Fatality Horseshoe Bay May 21/10

[waterbee]

Why couldn't your brother of Retirediver have shared his oxygen to save Tim's life, at 1500 psi? Maybe he got scared? My condolences to the family who lost a son. It is very hard to understand how this could possibly happened? Never leave your buddy in the water by themselves.

 

[gcbryan]

Why couldn't your brother of Retirediver have shared his oxygen to save Tim's life, at 1500 psi? Maybe he got scared? My condolences to the family who lost a son. It is very hard to understand how this could possibly happened? Never leave your buddy in the water by themselves.

You're not a diver are you? It appears that the brother wanted to come up and Tim did not. Under the circumstances as told Tim is the one who should have come up with his buddy.

However, we don't really seem to know the details.

 

[DandyDon]

Retireddiver, we want to know more yes, but it's fine if you can't offer more answers. I am sure your brother is in a lot of stress now. It's is best for him to talk about it if he will, but he may have reasons for wanting additional talks kept confidential. Thank you for what you brought us, and post again only if you want to.

 

[CapitanBlack]

Why couldn't your brother of Retirediver have shared his oxygen to save Tim's life, at 1500 psi? Maybe he got scared? My condolences to the family who lost a son. It is very hard to understand how this could possibly happened? Never leave your buddy in the water by themselves.

I am sorry, but if he would not leave him - we could have now two deceased person.

From Tim's air consumption rate, it seems that he had a VERY intensive shallow breathing. The shallow breathing may quickly raise CO2 concentration in his bloodstream up to a very danger level (the CO2 retention process has started). The high level of CO2 underwater can lead to panic, disorientation, target fixation (get back the speargun at any price!) and many-many other very dangerous problems...

I could imagine that at some point Tim's buddy realized that he is

1) very low on air too (?)
2) cannot prove his buddy stop gun's recovery attempts and start ascending

So, he might felt that they are both going to die, if would not start ascending IMMEDIATELY. So, he took decision to separate and start ascending on his own.

These are only my guesses, based on my diving experience and Tim's buddy information...

 

[retireddiver]

you said it captainblack, ascend IMMEDIATLEY!!!! Please re read the account of what happened.

 

[gcbryan]

My condolences to the family of deceased...



I am sorry - but, I would not go down either... Just imagine yourself under 100' of dark water, arguing to a buddy who breath 333(!) psi per minute (1000 psi per 3 minutes). The stress SCR is defined as 1 cu. ft / min., which at 100' and assuming AL80 tank, equals to DCR of 160 psi / min. This person was breathing more than two times harder... I am pretty sure that even at the beginning of the struggle Tim already had a HUGE stress and was very close to uncontrollable panic. This situation can scare anyone deep to the bones and life-saving instinct will take over...

According the DIR Rock Bottom rules - 1500 psi in AL80 tank at 100' is the Rock Bottom volume. Divers MUST start ascending immediately, because if one of them will loose all gas - 1500 psi is enough to safely bring them both to the surface.

No offense, but this post makes no sense at all. As far as we know Tim wasn't stressed out. He is the one who wanted to go down to retrieve his speargun.

You say this situation can scare anyone deep to the bones...dropping a speargun?

The person as far as I can tell using 1500psi to 500 psi in 3 minutes was the brother not Tim.

You mention that you would go up at 1500 psi and leave your buddy because that's the Rockbottom calculation. That's true but if you are leaving your buddy Rockbottom is not 1500 psi it's 750 psi since you have no buddy to possibly share it with.

I'm not saying that the brother shouldn't have gone up. When your air is low you have to go up.

I think ultimately the lesson to be learned here is simply to not take a night dive to 100 fsw lightly if it is perhaps pushing your experience level to do so.

 

[capnvega]

I have to wonder if somebody got narked.

 

[DandyDon]

I have to wonder if somebody got narked.

Narcosis is always in play below, to some degree at any depth but 100 ft is the classic expected depth for significant affects. I try to remind myself that I am always diving under the influence, the deeper the more significant - even tho I never notice any changes other than a warm buzz maybe.

 

[retireddiver]

Hey guys night dive or not rules still apply, (emergency asscent applies) especially with spotter on shore, from what I understand this was an evening dive still light till 9-930pm, not labled a night dive . The coroner will determine if nc was a factor. Until we know what depth and if this was the only dive of the night who knows. I just got 2 tanks from tims dad which were in his car, I will check them both to see how much air is in them, whether they were used that night who knows. I will keep you all posted ,Tims dad will give me info as it is legally revealed.

Thanks Brian

 

[sassyalice]

My condolences to the family.

I am curious to the diving experience of the divers? Did they dive these spots often?