Diver dies in Islamorada

[biscuit]

Thank you for clarifying the conditions and describing the events as you experienced them, Scuba Dom.

While we've freely speculated about causes and scenarios, it's harder to do so in response to your own very direct and much appreciated post. Still, I'd like to comment about one aspect of the dive but will keep it brief.

It strikes me that your wife seems to have had the best common sense of anyone present - that is, to abort a dive that didn't feel right. Yet how ironic that it cost her her life when she was unable to exit the water or stay afloat. Hers is a bitter and painful loss for you and I just want to add that any of us can be caught unawares at any point on any dive, from the time we roll off the boat until we've safely re-boarded it. I hope you find comfort in the knowledge that your words are truly a gift to the diving public and will encourage the rest of us to review our expectations and abilities when surfacing in rough seas.

You and your family are in my thoughts.

 

[Digger54]

Recalling the rough seas during that period as mentioned in my previous post, unquestionably the most dangerous part of diving during that period (I was a Largo) would have been on the surface and returning to the boat. Many of the dive operators were not going out during this time. The day this fatality occurred, I stayed inland after listening to the weather reports.

 

[Garrobo]

14 shallow dives and willing to jump off a boat in five foot seas? Plenty of blame to go around here. As far as the captain taking any responsibility for the outcome? BS. His responsibility is to maintain and protect the boat. Seems to me that he did exactly what he should have done. Any other discussion about what he did or did not do is completely conjecture since no one was there to witness anything. Once you are in the water it's your responsibility to take care of yourself. If you are not qualified to do the dive you have no business in the water. Of course I suspect that lawsuits are flying around like flies about this time.

 

[ZenDiver.3D]

14 shallow dives and willing to jump off a boat in five foot seas? Plenty of blame to go around here. As far as the captain taking any responsibility for the outcome? BS. His responsibility is to maintain and protect the boat. Seems to me that he did exactly what he should have done. Any other discussion about what he did or did not do is completely conjecture since no one was there to witness anything. Once you are in the water it's your responsibility to take care of yourself. If you are not qualified to do the dive you have no business in the water. Of course I suspect that lawsuits are flying around like flies about this time.

No. You are absolutely off base, here. The captain, mate, DM, or instructor on board has the responsiblity to do everything possible to ensure the safety and safe dive and return of their divers.
As a dive leader or captain, I have a duty of care. It Is my job to watch over that diver making her way from the buoy to the boat. It Is my responsibilty to help her board the boat safely. I am failing my duty if I leave her to flounder. That captain or mate should have taken the damn fins. They should have gone to get her when she started drifting. In those seas, she needed assistance. They should have had a mate on board, besides the captain, if they were going out in rough water.

I have boats go out where, if I don't cancel the whole boat, I refuse to let certain inexperienced divers go, or I cancel training dives, because of those conditions. That is a dive leader's responsibility. And if there is no DM or mate on board, the captain must take that responsilbility too.

 

[Scuba_Dom]

Any other discussion about what he did or did not do is completely conjecture since no one was there to witness anything.

My intent of posting is to state what happened and end the speculations, you are correct in that there were no witness to what the capt did or did not do only two people know what happened when my wife got to the ladder and she is not here to tell us. I only relayed what the capt stated in the police report.

 

[Garrobo]

Zen: Shoulda, woulda, coulda. Yeah, I can see the captain, probably an overweight, middle-aged guy jumping in 5-footers to try to save someone. He did exactly as you said. He did what he could to help the victim without causing two deaths. Just because a captain can run a boat doesn't mean that he is an accomplished rescue diver. Get a life.

 

[The Chairman]

Scuba_Dom,

thanks for telling us what happened from your perspective. This has to be horrifying for you to deal with. Your courage is amazing as I know that I could never be so composed.

Others (who weren't there),

Why don't you stop making accusations about who and what and simply ask the only eyewitness in this thread? Really. The posturing, the drama and the bickering are not helping us to understand this, and it's certainly not helping Dom to cope with it at all. If you have a theory, run it by Dom. No one is impressed with your unfounded condemnations and remonstrations.

 

[DandyDon]

When I used to dive Key Largo, the pre dive briefings included the need to use the lines because if a diver was swept down current on the surface, and there almost always a current on the deeper water wrecks - the boat was not going to move with divers in the water, not until all were back aboard. Certified divers were expected to be able to float until a subsequent search could be done for a drifter. Indeed, I saw one solo diver & friend of the skipper who had ascended down current unconscious, DM and some divers still in the water, the captain frustrated because he couldn't do anything. Another boat arriving on the scene retrieved him and took him ashore to a waiting ambulance. Anyway, that was the briefing, the expectation and the practice as I recall.

It was also where I was instructed on and learned about holding onto the drift line and hanging my fins on my wrists before climbing a ladder, so that if I fell off or lost the line - I would still have them to put back on. This was a very unfortunate loss and my condolences to the widowed husband posting here. The purpose of this forum to for us to learn from accidents, not convict anyone.

For future learning purposes only: The only real problem I have with the story as reported is the buddy pair not staying close together on descent so one could call the dive to the other, not ascending together, and the Instructor motioning for the husband to stay down or descend. Buddies should stay together for every step, including exits, even if one diver decides to rebuddy and descend once the exiting buddy is aboard.

That this was a training dive may well have confused the buddy commitment, but I suggest that it should be established on predive that even tho it's training, buddy pairs will stay together. Do you Instructors here on this thread agree with that; is that how you teach?

 

[Scuba_Dom]

Just as a comment on the fins, different boats have different protocols on what to do with your fins. I have since been on other dive boats and a live a board. Some have you place them on your wrist another had you kneel on the last rung and hand them up. On that trip like our prior trips on that boat (Aug 09) you were to hand them off then go up the ladder.

 

[merxlin]

14 shallow dives and willing to jump off a boat in five foot seas? Plenty of blame to go around here. As far as the captain taking any responsibility for the outcome? BS. His responsibility is to maintain and protect the boat. Seems to me that he did exactly what he should have done. Any other discussion about what he did or did not do is completely conjecture since no one was there to witness anything. Once you are in the water it's your responsibility to take care of yourself. If you are not qualified to do the dive you have no business in the water. Of course I suspect that lawsuits are flying around like flies about this time.

I'll respectfully disagree. She did what she should have done and thumbed the dive. She made it back to the boat. The captain had contact with her and does have a responsibility for the safety of his divers at that point. There are several things that could have happened, which is the point of this forum- to discuss accidents and incidents and hopefully learn how to avoid them in the future.

As far as this is concerned:

As far as the captain taking any responsibility for the outcome? BS. His responsibility is to maintain and protect the boat.

Your statement is inaccurate according to maritime law. The captain does have a responsibility once the diver is on the surface. Look to the recent Drifting Dan case here in CA. A captain was held responsible even though he had no other responsibilities on deck (There were DM's on board handling the divers in the water).