San Diego Dive Fatality 9-29-09

[Chuck Tribolet]

I believe the top boat on this page was the boat involved:
http://gottadive.com/fleet.html 32', picture shows a swim platform.

Itsbruce has it right: kelp is a passive annoyance IF you know how
to handle it.

Teamcasa probably has it right: panic kills.

IMHO, your BC+tank should be negative with an empty tank, so that
when you take it off, YOU are positive. Steep tank, backplate,
ballast all solve this problem.

 

[DandyDon]

Teamcasa, you are a terrific diver and an excellent conributor here on ScubaBoard. Thank you for your contributions. But I have to respectfully disagree with this statement in your post.

We do not know necessarily know what caused this tragedy. Entanglement is certainly a possibility, as this Thread suggests. But do we really know what happened? The diver was 47 years old, correct? One cannot discount the possibility of a medical condition as a contributing factor.

It is good that we are discussing entanglement in kelp forests. I am learning more about kelp just by reading this.

Did you not see this post...?

newest on this fatality:
SAN DIEGO - A scuba diver who got separated from his underwater breathing equipment during an outing off the coast of Point Loma Tuesday was found dead an hour later about 65 feet below the surface.

The deceased man was a tourist from Arizona, diving from a charter boat with five other people in the ocean west of Sunset Cliffs when he went missing about 12:30 p.m., city lifeguard Lt. Andy Lerum said.

The president of Dive San Diego, which ran the excursion, tells San Diego 6 that the man was a certified diver, but apparently panicked at the surface when he and his equipment were entangled in kelp. He reportedly was fighting the dive master who was trying to help him.
"He took off his buoyancy compensator which had his scuba tank on board and as soon as he did that, likely he submerged, because he still was wearing his dive belt," said lifeguard Lerum.

Lifeguard divers searched the sea in the area and found the man shortly after 1:30 p.m., Lerum said.

They brought the diver, who had no vital signs and was missing his scuba tank and respirator, to the surface and performed CPR while transporting him to the city's lifeguard headquarters on Mission Bay.

After the personnel got the man to the Quivira Basin station, city paramedics took over the ultimately futile attempts to resuscitate him, Lerum said.

The man, whose name was not immediately available, was pronounced dead on a dock at the lifeguard facility.

 

[Teamcasa]

Panic, brought on by entanglement no doubt started this horrible chain of events.

... But I have to respectfully disagree with this statement in your post.

We do not know necessarily know what caused this tragedy. Entanglement is certainly a possibility, as this Thread suggests. But do we really know what happened? The diver was 47 years old, correct? One cannot discount the possibility of a medical condition as a contributing factor.

It is good that we are discussing entanglement in kelp forests. I am learning more about kelp just by reading this.

Thanks for the kind words but the article stated, "He reportedly was fighting the dive master who was trying to help him.". To which I drew my conclusion. Admittedly, I have no first hand information but since this is the forum where we can share ideas and discuss how and why accidents happen, in both an effort to teach and to learn how to avoid them in the future, I feel comfortable posing the proposition that the diver may have panicked.

If you ever dived in heavy kelp with new divers, you have seen the angst developing on their faces as they struggle fighting the kelp. Most of us who dive in it routinely have figured out that fighting it only serves to frustrate.

In any event, panic, no matter the cause, is not something any diver wants to experience. And for the most part, it can be avoided by good communication, better training and more experience.

 

[crispix]

you'll often hear about how easy it is to break kelp by bending the stipes (stalks). That true for giant kelp, but NOT for the much tougher bull kelp you'd encounter in our waters. With bull kelp, you'll need a good cutting device, preferably more than one.

Thanks, didn't know that! I did some googling and one site said that in a pinch, without a knife, a diver could bite through bull kelp. True? I've heard of snacking during a dive, but I wouldn't want to be in a position to have to test this one.

 

[JonKranhouse]

IF the victim used an AL80 without ballast on either his tank or BC, his "rig" would have been positively buoyant at the end of the dive. And IF the victim's weight belt was extra heavy to compensate for this added buoyancy, PLUS he might have been additionally over-weighted as a newer diver - a condition we all read about hundreds of times here on ScubaBoard as endemic to "quickie" training - then the net combination of these factors could have contributed to this tragedy.

Even if this situation was not true in this instance, this scenario does occur and should be reconsidered to mitigate future tragedies.

From the earliest days of diving Southern California's kelp forests, removing one's rig in thick kelp used to be a commonly taught, if rarely used, procedure. That was a big reason for "ditch and recovery" drills and buckles on the LH shoulder strap.

In thick kelp I believe it is far safer if both your tank / BC are neutral at the end of the dive, AND you, without your rig, are also neutral at the surface - or slightly positive as per Chuck:

IMHO, your BC+tank should be negative with an empty tank, so that
when you take it off, YOU are positive.

