Diver lost 15 Jan 2013 Cozumel

[DandyDon]

Divedaily, I have seen no evidence anywhere of number of dives logged by the deceased, so let's not start that rumor here. I think it's been established that she was trained AOW in stateside freshwater but had never dived the ocean before that week. Whether she had more than a dozen dives or not no one here knows, or how long since the last one - altho it has been suggested that it had been considerable time.

This rumor is interesting tho...

During the dive on Palancar Reef the DM went through a swimthrough and waited for his divers to come out. Only 4 came out of the swimthrough, so he returned to see where the other 3 (the deceased and her two brothers) had gone. When he came out on the other side he didn't find them there, but saw bubbles in another swimthrough then the one he went into. Upon checking these bubbles he found the two brothers who had gone into another swimthrough then the one he was guiding his group into. Reasons for this are unknown but it seems to be a decision made by the brothers, not because they had lost the group. Upon meeting with the brothers he discovered that their sister was not there. They looked but couldn't find her and all went to the surface.

 

[ggunn]

- Plz don't swim into swimthroughs we don't guide you into. You don't know them, and even if you do, chances are you are putting a "DM" in a very tough position, what with 7 other divers to look after and having to come up with all divers present and stuff like that (Palancar can be a maze at some points, very hard to find people when you have to keep the group together at the same point, and thats without to much of a current)

Right on. I have been diving for nearly 20 years, but sitting here thinking about getting lost in a swimthrough (though a dead end tunnel in a reef where you don't have room to turn around isn't a swimthrough, is it?) makes me feel a little short of breath. Going through swimthroughs at all is somewhat dangerous; I've been through a couple I will NEVER do again, and I'm not talking about Devil's Throat, either. I do them, but it's a rare swimthrough I traverse where somewhere in the middle of it I don't think to myself that if something were to happen RIGHT NOW I could be in serious trouble.

 

[TSandM]

Reading through some of these posts makes me even happier that, for my one trip to Coz, I got together enough people so that we had our own boat.

 

[Christi]

divedaily - I am curious where you say you read in this thread and/or heard that she had 100/150 dives. I have not heard or read that anywhere and see no indication that she had that many dives. I have actually heard (also hearsay of course) that she had abou 10 - 15 dives - which does seem to fit the logic better as to needing the refresher diive and being encouraged to take a private DM.

I am still curious to know why the brothers did not stay with her and of course what their version of the dive is and what their diving experience is.

 

[idive2]

On my only trip to Grand Cayman in 2009 I was at maybe 300 to 400 dives and have to admit one swim through that started from
the side of the wall and exited out on to the reef was something that I considered to be a rather advanced swim through. I think the
charters are faced with attempting to keep the experienced divers happy with interesting dives and at the same time deciding
what is beyond the abilities of the least experienced diver of the group.

Correction, I was recalling a Grand Cayman dive not Cozumel.

 

[Divedaily]

thanks for the post, it is disheartening to hear that the dive operators there do not pool their resources when there is a critical, life or death situation. As for sending people up on a float line, and then you holding onto a rock.....LOL!!! that is just silly.. what would you expect to happen? All the air hog customers are going to be pushed up the line, smashed into eachother and if they hold on hard enough they will get sucked DOWN underwater (with low air).. They can't be allowed to physically hang on the line in a current and if they do, you can't hook off? Right??? Am i missing somehting?

Yes you might have I do actually brief divers not to hold on to the buoy, but not all comply with that. In the same briefing I tell the others to stay with me especially once the buoy is up because the current will take me quicker and I can't stay with them. In this case a couple of them paid attention to what I said, but a couple of them did not. So now I have an inexperienced diver hanging in the current on my buoy and a couple of people "hanging in the back" that didn't see this because they were to far back. Yes I can let go of my buoy, and loose two inexperienced divers with my buoy, or I stay with the inexperienced divers and loose the "experienced divers" (who a lot of times don't have a buoy, and experienced is sometimes also a debatable point).
I tried to keep the group together until the line broke. Any better solution would be appreciated.

 

[drrich2]

With the caveat that at this point we don't know for sure whether a swim through situation was even involved in this incident:

On Caribbean Dives sometimes I 'follow the leader' through a swim through (tunnel), and sometimes I don't. I'm a bit bigger around than the average diver, and I don't like the idea of my tank valve snagging on something, etc...

But the few dives I've had where swim throughs were done, they weren't real long, bubbles from the swim through divers came up here & there from openings in the swim through, and it was no problem for me to swim over the swim through instead of through it.

Then again, I have not had this situation come up on a dive with substantial currents. Depending on how strong the current was, and whether there was shelter available from it, swimming over it instead of through could move one away from the group.

Richard.

 

[MSDT476614]

Any other news on the diver please to date? Anyone? Still hoping it turns out well.

 

[DandyDon]

Any other news on the diver please to date? Anyone? Still hoping it turns out well.

Uh, 5 days ago I think this was spot on...

I would say that the best way that it can end at this point is if they recover a body.

 

[Darol]

awap said:

Let me say up front, I am not a big fan of swim-throughs. But I am disappointed that a dive op would recognize a diver with limited skills and still lead the group through such features if that is what in fact occurred.​

Good food for thought.... unfortunately those who know in fact what occurred are not talking. If you're not the first through the swim-throughs it's all sand and crotches, "ain't nobody got time for that".
This was in the Salt Lake City Tribune yesterday :

Applegate speculated that instead Lashlee was caught in a kind of whirlpool and became trapped under water. "The feeling is she was probably pulled down," Applegate explained. "It’s an uncommon thing but the oceans have different currents."

Food for thought.... Tragic......