Oregon woman dies in Washington diving accident

[PerroneFord]

Let me fix this for you...

If more people [-]had more[/-] practice [-]in the pool with the kinds of gloves they will wear when they dive[/-] many problems might be avoided.

 

[Rainer]

If more people had more practive in the pool with the kinds of gloves they will wear when they dive many problems might be avoided.

I attended a pool session (one of like eight) for my wife's OW class last weekend, and was surprised to see that they are required to all have on at all times the gloves that they will be wearing when the go out to the ocean later.

And to address a point you made earlier, most of this pool session was dedicated to rescue drills, so at least some OW classes cover these skills, at least for a few hours.

Got to love the LA County OW program.

 

[Thalassamania]

I attended a pool session (one of like eight) for my wife's OW class last weekend, and was surprised to see that they are required to all have on at all times the gloves that they will be wearing when the go out to the ocean later.

And to address a point you made earlier, most of this pool session was dedicated to rescue drills, so at least some OW classes cover these skills, at least for a few hours.

Got to love the LA County OW program.

Yup! They run a class act and a great course. The yearly AOW is even better, not to be missed!

 

[NudeDiver]

Got to love the LA County OW program.

I disagree. I don't think the function of government should be to conduct sporting or recreation programs of any kind.

 

[lamont]

What you are saying is, in theory, the basis for any sensible rescue attempt. But the victim was in 20 feet of water ... an adequately trained diver should have been able, in my opinion, to free dive down 20 feet and recover an inert diver, and 400 psi is more than enough for a quick bounce to 20 feet. Granted that viability could effect this.

This is in puget sound, about 46F these days, with a novice diver, probably 7mm farmer john with 30# of lead to sink it or so (and probably too much of that) and potentially in low viz (even though viz has been good lately, its often bad viz around where newer divers are diving -- he might not have been able to see the bottom at 20 feet and might have needed to execute a search). I wouldn't want a diver fitting that profile to attempt a 'free dive' on very little air around here.

Arguably, simply diving around here with all the extra equipment and the large amounts of (often way too much) lead required make simply diving in puget sound an 'advanced' dive and we wind up inherently with novice divers who should be down in cozumel in a 3mm shorty, 80F water and 100 feet of viz learning to dive in a more stressful environment.

 

[lamont]

I disagree. I don't think the function of government should be to conduct sporting or recreation programs of any kind.

Socialism! Quick Kill It!

 

[Just another Cinderella]

Every Wed. morning as a surgical resident [to long ago to tell] we had M and M conference,
[morbidity and mortality]. We had to present our mistakes and complications in front of all the surgical staff. Usually the presenter was up all night before to be sure he/she was up to date on all the literature concerning their case.
This is an electronic M & M conference. I have read every post and all have had the utmost respect for the diver involved and her family. The posts are insightful and thought provoking. Even if we don't have all the facts it doesn't mean we can't discuss the what if's as there is much to learn here.
Approaching my 1000th logged warm, calm [for the most part] dive, I may not be as experienced as some of you more technical divers on their 100th dive. The comments about surface emergencies and integrated BCs, which I have [but I carry only 8 lbs] make one consider what you would do faced with such a situation.
When my son visits to go diving we always spend the 1st dive as a check out dive and go through emergency drills but I clearly need to add a few more skill reviews.
Please keep up these discussions.
______________________
Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I disagree. I don't think the function of government should be to conduct sporting or recreation programs of any kind.

Oh ... I think LOTS of people would disagree with that statement.

Never mind that the LA County scuba program has trained more than a quarter-million divers over the past 55 years ... and forget that they offer a higher quality program than just about anybody.

But if you don't think the function of government should be to conduct sporting or recreation programs of any kind ... what do you suppose the reaction would be if all the municipalities around the country just suddenly announced that they're shutting down all their parks, ball fields, skating rinks and swimming pools?

Personally, I think an awful lotta people would be pretty unhappy about it.

Right now, in our state, the dive community is fighting to retain (and in one case regain) access to some state and municipal facilities that comprise some of the best dive sites in the state.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Thalassamania]

I disagree. I don't think the function of government should be to conduct sporting or recreation programs of any kind.

Get real.

In point of fact diving as a sport might never have developed since everything that happened up until NAUI (Scripps, Navy, LA County) was all governmental in one way or another.

Not to mention the government monies spent on table reseach and gear development and testing. You'd never have seen any sort of rebreather or dive tables or dive computer if it weren't for the government.

No one would ever be diving at Pt. Lobos if the government had not kept it in the public domain and none of the National Parks and such would be there either.

 

[RonFrank]

A tragedy for sure. My heart goes out to the family and friends of the victim.

The discussion of what went wrong at the surface is good. However I think a better discussion is WHY did these divers ignore their air? Starting an ascent with less than 500psi is foolish.

Rescue may have helped this situation at the surface, but a better dive plan, or following a dive plan would have resulted in the situation never occurring.

For both divers to run so low on air that one started the ascent at 400psi, and the other ran out before reaching the surface... wow.. that is some serious lack of gas management. I just can not imagine that neither diver was aware of their air?

Pressure gauges may also be inaccurate. It is good to get a sanity check on this by having the LDS do a pressure check, and then comparing that to your own gauge.