Galapagos Scuba Diving Fatality - February 12, 2010 - Eloise Gale

[InTheDrink]

No offense taken, but why would you be embarrassed in mentioning such a dive?

I certainly wouldn't be embarrassed at all and but just a little confused by your comment. Probably best to drop it as I think I simply misinterpreted your post. Soz!

J

 

[Thalassamania]

Open Water?
Have any of you really dove in 'open water'?...

That could do it.

 

[H2O 70]

Sorry Randy but I am not here to offend and I will offer no apologies. Some divers (not all) DO leave the quarry thinking then can dive anywhere...

Since you're profile isn't really filled out and we don't know where you're from or your certs, we're sort of at a disadvantage here.

I'll assume that based upon your comment you have nice diving where your at. We'll if we were only so fortunate.

Why don't you come to my quarry and we'll go find the bottom at 120+ffw, 36-38degreeF water temp and >10ft vis and let's see how you do.

I can't tell you how many 'experienced' warm water divers call dives in our quarry because they can't handle the gear, the visibility, and/or the cold.

It goes both ways.

 

[InTheDrink]

Since you're profile isn't really filled out and we don't know where you're from or your certs, we're sort of at a disadvantage here.

I'll assume that based upon your comment you have nice diving where your at. We'll if we were only so fortunate.

Why don't you come to my quarry and we'll go find the bottom at 120+ffw, 36-38degreeF water temp and >10ft vis and let's see how you do.

I can't tell you how many 'experienced' warm water divers call dives in our quarry because they can't handle the gear, the visibility, and/or the cold.

It goes both ways.

Very much agreed. They're both challenging environments that can be easily managed with a little experience. I imagine I'd have more difficulty in your quarry than I would have in the Galapagos - but that's simply cos I've done more high current high viz diving and less of the scary, cold murky stuff!!! I'd find that more challenging.

J

 

[Web Monkey]

I've also had a situation like drbill that got out of my control. Severe currents one day on the Spiegal Grove. We were lectured at the beginning of the dive, not to let go of the rope because the currents were so strong, we could very quickly be pulled away. The currents were so strong that it took a lot of strength just to hang onto the line on the surface. My dive buddy had jumped in and was hanging onto the tag line waiting for me, but she had to abort.

Everybody needs an "Oops!" plan in high current. All it takes is an uncooperative ear and a slower-than-normal descent means you're flying off into the unknown while everybody else is on the dive site.

I'm 53 and my plan involves showing the boat captain what my SMB looks like, and telling him that if he sees it, I need a pickup.

So far, it's worked nicely.

Terry

 

[Grover48]

Everybody needs an "Oops!" plan in high current.


Terry

In the Marine Corps, we were taught to have a plan, an alternate plan, a contingency plan and an emergency plan.

Sounds reasonable to me for scuba diving too.

 

[Web Monkey]

In the Marine Corps, we were taught to have a plan, an alternate plan, a contingency plan and an emergency plan.

Sounds reasonable to me for scuba diving too.

Yeah, I've noticed that a lot of people never consider that anything bad might happen and certainly don't have a plan for handling it. I just assume that at any moment the s*** might hit the fan and plan to handle it. Generally everything is just fine, however sometimes it isn't.

I was really happy to have a 8' SMB and an alert captain when the river and me had a disagreement about whether I was going to do a wreck dive or a drift dive.

Terry

 

[Puffer Fish]

Yeah, I've noticed that a lot of people never consider that anything bad might happen and certainly don't have a plan for handling it. I just assume that at any moment the s*** might hit the fan and plan to handle it. Generally everything is just fine, however sometimes it isn't.

I was really happy to have a 8' SMB and an alert captain when the river and me had a disagreement about whether I was going to do a wreck dive or a drift dive.

Terry

Web, I would agree with you.

When I read about this accident... I think back about a high current dive I did a couple of years ago... and decided to do a video. drifting with the current was fine, but as soon as I grabbed onto the rocks with one hand, the current pulled me off angle, and removed my mask and much to my surprise, flooded my regulator.

The mask issue, I'm used to, the exhaust valve being lifted up by the water going thru the reg, that was a shock. All it would take (depending on the regulator) is someone to turn their head sideways...say to look for someone, and if the current is strong enough, that can happen. What happens next, with a regulator filled with salt water, can either go good or very bad. At that point, breathing salt water is much more of an issue than panic.

 

[RJP]

Spend a week in the Keys, Bahamas, and many other low priced destinations to see just how many "once every other year" divers go down there and place themselves into situations they are not ready for.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here - though I don't think very far - and suggest that the vast majority of under-qualified, under-trained, "once every other year" divers you see "in the Keys, Bahamas, and many other low priced destinations" got their initial open water training and certification RIGHT THERE in the first place, so the fact that they have come back to the very same environment where they trained, yet are now "in a situation they are not ready for" runs directly contrary to your "open water is de facto superior to a quarry" argument.

 

[Thalassamania]

RJP, divers not being ready to dive in the environment that they minimally trained in, after a year layoff, are not an unusual phenomena.