Washington doctor and son drown - Cabo, Mexico

[dmaziuk]

It is helpful to new camera people to remind them that there is equipment that they should have so they never chase a camera down.

I would never chase my camera down: it floats.

 

[wgw04024]

I'm not much of a photog, but this is what I use when I have my camera with me. I can't imagine having a camera and not having it tethered. Camera's are definitely a distraction.

 

[JackD342]

I'm not much of a photog, but this is what I use when I have my camera with me. I can't imagine having a camera and not having it tethered. Camera's are definitely a distraction. View attachment 508285

Agreed. Even when I had a bulky housing for a Sony Handycam plus lights, that coil lanyard was my reliable choice.

 

[dmaziuk]

Agreed. Even when I had a bulky housing for a Sony Handycam plus lights, that coil lanyard was my reliable choice.

+2, only mine's a different make and model. Still, my SeaLife also floats.

 

[JohnnyC]

Coil lanyard is the way to go. Although I've taken it apart and replaced all of the actual load-bearing hardware with more appropriate stuff. No suicide clip or key ring on mine. Rated dyneema loop for attachment and stainless bolt snap.

 

[ibj40]

I'm not much of a photog, but this is what I use when I have my camera with me. I can't imagine having a camera and not having it tethered. Camera's are definitely a distraction. View attachment 508285

I have this very lanyard setup on my camera. Very secure.

 

[leadduck]

As a follow up, I just got back from Cabo and was diving with a local diver who was friends with the tec divers who did the body recovery.

The story that is doing the rounds, and I'm repeating this third hand so give it whatever credibility you desire, is that the son dropped his camera on the ascent and then started descending to retrieve it and the father saw and followed him and things went wrong from there.

If it's true, that's sad. I think such things happen more often but are not reported. We had a fatal OOG accident last year here in a lake and nobody understood how it could happen to an experienced tech diver with a lot of redundant gas on a relatively easy dive. A witness later told me, the diver had already surfaced when he noticed that he had lost his US$1200 lamp head, then decided to go back down again to search for it.

 

[Sam Miller III]

@leadduck

"If it's true, that's sad. I think such things happen more often but are not reported. We had a fatal OOG accident last year here in a lake and nobody understood how it could happen to an experienced tech diver with a lot of redundant gas on a relatively easy dive. A witness later told me, the diver had already surfaced when he noticed that he had lost his US$1200 lamp head, then decided to go back down again to search for it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ambition over riding abilities and knowledge

sdm

 

[Scottsfire]

there are many dive operators in cabo. I use Manta now. If not the best they seem one of the best. I get 100cf tanks for my dives from them. Not sure if all operators do but most likely even at gordo banks dive operators give aluminum 80s. And several operators state OW cert is all that is required. fyi Manta did check divers certs when checking in. most operators also let you dive air or nitrox depending on your budget at gordo banks.

quick link to a different dive operator that lost 3 divers and 2 guides and the group had to swim 15 hours back to shore. Ill never use that dive operator

oh and as I mentioned before ...caveat I have not dove gordo banks and may probably never. Id rather do Cabo Pulmo even though its farther away. Cousteau I believe called Cabo Pulmo the oceans aquarium.

Divers missing off Gordo Banks

Wow the guide who got those folks back is Rene. He certified me for OW in cabo in 2016. He was with a tiny shop right on the beach, a 1 man operation. Small world. fyi did my AOW in Monterey CA.

second edit. just checked mantas site. they seem to be the only operator that will only allow advanced open water divers with nitrox cert to do gordo banks and only if you dove with them the day before, obviously to see how comfortable you are. They also only do it on Nitrox which is free. And all DMs in the water have dive computers and that is not normal in cabo san lucas. Everything about their gordo banks section states many times safety first. Very different than other operators.

I dive Cabo a lot and have gone with 3 different shops. The last shop I dove with is Manta and we have used them the last 3 times because the other shops seemed sketchy and had poor service. Manta seems to be very safety oriented and educates the guest to dangers and things to look out for. The one thing I have noticed is the shops in Cabo seemed to have different DM every 3-6 months. At Manta I request Andreas, Jerson or Chewy and they have been there the last 12 months.

 

[Scottsfire]

I've dove Gordo Banks three times now, twice with Manta, and once with Dive Cabo, and they both had their positives and negatives. Both shops insist on at least AOW, and a day's dive with them prior to test your skill. It can be an outstanding dive, and I'll happily go back there when I next get the chance, but there's a lot that can go wrong and it's not a dive to be taken lightly. It's deep, it's way out in the blue without any reference point until you get to the bottom, and the current can be very strong, on my first trip we were strung out horizontally as we went down the line. It's also a >45 minute uncomfortable boat ride back to San Jose if DCS hits.

I felt both shops were 'safe' but I preferred Manta over Dive Cabo.

Manta takes smaller groups, and the dive guide leads the group closely. They drop anchor and you descend down the line to the bottom and then leave the line to explore the seamount and then come back up the line. They put you on a 27/28% nitrox mix which has a good bottom time, and also lessens narcosis (at least I felt it did). There's also the option to rent a AL100 (which I did), although the default is an AL80, but you've got to figure the more air you have, the more likely someone's going to accidentally go into deco. The downside to Manta is they don't stage bottles below the boat, so if you're in deco you're stuck with what you carry.

Dive Cabo takes larger groups and it felt more chaotic below. Everyone was doing their own 'thing' and there were 2 or 3 dive guides trying to watch out for 10-15 divers who were not staying close together or even at the same depth. DC only dives on air in AL80s, although again you can rent an AL100, which cuts your bottom time down even more. TBH I remember very little about either dive with them. I was a little narced on the first dive, but the second was well and truly out of it to the point where I couldn't read my dials, but there was probably some CO2 narcosis there too from the exertion of swimming to try to stay together as a group. They don't drop anchor, instead everyone goes out from the boat and descends in the open. This isn't great if the current's strong and makes it hard to stay as a cohesive group. However they do stage bottles below the boat, so you can hang and decompress if you need to, and sure enough there were 3 or 4 people who incurred ~10 minute deco obligations. They had a really short surface interval between the dives (31 minutes) which was pretty problematic and cut the bottom time down even more.

That said, my first trip out there with manta was not great. There are two seamounts, one at ~125 and one at ~185ft, and they can only be found with a GPS co-ordinate. Not sure exactly how it happened, but we moored on the wrong one, and started on down the line in a strong current into the blue. I started getting anxious at ~120ft when I still couldn't see the bottom, and at ~160 I could just about make out the bottom and I was VERY unhappy, I left the line at ~167ft (and a PPO2 of 1.63), signalled I was aborting and went back up to the top. I was the only non-tech diver on the boat that day and had the least experience at that depth, so I guess it wasn't really a big deal, but still it was a salutatory experience. I bought a pony on my return home, and now won't do a dive <100ft without it. My second trip last year with them however was truly outstanding, one of my top 3 dives ever. Vis was amazing, and a couple of minutes into the dive a whale shark came to play with us for ~5 minutes:


we surfaced with a school of >100 scalloped hammerheads beneath us. The dive guide and the boat captain were both two of the most professional people I'd ever had the pleasure of diving with, and the captain dropped anchor about 10ft from the summit of the seamount.

Has anyone heard which dive shop was involved in this tragic event?

Yep I'm a fan of Manta too. Becky in the office vets divers well and no matter how many times I dove with them she always checks my dive credentials and I get the safety briefings each time as if its my first time diving and they know me by name. I dove with the others.... but when it became time for my daughter (age 12) to get her OW I picked the best shop for in my opinion for safety and it was Manta. Great video by the way!