Student lost - Seattle, Washington

[dmaziuk]

I wonder if IPE (Immersion Pulmonary Edema) that could happen to predominantly women diving in cold water has something to do with it, as mentioned by @clownfishsydney in this thread: 10 Years on From Fatal Dive - Lessons to be Learnt

It's possible but 33 is not the most likely age to have it: Risk factors for immersion pulmonary edema in recreational scuba divers: a case-control study - PubMed

 

[Bob DBF]

Just because someone has an OW card doesn't mean they're really capable of safely diving without supervision..

Actually that is exactly what the C-card means, according to WRSTC. The fact that many instructors do not train to this standard is not the fault of the card.

The industry puts up with this violation, because not too many divers die. It’s hard for me to decide who is the larger villain.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I do think in poor viz environments like the Puget Sound lights should be used in open water. Students who continue diving will buy them anyway. It isn't rocket science but there are some things thay need to be taught.

Due to the extra equipment expense, I know there'd be massive resistance locally to such a requirement and I don't wish to die on that hill. I've got other hills to die on. I do wonder if lights would have prevented that fatality 5 years ago at the OW course conducted in Cove 1. That was a 4:2 ratio if memory serves me.

 

[DAJ]

One issue to keep in mind is that many certification agencies are not members of WRSTC.

 

[rjack321]

See the light of a diver at 30+ feet in Puget Sound is pretty unlikely. Maybe if were we at maximum brightness and they pointed it straight up could you see it in full dark. But it does not get full dark until after 9pm. And by then any light would be burned down and likely sitting in the silt at this site.

Stand by the rocks nearly any night after dark. You can easy see even basic dive lights on the honeybear. You can see good HID lights on the I beams (90ft) even in the worst vis. Are they a point? No, they are a green glow but pretty obvious someone is near there.

 

[rjack321]

I'm sure this is some level of technical diving suicide but i normally have a loop of bungee cord around my wrist (with effort it can clear my dry gloves/wrists but with a gentle tug won't) such that I can actually clip the bolt snap off of my backup light (or small other items) to it and if I drop them they stay more or less attached to me.

this is common for many recreational diver's and their main lights - not a big deal.

Backup lights arent even required for some AOW night dives though. The difficulties in finding the victim suggests to me that her light was off, or burned out, or she was laying on top of it, or something else was going on to obscure it. That fire engine ladder truck was there specifically to get some eyeballs up high and be able to look down at the water minus the glare from downtown Seattle. They didnt see her light even in fairly shallow water not that far away.

 

[Bob DBF]

One issue to keep in mind is that many certification agencies are not members of WRSTC.

Although that is true, the vast majority of US OW divers are certified by a WRSTC agency.

 

[boulderjohn]

One issue to keep in mind is that many certification agencies are not members of WRSTC.

Although that is true, the vast majority of US OW divers are certified by a WRSTC agency.

WRSTC = IANTD, NAUI, PADI, SEI, PDIC, RAID, SDI, SSI, SNSI, NASE, ACUC, IDEA, NASDS, PSS, IAC, Canadian Council, and (I can't read or reproduce the ones in Japan).

That covers a pretty hefty chunk of the people certified each year.

 

[boulderjohn]

For PADI, it is true. My brother-in-law got certified through PADI in the 1980's over a 6 week period. When I took my AOW in 2002 and told him what my Adventure dives were, he was incredulous that we didn't fully learn them in O/W. He asked, "What do you mean, you're doing (Peak Performance) Buoyancy... U/W Navigation, Deep...Night? Didn't you learn all that in O/W? How can anyone be certified without learning these basic concepts?"

So your friend was an expert on the history of scuba instruction? Basic buoyancy and navigation have always been part of OW instruction. I don't believe deep diving and night diving were, but if you can show me that actual standards that show they were, I will stand corrected.

 

[DAJ]

WRSTC = IANTD, NAUI, PADI, SEI, PDIC, RAID, SDI, SSI, SNSI, NASE, ACUC, IDEA, NASDS, PSS, IAC, Canadian Council, and (I can't read or reproduce the ones in Japan).

That covers a pretty hefty chunk of the people certified each year.

Many of those are what you might call recent additions as members of WRSTC. IANTD became a member in 2018, NAUI in 2015, SEI and PDIC was 2017, RAID is 2021, SNSI was 2015....you get the idea. Granted some of these agencies have changed over in the past few years but the number of certifications after the change pales in comparison to the numbers that have been certified and are out there still diving today with the certifications they received decades before their certifying agency became members of WRSTC.