Fatality on Rosalie Moller wreck

[Bob DBF]

It wasn't the weights she was chasing, it was the weight pocket.

It's too bad she saw it drop.

I was on a LOB, and found a weight pocket on the bottom, when I got back to the boat I asked everyone on board, at least once, if they lost one since it didn't look like it had been on the bottom long. Next morning a diver comes to me looking for the pocket. He explains he had a problem and had to dump air from the BC and it was odd that he started to lean to one side but otherwise everything acted normally. I just told him to put those weights away and devide the weight in the other pocket between the two and double check his latches.

 

[KenGordon]

It's too bad she saw it drop.

I was on a LOB, and found a weight pocket on the bottom, when I got back to the boat I asked everyone on board, at least once, if they lost one since it didn't look like it had been on the bottom long. Next morning a diver comes to me looking for the pocket. He explains he had a problem and had to dump air from the BC and it was odd that he started to lean to one side but otherwise everything acted normally. I just told him to put those weights away and devide the weight in the other pocket between the two and double check his latches.

This thread is quite preachy about overweighted divers.

On a liveaboard divers are out to have fun. If they are not fanatical divers or normally dive in a different configuration they are likely to be guessing to some extent at the start of the week. Many (most?) will not attempt to reduce their weight as it risks being too light, being unable to get down etc and losing a dive.

 

[Diving Dubai]

The majority of contributors (from behind their keyboards) have made the assumption this was a conscious decision. IMO it wasn't.

For example: you knock a glass off a table, it's pure instinct that your hand reaches out to grab it (or not. Only when it's sake or smashed on the floor does conscious thought take over.

For the sake of argument, You're near the end of your dive in similar circumstances, and your shiney new dsmb spool detaches and heads downward to the sand 100'/30m below you

Everyone on this thread will instinctively fin down to try to retrieve it. Assuming you don't catch it within a few ft/m

Most of us will out of habit/muscle memory look at our gauges - a handful of participant here will have the mental bandwidth and capacity to run the maths of depth vs tank contents and make a decision. The vast majority, won't do the maths, but experience will tell them that the numbers they're seeing, mean it's time to go up not down.

Some, , may get tunnel vision and be so fixated on the spool that rational and conscious thought is overridden by the desire to get that damn spool and they may end up with a similar conclusion

LIke all accidents it does require a chain of events beforehand to get to the final outcome (break any link in that chain and the outcome is different)

 

[David Novo]

On our last dive trip we noticed that most divers were wearing 15-20, or more, pounds of lead.

15-20 pounds of lead does not have to mean they are overweight. For example, in a thick wetsuit or a drysuit.

 

[BlueTrin]

15-20 pounds of lead does not have to mean they are overweight. For example, in a thick wetsuit or a drysuit.

Neoprene drysuits (particularly the non crushed ones) seem to be very floaty

 

[chillyinCanada]

This thread is quite preachy about overweighted divers.

On a liveaboard divers are out to have fun. If they are not fanatical divers or normally dive in a different configuration they are likely to be guessing to some extent at the start of the week. Many (most?) will not attempt to reduce their weight as it risks being too light, being unable to get down etc and losing a dive.

That did indeed happen to me on my very first lob, the Dewi Nusantara in Raja Ampat. I thiught it was a one time trip and that I'd never be so blessed again. I knew that I could deal with a few extra pounds and I didn't want to miss anything screwing with my weights.

 

[John the Pom]

This thread is quite preachy about overweighted divers.

On a liveaboard divers are out to have fun. If they are not fanatical divers or normally dive in a different configuration they are likely to be guessing to some extent at the start of the week. Many (most?) will not attempt to reduce their weight as it risks being too light, being unable to get down etc and losing a dive.

But aren't they taught how to do a simple buoyancy check? A few minutes spent before the diving starts and the issue is sorted for the rest of the trip.

 

[KenGordon]

But aren't they taught how to do a simple buoyancy check? A few minutes spent before the diving starts and the issue is sorted for the rest of the trip.

You need to be able to hand off weights to do a proper buoyancy check. So you need to be prepared to remove them in the water or keep getting in and out. This is a load of hassle for a holiday diver.

How many people can judge how much lead to loose based on how easy it is to hold a stop and how much gas they have in a BCD?

Also, not being able to sink at the start is embarrassing and annoying.

The Egyptian liveaboards generally have small boats to drop off and pick up divers in waves. If you can’t sink you might be hanging about a time the surface until your boat comes back.

 

[ginti]

@KenGordon agree 100%. It's hard to find a solution here, but you agree that life is more important than a bit of fun.

My belief here is that inexperience was the most important factor. Holiday/inexperienced divers shouldn't be doing dives like that IMHO, period.

 

[Diving Dubai]

But aren't they taught how to do a simple buoyancy check? A few minutes spent before the diving starts and the issue is sorted for the rest of the trip.

Yes, and many operators make a check dive and get people to weight check. As @KenGordon points out, most are just concerned with being underweight and not being able to get down, rather than being correctly weighted.

A better way of weight check IMO is at end of the dive, instead of being at eye level your head should be a hands width below the surface. If you sink with a near empty tank then clearly you're over weight

It's common to see people with far too much weight on, but it's their crutch - try to get them to remove some is the hardest thing, worrying about weighting at the end of a dive is a sure way to have buoyancy issues. Tryign to convince a diver they've got the wrong weighting can be like getting blood out of a stone

The body is remarkable at adapting, so people cite that they're correctly weighted because they have no issues. When I teach I'm always significantly overweight, since I carry extra incase a diver need it, and so that I can arrest an uncontrolled ascent of a student by dumping my gas.

Confidence is a big issue. When I teach PPB, its in shallow water - not more than 6m/20' and by the end they'll be holding stops at 3m/9'

I bet 95% of the students a case of beer that I'll reduce their weight - I've never lost, and some students have even brought me a case

At the end of the course after the last 3m stop I get teh students to bleed their tanks down to 20bar /300psi and try to descent, which of course they can't I then pull them down to 3m and get them to make a stop, which they can. The value of this is to give them confidence in their abilities, so they know they can hold a stop even when underweight.