Student Pulled from Elliott Bay in Seattle

[wetb4igetinthewater]

As a Seattlite who obtained her diving certification in the exact same spot as the accident yesterday, I have been following this news story and am disheartened to hear that the young woman passed away. My thoughts are with her family and friends, as well as the other diving students and instructor that were with her on this dive.

I've also been very curious in learning the name of the certification school involved, though that information has not yet been made public. During my certification process back in 2011, I had a very negative experience. The viz was terrible (about 3') and so were the currents. When doing our first line/skills dive, I can recall hanging on to the cable with all my might and not being able to see anything next to me until the instructor swam up and literally put his face in my face so that I could see his signals. That was Day 1. On Day 2, I was on my final check-out dive when I realized I was out of air at approximately 30'. I made this discovery not because of my gauges, but because I went to inhale and there was literally nothing coming out of the reg. I took another breath to make sure that I was out of air and remained calm enough to quickly assess my options: 1) signal to my diving partner (who was also brand new) that I was out of air, or 2) hope that the student getting his dive master certification was still behind me. I chose option 2 and was thrilled when I saw him right behind me. I made the sign for "out of air," he looked at me in disbelief, and then we executed a perfect emergency ascent with me breathing off his emergency regulator. I remember NOT remembering to manually inflate my BCD at the surface (he did it for me), and he was yelling with excitement because I had remained calm throughout and executed the emergency procedures flawlessly. They pulled me onshore, threw a full tank on my back, and tossed me back in the water to complete my check out dive.

After the dive was complete, the instructor asked me what happened. I told him I didn't have any air in my tank, and he said I should have switched it at lunch. I told him I had exchanged the used tanks for the new tanks over break, and he accused me of grabbing the wrong one. My dive buddy said "Absolutely not - I was with her and we were EXTREMELY anal about which we were putting in the trunk and which we were pulling out to use. You gave us a used tank." Then the instructor asked why I hadn't checked my gauges...and I told him it was because I had forgotten to, because we hadn't practiced the buddy check since the previous morning (and then, only once). As a new diver, I would expect an instructor to drill in the buddy checks before EVERY SINGLE DIVE and to also do a cursory check just to make sure. Diving was so new and there was so much to remember, that both my buddy and I forgot the most important parts.

I did fill out an "incident" report after, but they were pretty hostile and assured me it was my fault. Now this news hit, and I can't help but wonder what did - or did not - happen during the preparation leading up to this young woman's dive yesterday. I only know my experience - which was not great, but fortunately had a (very) happy ending.

Of course, fast forward to now and I've got +30 dives under my belts but have stopped diving due to anxiety/panic attacks the last several dives (has happened in 10' and at 70'...no correlation with depth). Sometimes I wonder if - despite my ability to remain calm in my out of air situation at the time - that experience has lingered with me more than I'd like to admit.

GotHopsCrownHill,

I will only address your comment. What I will say has nothing to do with the tragic accident. What you describe is a result of rushing through the course. I believe that equipment assembly/disassembly and buddy checks should be a habit before you make it to your first open water dive. Different people go at different paces, and I believe students have an intuition about whether things went right or not. I list the performance requirements to my students in a slide section "How do you actually know you had a good class?".

I offer to dive with all my students post ow certification. I'll throw that offer out to you where we go for a dive, but you set the pace. PM me if you ever want to take me up on that. I'm an instructor because I love diving and want as many people who are physically able (i.e., they can equalize) to enjoy diving.

BTW, one of the performance requirements is that you are able to tell your instructor how much air you have within 300 psi without looking at it, meaning you keep track of it on your own. Your instructor should be asking you from time to time on every single dive.

 

[GotHopsCrownHill]

GotHopsCrownHill,

I will only address your comment. What I will say has nothing to do with the tragic accident. What you describe is a result of rushing through the course. I believe that equipment assembly/disassembly and buddy checks should be a habit before you make it to your first open water dive. Different people go at different paces, and I believe students have an intuition about whether things went right or not. I list the performance requirements to my students in a slide section "How do you actually know you had a good class?".

