Diver drowns, kelp seen as culprit...

[cmburch]

Dropping the weight belt at the first sign of trouble may not be true in all cases.

If a leg was caught, releasing the weight belt would make a diver more buoyant and may cause the kelp to pull tighter and may make it harder for a diver to reach down and work to untangle oneself.

 

[diveguy1]

Thanks so much for sharing your experience. It is indeed very tragic that another ab diver lost his life last weekend. Your analysis and sharing of your experience is extremely valuable, and hopefully we can all learn something from this tragic experience, and become better divers ourselves.

I was up at Stillwater cove about a week ago. The water was flat calm, and the kelp VERY thick with just a small opening down the middle to get out to sea. I took a few photos:

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e60/diveguy1/IMG_2275.jpg
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e60/diveguy1/IMG_2293.jpg

It's a beautiful place to dive.

Thanks again for sharing.

Dive safe.

 

[Prince Namor]

Mike, it sounds like you and your friend did everything that you could have. My heart goes out to the victim and his dive partner. They and their families are going through something traumatic and aweful.
Don't forget to take care of yourself and your friend too though. It can be very difficult witnessing something like that...even more so since you were both directly involved in trying to help. My heart goes out to you both as well.

 

[blewgrass]

Good work on your efforts. I work at Doran part time and see the CG helo making these trips. Henry 1 and CG have been very busy. I'm very sorry for the family of the diver. I am a noobie and will not dive without an experienced buddy. My equipment is sitting at home collecting dust much to my disappointment, but I will wait until the time is right and I have the experienced resources around me. I also realize that even then, there are dangers when you do everything right.

Steve

 

[Web Monkey]

Good work on your efforts. I work at Doran part time and see the CG helo making these trips. Henry 1 and CG have been very busy. I'm very sorry for the family of the diver. I am a noobie and will not dive without an experienced buddy. My equipment is sitting at home collecting dust much to my disappointment, but I will wait until the time is right and I have the experienced resources around me. I also realize that even then, there are dangers when you do everything right.

First, I'll say that I don't freedive, but "Doing everything right" would seem to exclude diving with no air source in what is essentially an overhead environment.

People can certainly choose to do it if they want, but I'm not sure there really is a "right" method for freediving in kelp.

Although I have an intense dislike for them in SCUBA, this would seem to be a place where a spare air might be appropriate. An extra couple of breaths could make a huge difference when trying to untangle/break/cut/kelp.

Terry

 

[alphonsis]

thanks for sharing.

 

[TaoH]

First, I'll say that I don't freedive, but "Doing everything right" would seem to exclude diving with no air source in what is essentially an overhead environment.

People can certainly choose to do it if they want, but I'm not sure there really is a "right" method for freediving in kelp.

Although I have an intense dislike for them in SCUBA, this would seem to be a place where a spare air might be appropriate. An extra couple of breaths could make a huge difference when trying to untangle/break/cut/kelp.

Terry

Yeah, but when diving for abalone in California, it's illegal to have any air source other than what your lungs will hold from the surface.

Maybe when freediving and not taking abalone it is worth considering.

 

[astrofunk]

Although I have an intense dislike for them in SCUBA, this would seem to be a place where a spare air might be appropriate. An extra couple of breaths could make a huge difference when trying to untangle/break/cut/kelp.

Even if it were legal to take abalone with your spare air strapped on, where would you put it? We've seen that dive knives, wrist lanyards, and depth gauges all pose significant entanglement hazards in thick kelp, and they have *far* smaller profiles than a spare air canister. And then there's the risk of embolism that free diving with readily available compressed gas presents, especially in a panic situation. In this environment, spare air creates more problems than it solves.

A better bet is almost certainly to seek training in free diving technique, maintain your physical fitness, dive conservatively, and dive with a conscientious buddy who has trained (like you) in rescue. Full disclosure: I have been totally guilty of ignoring all of my own advice, especially when I first started diving for abs. Then I took a free diving course and became retroactively terrified at how sloppy I'd been with my safety and -- when I wasn't solo diving -- with my buddy's safety.

 

[mikeguerrero]

Thanks for all your responses, I appreciate all the knowledge that this thread has shared. Perhaps more novice divers like myself will get a chance to scan over some of the safety stated.

Would spare air be possible to be placed in your float? Would you legally be able to have that in there? We kept our dive knifes with us, just not on us, they were placed in the float.

I've seen the smallest canister of Spare Air and it's pretty small, not any good for deeper dives but sure would be good to have a dive buddy bring you one down if he/her cannot untangle you from the kelp.

It's just another precaution, but with changing laws all the time someone is bound to break the law and use the Spare Air to catch some abs and not save a life.

Just my two cents...

I ordered my replacement knife yesterday, should get it in a week. Does anyone know how to start a thread on perhaps retrieving the lost knife. It appears Chuck mentioned that a search thread could be started.

I personally have never seen a search thread on this board for lost items and would be curious to know if anyone has successfully had items retrieved.

Anyways thanks for any heads up...

MG

 

[cmburch]

You can post on SpearBoard about spare air on Ab float in California Section. There are California Game Wardens on SpearBoard that may be able to give a correct response to the spare air question.

As discussed in prior posts
1. Spare air may be $$$$ in fines and gear confiscation.
2. May be more dangerous if not drilled, freediver panicking or gagging on saltwater.

I had a muscular weightlifter guy latch on to me when I saved him in the American River when my family was rafting a few years ago. I can imagine what may happen if a freediver in distress grabbed the rescuing freediver underwater and then fighting to save the distress diver on a breath hold.