Wife describes losing husband - Maui, Hawaii

[greeniguana]

I can't remember ever getting on a charter boat without signing a hold harmless waiver that had a lot of words on it. Narcosis was probably in the fine print.

 

[peeweediver]

Just a quick note on diving on a wall with deep blue water behind you. I'm an instructor who supposedly would never accidentally go to deep.....hah. As I was video taping an amazingly large school of fish in Raja, I thought the fish were going straight and I thought I was going straight. Nope, slight descent and didn't realize it till I was at 105 feet while on nitrox (still ok but getting close to not ok). Spouse/Dive buddy wanted to punch me when I ascended back to her at 80 feet. I worry about inexperienced divers on wall dives with blue water behind them if they turn to follow something into the blue. With respect to boat responsibility and buddy responsibility, maybe a lesson here is to discuss how easy it is to go too deep in blue water while entranced by something out there. You can fit a narcosis chat in there. The fish/shark/eagle ray, etc. isn't on nitrox and descends effortlessly while us humans may not notice. As someone who dives with my wife and have been for 27 years, this scenario of what she experienced has stayed in my mind since reading the posts and makes me very, very sad for her.

 

[laikabear]

It's administered with a patch. Some cut it in half in an attempt to reduce effects, but that actually screws in up.

See Scopolamine Side Effects: Common, Severe, Long Term - Drugs.com

And Scopolamine: Is This Mind-Control Drug the “Most Dangerous” in the World?

I use scopolamine patches when boat diving and cutting them doesn't screw them up IME. The whole patch is good for 3 days, and if I'm going on a 1-day trip, I cut the patches into thirds. It does say on the patch not to cut them, but I haven't had any problems and they don't leak or anything. I find that 1/3 of a patch applied the night before works the whole day for me. I think worst case scenario would be that if you cut it, the patch would lose efficacy, but I haven't found this to be the case.

I store the remaining 2/3 of the patch in the original package and haven't had any problems with using the remainder portions weeks later, either.

I used to use meclizine but found it didn't work as well for me over time and it made me a bit drowsy. The patches usually don't make me drowsy. They do give me really bad dry mouth (a convenient way to know it has "kicked in" before boarding the boat). And, after multiple days in a row, the patch affects my near vision. I can't read my dive computer anymore without stretching my hand away from myself (or the menus at dinner). But, that's a small price to pay for not being seasick. Vision returns to normal when the patch is removed. I really only get that on about day 4 or 5 though.

Just wanted to add this in case it helps anyone. The patches work really well but they are expensive. I was glad when someone told me you actually can cut them.

 

[yle]

My wife and I both did O/W certification in the 1980s (in different countries) and my strong impression is that we spent a lot more time in the classroom, and did a lot more practical drills, compared to typical current O/W courses. A lot of the drills really tested your confidence, like retrieving and donning all of the gear underwater, doing exercises with blacked-out masks, out-of-air drills where the instructors would turn off your air without warning, etcetera. I guess they got rid of those things because it was bad for business.

I think they got rid of these kind of "out of air" drills because they found the risk/reward balance was too skewed in the wrong direction. Some students would respond well, some wouldn't... and those that didn't would then have a problem that was directly caused by the instructor's action.

 

[yle]

The shop I use to dive the Molokini backwall does not require AOW, but it does explicitly require:

Be an Open Water Certified Diver or above
Have been diving within the last year
Have a minimum of 25 lifetime dives
Be comfortable with a maximum depth of 130 feet and rough ocean conditions

That's a pretty low bar. Not much different than the requirements for any open water dive.

 

[aviator8]

deleted

 

[yle]

deleted

 

[aviator8]

Oh, I know... sorry!! DIdn't mean to make it sound like I was responding to you!

I think we all know these were quotes from the wife, sorry for any confusion.

ok cool, Post read like it was me that said that and that I was being admonished. Felt like I needed to clarify.

 

[yle]

ok cool, Post read like it was me that said that and that I was being admonished. Felt like I needed to clarify.

Fixed it. My apologies, I grabbed the quotes from your previous post but I should have removed the reference.

Edit: I fixed my previous post to remove the reference to your post, but the mods deleted it anyway... because they said it referenced your post.

 

[Scraps]

I can't remember ever getting on a charter boat without signing a hold harmless waiver that had a lot of words on it. Narcosis was probably in the fine print.

Just looked at the waiver I'll sign for my dives this weekend. It doesn't mention narcosis specifically in the list of things that can kill me, but it does require me to affirm that, if I am taking any medication, I have checked with a physician and have approval to dive under the influence of that medication.