Indiana woman dies diving Vandenberg - Key West, Florida

[chillyinCanada]

My deepest condolences to the family, so very sad.

I had my closest “almost didn’t make it back” dive on the Vand. myself. I had pretty much accepted that that day was going to be my final day alive. There was another diver on the boat who said he had over 100 dives on her and had never seen currents so swift there before. I was 38 at the time and in excellent physical condition.

Just wanted to say that it is not a site to be taken lightly when the currents are ripping and the water is green/low viz. The shop I went out with did not put a DM in the water, obviously I have no idea if that was the case here or if that would have had any impact whatsoever. Again, I’m so sorry it turned out this way for this poor diver and her family.

Yes, as aviator8 said, would you be willing to post your dive story under Near Misses subforumunder Accidents and Incidents?

 

[DanBMW]

I'm hoping that we can learn more about what happened so that it can be used as a learning experience, but unfortunately in many cases we don't and can only guess. My generation of "Baby Boomers" is aging and our number one cause of death is heart disease. If it happens underwater, it's generally fatal. Todays diving gear is extremely reliable and it's rare for an equipment failure to be the cause of death. We'll have to wait for more information to come out to really get a better idea of what happened.

 

[scubadada]

Don't like to see these stories about senior divers checking out. I've been hoping for a long career in this zone...

59, senior?

 

[shmuggy]

I am with you Scubadada- I would like to be 59 again.

The fact of the matter is that if you have a cardiac event driving on an interstate - things could go very badly for you- and possibly others in other cars around you. If you stop doing things that keep you active you will have that cardiac event. I don't think we should stop doing things because something could go wrong. We just need to be prudent and mindful of other people we could affect.

 

[scubadada]

Family shocked after Mishawaka woman dies scuba diving in Florida

 

[spoolin01]

Deep dives put more stress on the body even if you do not feel it. I have scaled back my depth a bit for that reason. (I am 74)

I have definitely scaled back the extremes of exertion that I'll risk when judging a dive. I've never been drawn to deep dives much either. I want a long bottom time for my effort, and tend to choose shallow when possible.

Very sad, my condolences to the family and friends.

I'd rather checkout diving than rotting away in nursing home. This year starts my 52nd year of diving not a bad run so far!
I don't do much deep diving these days, as a matter of fact I don't think I went deeper than 40FSW last year. Not really planned but I've been trying to get good pictures of small critters in shallow water so no deep dives.

52 years! -- wish I'd known then what I know now. I got a late start, 40, but am hoping to stay able for many more years of catching up. For the kind of Hawaii and Florida tropical diving that's made up the bulk of recent trips, 10-40 FSW is a sweet spot.

59, senior?

Seems pretty youthful to me now, but can't deny it's into the age of increased health incidents.

 

[DandyDon]

59, senior?

Youngish senior, yeah. Biologically, there’s no gain in a human living past 50, and before modern science - few did. Nowadays we try to extend the years with quality, but it’s extended time. I was past 50 when I started scuba, and used to enjoying get narked below 100, but I’m easing back now.

 

[deeper thoughts]

I have definitely scaled back the extremes of exertion that I'll risk when judging a dive. I've never been drawn to deep dives much either. I want a long bottom time for my effort, and tend to choose shallow when possible.

52 years! -- wish I'd known then what I know now. I got a late start, 40, but am hoping to stay able for many more years of catching up. For the kind of Hawaii and Florida tropical diving that's made up the bulk of recent trips, 10-40 FSW is a sweet spot.


Seems pretty youthful to me now, but can't deny it's into the age of increased health incidents.

Funny you mention depth.
I think the last 100 dives my wife and I did, we would need a shovel to go deeper than 25/30 feet

 

[AfterDark]

Family shocked after Mishawaka woman dies scuba diving in Florida

Very sad.
Butler Power had gone scuba diving in the Florida Keys before, but what she didn’t know when she left for Florida this past weekend is it would be the last time she would say goodbye to her family, her friends and the Michiana community she served as an attorney since 1983.

My wife is on shore often when I dive. I always make a point of telling her I love her; thinking but never saying it my be the last time she hears it from me. I can't recall exactly when the thought started coming into my head but it has been there for quite sometime.

As I've often posted diving ain't golfing, hiking, bowling etc. one can get hurt bad or worse without doing anything wrong and/or making any mistakes.

 

[Stoo]

I was doing a bunch of mix dives up here last summer in about 200'-215' of 39° water and thinking at one point, "I'm 63... this is dumb."

So I added an extra 10 minutes of deco.

And I can hardly wait to get back next summer.

Back to this poor woman's situation, I don't thing there was any confirmation it was health related, although that's a logical conclusion. A third-part hearsay report of "some distress" could be anything, so lets resist coming to conclusions without knowing some facts.