Woman critical after West Van scuba diving accident - Canada

[John C. Ratliff]

funrecdiver,

Many of us are envious. It looked like this when I was diving tropical waters around Okinawa (now the Ryuku Islands, Japan).

A diver can dive neutrally buoyant in cold waters with a wet suit, but that part about not having any air in the BCD would have to be exempted.

In the US Navy, we used "buddy lines." These were a line about 3 feet long which each diver held, to keep in contact. My buddy and I were using a buddy line during an open ocean dive off Otter Crest, Oregon in December, in the 1970s. That was the one thing we did right on that dive. We looked over the ocean, and thought that 3-5 foot breakers were manageable. We watched for about half an hour, then decided to dive. The other thing we did right was to have our girl friends watching us. Here is what we looked like as we were swimming out:

And here is what we looked like about fifteen minutes later when we had been rolled by a huge wave (15-20 feet).

I'm without a mask, my buddy is without his helmet and mask. After waiting for a while for us to come in (we could not exit where we entered because of the surf), our girl friends called the Coast Guard. I still had my white-water kayaker's helmet on, and that is what the Coast Guardsmen saw when they were looking at dusk for us. They were really happy; we were their first live pickup in quite a while. We, obviously, were happy also.

Take-aways:
1. When the worst happens, remain calm and think it through.
2. A four-foot buddy line kept us together even while being rolled by a huge breaker.
3. Be prepared to stay out a while (we were thinking we'd be in the water overnight).
4. Be able to signal for help. We couldn't--the helmet had white stripes on it, and that's what they saw.
5. Let someone know when you are going, where, and when you will be back.

What does this have to do with the present accident? Well, one wonders whether a buddy line would have helped, or whether there would have been two people down at 45 feet.

SeaRat

 

[DCBC]

I can't say that I'm a fan of being negatively buoyant on the surface. Worried about boat traffic? I can't say that I've ever been worried about this to any degree. If the area had such a high volume of boats, I'd be either diving off a boat myself, or diving elsewhere. That said, as a Navy and Commercial Diver I've done quite a bit of work in Halifax and Vancouver harbours without worry of getting hit by a boat.

It seems to me that since the invention of the BC, that divers are routinely overweighted. The air parachute seems to be accepted fare. Certainly it's not difficult to maintain excellent buoyancy at any depth using the technology available (with a little practice). But I suppose that many accidents don't happen when everything is working correctly.

I agree that we can't speak directly about this incident (we just don't have the information at this point), but we can discuss similar problems which have occured. I fear that these problems repeat themselves more often than we care to acknowledge.

When a diver goes out of air at depth and finds themselves sinking, what are they taught to do(failing having a redundant air-source)? It's easy to say that they can easily get help from a buddy, but if we examine the situation more closely, we can better understand the complications that may arise:

- Where's the Buddy? It seems the art of being within "touching distance" isn't observed by many divers, at all times.

- Several divers that I've assisted OOA have been too deep. They didn't have a handle of their gas consumption during the dive planning process and didn't appreciate the dynamics involved. These divers have included instructors who should have known better. People have the knowledge, but they often can't transfer this to practice.

- Depth on air means narcosis. Perhaps this is one of the leading reasons for diver inattentiveness.

- Depth on Nitrox may mean OxTox.

- How about Buddy attentiveness and reaction time at depth?

- Has the Buddy been trained to recover an underwater victim (not all agencies make this a requirement for OW certification; which I see as short-sighted)?

- How often is the weight-belt the last piece of equipment put on? How often is ditching the weight device practiced? Is the Buddy familiar with your weight system?

I know what is suppose to be taught, but perhaps accidents such as this are a wake-up call to our complacency. It can happen to you.

 

[TheWetRookie]

Before we get all wound up on dumping weights at the surface . . . does anybody know if this diver ever MADE it to the surface? There is nothing in the news report or in this thread to say that. If they were still on ascent when she gave up the reg and sank, then no one would have attempted to remove weights yet.

.

From what I was told, no the diver did not make it to the surface while air sharing.

 

[funrecdiver]

When air sharing, shouldn't the two people's arms be locked together as taught consistently in dive courses?

 

[DandyDon]

When air sharing, shouldn't the two people's arms be locked together as taught consistently in dive courses?

It is? I honestly don't remember. When I have donated, I have grabbed the recipients' BCs firmly. The one time I received, I was on a 15 ft Deco stop and might have held onto the donor somehow; don't remember, but I was a short swim to surface.

