Scuba diver dies after being found floating at Kurnell, NSW, Australia

[gypsyjim]

I have no idea what you are trying to say. Disrespect Qureo? How by pointing out her buddy didn't follow her around like he should have? I would not like to be her (that) buddy today because I would be blaming myself for her death because as her buddy I wasn't there when she needed me because I let her slip away from me. How is that disrespect?

How judgmental of you.

You can be certain that her buddies are beating themselves nearly senseless with remorse, and playing the what if....games in their heads, but, the truth is that some in this group had done a total of 4 dives with Quero during the period she was in Sydney, and she was a very independent diver, intent on photographing her finds.

I have dived with two of those involved, and they were practically glued to me during every dive. Yes, we had cameras, and we were all hunting for critters, and having a ball, but everyone was watching everyone else the entire time. Had I NOT been a good buddy team diver though, I can't see how it would have been their fault, especially if I chose to ignore their suggestions that we stay as a group for navigating an area..

 

[phoenix31tt]

we agree that Marcia was an experienced diver and very likely mastered her buoyancy as she did surface after each dive and even had a conversation with the other divers on her last dive.

don't see how that equates to mastering buoyancy...

I don't know about the rest of the world, but I was never taught to ditch weights. I was taught to unbuckle, remove and or adjust and re- buckle the belt underwater. As to integrated weights, I was always under the impression that they were meant to be offloaded to facillitate easier boarding of the dive vessel after the dive or to ditch in a surface emergency but never while at depth unless you wish to spend some serious time in a chamber.

i can speak for my part of the world... we were thought to ditch at depth as a worst case scenario...

 

[AfterDark]

When I originally posted this bubby comment (post 237) my last sentence was something like too bad she didn't have a buddy like that....the kind I described that was always there when I turned around no matter how long I ignored him. That was the main point of the post not to blame someone I don't know. The last couple of years I've tried to be better about watching my buddy when I dive with one. This sad episode as caused me to want reinforced that effort, as it should for all of us that wander from our buddies. Quero's last teaching gift.

 

[Diver0001]

I was trying to study that first image yesterday. To me it appears to show that she had cam band pockets on her tank that carried what look like @5# each. That could mean that at least 10# of her weight was not ditch-able. Image is a bit dark to really see well what else her weight rig may have consisted of. Your last image does appear to show a pretty small wing, because even inflated it does not cover the 80cf steel tank.

I saw some other pictures that made it clear that her BCD had weight integrated pockets and the buddy says that there were weights in them, although it's not clear exactly how much.

I share your estimation that it looks like maybe 10# of the weight was not ditchable.

One more thing that's become clear is that the suit was not flooded. The rescuers cut the suit in order to use the AED and the undergarment was dry.

R..

 

[gypsyjim]

When I originally posted this bubby comment (post 237) my last sentence was something like too bad she didn't have a buddy like that....the kind I described that was always there when I turned around no matter how long I ignored him. The last couple of years I've tried to be better about watching my buddy when I dive with one. This sad episode as caused me to want reinforced that effort, as it should for all of us that wander from our buddies. Quero's last teaching gift.

A lot of comments are made about divers with cameras being same sea buddies, and there is often a lot of truth to this. With the camera you do tend to become a hunter.

I read Quero's posts, and she was excited about finding and photographing a weedy sea dragon, and this seemed to be for her the most exciting part of the trip to Sydney. Her buddies for those dives are well known in the Sydney dive circle for their knowledge of the dive sits, and the critters to be found there. Quero would most certainly have been relying on their help in searching for the elusive critters, and every diver there was extremely experienced, if not quite to the level as Marcia herself, so being glued together elbow to elbow constantly would not have been quite as high a priority as with novice divers.

Her choice to not rejoin the group on the surface, before the descent for the underwater return to shore created the separation the ended with her passing. That is the bottom line here, no matter what the actual cause of the fatality.

 

[phoenix31tt]

When I originally posted this bubby comment (post 237) my last sentence was something like too bad she didn't have a buddy like that....the kind I described that was always there when I turned around no matter how long I ignored him. That was the main point of the post not to blame someone I don't know. The last couple of years I've tried to be better about watching my buddy when I dive with one. This sad episode as caused me to want reinforced that effort, as it should for all of us that wander from our buddies. Quero's last teaching gift.

think about it from the buddy's perspective... he had two other divers he knew...

would you go around following the diver that clearly is not following proper buddy/team practices.. or would you stick with the guys you know could help you in an emergency...

i'm not sure what the situation was with your buddy... was it both of you diving as a buddy pair? or 4 of you diving as a team?

 

[letterboy]

I have no idea what you are trying to say. Disrespect Qureo? How by pointing out her buddy didn't follow her around like he should have? I would not like to be her (that) buddy today because I would be blaming myself for her death because as her buddy I wasn't there when she needed me because I let her slip away from me. How is that disrespect?

Why is it the buddies job to follow someone around? Is it not a mutual agreement of sorts?

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

 

[AfterDark]

Why is it the buddies job to follow someone around? Is it not a mutual agreement of sorts?

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

I'll ask those buddies that do it to me. Maybe they are in awe of my nav skills and figure if they stick close they won't get lost. I just thought they were exceptional buddies. I still think she would have been better off with a buddy like that (post 237)

 

[dumpsterDiver]

The following are some pictures of Marcia over her last 3 dives.

1) The first picture shows a side on view. On this picture you can see that she has some unditchable weight, which I would estimate at 4-6kg in total. You can also see on this picture that she is using the drysuit for buoyancy during this dive.

View attachment 168775

2) next dive; This picture I've included to give people a context to understand conditions and perhaps get a better understanding of the buddy separation.

View attachment 168776

3) last dive; the first picture again shows conditions during that dive and shows a good view on her trim and buoyancy. The last picture shows another view of the rig and shows that by this point the bubble has moved from the suit to the wing, indicating that she was experimenting during the last three dives with where to put the air.

View attachment 168777View attachment 168778

R..

As I mentioned before, my experience with dry suits is dated and I never used a tri-laminate one. However the last picture really catches my eye. If I saw a diver in a thick wetsuit, on a deep dive with the BC filled to that extent, I would think nothing of it. However, it is my understanding that the whole benefit of the incompressible suit material is that your buoyancy does not change with depth... assuming you keep the suit inflated to a uniform amount at various depths....

So if my understanding is correct..would not this situation (with the BC seemingly full at depth) elicit a response from a reasonably observant and more experienced dry suit divers along the lines of: "why the heck are you wearing so much lead?"

That would seem to be more useful input than "hand holding" in 18 ft of water. Is this a red flag or am I off base?

 

[tracydr]

There has been a lot of discussion on the tragic accident of Marcia, raising a lot of various points. But no one knows at this point if she felt a side effect from the medication she was taking . Potential side effects are dizziness, raised blood pressure, vomiting. Even the most experienced diver would be in serious trouble if they had a dizzy spell and became disoriented. Maybe the sore leg Marcia had wasn't nothing to do with her new drysuit. Maybe Marcia had DVT. I know she was living in Phuket so at some point would have had a 9-10 hour flight to Sydney. I am not an experienced diver like a lot of the people on this forum, but my thinking is - If Marcia was 100% fit and had no medical problems she would have overcome any problems she had with her new dive gear, especially in shallow easy diving conditions. RIP Marcia, I was so looking forward to meeting and diving with you in November.

She had a 9 hour red eye, according to her Facebook page. And went diving right after she arrived. I don't think that was the ill-fated dive,though.