So Cal Diver Dies at Laguna Beach

[Rick Inman]

I also call my wife after every dive.
It's odd how some unexpected thing can turn a normal dive into an "event". This morning I went out to play with weights in a "new' (bought used) dry suit. Easy spot, no surf lake shore entry. It was 22 degrees so I orally inflated my BCD and swam out. In this cold of air/water, you don't put you regulator in your mouth until you start to descend to prevent free-flow. As soon as I stopped surface swimming (about 20 feet of water below me) I started sinking - without the reg in my mouth. I inflated my BC and came back up. I took off my mask to rinse it out and sank again - no mask or reg! This time I put air into my dry suit and floated back up. Turns out my BCD was leaking air as fast as it was coming in. What happened was, when I mounted my argon pony, the little pull tag for the BCD’s back valve got stuck between the two tanks, holding the valve open.
My point is that when these horrible deaths occur, it reminds us that it can sometime be the little unexpected problems that can cascade into tragedy.
Dive safe, all!

 

[DivePartner1]

Uncle Pug once bubbled...
You all be careful OK?

Too true.

And to scubalaurel, akajack, and to Daryll's friends and family, we are all sorry for your loss.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Otter once bubbled...


I agree wholeheartedly, as I often tell my teenagers. "Learn from MY mistakes, you'll have plenty time to make your own". I didn't know Daryll personnally, but from what I gather, he would want us to learn as much as possible.



While I agree there is far too much complacency among many (most?) divers on the basics skills, I think with the weights its less of a "how" to do the skill and more making it become a conditioned reflex. I have read speculation that divers in trouble might be embarassed to admit they dumped their weights -- but I believe if they were evaluating their situation that rationally in the first place, they would come to the rational conclusion that its better to be embarassed and live, then proud and dead.

We have lots of conditioned reflexes that kick-in when we are having problem in the water (like climbing up a nearby diver, removing mask) but removing our weights just doesn't jump into our mind. The reflexes we have have corallaries in every day "land" life (like removing whatever is on our face if we can't breathe), whereas there is no equivalent situation on land.

I don't know what the solution exactly is, but I think it must include more physical repetition of the skill IN A PANIC sitiuation. The question is how do you SAFELY simulate and CONTROL such a situation? Airline pilots get flight simulators and submariners have entire submarine mock-ups. We get a pool and some lead.

This is EXACTLY the point....

As air breathing, land dwelling mamals we don't posses even a single instinct that will help us in the water. We must supress ALL of our natural instincts and replace them with learned behaviors. That takes time and practice and it needs to be done before we're turned loose in OW or we just don't have much chance IF things go wrong.

Experience isn't ebough. You have to practice the responses that you want to become automatic. You could swim in circles on the bottom for ever and it will NOt prepare you for the day some one kicks off your mask. Only repeated removal of your mask can do that.

Comfort gained through experience will, however, increase your ability to think but when instinct kicks in (fight or flight) there is no more thinking.

 

[Otter]

I agree that it must be a learned behavior and that repeating the task will make it easier. However, I don't think its that simple. There needs to be some linkage between the stimulus and the desired behavior. Just teaching the behavior is not enough.

For example, if you are teaching someone to block a punch. You don't just have the person raise their arm, someone else throws a punch; first slowly and then faster.

Taking a mask off in a nice controlled manner is much different than having it removed from face by a fin kick. In the old stimulus-response model, all we are teaching is the response. The OOA drills (CESA / Alt Air Ascent )are probably the worst examples because students are completely 'prepared' (i.e., not surprised) for their simulated loss of air. In real life, there would be an exhale followed by no or very little inhale; followed by a moment of 'what is happpening?'; followed by "oh crap", pehaps denial, and probably panic in many cases. I agree that the amount of panic is likely (diver dependent) minimized by the diver knowing what to do in this condition (thats why we train), but the execution of the skill is not done in a stressful situation. And to your point in many threads, the skills are quickly forgotton without reinforcement. I am still looking for a way to safely introduce the stimulus to the training.