I offer to dive with all my students post ow certification. I'll throw that offer out to you where we go for a dive, but you set the pace. PM me if you ever want to take me up on that. I'm an instructor because I love diving and want as many people who are physically able (i.e., they can equalize) to enjoy diving.

BTW, one of the performance requirements is that you are able to tell your instructor how much air you have within 300 psi without looking at it, meaning you keep track of it on your own. Your instructor should be asking you from time to time on every single dive.

Thank you so much for your note and your offer. I'm thisclose to selling my scuba gear (I did do a private refresher 2 years ago and STILL had panic attacks my next dive) so I'm definitely at a point where I need to make a conscious decision to try to get past the anxiety! Prior to the last few dives, I loved diving with my favorite experience a diving trip to Cozumel. It's an amazing sport.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Thank you so much for your note and your offer. I'm thisclose to selling my scuba gear (I did do a private refresher 2 years ago and STILL had panic attacks my next dive) so I'm definitely at a point where I need to make a conscious decision to try to get past the anxiety! Prior to the last few dives, I loved diving with my favorite experience a diving trip to Cozumel. It's an amazing sport.

Well, we should try soon. Viz is pretty good. I can set up my dive platform or just follow the bottom slope and just hover in the shallows, and just relax. Do you frog kick? I find that makes diving even more relaxing.

 

[Wookie]

It is so sad and I am disheartened enough to get out of the business because of all of the bad instruction there is out there. I cannot cast stones, I am not a good instructor either, I don't have the patience for it. But I used to get the product of bad instruction on the boat. The guy from the panhandle who just wasn't getting it, and his instructor had him sit on the boat for 7 of 11 dives because the instructor was too busy rushing the rest of his charter through an advanced class, the guy who (after I assigned boat crew to dive with him, something we NEVER did) came up from the Vandenberg with that gleam in his eye and a whole new "I got it" attitude. We (the industry) would have lost him to golf or the couch. Or the person who burst out in tears on day 3 of a 5 day trip and said that her divemaster wasn't teaching her anything as promised, just leading her (and 2 others) around on the divemasters 120 to extend their dives. She sold her gear on the way back in. Or the ones who just don't get it, but strip them away from their overbearing spouse (of either sex, it happens both ways) and sit reasonably and quietly and teach them the tables and then the computer, or the one who came to me in tears who (on her third trip with me, along with her husband, brother, and sister in law) said she could never come back because she just wasn't fit for 5 a day. I sat her down and explained that she didn't have to do 5 a day, she could stop whenever she wanted, after 4 or 3 or none if she felt like it, and just enjoy the boat ride.

Where did we lose empathy as dive instructors? Why didn't we learn that some folks can be pushed, some coddled, some at their own pace and some in a classroom setting? Why does it have to be the students fault that they forgot to check gauges? They are students. We as instructors are responsible for everything they do, up to and after a card is issued. Gothopscrownhill, I hope you find someone to mentor or ilearn from who has the patience and goodwill to teach you, to help you through a rough patch, and who will help you to have the confidence to stick with it. I love to dive. It ranks right up there with eating and sex. I'm just as happy in the water as I am anywhere. I hope someday you can say the same.

 

[cerich]

It is so sad and I am disheartened enough to get out of the business because of all of the bad instruction there is out there. I cannot cast stones, I am not a good instructor either, I don't have the patience for it. But I used to get the product of bad instruction on the boat. The guy from the panhandle who just wasn't getting it, and his instructor had him sit on the boat for 7 of 11 dives because the instructor was too busy rushing the rest of his charter through an advanced class, the guy who (after I assigned boat crew to dive with him, something we NEVER did) came up from the Vandenberg with that gleam in his eye and a whole new "I got it" attitude. We (the industry) would have lost him to golf or the couch. Or the person who burst out in tears on day 3 of a 5 day trip and said that her divemaster wasn't teaching her anything as promised, just leading her (and 2 others) around on the divemasters 120 to extend their dives. She sold her gear on the way back in. Or the ones who just don't get it, but strip them away from their overbearing spouse (of either sex, it happens both ways) and sit reasonably and quietly and teach them the tables and then the computer, or the one who came to me in tears who (on her third trip with me, along with her husband, brother, and sister in law) said she could never come back because she just wasn't fit for 5 a day. I sat her down and explained that she didn't have to do 5 a day, she could stop whenever she wanted, after 4 or 3 or none if she felt like it, and just enjoy the boat ride.

