Wife describes losing husband - Maui, Hawaii

[Esprise Me]

I don't want to pile on, but reading the (poorly written) report, she states that the DM pointing out the shark distracted them from buddying up.... But earlier in the report, she apparently left her husband as he had trouble descending, and waited for him below with the group. So really, they had already neglected to properly buddy up. And really, there is going to be a lot of sights during a dive. It's up to divers to maintain buddy contact despite all the distractions.

Also, I don't think a dive op is responsible for reminding folks about narcosis.

I suppose if I lost a loved one, I might try to cast about for blame. But I don't really see anything wrong about the dive op, except maybe the pulling of the "rip cord" for her, and who knows what that's accurately conveyed.

That struck me too. I've never heard of buddying up once underwater; if two people need to descend more slowly than the rest of the group, either they should be each other's buddies, or their buddies should wait for them. If that's accurately reported, it seems like failing on the part of the couple/buddies in question, but also the dive op for encouraging it.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

That struck me too. I've never heard of buddying up once underwater; if two people need to descend more slowly than the rest of the group, either they should be each other's buddies, or their buddies should wait for them. If that's accurately reported, it seems like failing on the part of the couple/buddies in question, but also the dive op for encouraging it.

My experience is that group diving is common. I took a pony with me to Maui (I actually shipped it and had it filled waiting for me).

 

[DandyDon]

That struck me too. I've never heard of buddying up once underwater; if two people need to descend more slowly than the rest of the group, either they should be each other's buddies, or their buddies should wait for them. If that's accurately reported, it seems like failing on the part of the couple/buddies in question, but also the dive op for encouraging it.

I think we can discount many of the odd terms & descriptions to journalism these days.

 

[Marie13]

That article is a hot mess. Hard to tell what happened.

 

[Diver below 83]

The Dramamine news is a little worrisome for myself. I’m still struggling on boat dives when the seas are less than ideal so I’ve been using Dramamine. Deepest dive so far was my last at 79ft. Felt fine the entire time but still a little scary to hear. Anything else worth trying?

 

[EFX]

Molokini Back Wall is a vertical wall down to about 300 feet. Dives are generally somewhere around 90-70 feet.

I've done this dive twice with Scuba Shack and both times there was no current. I do remember it being 300 ft to the bottom. The section we dove was not a steep vertical wall but a steeply sloping one. I would say if you were close to the wall and swam out from the wall 10 ft you would have to drop maybe 40 ft to get close to the wall again. So, it wouldn't take much of a swim out away from the group while descending to reach the wall to find yourself well beyond 60 ft.

 

[aviator8]

scopolamine is supposed to be really effective but I don't know if it has any potential to make a person more susceptible to narcosis.

 

[NothingClever]

She's an attorney. She's probably just tuning up for a lawsuit. Other aspects of her narrative imply blame or carelessness on the part of the dive op.

Well said. The article reeks of opportunistic legal wrangling that will be costly for the dive op to defend against.

 

[NothingClever]

Misread something...post deleted.

 

[Lostdiver71]

It sounds like the Instructor inflated her BCD to get her to the surface quickly, due to there probably not being enough gas between the three of them to get everyone to the surface safely, better a bent diver on the surface than a dead diver at depth after running out of air!