Filmmaker Rob Stewart dies off Alligator Reef

[RichardC]

or drysuit

Was he in a drysuit?

 

[Dan]

Yes, according to his sister. See the interview in page 5, post 46 by @Cali_diver

 

[RichardC]

Yes, according to his sister. See the interview in page 5, post 46 by @Cali_diver

Thank you, it's a long thread. So he had two buoyancy devices. Wonder if he was low on Dil and using his suit?

 

[JS1scuba]

According to this article, published today, Rob Bleser was driving the ROV from onboard the Pisces and two divers who wish to remain anonymous recovered the body.

How they located diver Stewart

The article has the most detail on the recovery that I've seen so far.

Thanks ! Appreciate the link.

Being 100 yards from the anchor line is about right. Depending on the scope of the anchor rode, the swing of the vessel, the final weight of the victim, and whether or not there was much current, 300 feet away is about spot on. I recall when we dropped a monster camera (fell like a rock) on a Monitor expedition in 235 fsw we found it about 400 feet away from the mooring line.

 

[St John the Diver]

Not a big if at all.

How often do you surface and not inflate your wing at all? Without some inflation you are barely head out of the water. He apparently had the time to find which way the boat was, see people on deck, give an okay signal and, according to your scenario see that something was wrong with his buddy and react to that. All this with his eyes barely above water level?

Every dive?

My buoyancy is a combination of my drysuit and counterlungs. I never inflate my wings except in very rare events of surface swimming.

Techniques vary.

The proof of the pudding is that he sank. So I think we can assume he was negatively buoyant ;-)

 

[RichardC]

Every dive?

My buoyancy is a combination of my drysuit and counterlungs. I never inflate my wings except in very rare events of surface swimming.

Techniques vary.

I think you should read that as wing or drysuit. I wasn't aware he had a drysuit when I made the comment, but my basic premise still stands, we tend to get enough buoyancy to get our heads out of the water, meaning Dsix36's point is not without merit.

 

[Dan]

Thank you, it's a long thread. So he had two buoyancy devices. Wonder if he was low on Dil and using his suit?

I wonder the same. Also wonder whether he was not too far from the anchor point soon after he disappeared if he sank like a stone as CCR flooded. The ROV found him about 100 yards away from where he was last seen 3 days later. I guess with limited visibility down there, it was tedious work for it to search.

 

[lv2dive]

There are plenty of things that have me shaking my head about this situation, but (asuming the class was over) I'm hardly going to hold the instructor accountable if the student wasn't using a gag strap after the class!

What I care about is that people come out of these classes with the ability to safely dive these units and not endanger themselves or others. Especially in caves - can they dive in some kind of trim without leaving a silt cloud behind them? Do they the first clue about bailout?

I would even go so far to say that for a MOD3 class, I think it's a stretch to be critiquing an instructor over a gag strap. That may be the letter of the standards but I'm more concerned with the spirit of them. By the time someone is taking MOD3, don't they know how they want to use their unit?

OTOH, one thing that isn't terribly clear to me regarding the class supposedly preceding incident, is the scope of the class - was it a crossover AND a MOD3 all-in-one?

Either way, I'm not losing sleep over the lack of a gag strap.
- I know a lot of people don't use them IRL
- plenty of other things that occurred would be far more likely to disrupt my slumber patterns

So the unit was non standard if no strap was installed. That is important. It implies error on the part of the instructor not emphasising its importance...

 

[RichardC]

I wonder the same. Also wonder whether he was not too far from the anchor point soon after he disappeared if he sank like a stone as CCR flooded. The ROV found him about 100 yards away from where he was last seen 3 days later. I guess with limited visibility down there, it was tedious work for it to search.

Yes, using a suit for buoyancy at the surface is fine, but if you loose it for some reason then there is the possibility of it dumping, depending on the type of dump, where it is and if the dump is closed off fully or not.

All questions for the investigator I guess.

 

[St John the Diver]

I think you should read that as wing or drysuit. I wasn't aware he had a drysuit when I made the comment, but my basic premise still stands, we tend to get enough buoyancy to get our heads out of the water, meaning Dsix36's point is not without merit.

Except that..... He sank and died.

So I'm pretty sure he wasn't positive..

;-)