diving accident in Anilao

[kdsmithjr]

[QUOT'E=Osric;5925605]This is probably a fairer assessment than mine. Having seen multiple times how badly my own words can get mangled by the press, I should be more forgiving and focus on the things the article reported reasonably accurately as far as we can tell.

Osric[/QUOTE]

I'd agree. Some of the quotes seem written by someone who did "research" for a high school report and just 'cut and pasted' from the internet without actually reading what was submitted. If he actually did read it, then he has no background in scuba and, when he doesn't quite understand something....he/she just makes up filler to make it all look good.

 

[kdsmithjr]

5 dives ago, I had a Padi DM panic while dive buddying with me. Where would that leave all those who would never dive without a DM?
How would you respond to a DM who has had both his mask and regulator kicked off and is in panic?

We need to learn to dive independently of a baby sitter, then utilize safe diving practices, which usually includes team diving skills.

what kind of "DM" panics with something so common and innocuous as a mask and/or reg being kicked off (or lost for any other simple, non-destructive reason) underwater. Maybe the DM got his/cert cert at the same place the victim who had an AOW cert with only 14 dives got hers,

 

[kdsmithjr]

Seems that the implications of many "contributors" to this thread are that a DM would have prevented this incident. As has been pointed out the titles attributed to the various levels of training mean little if the diver has done nothing more. For example an Advanced Open Water diver with 13 or 14 dives would have done at least 9 of those under direct supervision of an instructor and at least 4 of those in "ideal" conditions. The buddy with 70 dives is being described as an experienced diver a term thrown around often and in most cases as meaningless as the Advanced Open Water title - HOWEVER as a point to be made a DM is also just a title, sure they have completed a higher level of theory and supposedly demonstrated competence in a variety of skills (usually in calm conditions) but they may actually have less dives than the "experienced" buddy.

Unfortunately the best that can be determined from this dive will be a speculation based on autopsies (assuming that the results are ever released, and if they are, that the autopsies were done under conditions appropriate for scuba autopsy - such as opening cavities under water to observe gas buildups) as the only witnesses are not going to talk. However, if the theory being put forward is close to correct (ie run away ascent with the buddy trying to slow her and both succumbing to explosive DCI/AGE) then it is equally as likely that the only thing that would have happened if a DM was present is that there would have been a third person involved in a runaway ascent. DMs are not superheroes, they are not Gods, they are simply divers that have some level of training to SUPERVISE qualified divers. Would you expect a safari guide in Africa to be able to prevent someone tripping and falling in elephant dung ... no ?? So why is it that everyone is assuming that an underwater guide will automatically be able to stop someone from ending up in the **** underwater.

With 1000+ dives under my weightbelt I consider myself to have accumulated a number of experiences but still I am a long way from experienced.

Without saying what unfolded in totality, because we will never know, about the only thing that we do know is that two divers are dead. The too fast ascent/AGE/DCS theory is as good as any, but that is more the cause of death, not how events unfolded leading to the deaths. And I agree, a DM might well not have prevented that unfolding....and the tragic end. I think that, initially, people were focused on being in the water without a DM and that diving in such a scenario invites problems that might not otherwise occur. But those are issues of familiarity with the environment, not basic diving skills.
As more and more 'analysis'--and i use that term loosely because much is speculative--comes to the fore, it appears that this was not an accident grounded in unfamiliarity with the environment where one, and then perhaps both, got in something over their heads that a DM might have been able to help them avoid. I think that a DM would only, perhaps, have been able to give an eye witness account to the tragic unfolding of events that resulted in two deaths....he/she probably could not have prevented the tragedy.

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