Diver found missing in Laguna's Shaw's Cove

[TSandM]

Not being familiar with this site, are there areas where, if you ended up surfacing there, you could NOT stay safely on the surface? I know, for example, that at Whaler's Cove in Monterey, if you surface in the rocks at the entry to the cove, you could end up in significant danger of injury from waves knocking you into the rocks.

If where he surfaced wasn't like that, I suppose it's possible that he surfaced out of gas, and did not remember to drop weights or orally inflate. Stories involving that are common, and are why we now have our OW students don weight belts for their pool sessions, and drop them the first time they surface. We want to burn that possibility into their minds as much as possible.

 

[Selchie in LB]

I have been on dives where someone with a camera is in their own little world doing their own thing and they are oblivious to what others are doing. The idea that everyone should cater to the guy with a camera is dumb. They guy with a camera should put it down and be aware of what is going on around him/.

I tend to agree. But more to the point new divers should not have cameras!

Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Hatul]

Not being familiar with this site, are there areas where, if you ended up surfacing there, you could NOT stay safely on the surface? I know, for example, that at Whaler's Cove in Monterey, if you surface in the rocks at the entry to the cove, you could end up in significant danger of injury from waves knocking you into the rocks.

If where he surfaced wasn't like that, I suppose it's possible that he surfaced out of gas, and did not remember to drop weights or orally inflate. Stories involving that are common, and are why we now have our OW students don weight belts for their pool sessions, and drop them the first time they surface. We want to burn that possibility into their minds as much as possible.

This is a fairly large rocky reef, so the waves breaking over the reef have a large area to dissipate their energy. Even in heavy waves an active, experienced diver with a near empty tank, having inflated BC and dropped weights, could make it out of there on the surface towards the sandy area albeit with some scrapes and bruises. But this was a case of someone who hired an instructor to do a refresher dive, so it's hard to avoid the feeling that he should have never been put in that situation. You can have a good training dive staying in the sandy area and exploring the edge of the reef without entering the swim-throughs.

I should add that you can get a pretty good indication of the surge situation within the reef by looking at the waves breaking over the reef. You can assess this from the stairs leading down to the beach even before you hit the water. Still there have been many times when we entered the reef and turned back out because of the surge.

 

[Abdullah]

I have been on dives where someone with a camera is in their own little world doing their own thing and they are oblivious to what others are doing. The idea that everyone should cater to the guy with a camera is dumb. They guy with a camera should put it down and be aware of what is going on around him/.

I would have to disagree with this. The photographers have their own pace, true, but everyone knows that. I have spent entire dives in a 25 square meter area trying to get a perfect shot of a seahorse or a nudibranch, and my dive buddy was content to relax and enjoy dive right there. If your dive buddy is going to take pictures, and you know that up front, you should expect to be paced by the photographer. If you're paired with an insta-buddy photographer, speak up and ask for a different buddy if you don't want to be in one place for a while.

And, photography is a good mechanism to allow new divers to master essential skills. To position oneself for a good picture, one will learn to master buoyancy control, finning techniques, and stable trim in the water column all while enjoying himself on a small patch of reef.

If this diver was going to be taking pictures, I would speculate that his wife (buddy) would have known that. It's likely that he would have informed his guide as well (but we don't know that). It would be customary for the team to stay close to the photographer, in his view (but out of the shot), waiting for him to look over and acknowledge the next move before progressing through the dive. It would also be customary to plan the path of the dive with the photographer's pace and desired photo opportunities in mind.

 

[merxlin]

The purpose of a tune-up or refresher dive is to do just that, and the attention should be on the skills and not on it being a pleasure dive and taking photos. I agree that in a situation like this a camera should not be part of the kit. However, there are also no indicators that the camera was part of the issue, so it is unfair to blame photography for the mishap.

 

[diverrex]

It would not be unusual for someone with a new camera to want a dive with it before going on a trip.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

 

[freewillie]

As always ! Well done Ken!
May I add a few thoughts....

As I recall Shaw's cove in Laguna is a south facing beach and always has a pounding shore break. In the winter months it is protected from the storms originating from the north and generally provides acceptable conditions for diving and dive training. In the summer months most storms originate off Baja and pound directly into Shaw's. We are now in a transitional period in which there is always a disturbed ocean. This time of the year is generally not a good time to dive Laguna beach.

The mark of a good knowledgeable diver is to admit the conditions are not acceptable for diving and abort the dive. In this case the instructor and class originated at a inland shop in Tustin (Limburtis?) and rather than aborting after dedication the day for diving and traveling so far chose to dive in extreme sub standard conditions resulting in a tragic avoidable death.

What ever happened to knowledgeable well trained instructors?

A side bar for those who are familiar with Shaw's Cove. This is the cove where the Battle of Laguna Beach originated in 1961-2 culminating in the Laguna Beach dive ordnance. What a battle it was! But it established the right to dive and in this case die in Laguna Beach. As I reflect there are only two are still alive who fought that battle. Ken, Some time in the near future before it is too late we should chat about the battle .

SDM
NAUI Instructor number 27
LA Co Underwater instructor number 11
PADI etc

(Limburtis?) Do you mean Liburdi's? If that is the dive shop you are referencing it is not in Tustin but in Irvine. Sorry about that speculation issue, but the inland Tustin dive shops are Open Water Habitat, Beach City Scuba, and Pacific Wilderness. The former Liburdi's Dive and Photo is now in Irvine under new ownership and renamed Dive and Photo.

I'm not sure if the name of the dive shop is really that important however. Instructors can come and go, and I wouldn't necessarily blame either the shop or the instructor at this point. All we really know is that a certified diver with a limited number of dives had a dive accident. We don't know what happened so it is impossible to assign blame to any one person/instructor at this time. We don't know he did anything wrong. For all we know he could have done everything "by the book" and something still could have gone wrong. That happens in life sometimes.

I checked a local dive club blogs and the conditions for that weekend were waves about 1-3 feet, viz 15 feet (which is average for Laguna especially this time of year), and temp 54 degrees. Not optimal conditions but far from substandard. If you have even a few beach dives experience you should be able to handle the entry especially at Shaw's Cove.

Shaw's cove has the local distinction of being the beach that gets the most student classes. It is a relatively easy entry/exit depending on conditions and the reef is easy to navigate. You essentially swim short distance out at 0/180 on the compass and the reef is 90/270 to the side. Very easy to navigate and towards the end of the reef can get around 55 ft.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I take visibility reports with a large grain of salt. I was diving at Shaw's one day and it was barely more than a body length of vis. I posted on the O.C. list that we had eight feet. Another poster who was in the Crevice at the same time said it was better than twenty feet. I've read some reports of forty to fifty feet at Marineland. I began diving there right after they closed in 1987. In 384 scuba dives and numerous days of free diving I have never seen more than thirty feet on the best days.

 

[Abdullah]

The purpose of a tune-up or refresher dive is to do just that, and the attention should be on the skills and not on it being a pleasure dive and taking photos. I agree that in a situation like this a camera should not be part of the kit. However, there are also no indicators that the camera was part of the issue, so it is unfair to blame photography for the mishap.

If the purpose of the dive was a true Scuba Review, and the instructor was running through the checklist (20 skills on the PADI list), it would be hard to get separated (but not impossible). Speculating here, it's possible that the dive was a pre-trip confidence dive more than a full on scuba review. On these dives, the instructor/DM may review some essential skills, then they transition into a conventional dive. More speculation: Allowing the victim to test dive his new toys prior to a dive trip would not be out of the ordinary.