Diver Death in Cayman

[openmindOW]

Can you link it?

If it does not get linked, you can find it on YouTube. do a saerch under Scuba and Fatality. The video is chilling.

 

[Blackwood]

No they got there not by choice but by stupidly playing follow the leader behind an incompetent that they were foolish enough to place their trust in.
No, they got to 100 feet by mistake, no doubt about that. The DM made a mistake to take them there, they made a mistake to trust his judgement.

They made a mistake to trust his judgment, and unless they were duped or physically forced, they made the choice to follow him. The OP and her buddy made a better choice.

Stop making stuff up to suit your political/social/legal views and deal just with those "facts" that we have in front of us.

What have I made up? I, like everyone else (including you), have made inferences to what happened based on the OP's report, but no where did I intend to create a fact.

You lost me with the political/social/legal comment. I'm neither philosophizing nor professing.

 

[openmindOW]

Deep, dark narc. I had one at 125 ft and it scared the living hell out of me. I'm still scared when I think of it. fast carbon dioxide build up, over-exertion at 118 ft, then narc'd at 125 ft. Oh, I thought I was watching a movie.

Wow. Thank you for sharing that experience.

 

[Blackwood]

Stop making stuff up to suit your political/social/legal views and deal just with those "facts" that we have in front of us.

What have I made up?

You know what? Never mind. Your suggestion that I'm coming into this with some sort of agenda is uncharacteristically wrong, but out of respect for the OP and her loss I'm calling an end to this line of discussion.

 

[Divemercenary]

This is just to clarify and not take anything away from the fact that divers do occasionally encounter dive related accidents. However, it is important that all accidents are reported accurately and without bias.
The actual law in the Cayman Islands, Little Cayman, The Brac, and Grand Cayman for crew aboard dive vessels is that "There must be one person on board to act as a look-out when a vessel has divers or snorkelers in the water."
One should not confuse the actual laws in the Cayman Islands with the Cayman Islands Water Sports Association.
Anyone confused should examine the number of divers who have passed through the Cayman Islands just in the past 10 years. I think you'll find an impressive safety record.

 

[fosterboxermom]

FosterBoxerMom,

I suppose I am trying to work out what the DM/DG was seeing and how he may have been under the wrong impression of what the status was of the divers in the group was. I have been in a situation where, for whatever reason, buddy pairs were switched during the dive or a buddy pair became a threesome due to someone surfacing early, it happens from time to time and I suppose this is not always covered in buddy checks/briefing.

At some point maybe he sees your hubby ascending towards you and makes a connection that Brendan (mis-ident) is joining you, he looks again later and sees that you are now only 2 again and queries you as to your buddy (thinking Brendan) and you give an OK signal, perhaps he is now thinking that Brendan has surfaced and you are showing him that all is OK.

This is all speculation, I am just trying to see it through the DM/DG's eyes and how he may have mis-interpreted events. (This has no bearing on site selection or briefing, I get that.)

Based on you saying that when the penny dropped on the safety line (safety stop?) and he realised you were missing someone, he "shot" to the surface, I have to assume that if he had actually realised and understood that there was a problem (missing customer) during the dive he would have reacted differently than just continuing the dive.

Best Regards
Richard

Richard,

OK I am trying to understand what you are saying. But there still is the part where he help up 6 fingers to me indicating there were only 6 divers present at the half way point. This was after all the buddy pointing and the OK's. He did a head count and knew Brendan was missing. He did the head count not me half was and then again on the safety line and he made a point to get next to Pam on the safety line to ask her where her Buddy was. She was totally confused because she knew it was me.

 

[tiggrr]

First off, thank you Fosterboxermom for your courage in sharing the facts from this horrible accident with us. I know I've learned a bit and it brings back a lot of memories from my first dives in the Carribean.

My question is regarding the reef. Was the entire topography of the dive a slope or was it flat where you were moored? From what I gathered, you all went in one direction until it was a sharp slope and then turned left. Is that correct? And then after making the turn, the diver was noticed to be missing? I know you posted his depth at 14 min so, were you able to make a logical conclusion that he knew you made a turn? I would venture to guess that he would have been at the back of the pack for no one to have noticed him leave the group? As others have brought up being narced, I wonder how much that played into it. That he was feeling the effects and didn't recognize his depth or losing the group until too late.

As far as dark narc....as a noob I was in that position once and I was fortunate to have been with other very experienced divers keeping an eye out for me. I was definately a trust me diver. I thought it would be ok to follow all of the experienced divers to 90 ft. It was the first time I broke my training limits and have never done so again. There is no doubt in my mind that had I not been with someone close by, that dive would have resulted in my fatality. I was always told up until that point that being narced was like being drunk....doing silly things. Well, for me on that dive, it was exactly how Pilot Fish described....very bad. After my incident, I was told dark narc did not exist and I could not have been narced at 87ft. The next dive I did we took it easy and I found myself experiencing symptoms at 72 ft.
Point being, training is key and everyone's body is different. In fact, every day is a new day and we must always be aware of how we are feeling physically.

I can't remember how many dives your friend had but, I would venture to guess that his issues started long before he hit his mark of 100ft.

Again, I am sorry this happened to you new found dive friend. It is a very sad reminder at how important our OW training is.

 

[fosterboxermom]

This is just to clarify and not take anything away from the fact that divers do occasionally encounter dive related accidents. However, it is important that all accidents are reported accurately and without bias.
The actual law in the Cayman Islands, Little Cayman, The Brac, and Grand Cayman for crew aboard dive vessels is that "There must be one person on board to act as a look-out when a vessel has divers or snorkelers in the water."
One should not confuse the actual laws in the Cayman Islands with the Cayman Islands Water Sports Association.
Anyone confused should examine the number of divers who have passed through the Cayman Islands just in the past 10 years. I think you'll find an impressive safety record.

We passed that part of the thread about a 1000 posts ago. You really need to take some time and read the entire thread if you want learn anything from what we are trying to gain, learn and teach from this horrible accident. But thank you for reminding us of the law.

 

[Thalassamania]

You know what? Never mind. Your suggestion that I'm coming into this with some sort of agenda is uncharacteristically wrong, but out of respect for the OP and her loss I'm calling an end to this line of discussion.

My apologies, I screwed up. You did not make anything up, it was garylee who invented the "fact" (see posts 911 $ 913) that they were told about the site before they got on the boat. Again, I am deeply sorry for my mistake.

 

[Blackwood]

No skin off my back. I really have no business posting in this thread (as far as it goes) as I have (nor desire, for that matter) zero experience as a dive professional.