 

[scubasean]

Otter once bubbled...


I'd like to hear from someone who uses the 'fins on hands and paddle backstroke" approach.

Monestary Beach in Monterey often has surf....I was taught to enter the water there with a full B/C and with the fins held in my hands, paddling (using the fins) past the surf zone before putting on my fins.

Although I use the approach, it has occurred to me that if I let go of a fin by accident(or if a wave knocks it out of my hand), my dive is over...

I was also taught to always have the reg in my mouth and mask on my face during entry and exit at this beach, and follow that advice.

 

[MikeFerrara]

scubasean once bubbled...


Monestary Beach in Monterey often has surf....I was taught to enter the water there with a full B/C and with the fins held in my hands, paddling (using the fins) past the surf zone before putting on my fins.

Although I use the approach, it has occurred to me that if I let go of a fin by accident(or if a wave knocks it out of my hand), my dive is over...

I was also taught to always have the reg in my mouth and mask on my face during entry and exit at this beach, and follow that advice.

I'm not a surf entry expert though I've done it.

I think if the surf is too much for me to stand and put my fins on in shallow water then I'd put them on before I get in the water, even if I have to crawl in.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Otter once bubbled...
I agree that it must be a learned behavior and that repeating the task will make it easier. However, I don't think its that simple. There needs to be some linkage between the stimulus and the desired behavior. Just teaching the behavior is not enough.

For example, if you are teaching someone to block a punch. You don't just have the person raise their arm, someone else throws a punch; first slowly and then faster.

Taking a mask off in a nice controlled manner is much different than having it removed from face by a fin kick. In the old stimulus-response model, all we are teaching is the response. The OOA drills (CESA / Alt Air Ascent )are probably the worst examples because students are completely 'prepared' (i.e., not surprised) for their simulated loss of air. In real life, there would be an exhale followed by no or very little inhale; followed by a moment of 'what is happpening?'; followed by "oh crap", pehaps denial, and probably panic in many cases. I agree that the amount of panic is likely (diver dependent) minimized by the diver knowing what to do in this condition (thats why we train), but the execution of the skill is not done in a stressful situation. And to your point in many threads, the skills are quickly forgotton without reinforcement. I am still looking for a way to safely introduce the stimulus to the training.

This is something that I've thought about constantly for the last few years. I've watched some good instructors and I've tried different things. The first thing I can say is that the nicy, nicy tourist dive training is bull. It doesn't, IMO, prepare a diver for a problem.

Suprise OOA's are easy and not very risky. Jerking a divers mask off is a little different but do we really need to? is the mask comming off that causes the problem or the loss of control that follows? I think it can be both but practicing removing it in a controled way will teach the student that the cold water ans a few moments of breathlesness can't hurt you. The loss of control, that's another thing. What I do is ASK a student to remove their mask at inoportune times. After my request they have a moment to prepare (acompromise maybe) but the loss of control will still come if they aren't able to keep it.

What I mean is, doing the skill while kneeling on the bottom don't mean squat. Now, if we ask a student to remove a mask in the middle of an ascent or descent...and...require the buddy team to continue to manage the ascent or descent while dealing with the lost mask then we've done something.Maybe you combine problems like OOA and a diver with a lost mask. In the beginning, asking them to remove and replace a mask while hovering and maintaining buddy contact is a good start. Learn to hover. Learn to R&R mask. Learn to do both at the same time. Now you have a diver who might get a little POed when they loose a mask in 40 deg water but their not going to freak and leave their buddy to bolt.

I'm still looking for new things to add and new ways to do it but you have to do it. Students even enjoy it as long as their ready.

The diver who's only done it kneeling on the bottom with no other resposibilities is in for a big surprise IF something goes wrong.

 

[IndigoBlue]

MikeFerrara once bubbled...


This is something that I've thought about constantly for the last few years. I've watched some good instructors and I've tried different things. The first thing I can say is that the nicy, nicy tourist dive training is bull. It doesn't, IMO, prepare a diver for a problem.