I saw my newbie friend who'd been receiving from my pony the last few days take receipt of his other friend's alternate reg once years ago, neither of them holding, then his friend took off and jerked the reg out of him mouth. The DM rescued him as I was too busy laughing, which was wrong of me; he still doesn't pay attention to details so I watch him closely and the other bud hires a private DM now after a foot amputation.

Anyway, securely holding the recipient would have helped I am sure, while managing her buoyancy - the preferred approach certainly.

 

[joolz]

We've heard (unofficially) that the diver may have panicked, and this would have been a much bigger contributing factor than just running out of air. All OW students learn how to do AAS ascents, and all OW students are taught to maintain buddy contact throughout. This, however, assumes that both divers are in full control of their faculties and the recipient isn't hyperventilating, rejecting the donor's help and struggling to get away.

I can definitely see how easy it would be to lose contact if the donor felt his/her safety was being compromised, since this is the first thing rescue divers learn when approaching panicked divers on the surface. In a rescue class, students learn how to deal with mild panic underwater, but this isn't easy to simulate in a realistic way since I could potentially kill myself and/or the student if I spat out my reg and went into full-on panic mode. Moreover, during rescue classes we're in a position to stop the scenario before anybody's in any real danger. As much as some instructors on here take every opportunity to slag PADI for leaving rescue skills until a later module, responding to both panic and OOA requires judgment and experience that few new divers would have. I'd like to think that I've got enough experience with air sharing and (to a lesser extent) panic that I could figure out a way to control a panicked OOA diver, but I know it wouldn't be easy -- I'd have to find a way to get behind them while keeping my octo in their mouth. And possibly without a mask if the panicked diver knocked it off.

As for the weighting question, there's nothing to indicate that the OOA diver was grossly overweighted. She wasn't a brand new diver as others have suggested, although we don't know what her local diving experience level is. And while it's easy to say she or her buddy should have ditched her weights, this is 20/20 hindsight -- during an OOA emergency, the first thought is providing an air source, not establishing positive buoyancy. If panic was a factor, she wouldn't have been thinking about her weights and her buddy may not have had a chance to ditch them before they lost contact.

 

[DCBC]

...As much as some instructors on here take every opportunity to slag PADI for leaving rescue skills until a later module...

If you don't require students to deal with an underwater rescue in an OW program, it's no surprise that when a diver is faced with an underwater emergency that they don't respond. This applies to any diver without this skill-set. PADI just happens to be the only agency that I'm aware of, that doesn't see fit to teach this skill at the OW stage, or have the standards been changed?

...And while it's easy to say she or her buddy should have ditched her weights, this is 20/20 hindsight -- during an OOA emergency, the first thought is providing an air source, not establishing positive buoyancy.

Not hindsight at all. If your buddy is negatively buoyant in an emergency, positive buoyancy must be established. Obviously if the diver refuses an air-source, or panics, positive buoyancy is the next step.

Its been my experience that once a person has air and is positively buoyant that panic quickly disipates. Again, we can't comment on this particular situation until we have the facts, nor do we know the training agency involved in this diver's certification.

 

[InTheDrink]

I can't say that I'm a fan of being negatively buoyant on the surface. Worried about boat traffic? I can't say that I've ever been worried about this to any degree

Really? I view boat traffic, jet skis etc. as a real, very real hazard. You've loads more experience than I - so what am I missing? Why don't you factor them?

J

 

[boulderjohn]

I would say the same about underwater rescue. Only one agency doesn't make this a requirement for OW certification. I believe that this can be a fatal mistake. .

- Has the Buddy been trained to recover an underwater victim (not all agencies make this a requirement for OW certification; which I see as short-sighted)?

PADI just happens to be the only agency that I'm aware of, that doesn't see fit to teach this skill at the OW stage,.

Well, let's remedy your awareness level.

Since this has become the dominate point of all your posts in the last few months, I thought I would check it out. I sent messages to seven agencies asking for their standards in this area. So far I have only gotten replies from four of them. Of those four, only NAUI includes underwater recovery of the unconscious diver under water. I am guessing that CMAS must also, since you represent them. ( did not attempt to contact them for this reason.)

I do not expect replies from the other agencies I attempted to contact. I have written them in the past with questions and never received a reply.

So we know that 2 agencies include this skill in OW class, and at least 4 do not.

So, now that you know better, maybe you can amend your crusade.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Really? I view boat traffic, jet skis etc. as a real, very real hazard. You've loads more experience than I - so what am I missing? Why don't you factor them?

J

Just a WAG, but probably because where he lives there aren't that many boats ... and those who pilot them don't last long if they don't know what the heck they're doing.

We all see things through the prism of the environment we dive in ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)