Female diver found dead in the water at Blue Heron Bridge

[bilsant]

Instead we consult our Ouija board...hold hands and wait for the medium to speak, and speculate like a bunch of old ladies at a baby shower with a 9 month calendar in our pockets. Your point is well taken. In the face of a lengthy wait for a response on a formal investigation and a press account we don't trust, why wait for facts?

I say lets get to it. After all, everyone is now a qualified expert if they have dived the BHB in the past ten years. Or knows someone who has...or has read about it...

An excellent opportunity exists to figure out what someone else had wrong with them or did wrong to ensure others are warned against the speculated behavior....while reassuring ourselves in the depths of our souls that if we don't make those alleged mistakes, it couldn't happen to us.

 

[tracydr]

Anybody who thinks you can't drown in 15 feet of water hasn't ever tried tshe hire dive in CA. The surges, tides and currents can and will try to kill you in very shallow water. Even 3-4 feet. Water is to be respected.
Not to mention, if you get knocked over or have an OOA and are overweighted, you might not be able to swim your rig up, regardless of how shallow you are, especially if all the weight is on your back and you have a steel tank. Which is why a balanced rig is so important. Anytime you're in water over your chin, it's extremely important that your rig be balanced and that you can swim it up in the event of a full OOA emergency.
I didn't really take this seriously until I was diving with a an HP 80 steel tank, no weights and a 3ml wetsuit this summer. I went to flood my suit in about 18" of water. I of course, didn't check that my air was on, because I wasn't ready to dive, yet. Somehow, I fell in a hole deeper than me. With my buddy and my instructor standing on the shore talking, I was suddenly in an OOA emergency with no air in my BC, a heavy tank on my back, fully negative and no air in my lungs. I wasn't that negative, since I had no weight belt, just a full tank, but I was negative. I now have a full appreciation for diving a balanced rig. I also have a full appreciation for how easy it is to die in about 5 feet of water. I also have even more respect for the buddy/team system than I ever thought possible. ( and I was always a believer in the buddy system)
Obviously, I was able to swim my way out of this hole, but it was really scary.
By "balanced" I don't mean all the weight on your weight belt. I mean that you can swim your rig up from the bottom in the event of an emergency or that you have enough ditchable weight to do so. That means weight can be divided between tank, backplate and weight belt, depending on exposure suit, etc.

 

[ReefHound]

... Presumably, buddy told her to surface because buddy was going to surface...

Why presume that? I've seen countless times where one buddy was running low on air or had a gear issue and the other buddy signaled them to surface while continuing their own dive.

---------- Post Merged at 08:08 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 08:01 PM ----------

Instead we consult our Ouija board...hold hands and wait for the medium to speak, and speculate like a bunch of old ladies at a baby shower with a 9 month calendar in our pockets. Your point is well taken. In the face of a lengthy wait for a response on a formal investigation and a press account we don't trust, why wait for facts?

The plan is to speculate wildly until those in the know can bear it no longer and speak up to "set the record straight". ;-)

 

[peterbj7]

I mean that you can swim your rig up from the bottom in the event of an emergency or that you have enough ditchable weight to do so

It also should be second nature to dump your rig (and weight belt if one is worn) and swim to the surface without. Not an issue from 15ft, but should be perfectly possible down to maybe 100ft. A friend of mine died on a CCR a few years ago, and the circumstances were such that I could never understand why he didn't just ditch it. Of course, in today's "simple diving" world this isn't taught and I never see it practiced.

 

[tracydr]

Would the average OW diver be proficient enough to ditch their rig in a panic? Or, even in an emergency, without panic?
Not CCR, not Tech, Not DM candidate, not instructor but OW diver.

 

[peterbj7]

No they wouldn't, and that's the point. It used to be taught as an emergency drill by some agencies, but AFAIK it's no longer taught by anyone. Can be a life-saver.

And remember that the biggest killer underwater is panic. People's training should be such that panic is far from their minds. And of course, in an emergency it's the poorly learned skills (or those never learned at all) that are forgotten first. I am a strong believer in stressing students during training by exposing them to seemingly dangerous situations that aren't actually dangerous because of the level of control exerted over the training, so that when they first experience that problem for real it won't be the first time they've had to think it through. That is a great stress and panic reducer.

 

[RJP]

Would the average OW diver be proficient enough to ditch their rig in a panic? Or, even in an emergency, without panic?

Would they be, or should they be?

Two different questions.

Though once you add in "panic" all bets are out the window.

 

[ScubaPink]

Anybody who thinks you can't drown in 15 feet of water hasn't ever tried tshe hire dive in CA

tracydr- If you are referring to my comment about the depth of the water- my point there was the amount of time it would take to make an ascent from 15ft and losing your buddy in the process. It was not about it being so shallow that one could not drown.

I've seen countless times where one buddy was running low on air or had a gear issue and the other buddy signaled them to surface while continuing their own dive.

Reefhound- I would not dive with that buddy more than once!

 

[ReefHound]

Reefhound- I would not dive with that buddy more than once!

When you've got a couple hundred dives logged then tell me. But this isn't about what you would have done, or what they should have done in your opinion, but what they did. And for all we know the plan was for one diver to surface and the other to continue diving and both were in agreement.

 

[divingsiren]

I actually knew the diver in question who died on Sunday. There are other medical issues she had; I am curious if they played a role in the accident on Sunday. There are many details that I wish were discussed further. But, let's just say, while I was saddened by this news, I was not 'shocked.'

Even over here, amongst those who knew her, we still are unsure of details and are waiting to hear more about what happened.