Youth Drowns During Scuba Class in St. Thomas

[yle]

Did some confined water drills, reg recovery etc. Then, after a 15 minute boat ride to another cove, they basically turned us loose in 30 or 40 feet of water.

Sounds like the standard Caribbean "discover scuba".

 

[reefugee]

Daughters 6 and 9 and wife tapped out after a few minutes. I stayed in the water the entire time, after 30 minutes, I was the last one back on the boat.

Just out of curiosity, was the 6 year old doing scuba diving?

 

[Rollin Bonz]

Just out of curiosity, was the 6 year old doing scuba diving?

Yes.

Did you mean "...what was the 6 year old doing scuba diving?"

If so:

Valid question. It was allowed by whatever "requirements" the provider had. It was offered as a shore excursion on our cruise, sounded like fun, and we didn't know any better at the time. As I said, if I knew then what I know now about the hobby/sport, I would have never allowed it.

It backs up my overall point. That being: A "class" in St. Thomas may not have been a "class" as thought of by experienced divers.

 

[Marie13]

How do things like this happen during classes??

There was a kid who died during a class at a quarry in the Chicago area a while back. IIRC, the kid had asthma and shouldn’t have been diving at all, but the parents didn’t note that on the medical form.