Diver drowned at The Breakwater / San Carlos Beach

[lostsheep]

No specifics yet but male diver deceased at San Carlos Beach / The Breakwater in Monterey.

We knew something was awry when we drove by on the boat and the beach was empty on a Saturday.

 

[Ranga]

Some additional information from a comment on the Monterey Bay Area Scuba Divers Open FB page.

This is my personal account of the emergency:

The person who was initially handling the diver with the emergency called for help near a float on the sand between Middle Reef and the wall, across from the 6.

A friend and I were walking on the wall after deciding the vis was too poor for diving when we noticed someone waving his arms in the water - not the person in distress, who appeared to be unresponsive face up in the water at that point. I don’t know know that person’s relationship to the diver in distress or that diver’s state when they were found.

We called 911 when the diver yelled for help. Other divers in the water converged on the people and assisted with gear removal. I tried to yell back to the diver that 911 was called but I am unsure if he heard me.

I went to the beginning of the wall, periodically turning to see that the towing of the diver was happening quickly. I found some people who were suited up without their gear on yet and pointed out the divers with the emergency and asked them to help get them out of the water, which they rushed to help with.

EMS showed up less than a minute after they pulled the person who still did not appear conscious from the water. Coast Guard personnel came to the beach and participated in initial response and CDFW came with an oxygen kit and another diver with a small first aid kit in the moments before EMS, fire, and police were on the beach.

The diver who was pulled from the water appeared to be a middle-aged male of average build and in average shape for that age wearing a wetsuit. Another male diver in a drysuit who had been with the diver at some point before the emergency briefed emergency responders on the beach. I am unsure if this is the same person who raised the initial alarm to us and do not wish to speculate about the incident based on what I heard him say.

CPR was performed by various responders on the beach for at least 30 minutes (based on my parking expiration timer on my phone’s lock screen). I believe I heard the beeps of an AED being utilized.

Ultimately, they did not transport the diver from the beach immediately after CPR was ceased. The sheriff’s office erected a tent (pictured in the photo from Monterey Bay Crime above) to block the view around them instead.

Thanks so much to everyone who responded, particularly the divers whom I singled out to go down to the beach purely based on their state of dress and they fact they looked strong.

From my POV, response looked pretty much like what we train for in the Rescue Diver course. Even though there were divers from several groups responding to the emergency, it appeared coordinated and efficient without signs of panic. I am grateful for that training and will continue to recommend it based on this experience.

There's also a very rough story from someone who was doing their open water there at the time on Reddit. My thoughts go out to everyone who was involved or witnessed it and I hope they all receive any counselling or other help they need.

 

[Biotech Diver]

Breakwater is where I trained to get my open water and advanced certifications. It's also where I got my drysuit certification. You almost always see otters, sea lions, seals, and jellyfish (mostly in the morning). If you're lucky you may see a wolf eel, sunfish or octopus (I've only seen them on night dives in Monterey).

From my recollection, water temperature ranged from 46-52 F most of the time. Depth is not typically more than 40 feet. Visiblility is usually less than 10 feet but I've seen days where it was more than 50 feet. Little to no current, sandy bottom, kelp beds, and the water is generally very calm. You don't have to worry about boats running you over like you do in most of Florida. Diving there is almost as safe as it can be. It's a great place to learn how to scuba dive. Hopefully more information will come to light on what happened.

 

[suricatasuricata]

News report. Doesn't have a lot of details apart from age and confirming that this happened.

 

[Shasta_man]

Still shocked to read this happened at Breakwater. Many people in this area have gotten their basic certifications here. The location and conditions are relatively benign, so hard to imagine it happening there. However, diver health plays a part so perhaps that was involved here. RIP

 

[runsongas]

why is it shocking? the Breakwater is the most popular site in norcal, full of inexperienced students that experience the highest incidence rate, and medical event deaths are the number one cause. statistically, if a death on scuba was going to happen in California, the breakwater/san carlos would be the highest odds.

 

[Biotech Diver]

why is it shocking? the Breakwater is the most popular site in norcal, full of inexperienced students that experience the highest incidence rate, and medical event deaths are the number one cause. statistically, if a death on scuba was going to happen in California, the breakwater/san carlos would be the highest odds.

Because there isn't a strong current, choppy surface or 5 foot swells. Motor boats are not allowed, it's not a hot drop or drift dive or a deep dive. There are no caves or confined spaces. There should be no fishing lines, cables, or other snag hazards. You'd have to be really unlucky to get the bends because it's not very deep. There are many divers and instructors there almost every day. It's not a high risk dive site where a quarter of the divers are on CCR. Yeah, it's probably the most popular dive site in California for all of the above reasons, and yeah, it is surprising because it is one of the safer places to dive. That is not to say it should never happen because I'm sure there are people who die in swimming pools while scuba diving. A lot of things have to go wrong to die in a place like that. For all we know, the diver wasn't monitoring his air or could have had an equipment failure. We'll likely never know because the cause may never be made public.

 

[broncobowsher]

Still shocked to read this happened at Breakwater. Many people in this area have gotten their basic certifications here. The location and conditions are relatively benign, so hard to imagine it happening there. However, diver health plays a part so perhaps that was involved here. RIP

Any more shocking than someone who drowns in a swimming pool? That is even more benign conditions. Yet it still happens all the time.

 

[Brett Hatch]

Thanks for the report. Sad to hear, I hope that if the family and close ones find this, they will know that the local dive community feels for them.

 

[Shasta_man]

Biotech Diver (thanks) summarized most of my reasoning well, and while agreed that the experience of divers there would skew towards higher risk, few actually die there. Before one guy in June 2023, it was a number of years, then again years before that, which seems pretty good for so many inexperienced divers diving in very cold murky water. While we could graph out whether statistics support my conjecture, my primary reason is that, in addition to Biotechs list of reasons, I've simply had a lot of positive experiences there and somebody actually dying there sucks besides the family dealing with the irreconcilable.