Suprise OOA's are easy and not very risky. Jerking a divers mask off is a little different but do we really need to? is the mask comming off that causes the problem or the loss of control that follows? I think it can be both but practicing removing it in a controled way will teach the student that the cold water ans a few moments of breathlesness can't hurt you. The loss of control, that's another thing. What I do is ASK a student to remove their mask at inoportune times. After my request they have a moment to prepare (acompromise maybe) but the loss of control will still come if they aren't able to keep it.

What I mean is, doing the skill while kneeling on the bottom don't mean squat. Now, if we ask a student to remove a mask in the middle of an ascent or descent...and...require the buddy team to continue to manage the ascent or descent while dealing with the lost mask then we've done something.Maybe you combine problems like OOA and a diver with a lost mask. In the beginning, asking them to remove and replace a mask while hovering and maintaining buddy contact is a good start. Learn to hover. Learn to R&R mask. Learn to do both at the same time. Now you have a diver who might get a little POed when they loose a mask in 40 deg water but their not going to freak and leave their buddy to bolt.

I'm still looking for new things to add and new ways to do it but you have to do it. Students even enjoy it as long as their ready.

The diver who's only done it kneeling on the bottom with no other resposibilities is in for a big surprise IF something goes wrong.

Ditching your weights seems to bear a more direct causal relationship to the most recent tragedy, and others like it.

If you never swim with your face near someone else's fins, you will never get your mask kicked off. So you will also never need to have your mask ripped off to get you "ready" for having your mask kicked off.

I am not a proponent of horsing around underwater with unannounced mask drills nor of turning off someone else's air, etc, in the name of training. I respect others' views to the contrary of course.

I carry an extra mask with me at all times. However I normally end up loaning it to someone else, who did not defog their own mask properly before going diving.

 

[MikeFerrara]

IndigoBlue once bubbled...


Ditching your weights seems to bear a more direct causal relationship to the most recent tragedy, and others like it.

If you never swim with your face near someone else's fins, you will never get your mask kicked off. So you will also never need to have your mask ripped off to get you "ready" for having your mask kicked off.

I am not a proponent of horsing around underwater with unannounced mask drills nor of turning off someone else's air, etc, in the name of training. I respect others' views to the contrary of course.

I carry an extra mask with me at all times. However I normally end up loaning it to someone else, who did not defog their own mask properly before going diving.

I used the mask thing as an example only and they don't have to get kicked off. IMO, the same principle applies to all emergency procedures including ditching weights, free flow reg breathing, handling a stuck inflator, OOA ect. Although, in this case the need to drop weights appears to be a ways down the chain.

I do think though that you may have misunderstood me because I never advocated horsing around or turning off air. I did advocate combining skills because doing them one at a time on your knees doesn't mean anything.

Make no mistake please. I'm not at all talking about something as simple as running around jerking divers masks off or turning their off. Any idiot can do that and it's potentially dangerous.

 

[IndigoBlue]

MikeFerrara once bubbled...


I used the mask thing as an example only and they don't have to get kicked off. IMO, the same principle applies to all emergency procedures including ditching weights, free flow reg breathing, handling a stuck inflator, OOA ect. Although, in this case the need to drop weights appears to be a ways down the chain.

I do think though that you may have misunderstood me because I never advocated horsing around or turning off air. I did advocate combining skills because doing them one at a time on your knees doesn't mean anything.

Make no mistake please. I'm not at all talking about something as simple as running around jerking divers masks off or turning their off. Any idiot can do that and it's potentially dangerous.

You sound like a pretty good instructor who is thoughtful and visionary. No matter how hard you try, as an instructor, after awhile, your x-student graduates are going to have to deal with their own complacency in the water. Something as simple as dropping weights at or near the surface could prevent a high percentage of all scuba deaths.

You are quite right about the need for reinforcement.

The problem is that we are all subject to the temptation of complacency.