Drowning at Windy Point 10-13-2007

[Hemlon]

Thanks for the info, dixintex.

Our hearts go out to his family and friends.

 

[LVX]

I was with him diving at the park. We went over and over again what went wrong and it was concluded that we all followed the rules precisely and that an autopsy (due Tuesday) will be the only way to find out what happened. He had fully functioning gear, 1000 psi. He was still grasping his light and he still had his mask and fins on which means whatever happened to him happened quick...no signs of panic or struggle. My personal OPINION is that he succombed to a heart attack or stroke. What really impressed me was the way the divers on the shore quickly and efficiently took charge of the situation IMMEDIATELY. There were probably over 200 divers there that weekend, including a HUGE class of rescue divers and also a group of firefighters. My personal thanks to all of them. They all got together and performed AED, CPR, Resuscitation in an almost machine like way.

What shop were you with and who was the instructor out there from the shop.

thanks

Layne

 

[Kevin Carlisle]

Very sad!! My sympathies to family and friends.

 

[jac]

It also encouraged me that I'm diving correctly and now I want to correct others who may have learned/are learning incorrectly or incompletely.

what does this mean?

 

[LVX]

You said on the Scubatoys site that the instructor had told him he could not dive with the AOW class because the instructor did not feel he was ready and that he was diving on his own is this correct? I happened to be at the lake and overheard your group talking with a Sheriff's deputy and heard that the instructor say he was going to take the distressed diver to the surface because he was having problems. The instructor said he turned to tell 2 other divers to continue their dive and then turned back to find the distressed diver missing. I am not sure I understand. Was he diving on his own and then ran into the group and then became separated?

 

[islandiver]

I'm kinda fuzzy on all the details, but I too was there. I was in the group of divers doing their DiveCon open waters (the class that looked like the large rescue class) and we were the divers that conducted the search. And thanks to the quick efforts of my instructor we were able to find him quickly, unfortunately not soon enough I guess. I just hope that none of us have to witness anything like this again; it has me still all shaken up about it. I pray for his family and friends.

 

[Hemlon]

Dixintex told me in a PM (and she posted it on the ST site) that the deceased was not allowed to continue in the AOW class because it was felt that he was too inexperienced. (Not sure of any details re: "inexperienced")

Then he was diving along side the group and was being watched by the instructor. I found this to be odd because if he wasn't ready for AOW, was he ready to be "buddying" with someone (the instructor) whose attention was diverted to an AOW class? Wow...what a liability issue! Plus, those in the class paid top dollar for an instructor to NOT be distracted.

It made me have questions too, LVX.

 

[LVX]

Dixintex told me in a PM (and she posted it on the ST site) that the deceased was not allowed to continue in the AOW class because it was felt that he was too inexperienced. (Not sure of any details re: "inexperienced")

Then he was diving along side the group and was being watched by the instructor. I found this to be odd because if he wasn't ready for AOW, was he ready to be "buddying" with someone (the instructor) whose attention was diverted to an AOW class? Wow...what a liability issue! Plus, those in the class paid top dollar for an instructor to NOT be distracted.

It made me have questions too, LVX.

Exactly Hemlon. I have had classes before where a student asked to tag along. This is always a bad idea and I would never do it because if they do become separated, where do your attentions lie. Do you abandon your 'buddy' to stay with the class or do you stop the class to find your 'buddy.' I mean he is still your buddy regardless if he was not in the class. He is still with you.

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

Here is the part where some questions pop up for me. I dive in low vis lake conditions all the time. In fact, I don't know what clear water is. So the worse the vis the closer my buddy and I stay together so that we are in visual contact the whole time. It seems if vis is bad and a diver is not in constant view of his buddy if something does go wrong you will have no way of knowing until well after the fact.

I am sorry for the loss to this man's family.

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

I am just saying based on the facts provided above that this is where I have some questions.

Having lost my buddy in low vis conditions, I know once they are gone-- they are gone and if something happens during that time there is nothing you can do to either know about it or respond to it once you get more than a few feet apart.

We will never know all the facts. There is never a full reporting of the issues. We discuss to try to figure out what happened so that we do not repeat the same mistakes.


Getting out of visual contact with your buddy is a mistake. Would it have changed the events of this situation. Who knows. It certainly would have got the dead guy to the surface quicker and eliminated the need for S&R to spend an hour looking for him.