Local Diver lost for 13 hours off the North Shore of Oahu

[Peter_C]

This is the type of experience non of us want to face. It did come out with a happy ending though. Damn lucky they spotted his scooter light (Good reason to carry light even on a day dive). He may not have panicked but I think everyone one of us would have been very scared in a similar situation.

Scott's quote about the Nautilus Lifeline of "Unfortunately this wasn't functioning" is disturbing. I would like to know why it didn't function since I bought one to provide extra security. Was it not registered? The distress feature won't function until you create an account and register the unit. Dead battery? Gotta charge your electronic devices, like radios, lights, scooters, etc.

Does anyone know Scott, or have a way to send him an email? It would be nice to hear from the source what the issue was with the Lifeline.

 

[ddmattos]

I can't wait for a report from Nautilus Lifeline. I hope the diver already called them. Nautilus should publish a full report including firm ware version being used. I'm sure the diver will be very helpful.

 

[fugly]

I just bought a lifeline this weekend and went through the registration and obtaining a MMSI #. After reading the manual and upgrading the firmware to the latest v.58, I have no assurance that this device works or not besides the gps being displayed in the LCD screen. Even though the v.58 has support for The lifeline test mode, I can't be sure it's working. I would have like to seen the unit perform a self diagnostic durning power on and display something like

Chat x = passed
Hail = passed
gps signal = passed
lifeline = passed

The windows and the Mac software should include a diagnostic function to test the unit when it's connected. It would give the user some assurance that the $300 lifeline is up to factory specs.

Just my two cents.

 

[Nautilus Explorer]

Hi, Mike here on behalf of Nautilus Lifeline.

We are just as anxious as anyone to fully uncover the details of the situation with Mr. Folsom. We have left phone messages and emails in an attempt to contact Mr. Folsom himself, and hope to receive a response as soon as it may be provided. We are working diligently to gather this information, and once the details are known to us, the diver community will be the first to be informed and updated. With this in hand, we can do a full analysis of the circumstances at play, and we can provide the community with a full analysis report as soon as time permits.

Regards,

Captain Mike Lever.

 

[DandyDon]

There were reports that the Coast Guard found him with night vision goggles and some saying not. Lots of early confusion as usual, and there are 4 threads now.

So his scooter and lifeline both failed him? We depend so much on batteries nowadays....

 

[rgbmatt]

I met Scott once, and know some of the people he was diving with... He seemed like a nice guy and pretty level-headed. Thank God he's OK and hopefully he learned a few lessons from this ordeal.

The real problem here is that nobody should have been diving in the conditions they went out in. The wind was blowing over 30 knots and it was the day before the new moon. Kaena point is known for having horrible current - unless the tide tables are perfect (they weren't) it's not possible to dive there safely. It's a very exposed location, and with the wind blowing that strong the waves would have been too big to see anybody if they surfaced away from the boat. Put both of these problems together and you'll see why this was an accident waiting to happen.

Basically, diving in that area on Sunday was a perfect recipe for disaster! Thank goodness it didn't turn out worse than it did.

 

[justleesa]

The real problem here is that nobody should have been diving in the conditions they went out in. The wind was blowing over 30 knots and it was the day before the new moon. Kaena point is known for having horrible current - unless the tide tables are perfect (they weren't) it's not possible to dive there safely. It's a very exposed location, and with the wind blowing that strong the waves would have been too big to see anybody if they surfaced away from the boat. Put both of these problems together and you'll see why this was an accident waiting to happen.

Basically, diving in that area on Sunday was a perfect recipe for disaster!

That explains way no one saw his 10' float....Thanks for chiming in Capt. Mike!

 

[Texas Torpedo]

That explains way no one saw his 10' float....Thanks for chiming in Capt. Mike!

+1.. Good luck keeping a big SMB upright in the wind... I have the Halcyon Super Big Dive Alert Marker (6' tall) which I had to deploy once when our group separated and sea conditions turned bad during the dive.. The wind was blowing a steady 15-20 and it was a workout to keep it vertical.. The SMB Scott showed in the video looks even larger.. That wouldn't have been any fun if the wind was blowing as hard as rgbmatt stated.

 

[Nautilus Explorer]

Hi,
Mike here, President of Nautilus Lifeline

I had a great, long conversation with Scott this morning. He is an incredibly nice guy and is doing absolutely fine.
We are FedExing him 2 replacement units this afternoon. He is sending his unit back to us for a complete analysis.
Scott is going to continue to use a nautilus lifeline. But for his purposes he wishes to carry 2 lifelines with him at all times.
We are all anxious to get to the bottom of this and we will further publish a comprehensive analysis report on the unit once we receive it from Scott.
Safe diving!!!
M​

 

[lowviz]

...awaiting the outcome....