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

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What a terrible tragedy. I doubt it had any bearing on the outcome but dry suit shore diving in Sydney is very strenuous at this time of year. It's very warm out of the water and most of the sites require a moderate walk (this particular site is a couple of hundred meters walk from the carpark over grass, probably one of the easier entries in Sydney). Wearing my trilam DUI suit (350TLS) by the time I reach the water my undergarments are often soaked in sweat and the suit acts like a greenhouse with condensation on the interior - so much so that I thought I had a leaking seal. It's better now that I've lost weight, when I was overweight I had to carry excess lead to overcome my increased buoyancy which along with the weight of my camera made the entry extremely taxing.
 
That may well be true but most people that give up their dive, just to follow their buddy around and watch them take photos are usually paid babysitters or, possibly, complete novices who are afraid of separation by more than a meter. That does not describe a normal buddy system, IMHO.

Or those who are put with a buddy who you find out at the last minute that they are taking pictures and will be doing that the whole dive. Choices;

Abort dive (my loss)
Solo dive (not)
Go with the flow and just enjoy the dive the best you can by being there with them (my choice as I like diving). Didn't get paid, didn't do what I would have liked on the dive, but I did dive which is what I like doing.

---------- Post added October 14th, 2013 at 02:08 PM ----------

I am diving a trilam suit. I'm still not completely happy with my control of the bubble and descents/ascents. I'm also doing a lot of experimentation with undergarments. It's quite a challenge to find a warm enough undergarment that isn't so lofty or bulky that my suit doesn't fit. Issues similar to what Quero was having. And, having to do these adjustments on a special dive trip when you can't play around in the pool, well, that would have been even harder. I can totally understand why she was determined not to miss dives, despite not being able to obtain the proper undergarments I would likely make a similar choice,to try and "make do" with local resources,rather than miss out on diving.
My drysuit course was on a trip to Catalina, with pool session prior to the trip. I was so frustrated with my first four dives that I nearly put the thing on eBay. It was by far the most frustrating thing I've dealt with since I was certified, 18 years ago.

I can so relate to this post.

---------- Post added October 14th, 2013 at 02:59 PM ----------

Unless she was planning to use her drysuit as a secondary flotation device to "get by" for the trip and was well aware that her wing had become inadequate. Since she was making ongoing changes and away from home she may have decided to limp along with the wing she had and planned on purchasing or otherwise obtaining another when she got home.

My belief is that perhaps this was the case. Clearly not the right thing to do but one I could see easily made by most people. Not wanting to spoil the diving, not wanting to spend more money on an already expensive trip. Not wanting to buy any more gear that one may not require again. Not wanting to buy any gear until she knew she really needed it (sorting it out before the final purchase).

All these things can and do trap us (and I say us as I have gone down this path as well), and mostly we get away with it until the day Murphy is lurking in our part of the world. Under those circumstances, it could easily have been any one of us, away from home and making do.

I am very saddened by this tragic (and potentially avoidable) event, and clearly it shows no matter the benign location, Murphy is always looking for the next victim. Let the first person who has NEVER done anything wrong or risky in diving throw the first rock. I know I can't.

---------- Post added October 14th, 2013 at 03:23 PM ----------

^^ From speaking to the diver that did more than one dive with Quero, there were a number of suggestions made (weight configeration/ankle weights, different fins etc) and they felt that their suggestions were dismissed/pushed back.

I have also been contacted by another diver, someone who I have met so not just a faceless online person, who had dived with Quero within the past 6mths and this other diver felt a similar way.

And those comments make it even sadder.

I know when I first went down to my decompression training I had all new gear and was proud that it we set up well (had borrowed gear before this from another instructor). The instructor (Rubens from IDC) proceeded to tear it apart, remove much of it and reconfigured what was left. I was shattered. He then proceeded to explain all the reasons why he did what he did. I managed to push my shattered ego under the table with my shoe and take on board what he had told me. Clearly I had my rig set up wrong and had far too much "glitter" attached. Clearly this was what I needed to help me improve on my gear setup and diving. I had a few hundred dives up, and he has many thousands and also teaches all levels of recreational and tech diving and instruction. As we say at work "Who's the fool now FOOL", me of course.

Murphy has all the time in the world to indulge those with ego's and grandiose ideas. He hates those who are wise enough to take everything on board and think through the issues fully.

There but for the grace of people like Rubens, I could have been a Marcia. I do find it sad that I have learned something at her expense in this way.
 
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I was watching (on TV) an episode of "Air crash investigation" where the senior pilot was fixated on solving an apparent problem of a flashing landing
gear light.

Eventually one of the more junior officers said something to the effect of "we are going to get really low on gas". The senior pilot blew this off since
he REALLY wanted to fix the possible landing gear problem. Eventually they ran out of gas and the outcome, predictably, was not as good as it should
have been.

