Diver's Mom, I also offer my condolences. We may never be able to deduce exactly what happened. One concept that arises again and again in accident analysis is that accidents are often not traceable to a single source. There is usually a combination of contributing factors, with any one of them potentially being the difference between a close call and tragedy.
I'm a scuba diver and I've done dozens of dives in Mission Bay. I've done a number of dives in the vicinity of the West Mission Bay bridge, and gone under it a few times. I entered at Quivira Road near the Hyatt, or a couple of times on the opposite side, from Ventura Cove. The water quality, as far as I can tell, is not as bad as everyone seems to think. I met someone whose job was to take samples of the water here for years and she said that the water quality was generally decent except for some of the coves where the water exchange happened slowly. The visibility is poor, as you would expect. I haven’t been diving there in a few years but I believe it was usually around 6 feet, maybe 10 feet in the deeper areas on a good day. I timed my dives so that I entered on a rising tide, when water quality was supposedly better, and so I would have the current pushing me on my return. Although generally not an issue, on occasion these currents were strong, but never so strong that you couldn’t swim against them. Once you get away from the rocks on shore the bottom is sandy, not muddy/silty like San Diego Bay. So it’s not like S.D. Bay where just touching the bottom creates a huge cloud of silt that causes the visibility to go instantly to zero, and if you dropped something in Mission Bay it wouldn’t just disappear into the muck.
The main hazard I encountered was boat traffic. I’m surprised anyone would attempt to freedive here because of it. Underwater I don’t recall anything I regarded as hazardous, with the exception of the bridge pilings themselves. Underwater the pilings are surrounded by something like a sheath, that is a large cylinder that is open on the bottom but enclosed on top. So it is an overhead environment. This structure is big enough to enter, which I did, looking for lobsters. (Didn’t find any.) On scuba, with a big light, I felt pretty comfortable. But if you ended up inside one of these things, under different circumstances, it could be a dangerous situation. You would have to swim straight down to exit, and it’s probably very dark and confusing even in daytime.
In addition to being a scuba diver I am also a certified freeediver. My max breath hold is 3:30 and I had to dive to 66 ft to get my certification. I do not have a lot of experience and I do not hunt. However there are a couple of points to be made on the subject. First, proper weighting is important. Meaning you want to be neutrally buoyant at 2 atm pressure / 33 feet saltwater depth. Meaning you will be positively buoyant above 33ft, and thus float to the surface if you have a problem. If a freediver is overweighted, this could be a significant contributor to an accident. Weights should be worn on a belt that can be quickly released with one hand in the event of an emergency.
The second major point on the subject of freediving is you are taught to always dive with a buddy. I’ve been a scuba diver for over ten years and broken the buddy rule hundreds of times, but freediving is different. On scuba you have air and time to solve problems. There are lively arguments about the buddy system among scuba divers but there’s no doubt that having a buddy is critical when freediving. The problem with freediving is that blacking out underwater or at the surface is a real and ever-present danger. Even if you’re weighted properly, so that you float at the surface, you cannot survive face down in the water. The only thing that is going to save you is a buddy. Hypoxia while breath-hold swimming or diving has killed many strong and experienced swimmers and divers. Simply practicing in a pool is dangerous and requires a partner. Even static apnea training, where you put your face in the water and hold your breath, while in water shallow enough to stand in, has killed veteran freedivers and needs to be done with a partner.
A cutting tool is an excellent idea, however it is of limited use, due to the hypoxia issue. Let’s say you have one but get entangled as you attempt to surface from your dive. At this point you’ve used most of the air you planned for the dive. You may have just seconds to analyze and solve the problem. The associated stress/concentration/coordination/exertion increase your oxygen consumption giving you even less time to respond. So this brings us back to the importance of having an alert buddy, who also has a cutting tool and can come assist.
Diver’s Mom once again I’m sorry for your loss. We may never know just what happened in this accident. There is the possibility that having a buddy would not have changed the outcome. However having a buddy would have at least ensured he had the best chance at survival. I can only hope that someone else will read about this accident and decide that going freediving alone is not worth the risk.
