The Instructor's Agency.
The Diver.
The DM.
The DM's Agency.
The DM's Instructor.
The Operator.
The Operator's Agency.
The Cayman Watersportsmans Assoc.
The Government of the Cayman Islands.

Anyone else?

 

[mikemill]

Among the many realities that you are blithely glossing over is the fact that possession of a c-card doesn't mean squat, and everyone knows that, especially a working DM.

There's plenty of fault to spread around. As I suggested earlier, the interesting question is how much goes to:

The Instructor.
The Instructor's Agency.
The Diver.
The DM.
The DM's Agency.
The DM's Instructor.
The Operator.
Anyone else?

Other divers on the boat?

 

[meierdierck]

so again, everyone but him, right?

 

[Web Monkey]

nobody on here knows jack about this incident, only the original poster, and monkey, know the whole story, and throwing the DM in front of the bus based on what is posted here is wrong

As Thal mentioned, it's not just the DM, there's plenty of blame to go around, and the reality is that if any of the professional entities involved had done their job properly, this guy would be at home tonight sending out for pizza.

But, yes, the DM was the last chance to stop the guy from diving where he shouldn't.

Also, I'm all for personal responsibility and freedom. As long as the diver is aware of the risks (really aware, not just sign the wavier), I don't care how or where anybody dives. As long as you know what you're getting into, feel free.

I do however get my shorts twisted when someone who wasn't qualified to be in the pool alone a couple of days ago is pushed into (or allowed) to go on a dive that dramatically exceeds the maximum depth he's certified for. If he had significantly more dives at various depths under his belt and the same thing happened, I'd just say "Darwin got another one". But he didn't. He had two. Two dives isn't enough to be able to reliably attach the regulator to the tank and he most certainly didn't belong on a 100' dive with no bottom. Any dive professional should know that.

Terry