San Diego Dive Fatality 9-29-09

[Teamcasa]

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

There is a modicum of truth that if you can navigate your way back to the boat your kelp issues could be minimized. However, I've gone back directly under the boat only to find that the boat has collected a fair amount of kelp in my absence. In addition, the boat can slip it's anchor and be somewhere else and so on.

Clearly, navigation was is not the case here. The diver had found the boat and was fighting the DM, right?

 

[ItsBruce]

The kelp crawl really isn't bad if you've practiced it. It does look silly, but it works just fine.

I must hand it to LA County's Rips, Rocks & Reefs (3Rs) program, which is offered through the summer months... they have you practice entanglement and the kelp crawl without weight or BCDs. You are very positive, so there is almost no chance of submerging and there are lots of instructors. It is outstanding practice. Now, my biggest fear of kelp is that I may pull it lose from the bottom.

 

[DandyDon]

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

No, you won't see it in Coz. I have dived it every time I dived Calf waters, if you're wondering.

-- 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.

Not my suggestion at all. I said: If you get in trouble at the surface, ditch the lead! That would apply anywhere, and would have saved many lives in this forum.

 

[Teamcasa]

... If you get in trouble at the surface, ditch the lead! That would apply anywhere, and would have saved many lives in this forum.

Dropping lead will not always solve a problem. If you are having trouble staying on the surface, sure drop 'em. However, if you are just tangled up in the kelp and you have enough air (+500 or so) then sometimes dropping back down, below the kelp is much easier. That's hard to do without lead.

 

[K_girl]

Dropping lead will not always solve a problem. If you are having trouble staying on the surface, sure drop 'em. However, if you are just tangled up in the kelp and you have enough air (+500 or so) then sometimes dropping back down, below the kelp is much easier. That's hard to do without lead.

Totally agree, much easier to take a heading on the boat, use the kelp to pull yourself back down, drop back down 10 to 20 feet and get back to the boat that way. Dealing with kelp on the surface is definintely harder. The reason is - a canopy develops at the surface as the kelp grows with yards of extra length accumulating on the surface. Drop down - you will have less kelp to deal with in vertical strands that you can more easily push aside. Sometimes I swim from one stalk to the next grabbing the next stalk, using it to pull me through and any entaglement just seems to work its way out naturally. Very rarely have I ever had to bend and break kelp and I've never had to cut it.

Sometimes the boat may swing to a completely new position and occasionally they slip anchor, so it is very possible you may have to surface and take a new heading on the boat. I had one scary experience when a boat slipped anchor, I was following the chain back - good thing I wasn't holding onto the chain.

 

[DandyDon]

Dropping lead will not always solve a problem. If you are having trouble staying on the surface, sure drop 'em. However, if you are just tangled up in the kelp and you have enough air (+500 or so) then sometimes dropping back down, below the kelp is much easier. That's hard to do without lead.

Yes, true - I just hate to read threads like this one where the diver is found on the bottom, and I am guessing in this case he abandoned the kit without removing the weights. Whatever, if you're sinking - try to remember to drop lead. I like to drill on it every trip.

 

[fisheater]

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.

I've heard that but I didn't want to have to put to the test, especially if I'm entangled at depth. I always carry at least two cutting devices.


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[Thalassamania]

I have no idea what happened or if this is even relevant, but I've dived from small boats like zodiacs and pangas where I have had to remove my BC before getting back into the boat, and the order of things is super important: keep reg in mouth, inflate BC, remove weights, put weights in boat. Attach BC to boat (with clips, etc.), remove BC. Make sure you are buoyant without BC, then remove reg from mouth. Keep fins on and kick up into the boat.

Removing a BC while still wearing a weight belt is a scary thought.

We are getting a bit off topic but I think this is important stuff. Why would you ever be wearing so much weight that you are significantly negative once you've removed your tanks at the surface?

Why would you not take your weightbelt off first in any case as you first suggest? I put a D-ring on my weightbelt for small boat diving, the first thing I do is clip from the boat to that d-ring and then drop the belt and haul it aboard later. Weightbelt is last thing on, first think off.

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:


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.

John, that's only three to four lbs. I suspect much greater overweighting as you suggest, and yes, I have two stainless steel twist locks on the left shoulder of my webbing.

 

[DandyDon]

We are getting a bit off topic but I think this is important stuff. Why would you ever be wearing so much weight that you are significantly negative once you've removed your tanks at the surface?

Wrong but common, especially among newer divers.

Why would you not take your weightbelt off first in any case as you first suggest? I put a D-ring on my weightbelt for small boat diving, the first thing I do is clip from the boat to that d-ring and then drop the belt and haul it aboard later. Weightbelt is last thing on, first think off.

A mistake, but it happens. I've seen divers (newbies I think) take their BCs off in the water with their belt still on, hanging onto the ladder - me wondering how fast I can chase them if they sink in panic. I once saw a lady on my boat wearing her suit and weight belt, sitting on the edge of a moving boat - until I cautioned her.

Now I will admit that when I wore a weight belt, I did put it on first - easier with my BC, and I probly removed it last on the boat, but while still sitting at my BC.

 

[Thalassamania]

Don, you give new meaning to the Nattering Nabob of Negativism (in this case negative buoyancy).