I am newly certified from Aquatic Sports with 14 dives, and I was part of the 9 divers in the group yesterday that suffered the tragedy of losing one of our own. I understand the "armchair quarterbacking" that happens in every discussion as we all look for answers as to why. Some terrible comments have been put out there about what happened with a lot of speculation and even recrimination. You have been getting your news from the press, who interviewed a couple of non-divers who were hanging out at
a picnic table. They did see her flail her arms and hear her calls for help, but any conclusions should not be formed completely from non-divers, as their perceptions of the true events may be uninformed, uneducated or reckless.
Please, for the sake of the family of this lovely lady, wait to discuss any opinions and recriminations until the investigation is concluded and the true story is made clear.
Thank you.
With all due respect, we would love to wait until the investigation is concluded. But the reality is that facts from an investigation are almost never released in cases of dive fatality ... so what you're asking is, in effect, that we simply not talk about it. That's not the purpose of this forum ... nor will it serve anyone who might be reading this in an attempt to learn what went wrong.
Since you're closer to the situation, perhaps you can answer some questions and help clarify some things.
1. How many experienced divers were in this group?
2. Did the dive guide make an attempt to pair up newly-certified divers with experienced ones?
3. Was any form of separation plan discussed prior to the dive?
4. What was the visibility like on the day of the accident?
5. Was there any plan or option given the new divers for calling the dive if the conditions made them uncomfortable?
I ask these questions as a local dive professional with something like 3,000 dives in Puget Sound ... including more than 100 at the site where this accident occurred. What follows is my opinion, based on what little I know of the accident. I'll say up-front that it may or may not have bearing on what actually happened ... in the absence of information, one must "read between the lines" of what's reported. But the purpose of this forum is to discuss and share information that may prevent such accidents from happening to someone else. New divers, in particular, are ill-equipped to know when they're putting themselves into an ill-advised situation ... and I'll say up-front that, based on what I've read, this dive was ill-advised from the beginning. I understand the reasons why they scheduled it, but I also think they probably didn't go about it in the most prudent manner.
First, this woman and her 12-year old son were recently certified in order to go on a trip to Fiji. This dive was scheduled as a way to provide them with some experience prior to that trip. It's been reported that the son was one of the people on the dive. It's unclear that he was buddied with his mom ... and I hope that he was not, or if he was that there was an experienced diver accompanying them as a 3-person buddy team. In poor vis conditions, that would have been difficult enough, but manageable. A "group dive" of eight divers in the conditions we've been experiencing lately would not at all have been manageable. In those conditions, the prudent approach is to divide the group into pairs ... or teams of 3 ... and designate each as a "primary buddy team". Did this happen? If not, why not? When diving in a group you should always have a separation plan. It usually goes something like this ... "Stay with your primary buddy team. In the event that you separate from the group but remain with your team, conduct your dive as normally. If you lose a primary buddy, surface and remain on the surface until you regroup there or you summon assistance." Was there such a plan? There should have been.
The dive site chosen is appropriate for new divers ... she might possibly have learned how to dive there ... but conditions can be challenging when vis is poor, as it has been for the past several weeks due to the gorgeous weather and how that drives plankton blooms. Add in the generally poor finning techniques for new divers and it makes seeing anything beyond a 3 to 5 foot range almost impossible ... particularly in situations where one team is following another. It's easy to see how separation can occur ... it's almost inevitable under those conditions, and you have to anticipate it and prepare to deal with it. Under these circumstances, planning a "group dive" is inadvisable, and any local dive professional should know better ... particularly with newly-certified divers who have never experienced such conditions outside the very artificial and controlled conditions of an OW class.
Now, what do conditions like that do for the new diver? Generally, it induces stress ... in part because of the fact that they're new and insecure with their skills, and in part because they're really not yet equipped to deal with low-vis situations. And stress does a couple of bad things ... it induces "tunnel vision", which can reduce a diver's awareness of what's going on around them, and it causes their breathing rate to increase, which will cause them to go through their air faster than anticipated. Either of these can lead to events that will increase the likelihood of a bad outcome. Divers generally get introduced to how to deal with those conditions in their next-level (AOW) class. In that respect, the site may not have been appropriate for the newly certified diver, because of conditions on the day of the dive.