Then you have the option of ditching your rig and swimming under a kelp mat if need be, rather than doing the dreaded kelp-crawl.

 

[DandyDon]

In thick kelp I believe it is far safer if both your tank / BC are neutral at the end of the dive, AND you, without your rig, are also neutral at the surface - or slightly positive as per Chuck:

Here's the easy way to deal with that - if one drills on it enough to remember...

1: If you wear a weight belt, it always comes off first - on boat, dock, land, and certainly in the water.

2: If you get in trouble at the surface, ditch the lead! Most newer divers have done it only once in OW class, then forgot it.​

 

[openmindOW]

Thanks for the kind words but the article stated, "He reportedly was fighting the dive master who was trying to help him.". To which I drew my conclusion.

That's a fair point, TeamCasa and DandyDon. I had forgotten that sentence from the news article. (I tend to discount the veracity of newspaper articles that pertain to dive fatalities.)

That makes me wonder what really happened when the DM tried to help the diver.

Did the diver have a medical condition, such as diabetes, that might have resulted in altered level of conscousness? If so, might that have contributed to the "fighting" observed by the DM?

How close did the DM get to the diver? Was the DM able to give verbal instructions to the diver? If so, did the diver respond? If so, how?

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

Then you have the option of ditching your rig and swimming under a kelp mat if need be, rather than doing the dreaded kelp-crawl.

Better yet. learn to navigate so you get back to the boat/beach, and don't have a
problem. The kelp krawl isn't THAT bad, if you take your time. and don't have any
danglies (which you shouldn't anyway) No, I haven't had to do it, but I've had a buddy
have to do it for quite a distance.

 

[JonKranhouse]

Here's the easy way to deal with that - if one drills on it enough to remember...

1: If you wear a weight belt, it always comes off first - on boat, dock, land, and certainly in the water.

2: If you get in trouble at the surface, ditch the lead! Most newer divers have done it only once in OW class, then forgot it.​

Don - I agree, with a crucial caveat. If you make the guidelines too simplistic, divers don't always make smart choices when conditions change. For instance, if you're under a very thick kelp canopy -- not something you'll find in Coz -- I believe it is VERY important to consider the RATIO of the weight / buoyancy of one's rig vs. one's weight belt / buoyancy in wet / dry suit when SEPARATE from the rig. If your rig is significantly buoyant (i.e. AL80 with NO ballast on the BC itself), then dropping 20+ pounds when under a kelp canopy can quickly worsen an entanglement problem vs. "working" the problem thoughtfully.

Whether this particular situation involved a diver wearing too much weight on his person vs. on his rig, as I speculated above, we don't know. But weighting for kelp diving IS more nuanced vs. open tropical waters (or should be taught as such).

Chuck said:

Better yet. learn to navigate so you get back to the boat/beach, and don't have a
problem.

Agreed - which is why navigation should be taught in OW.

 

[Leejnd]

I'm so sorry to hear this. While we still do not have confirmation that it was kelp that led to this tragedy, we have enough information to make a reasonable assumption that kelp played at least a role in it.

I live in SoCal, and I too learned to dive in kelp. In fact, the vast majority of my dives involve at least some contact with kelp - and some of them (especially during lobster season!) are spent almost entirely in kelp. Kelp diving, while definitely manageable if you know how, is not something to trifle with. People with no experience diving in kelp should be given instructions on how to deal with it before they dive it. Kelp is one of the main reasons why California diving, while among some of the most beautiful and rewarding on the planet, is also among the most dangerous.

I will take this opportunity to urge anyone who is NOT used to California diving, and plans on diving out here, no matter how experienced you are, to do some research and learn about kelp before you dive in it. There are some good online resources for learning about diving in kelp. I'd also encourage you to talk to a DM or instructor about what to do should you get caught in it. And, the MOST important thing is: be aware that even if you do get seemingly "hopelessly" entangled in it, you are not - you CAN get out, and it's really not all that hard. Just knowing that can prevent panic, and get you to start thinking about next steps.

I've gotten myself completely wrapped up in kelp to the point where it felt like I was getting strangled by rubber bands - my own fault for rashly going after a bug where I shouldn't have. But I carry two knives, and know that no matter how twisted up, I can always get out of it. And I always have!

Here are just a few links to give some basic information about kelp diving. Spend some time googling, and you can find lots more.

Diving in Kelp | Scuba Diving Magazine
Diving 102: California Kelp Diving and the Kelp Crawl
Tips for Kelp Diving - Divester

Thoughts and prayers to the lost diver and his friends/family. Maybe this tragedy will get more new-to-CA divers to learn about kelp before they dive in it - and save one more diver from panicking and losing his/her life.


Editing to add: I do not, in any way, mean to suggest that is what happened to the lost diver in SD, or that his buddies and/or DM or boat captain did not adequately prepare him for diving in kelp.