Fatality on Rosalie Moller wreck

[mattia_v]

You'd think so, but not only women have lighter bone structure, they are prone to osteoporosis later in life so the difference becomes even more striking as we get the "diving age".

Sorry, not buying it. Bone density is significantly higher than water density, and the degree of osteoporosis required to affect that would be significant, and accounts for about 14-15% of body weight in a non-overweight adult. Muscle sinks. Fat floats. Large lung capacity will make you floatier. All else being equal, women tend to have higher fat percentages than men, and lower muscle mass.

 

[John the Pom]

I'm wondering if the diver had felt some psychological pressure to retrieve the weight out of fear of littering the wreck or the environment rather than or in combination with the fear of being excessively buoyant.

It could be many factors: your suggestion; being anxious about buoyancy issues; or even being embarrassed about having previously dropped a piece of equipment (the dive computer).

If it was all down to buoyancy and weighting, it is terrible to think of this poor person suffering such anxiety and then a tragic accident over something so simple to resolve. A quick buoyancy check before the first day's diving starts would have sorted everything out. If she was struggling with buoyancy at the safety stop, chances are it was because she was over-weighted to start with, and adding weights was making things worse.

 

[ginti]

She was fit and slim, a BSAC Dive Leader, so not knowing how to breath etc are irrelevant.

The post from the OP says that she was PADI AOW with an experience of 200 dives, fit and slim.

Nevertheless, I do not understand why you think a dive leader would be able to breathe properly. I do not know the prerequisite for becoming a BSAC dive-leader, but if they are similar to the other agencies (I am thinking about CMAS here), then not knowing how to breath etc is absolutely possible at that level. I have seen many dive leaders with poor buoyancy control, bad breathing habits, etc.

EDIT: sorry, you were discussing her ability to descend and to break the surface; you're right, dive-leader or not, with 200 dives she was able for sure to go down with an acceptable amount of weight. I would be very surprised otherwise... so forget what I said

 

[Edward3c]

The post from the OP says that she was PADI AOW with an experience of 200 dives, fit and slim.

Nevertheless, I do not understand why you think a dive leader would be able to breathe properly. I do not know the prerequisite for becoming a BSAC dive-leader, but if they are similar to the other agencies (I am thinking about CMAS here), then not knowing how to breath etc is absolutely possible at that level. I have seen many dive leaders with poor buoyancy control, bad breathing habits, etc.

You’ve confused my ex wife (in my post) with the casualty; did you fallow the link to what a DL is?. She also did a lot of swimming and was an Assistant Instructor - when I last saw her.

 

[ginti]

You’ve confused my ex wife (in my post) with the casualty; did you fallow the link to what a DL is?. She also did a lot of swimming and was an Assistant Instructor - when I last saw her.

Sorry, the post started getting long and I am making a bit of confusion

I followed the link, but it seems to me there is not much difference with a DL from other agencies, except for the depth range, which is similar to CMAS but different from many commercial agencies like PADI/SSI/etc. Yes, I know that BSAC is way more thorough than PADI

Anyway, we are going off-topic here, my fault

 

[BlueTrin]

Deleted

 

[Celt]

Two novices diving together, the blind leading the blind. All the signs of nerves ignored, blowing off their gas, leaving early, allowed off to the surface on their own leading to cramp and finely a total novice reaction, chasing a dropped item in a panic.

 

[CT-Rich]

I am surprise a diver with 200 dives would chase a weight pouch while still in the NDL. She should have realized that A) she didn’t have the gas to make a bounce dive like that and B) she would not become overly buoyant until the very end of her ascent. Finally, the safety stop is *not* a hard requirement worth risking your life.

A regrettable instance, the issues with the computer, gas mix and her dive buddy seem secondary to her own discomfort and anxiety, which she may have been actively hiding from the others.

 

[MrVegas]

I am surprise a diver with 200 dives would chase a weight pouch while still in the NDL.

I agree with this and would like to believe that if I were at 20m within NDL and saw a weight pouch disappear into the depths, I would let it go and take my chances on a potentially rapid ascent. (People CESA from 20m, right?) But the logic may have been different . . . the top of the wreck was "only" about another 10m down, right? She had almost half a tank. Maybe the thought was to just go down and take a look, and then realizing she had to go a little deeper, then a little deeper . . . then a little deeper . .. then trying to find the weight pocket.

 

[Dan]

In June I was diving in a lake (40’ bottom) with my normal saltwater 12-lb dive weight, distributed into 4 places, 4 lbs on each left & right integrated weight pouches and 2 lbs on each left & right shoulder blade pouches. When I descent with head down & fins up to ~ 20’ depth, I saw 4-lb dive weight went out of my left integrated left pouch (apparently I forgot to zip up the pouch). My reflect was to go after it since the bottom was shallow, then I decided not to, due to limited visibility (~6’) and I was with a group of 4 following a guideline. Later on I found out, although the weight wasn’t evenly distributed, I was still pretty much neutrally buoyant after purging some of the air out of my BCD.