Moral of the Story - Bring the right equipment!

[SuSexFulDiver]

I went to REI today to ask questions about the Garmin Rino GPS's and you guys are correct. I met a guy while mountain biking and he told me his had some sort of distress signal capability??????? I guess he was wrong or maybe downloaded some type of software that made it work that way????

Thanks for all the great information on distress beacons and radio frequency and such.

 

[aLittletank]

An effective, simple and cheap surface to air signal is a chem light attached to a 4' piece of cord. Activate the chem stick and twirl it around in the air in a fast circular motion. You would be amazed how well this can be seen at a distance because of not only the contrast but the movement. It basically turns a 4" chem stick into a 8' diameter signal.

this is also easy to store in a BC pocket

 

[D_B]

A chem light is not bright enough to be visible very far away, in marine environment .. Get a light and carry it always
Don't use a CD as mirror, get a real Rescue mirror with a sight built in
Get a Rescue whistle
Get a SMB, although .. the best thing in sea trials was a folding dive flag
and I am going to fix up some items to carry in a small waterproof container in my trim pouch on my BC, and small water bottle in the other

... all are low cost and pretty weak excuse for not having them

Next up I think would be a good EPIRB like the ACR Electronics Inc. Aquafix 406 (that is a bunch of money for just a rec. diver, but where do you dive? are you responsible for a group? .. might be a wise investment )


Very enlightening ... trials conducted off of Scapa Flow, in real world conditions ...
Diver Location Aids http://www.jeanelaine.co.uk/diveraids/intro.htm

Very good Info ...
Surface Survival Primer ... http://www.tabula-international.com/DIV/SMB3.html

More survival gear info, tests, observations ...
Equiped to Survive ... http://www.equipped.org/toc.htm


.

 

[Charlie99]

Great story, but what about his buddy? When did the buddy notice him missing? What about the missing buddy routine of 1 minute wait, then surface and search? I am not pointing fingers cause I am often one of those "same ocean" buddy teams, but this is a reminder to all of us of the risk we take when we "solo"...

The article doesn't say, but my bet is that he was in a group of 6 or so with a local DM and a commercial dive op doing a dive on the C-53 (or C-55, whichever is the one in Cancun).

The article also leaves out how and why he got separated. In any case, coming up a half mile away from the boat and other divers sounds like he may have tried to fight the current for a while rather than immediately aborting after losing contact with the others.

It would be interesting to hear the rest of the story.

 

[prthd9]

Hey I have been trying to figure out what kind of SMB I would like to get....has anyone had any experience with the small rafts Halcyon sells?

 

[fisherdvm]

Wow, if he drifted off Cancun, and floated for 10 hours, I wonder what island he stumbled upon. Isla Mujeres seems like it was only about 6 miles away.

I did a night dive in Cancun in rough weather, and could have easily drifted off if my dive light went dead and I broke off from the group. I definitely will not go on a dive in rough weather with only 1 light again.