Diver Deaths-Palm Beach County

[SmileMon]

...
This happend a day after may daughter Ellen and I saw two under-equipped people head into Blue Springs, FL. They had to ask my kid, age 17, how to set up the gear. Their equipment was a mixture of old stuff, and Wal-Mart's latest. No wetsuits. I said a prayer for that duo.

How can we avoid similar occurrences? Our sport has a developed system of training and safety. We know it can be bypassed.

Or you just make it a rule to answer "if you don't know, its better you don't dive"

I will certainly won't help beyond the stretching of the BCD's tank band or positioning the already working octo.

After reading all this, I think my new moto will be - if you can't operate your equipment, I'm finding a different buddy or staying on the boat, although I have that "supervisor" personality, I always look at my buddy, keep him/her in plain sight, I don't want an incident, diving should be fun, not baby sitting.

 

[moneysavr]

You can bet that the Delta Splashdown crew did an outstanding job with this. I've been with them, and they are a model of professional operation.

.

I could not of said it better,They are professional!

 

[Stu S.]

That's my new motto: "If you don't know, it's better that you don't dive".

I was in the latrine when this guy asked my dughter how to set up his tank. She told him that the o-ring faces your head. We mentioned this at the State Park guard house on the way out. The lady ranger said she might send a man down to meet them before they got in. Fortunately, these was no similar bad news from Orange City, FL in Saturday's paper.

My heart goes out to families of those who passed on.

 

[MoonWrasse]

From what I read here, I'll make an educated guess.

Rope, panic, reg out, second diver reg out, entanglement, stop.

Its sad... I didn't know them but feel sorrow as if they were my friends.

That's a possibility.
For sure there's a real danger to try and assist a panicked diver if you aren't trained to do so. Training will probably greatly mitigate the risk, but not entirely eliminate it.

 

[Jcsgt]

What a horrible, horrible thing.

 

[H2Andy]

i have heard and/or read accident accounts in the past where a diver will
get tangled in line and will not be able to pop the reg back in if it should fall out
for some reason

sounds like that's what happened here. panic and entanglement, and an inability
to put the reg back in.

very tragic, very sad

 

[HowardE]

Here's the newspaper's story as of April 17. It definitely sheds some more light on the subject.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/lo...pr17,0,2682763.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

I guess you shouldn't skimp on repairs to your BC, and you should always carry some kind of cutting device.

 

[GrierHPharmD]

What a terrible shame.

In addition to the families and loved ones of the victims, my thoughts and prayers are four ScubaKevDM, who did the recovery and Waterbearer, who was apparently diving with him.

Great job, guys. We're proud of you.

-Grier

 

[BusterDive]

This is tragic, and should remain in the foreground of our thoughts every time we grab our gear. It's not just lack of training, or stupidity that can cause an accident, complacency can easily take lives. No dive should ever be thought of as a "routine dive". My heart, thoughts, and prayers go out to these families.

 

[gypsydiver19]

This is sad and tragic for everyone involved. I wish people would just understand the rules are there for all of us regardless of our skill level. Just because you can does not mean you should. In one of our local papers they are reporting that one of the bcd's had a home patch repair on it up by the shoulder and only one of the divers had a weight belt on . So far all I'm hearing is everything that could go wrong Did!!! Let's learn from it. :06: