Here is a report I posted on another forum about the diving accident at Race Rock Saturday January 18th. I hope there wasn't one at Whytecliff as well.
This Saturday a group of four divers planned a two dive day at Race Rocks near Victoria, British Columbia. Henri a good friend of his dive buddy did not surface from the second dive and was found in twenty feet of water out of air with his weight belt on.
One of the divers who was in the other buddy group called me tonight. I was suppose to accompany them on the dive but my gear was not ready. We discussed the dive hoping to understand the cause of the accident. Here are some possible contributing factors based on the information I have at this time.
The group left Vancouver early to catch the ferry to Victoria so they could leave the dock for a morning dive, as a result they were tired. When they got to the dive shop Henri was not able to get the correct size of bullets for his weight integrated BCD and was given a weight belt instead. He was therefore using gear he was not familiar with and it is difficult to ditch a weight belt worn under an integrated BCD. After completing the first dive they spent their surface interval at the dive site which is exposed to the weather. The dive boat did not have a cabin and they were all quite cold prior to their second dive.
Henri and his buddy descended for their second dive after a complete surface interval but he had forgotten his weight belt on the boat. I am not sure how he managed to get down but assume he had some weight in his pockets. Once at depth he found some weights lost by another diver and put them in his pockets but was still having problems so he surfaced. He retrieved his belt from the boat and continued his dive. At this point he was doing a bounce dive profile. They surfaced at what should have been the end of the dive and found themselves in a kelp bed. He had close to 500 psi in his tank so they decided to swim under the kelp to clear it as the boat could not pick them up in the kelp. Henri's buddy surfaced alone and then went to look for him. He found him in approximately 20 feet of water unconscious, out of air and wearing his weight belt.
His weight belt was released and he was brought to the surface and on board the boat. CPR was given all the way to the dock where an ambulance was waiting but he did not regain consciousness.
It is unknown why he was not able to make the short swim out of the kelp and I don't believe that he was found entangled. I can think of two possible scenarios. One is that he lost his buddy and chose to look for him while not paying attention to his air gauge then panicked when he ran out. Another possibility is that he suffered the bends due to the bounce dive profile and vomited, panicked or passed out as a result. Added to both these scenarios is the possibility that he was unable to ditch his weight belt from underneath his weight integrated BCD.
I felt it was important to post the details of this incident as so many accidents remain unexplained and we all need to learn from them so we can be safer divers.
I did not know Henri but offer my best thoughts to his friends, family and the other divers that were with him.