Subsequent to this the NTSB/FAA went to NASA and implemented CRM (crew resource management) protocols. I haven't read them but my understanding is along the lines of....

If any member of the team has a safety concern then they MUST make that known to the senior pilot. The senior pilot MUST (if time permits) acknowledge this and either comply with the juniors suggestion or argue with the rest of the team as to the correct procedure (Senior pilot has final decision, of course since he/she also has final responsibility.

This protocol, empowers (God how I hate that PC term) all members of the team and also allows the leader to be helped by the team without losing face.
If these protocpls were applied to non-solo scuba diving then when Marcia was asked to move closer, she MUST have complied or else had a good reason for non compliance, rather than just "No I'm good, see you on the bottom".

If these protocols had been drilled into the whole team for many years then the ensuing discussions may well have realised that an indicated 50 Bar was
not a really good idea for a diver new to drysuits to start descending while relying on lift from two sources.

The bottom line is - in a team everyone is equal, except that any safety concern trumps anyone elses experience level. Of course, the acknowledged
"leader for that dive" is still required to make any emergency decisions.

If all this fails - just make sure you don't add to the casualty list.

Just my 0.01 cents, since I'm not (yet) a scuba diver but I do participate in team sports.

PS - Is it possible to find out just how negative Marcia was, when found, given that one rescue diver couldn't lift her but the other could.
If they analysed their lifting capability, in those rigs, on that day, could we then estimate just how negative she was and then maybe guess as to what
could have caused that level on negativity.
 
I do not believe that the decision to swim under water to the exit on only 50 bars was the issue here at all. It was choosing to do the underwater swim solo, with all the other ongoing issues that led to the eventual outcome.

50 bars or no, overweighted or no, inaccurate SPG or no, inadequate wing or no, inexperienced in a dry suit or no, ... in the end it was the decision to not rejoin the rest of the team for that last short swim to the exit that allowed whatever other issues there may have been to become an incident that could not be resolved in time.
 
I wonder whether things might have been different had she done the dive in sidemount configuration that morning since she mentioned that she had taken a TEC sidemount course earlier in the year.
 
PS - Is it possible to find out just how negative Marcia was, when found, given that one rescue diver couldn't lift her but the other could.
If they analysed their lifting capability, in those rigs, on that day, could we then estimate just how negative she was and then maybe guess as to what
could have caused that level on negativity.
Buoyancy Question:

How overweighted is a SCUBA diver when their B.C./wing is fully inflated, their drysuit has very little air, they are motionless & they are in shallow water?
 
I wonder whether things might have been different had she done the dive in sidemount configuration that morning since she mentioned that she had taken a TEC sidemount course earlier in the year.

Yes what possibly could go wrong.

New Config
New Drysuit
Camera
Unfamilar (temperate) waters.
 
Buoyancy Question:

How overweighted is a SCUBA diver when their B.C./wing is fully inflated, their drysuit has very little air, they are motionless & they are in shallow water?

Too over-weighted regardless; not much analysis needed. Some divers (like photographers) may choose to be negative but not that much (I hope). For rec diving one should not be so weighted that either lifting device cannot move one to the surface without ditching weight. This is particularly true when shallow at the end of a dive. To do so moves ditching weight to a SOP instead of an emergency procedure and few, if any, rec divers practice enough in water ditches to become proficient.

I can see such a scenario unfolding as was suggested earlier, though again, I don't imagine to know what actually happened to Quero.

A negatively weighted diver/photographer on the bottom going OOA. They need both BC and DS for lift but the DS is deflated and cannot be filled. An attempt to swim up may be made. The eventual decision to ditch weight may be delayed for too long due to partial movement upward and the expensive camera they are holding and do not wish to ditch.

This does not suggest conscious decision making as much as reactive action. One may be too far into the incident pit (to quote TS&M) before the true nature of the situation becomes apparent.

I know I have done something similar myself: I was returning on a compass bearing from dive out into a flat bottomed lake but could not seem to get back to shore. No matter how far I swam, I stayed at the same depth. I kicked harder, faster, expecting to reach the rising perimeter slope but the contour stayed the same. I became fixated on resolving my problem by continuing to swim forward.
Problem: I was following a false compass bearing that took me parallel to the shore instead of perpendicular. I was so complacent with that lake that that day I assumed the return bearing without actually taking it.
What was interesting is that I kept putting off the simple solution of doing an open water ascent (which I could have easily done) until I was LOA and over-exerted.

Sometimes, experience causes one to become complacent and, with a few changes in conditions, can lead to an abnormal approach to what would otherwise be a fairly basic situation. Usually one only learns a lessons, occasionally one gets caught.
 

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