Diver dies at Monastery Beach

[zen_man]

My wife and I met all three of these guys on Thursday night at Breakwater. We were exiting the water and it was fairly dark. Ed yelled down to us and asked how our dive was and we told him it was very nice, but we were focused on getting out of the water.
When we got up to the lot and got our gear off, my wife said, "We should really go over and talk with them"
They were getting ready to leave and we walked over and chatted with them. Ed was explaining how he was visiting here from Las Vegas and used to live here. We told him how we were going to Lobos but missed the cutoff point and they had dove Lobos that day and said the viz and surge was pretty bad, so we didn't really miss anything.
He then told us how they were going to Monastery the next day and I remember thinking that I wanted to tell him to be very careful, but I figured he was from the area and seemed to know what he was doing.
He was very nice and seemed to be a very happy person and full of life. My wife and I were stunned to hear about his passing knowing we just talked with him the night before.

Are thoughts and prayers go out to his friends and family.

Buck & Sunny
:zen:

 

[Seadeuce]

Condolences to the diver's family.

It seems cause of death would be "Error of Judgement"

I can understand the craving for a dive after such a journey, but with under 100 dives done I just have to wonder if the term "Master Diver" is a bit OTT like Advanced in AOW.

Too many divers spend time, and money, learning how to dive yet do not invest in knowledge of the environment they do the diving in - the sea.

If more sea knowledge were acquired at an earlier stage in their diving careers maybe, just maybe, they would be more equipped to make that judgement call based on hard facts as well as commonsense.

Tragic.


Seadeuce

 

[RS]

This is sad.

Anyone that does any diving, especially any training, in Monterey hears about Monastery and how deadly it can be. But it's a really great place on a good day (I've only been once).

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I've dived there on a couple of trips and although the conditions were perfect, I kept thinking about the exit throughout the dive. I've read too many horror stories about divers losing their inflatable and all their gear just feet from the beach. Besides, there are several signs on the beach warning of treacherous surf. Even on the still conditions I dived, it's quite a walk up the slope in the monster berries with full gear on.

 

[Ben_ca]

Here's some pictures for some of you who have no idea what we are talking about

Monastery Beach Thread

 

[Ben_ca]

Condolences to the diver's family.

It seems cause of death would be "Error of Judgement"

I can understand the craving for a dive after such a journey, but with under 100 dives done I just have to wonder if the term "Master Diver" is a bit OTT like Advanced in AOW.

Too many divers spend time, and money, learning how to dive yet do not invest in knowledge of the environment they do the diving in - the sea.

If more sea knowledge were acquired at an earlier stage in their diving careers maybe, just maybe, they would be more equipped to make that judgement call based on hard facts as well as commonsense.

Tragic.


Seadeuce

I agree with you 100% the fact that you are jonesing for a dive can lead you to take more risks than you would normally take. One reason why I bought aquarium passes (Membership+plus, 2 guest passes) so that If I make the trip down I won't feel too bad about wasting my trip. .. and with the guest passes I can get my buddies also.

Besides there's other things to do in Monterey.... the Aquarium, do laps in the city pool (really nice BTW), jog or rent a bike, and just hang out with friends.


I also like the fact that some instructors bring their students out there on bad days to show them what isn't divable... that is a very important lesson IMHO

 

[dave4868]

I just don't understand why an experienced diver like Diaz would attempt to enter those types of swells.

The only thing I can think about is motivation; this is speculation but flying in from Las Vegas eager to meet up with two other dive buddys and get some dives in before leaving back to Vegas becomes irresitable, they are not intimidated by the swells since they have dove this beach before. Thinking they can pass through the surf to get to beautiful deep water is like the syrens calling in the sailors in Greek mythologies.

Here in the Northeast, with so much fine sand around, high waves usually bring lousy vis, even on sites with deeper water.

What kind of vis would a diver expect at a pebbled beach like Monastery Beach on a rough day like that?

Dave C

 

[tltracy]

Last time I dove Monastery I got my ass handed to me by a much smaller swell. I always leave my reg and mask in place for any beach exit... I saw the wave coming... so I tucked, covered my mask and reg with one hand and... I washed up nearly 6' onto the beach.

I had the same thing happen to me. A friend (who used to live in Monterey) and I were out there last year and I (having never dove this area) did a face slide up onto the beach. It wasn't a very pretty exit, but I made it out alive. I come from the tropics here of Ft. lauderdale and with all the extra wetsuits on, weights, hood, gloves, camera in tow all I could do while scrapping my lens of my mask was pray that the good Lord got me out in one piece. Thank you Jesus.

My condolences to his family and friends.

 

[Mr.X]

Here in the Northeast, with so much fine sand around, high waves usually bring lousy vis, even on sites with deeper water.

What kind of vis would a diver expect at a pebbled beach like Monastery Beach on a rough day like that?

Dave C

Condolences to the family. Very sad to hear.

We used to conduct some research at Monastery on slightly "iffy" days. The viz. was never really that bad. The worst I remember is 10-20 feet when it was somewhat pounding. Getting out of the water with the slope of the beach was difficult. Overall, I never found Monastery that pleasurable a dive, except for the sand dollar beds - very cool

X

 

[dannobee]

Here in the Northeast, with so much fine sand around, high waves usually bring lousy vis, even on sites with deeper water.

What kind of vis would a diver expect at a pebbled beach like Monastery Beach on a rough day like that?

Dave C

The big pebbles/monsterberries actually help keep the smaller particulate matter down, so it really doesn't change much. I've dived it with 10-12 ft swells (from a boat though) and the vis was still in the 40-50 ft range.

There are two unique dive sites at this beach. North Monastery has shore access to very deep water (> 250ft deep). It's usually more exposed than the South side. South Monastery is relatively shallow (60 ft or so unless you really kick out) and is less exposed. There's an access road that you can walk along and get into the water on the South side, usually allowing a safe and easy entry/exit, mostly sheltered from the nasty breaking waves that occur in the middle of the beach.

When I dive with people who don't have experience at this site, I usually walk with them down the access road and enter at the most southern part of the beach (near the Point Lobos fence).