San Diego Dive Fatality 9-29-09

[CompuDude]

Are you sure about that?

"..I knew it was going to happen and can't believe it didn't happen sooner. That's what when through my mind," Ryan Wilbarger of Waterhorse Charters told News 8.

Wilbarger runs a dive operation that competes with Dive Connections for customers. He says he's heard horror stories from passengers who went scuba diving off Dive Connections boats.."

Source: CDNN :: Dive Connections Has History of Scuba Diving Accidents and Safety Violations

Waterhorse Charters is indeed a totally separate operation. Now sure which direction the purchase went without looking into it.

I'd never cite CDNN as a source, however. Notoriously inaccurate.

 

[jridg]

Apparently one of the partners with DCI owned the gottadive.com website and split off from the company. He has now aligned with the competition and offers instruction and other services instead of charters.

 

[scubadada]

Dive Connections has a new website and is still in business Scuba Diving San Diego - Dive Boats - Scuba Tours - Daily Boat Dives - Dive Connections Inc. San Diego CA Home Page Same boats, same dives, I would imagine, same employees too.

Good diving, Craig

 

[K_girl]

CDNN tends to reprint articles from other sources. So here is another source for the same story from CBS Channel 8, San Diego. In the article - it would appear they claim to be the original source for this story.

"..I knew it was going to happen and can't believe it didn't happen sooner. That's what when through my mind," Ryan Wilbarger of Waterhorse Charters told News 8.

Wilbarger runs a dive operation that competes with Dive Connections for customers. He says he's heard horror stories from passengers who went scuba diving off Dive Connections boats.."


Scuba dive company in fatal accident has history of violations - San Diego, California News Station - KFMB Channel 8 - cbs8.com

Just because gottadive.com includes a link to waterhorsecharters.com on their "about us" page does not mean that they are in any kind of financial, formal partnership. They have a list of diving operations that they have provided links to on the same page. I think that is more of what you would call cross-advertising.

What is interesting about the Dive Connections web site at http://sandiegoscubatours.com/ is that under "Looking for Work" it says to send a resume to info@gottadive.com - definitely showing a link between gottadive.com and Dive Connections - they do appear to be the same company.

 

[DandyDon]

CDNN tends to reprint articles from other sources.

That's true, but you just don't know what to believe on their site. Sometimes they twist the stories; sometimes they just add a pic that is not at all associated with the true story - but makes for more interest. I'll look at their stoires at times, but always with skepticism, and always try to find the better source like you did.

 

[clowndog1]

Yeah,sometimes I just dont know what to believe,other than what I saw for myself that day. Any information anyone has would help me out greatly...as long as its valid of course!

 

[gottadive1]

Gottadive.com is no longer affiliated with Dive Connections Inc. in any way shape or form. The partnership eroded between the partners and Gottadive.com is now completely separate from the company DCI.

 

[alara1972]

An unfortuante accident... Reading the posts on this thread has reinforced the need to have basic scuba fundamentals thoroughly ingrained, and that they should be regularly practiced. One thing that I thought about lately is that given a problem (whether from an equipment failure, caught in a strong current and swept away, etc...) one may face, one really doesn't know how one would react unless it's actually happening to him/her. I'm in the Coast Guard and I've witnesed situations where people have reacted poorly and made the wrong choices just because of the stress of a given situation. The stress causes one to act and behave differently than they would than if they were sitting at home calmly discussing with their buddies on what they would do in that same situation. I'm not saying this was the cause of this accident but it can be a very deciding factor in general. I do believe that repetition of dive safety exercises, training, and logging more dives can greatly decrease the chances of panicking in stressful situations and should never be underestimated.

My boat dives for my OW cert was with the Lois Anne and we dove in the kelp in Point Loma and I had a wonderful experience with them. I would gladly dive with them anytime!

 

[clowndog1]

I agree ALara...until you can pracrtice emergency procedures with a lung full of water,you just dont know how you are going to react. I can tell you that we always discussed different scenarios and practiced muscle memory in relation to our equipment. He was very comfortable in the water and skilled. We can all sit around and say "I would have done this or that", but my opinion is that you really just dont know until you are in the situation.

 

[boulderjohn]

The purpose of this forum is the promotion of safe diving through the examination and discussion of accidents and incidents; to find lessons we can apply to our own diving.

Oddly enough, in these last posts and especially the ones that got deleted I learned a whole lot that I can apply to my own diving. I have always been a bit careful about the quality of the operator I use when I am going to a new area, but these posts have opened my eyes ever so much wider about the potential lack of quality in the people running a dive operation. These posts clearly confirmed what had earlier been a lot of pure speculation.