Feb 19 2017 Cozumel diving fatality

[Ron Lee]

Make sense. So, the lesson here is we need to be positively buoyant when we are back on the surface with face above water without finning to avoid taking on water if we pass out.

I see the lesson as don't leave a single diver unattended, especially when things are already going downhill (at a minimum the equipment issue).

This seems to be a factor in at least four recent (several years) fatalities. The diver was left alone or somehow separated from the buddy or dive group.

 

[dmaziuk]

I see the lesson as don't leave a single diver unattended, especially when things are already going downhill (at a minimum the equipment issue).

This seems to be a factor in at least four recent (several years) fatalities. The diver was left alone or somehow separated from the buddy or dive group.

Wikipedia says 86% diving fatalities are buddy separation or solo divers, quoting http://www.divingmedicine.info/Ch 34 SM10c.pdf

 

[Dan]

And you avoid tipping forward after going unconscious by....???

I did check this during the checkout dive. With 3mm wetsuit, if I put 2 lbs of my trim weight in the upper back BCD weight pocket, remaining 8lbs in the waist integrated BCD weight pocket & strapping the tank (AL80) as far vertically away from my head as possible, I can float vertically with BCD full of air, chest up without finning, just like having life jacket on.

 

[Dan]

I see the lesson as don't leave a single diver unattended, especially when things are already going downhill (at a minimum the equipment issue).

This seems to be a factor in at least four recent (several years) fatalities. The diver was left alone or somehow separated from the buddy or dive group.

Yes, that lesson has been mentioned in earlier post. I just added additional lesson that has not been mentioned.

 

[AdivingBel]

I'm going to distribute weight and position my tank for best trim while diving, not for best floating on the surface... YMMV.

 

[divezonescuba]

If you spend some time deliberately testing the distribution of your weights, sometimes you can find a configuration that allows you to have both reasonable horizontal trim underwater and be vertically positioned on the surface. I call it my optimal weight positioning. I can swim efficiently underwater, but not have to keep finning on the surface to maintain a vertical position. A natural vertical position on the surface would give you a better chance if you went unconscious. A side effect is that if you went horizontal on the surface, you might float face up.

There are a lot of people who don't specifically spend time on their weight positioning with jackets that have bad horizontal trim under water and others with back inflates that push their heads in the water at the surface. The emphasis in open water classes is just to have enough weight, not enough weight in the proper position.

My optimal weight positioning usually requires the use of trim weights on the tank and possibly the need for an additional tank band for the trim weight pouches so that they can be positioned in better locations other than just where the tank band happens to be. The average rec bcd just does not have enough flexibility in positioning weights optimally.

This works better if you are using a backplate and wing, but can still be done with a jacket or back inflate.

This is one of the things that we work on during the peak performance buoyancy dive in the advanced course.

 

[boulderjohn]

The witness who contacted me privately has done so again in regard to the DSMB. It was not lost. The group she had been with found it when they surfaced shortly after her. It was floating near them on the surface. The reel was clipped off at a depth of 15 feet. The witness is not sure how much an ascent that showed. He knew they were very shallow when she ended the dive and ascended, but he is not sure how deep they were then.

This contrasts with an impression early in the thread that she had indicated trouble early in the dive. As I reported earlier, the witness said he had assumed her need to ascend was simply the routine consequence of her being the first in the group to reach 700 PSI, the pressure at which the first diver to reach it would ascend. The rest of the group ascended shortly after that and found the floating SMB she had taken with her.

 

[Brianh1]

Just to reinforce what Boulder John just said, we ferried the rest of the deceased's party to shore and one of them said she surfaced because she was short on air

 

[Jackie]

The woman who actually found her, who has more than a thousand dives, said that the victim had a half of tank of air when found. She did not surface because she had 700 psi. Fact.

 

[boulderjohn]

When we found her, she did not have her reg in her mouth and she had a half tank of air.

Can you please be more specific about the amount of air you found in her tank? How many PSI?