Incident at Gilboa - Oct 24/04

[ScubaScott]

Does anyone have any more information on the man who ended up being choppered out of Gilboa this past weekend?

I have some sketchy details from a friend of a friend, but I'd like to know if anyone knows the information first hand.

A 50 year old man, diving with his son. The son apparently didn't notice anything wrong, but the man had some real problems....

SS

 

[ScubaScott]

The facts are over on the Deco Stop under the Accidents forum.

From all accounts, the diver is at home and is doing fine. Hopefully, a lesson (or several) learned.

SS

 

[rab]

More precisely, it's under:
The Deco Stop > More Tech Diving Forums > Diving Accidents and Incidents > Gilboa --again

-Rob

 

[IndyScott]

Gilboa is a well managed place. Divers there are real helpful and friendly, so divers get over confident and then problems can happen..

So what can you do???

Take a rescue coerce to help train yourself first...

Keep a eye open when diving at other divers and if they are having signs of trouble
Help them the best you can..
not every time will be successful but If you tried that is all you can ask of yourself..

Make your dive site better with your efforts.

Scott

 

[diverbrian]

As the thread in the Deco Stop indicates, I was around the quarry, but not directly at the scene. It wasn't pretty!

As to Icurok's comments, I agree entirely. We only do what we can. The first rule of rescue is to not make two victims for the price of one. The way to learn to do that is with a rescue course or a refresher to the rescue course. This incident was handled well once it happened that may have saved the gentleman's life.

And I hope to see a couple of you at the Straits and Whitefish next year... (But let's keep the chopper out of it, OK? )

 

[MikeFerrara]

Gilboa is a well managed place. Divers there are real helpful and friendly, so divers get over confident and then problems can happen..

So what can you do???

Take a rescue coerce to help train yourself first...

Keep a eye open when diving at other divers and if they are having signs of trouble
Help them the best you can..
not every time will be successful but If you tried that is all you can ask of yourself..

Make your dive site better with your efforts.

Scott

I can't really argue except to say that I found that I was helping or feeling like I had to watch some one on the verge of trouble on just about every dive so I stopped going. The place makes me a nervous wreck when the crowds are there. Some of the instructors look like they're trying to get people killed.

 

[ScubaScott]

I can't really argue except to say that I found that I was helping or feeling like I had to watch some one on the verge of trouble on just about every dive so I stopped going. The place makes me a nervous wreck when the crowds are there. Some of the instructors look like they're trying to get people killed.

I've only dove Gilboa one weekend last year when the charters where done..... Things weren't bad on the Saturday, but Sunday was very crowded, and yeah, we saw some pretty scary things going on.....
While I can't speculate that it happens all the time, it certainly isn't the only place where this happens either though.....

Indy - thanks for the pics this summer from the Straits - some of them really turned out nice...Scott wants to watch you get your johnson prepped for your p-valve....

Brian - we'll be there.... looking forward to the first week of June in the Straits already....

Stay warm boys, and we'll see you in the spring

SS

 

[MikeFerrara]

I've only dove Gilboa one weekend last year when the charters where done..... Things weren't bad on the Saturday, but Sunday was very crowded, and yeah, we saw some pretty scary things going on.....
While I can't speculate that it happens all the time, it certainly isn't the only place where this happens either though.....

SS

It's the only place that I've seen it to that magnitude.

Lake Wazee in Wisconsin is just as cold, 355 ft deep and gets a fair amount of traffic with lots of technical training going on. There's no one there to inspect deep dive plans or police things in any other way yet we don't hear of anywhere near the number of accidents there. I'm not sure I've ever heard of any for that matter.

Haigh isn't as deep but it sure gets the crowds but I don't think I've heard of any injuries there.

I can't think of any off the top of my head at Mermet either...again a fairly deep cold quarry.

That place in Joplin Missouri? I can remember one rebreather death and nothing else comes to mind yet it's far deeper than Gilboa with cave entrances (mine shafts) down there.

Gilboa seems to be the epicenter of the midwest.

From a management perspective, Mike does more than other quarry owners as far as I can tell. There's certainly nothing remarkable about the diving environment. The temperature is typical for the region and it isn't very deep. The number of divers isn't any greater than a couple of the other midwest sites.

I really think that it's just in the center of some of the worst diving and instruction that you could find anywhere. If those same divers were going to Wazee there would be a huge pile of them below the second ledge at about 215.

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

I'm glad to hear that the diver is recovering at home.

Sorry to hear said site has so many serious issues.

 

[rjchandler]

It does appear to have more than its share of excitable internet divers