Where did we lose empathy as dive instructors? Why didn't we learn that some folks can be pushed, some coddled, some at their own pace and some in a classroom setting? Why does it have to be the students fault that they forgot to check gauges? They are students. We as instructors are responsible for everything they do, up to and after a card is issued. Gothopscrownhill, I hope you find someone to mentor or ilearn from who has the patience and goodwill to teach you, to help you through a rough patch, and who will help you to have the confidence to stick with it. I love to dive. It ranks right up there with eating and sex. I'm just as happy in the water as I am anywhere. I hope someday you can say the same.

very well said. the last few days I have seen so many posts by instructors on FB and elsewhere that show such a complete lack of empathy and respect for their students and divers that it's been a bit discouraging for me.

 

[boulderjohn]

I do not have my moderator hat on at the moment, but I certainly do feel it has gotten way off track.

What do we know about the incident? We know that the visibility was so bad that the instructor decided to call the dive. He gave the thumb to all the other divers, and they gave it back, indicating they understood. They ascended, but somehow in that ascent, a diver disappeared and did not make it to the surface. Why did that diver not make it to the surface, which should have been an absolutely routine experience? I don't know, but the majority of diver fatalities occur as a result of a medical problems--the diver may have had a sudden cardiac arrest on ascent. Who knows?

But the ScubaBoard experts are very quick to decide that if a diver calmly signals an ascent and does not make it to the surface, then, by God, that instructor really, really sucked and the agency that certified must be banned from the face of the Earth.

As for me, I will reserve judgment until I get more information. The rest of you can carry on with your leaps to conclusions.

 

[boulderjohn]

Just as an addendum, we have no evidence that the diver suffered a medical event. I thought I would mention, however, that in a past thread on a similar event, when it was revealed that the diver in question did indeed suffer a heart attack during the dive, the next posts were all about how heart attacks only happen when people go into extreme panic to cause the heart attack, and so all scuba deaths are actually the cause of poor instructors whose students go into heart attack-inducing panics when confronted with the most minor of difficulties. They did not mention it, but I assume they would also conclude that the vast number of people who succumb to heart attacks while sleeping at night would have lived if a scuba instructor had taught them proper sleep techniques.

 

[KevinNM]

We don't know that. The news says that he decided to bring the class to the surface. It doesn't say when he noticed he had one less student that he started with. And news stories on scuba are not exactly noted for their accuracy.

What we know for certain is that he came back for diving with a dead student. It is strongly implied that he had no idea that he had a missing student until the class-1 surfaced. Exactly when he lost track of the student is both unstated and unknown. That he decided to bring the class to the surface due to poor vis might well be an ex-post facto explanation as to how he ended up on the surface without out one of the divers who trusted their lives with him.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Here are the facts as far as I can tell. The student was in her 20's (doesn't rule out medical conditions, but makes it less likely). She became separated when they (the instructor, the victim, and two other students) ascended. Apparently the viz became very bad. This was in the silt zone (as she was found in 40 feet). Once kicked up, that stuff takes hours to settle. Without classes, I would have expected the viz to be 15 to 20 feet. To put things in perspective, viz of 30' is the absolute best we normally get. This isn't Maui where we see the bottom 150 feet below.

 

[wgw04024]

Or like someone else mentioned, go to Bonaire, take a refresher (or a course), and enjoy yourself. I had very 'basic' instruction here in Maine in hindsight. Nearing the end of the course, I was having second thoughts on how good the course was. I only dove once since then in a years time. Luckily, a close friend who I didn't know at the time referred me on this board to another local dive shop. The owner had booked a trip to key west/key largo for a week, and I signed up and also signed up to do the AOW. In that week, I got so much experience and learned so much. I came back a very comfortable diver. Can't say enough how important that week was for me.