Fatal Diving accident caught on tape

[Sarah]

Can we learn a lesson from this.

[hbh2oguard]

so sad but that's what happens when you panic. Dump the camera and some weight and you're still alive. I know all the recent deaths in CA while scuba diving was due to lack of knowledge and experience. It's not all that hard just use your mind and you will live.

[SoCalDiveGirl]

[QUOTE=hbh2oguard;1884]so sad but that's what happens when you panic.QUOTE]

Very true.. Wow... nothing like a dose of reality to put things in perspective... That video put knots in my stomach...

[seasnake]

The video is chilling. But what actually happened? Was he descending out of control? Was he on air? Or was the problem that he got entangled on the bottom? I wonder if he lost his reg, or spit it out in panic?

[santelmo]

maybe he got trapped in a down current???

that's it! no more deep and drift dives for you mom, sis and dad! shallow dives and house reefs from now on...

[hbh2oguard]

not too sure what happened but he was at 91m which is pretty darn deep. The picture was too clear at the end but it didn't look like there was anything to get tangled on, and the commentators kept saying it was sand.

[tdvanniekerk]

I am hesitant to comment on a fellow diver's demise, because people in glass houses should not throw stones. So I am commenting here not to criticize but to add to a discussion that will hopefuly help all of us to avoid these kinds of incidents.

On a fast descent like this (mentioned 30m/100ft per minute), your task load is very high and you constantly have to equalize your ears. We often use this technique on deep dives and you don't have a spare hand for cameras or other toys. One hand goes for your nose and the other is on your controls, whether that is depth guage and/or BCD inflator. If you dont equalize on such a fast descent you will pop your ear drums and suffer pain and vertigo.

It often happens that when you get into the water with a lot of toys (camera etc) your BCD inflator hose gets caught behind your head. If you have the habit of deflating the BCD through a different dump valve, you may not realize that the inflator hose is entangled somewhere, until you reach for it to inflate the BCD. Finding that entangled inflator hose while you are dropping like a rock, combined with ears popping, vertigo, panic and narcosis, the outcome is not likely to be good. I could not hear any attempts to inflate his BCD on the video.

Some of the comentators on the video mentions he is descending without his buddy being next to him. If you get caught in a runnaway descent your buddy will not be of any help. In fact you will drop out of sight before your buddy even realizes you have gone missing. Also if your buddy does not have experience and training in deep diving, then he will probably not be able to help you either.

Another comment on the video was that he got entangled in the sand. Sorry but you cant get entangled in sand. The diver was obviously disoriented, in panic, narc'ed and possibly in pain, which would explain why he apparently dropped his regulator and attempted to get away from the situation.

Condolences to the family, and may we all learn from this. Complacency and lack of training has no place underwater.

TD van Niekerk

[lars2923]

You're right, now that I think about it, I don't remember hearing the inflator
going off either. This was, what about 6, almost 7 years ago? Has anyone
been able to find any info to the conclusions of what had happen to
cause this? Was it the plan to bounce? Why didn't/couldn't he stop? etc...

[seasnake]

Yes, it would at least be a help to be able to learn from something like this. I often see with the media that they report on a diver death, but when it comes time to report the conclusions of why it happened the media is bored and has moved on. But the rest of us can only learn if we know what went wrong and analyse how to make sure it doesn't happen to us.

[mismail]

For those of you who did not dive this site, before you enter to the water to start your trip down there, you come across a tomb stone with the names of many divers who lost their lives there. This tombstone has the names of divers from all over the world, seeing this before starting my dive made me have goose bumps and i had fear runing through my self, but i decided to go for it and to respect the rules of the site.
His name was on this tombstone. the key word for this is "OVERCONFIDENCE" and amazingly all those people who passed away in this site, are experienced divers.
Finally, thank you Sarah for bringing this video.