Did she have a dive light? There's a reason why virtually every local diver not only carries one on every dive, but they generally choose pretty powerful ones that are capable of cutting through the kind of murk we get this time of year ... without a dive light it's almost impossible to keep track of a diver outside a range of a few feet ... and even then it's almost impossible to identify who that diver is without some form of unique ID like the color of their tank or exposure suit. If those are all the same, you really can't tell who you're diving next to ... particularly in a group setting. And that would explain why this group didn't realize she wasn't among them until they surfaced.
So, all that said, and considering that the purpose of this forum is to learn from accidents like this one, I'm going to offer some thoughts. Again, I'm basing these not on what really occurred ... because we really don't know and probably never will ... but rather, conclusions drawn from reading various accounts of the story.
1. Don't dive in groups in Puget Sound. If diving with a large group, divide yourselves into pairs or, at most, 3-person primary buddy teams. Your responsibility is to your primary team. Your separation plan revolves around your team.
2. HAVE a separation plan. Don't assume ... speak it out during the pre-dive briefing. Make sure that everyone understands what it is, and agrees to it. Not doing so only invites confusion that can lead to someone getting in trouble and having no one available to help them.
3. Make sure that the dive is within your capabilities. That starts from the time you sign up for the dive ... make sure that the dive site chosen is appropriate for your level of skill and experience. In this case it was ... that might be about the only thing that happened in this case that I'm comfortable with, based on what I've read. Once on-site, check out the conditions. If there's anything about them that make you uncomfortable ... vis, weather, surf, or anything else that makes you hesitate, CALL THE DIVE! New divers have a tendency to trust the more experienced divers to make that call for them ... DO NOT DO THAT! Only you are responsible for your safety ... take charge of that responsibility. Any diver should feel comfortable being able to say "not today". I'm sure there was pressure on these new divers to do this dive ... either internally, because they really wanted to do it, or external ... things like the fact that they paid for a dive, drove all the way up here, and by God they were going to do it no matter what. Don't do that ... the potential consequences aren't worth it. There's always another time to go diving.
4. If you're organizing a dive, make an effort to pair up the new divers with more experienced divers. Plan and organize the dive around those principles. If you can't or don't want to do that, then don't invite the new divers along. They are going to put pressure on themselves, and push themselves, because no new diver wants to "ruin" the dive for the more experienced folks. Well guess what ... the very best way to ruin someone's dive is to have an accident ... I guarantee you that NOBODY had a good time that day. Nobody ever does when there's an accident. So don't push yourselves, or put others in a position where the likelihood of that happening increases to an unacceptable level.
Finally, I was dismayed to learn that this woman's 12-year old son was involved in the dive. I seriously hope that he wasn't her dive buddy ... not because he did anything wrong, but because this young man will spend the rest of his life blaming himself for the death of his mother ... and that's probably even more awful than the fact that she died. Regardless of his involvement, it's going to impact him hugely ... and I hope some thought is being given to providing him with some professional counseling. No matter what happens, he has to go on living ... and that's a very heavy burden for a 12-year old to live with. I hope someone close to the situation is dealing with that issue.
Nothing good ever comes from diving accidents. They're tragic ... but in almost every case they could have been avoided with a bit of forethought and/or preparation ... people put themselves into situations where the risks exceed reasonable levels, and when something goes wrong they aren't equipped to deal with it. For those of you who have made it this far through my ramblings ... particularly the new divers ... please make the effort to think about what can go wrong, and how you'd deal with it if it did. BE HONEST with yourself about your ability to deal with an anticipated problem ... we're all very good at thinking ourselves better equipped to deal with them than we probably are. Practice your skills in benign conditions until you can do them without conscious effort. And it requires practice ... nobody ever "masters" a skill in OW class, you only get introduced to how to "master" it ... under very controlled and artificial conditions. The moment when you actually need those emergency skills you learned in OW, you'll be taken by surprise, probably in conditions nothing like what you experienced, and there WON'T be an instructor within arm's reach to bail you out if you do something wrong. So make sure your first few dives are in conditions that don't stress your abilities to begin with ... and preferably do them with someone who has more experience than you do.
There's just so much about this story that raises red flags with me. Granted, in the absence of real information we can only speculate. But, to my concern, the accident started with the idea that a guided "group" dive in Puget Sound was a prudent thing to do. Guided dives here are generally one-on-one ... or one guide per buddy team. There's just no other way to do them with a reasonable expectation of keeping the group together. Unless this shop was providing an experienced guide for each buddy team, the accident began with a bad idea and cascaded into tragedy from there ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
