Father And Son Loss

[Scuba_Steve]

Pardon my ignorance, but I don't know anything about those issues. I guess they are relevant even in rec diving if we are using a reel and line for wreck penetration. Care to explain a little?

Don't sweat it too much, as any reel or spool you're going to come across in the dive shop won't come with poly-pro

Any cavern or wreck class should get you that much info at least.

Just remember all line is evil and to treat it with respect...

Regards

 

[Mr.X]

Here's the article from Aquacorp regarding the dual tragedy. This incident sticks in my mind pretty hard as I met the father a year before this tragedy.

Many lessons to be learned here as with the Rouse's. X



Moody, Southern California – Incident reports from Aquacorp Oct/Nov 95

A non-techincal diving trained father and his 14-year old son ran out of gas and drowned while trying to free the anchor on a wreck dive on air to the Moody at 130-140 f/40-43 m. A third diver ran out of gas, survived unconscious, and was revived. Two other divers on the trip were bent after they shortened their decompression.

The anchor line snagged following the first dive on the wreck, and the five individuals on the boat decided to dive the Moody a second time instead of cutting the line and going to dive a another, shallower wreck. The father, who organized and led the trip, partnered up with a second diver and decided to include his 14-year old son, who had not dived that day. The father wore a dry suit and twin steel 72s with a single outlet manifold (no first stage redundancy) that were not overpressurized. The second dry suit diver wore doubles and carried a pony. The son wore a wetsuit and carried and aluminum 80 cf tank. Reportedly, the team carried no decompression gas. Visibility was said to be about 50-60 f/15-18 m., water temperature on the bottom was about 50 –55 F, and there was a strong surface current that necessitated running a leader line from the stern to the anchor line to assist the divers’ descent. A second team of two divers followed the three down.

After descending and working to free the anchor line, the father’s partner surfaced 8-9 minutes into the dive and told the captain they needed more slack to free the line. He then went back down to the bottom. Upon his return, the father indicated he was low on air and headed up the anchor line. The second team of divers also ascended. The son and the partner remained.

About 12-15 minutes into the dive, the son indicated he was out of air. The partner gave him a second stage and the two started up. During their ascent, the partner ran out of air, switched to his pony, and tried to drag the son, now presumably drowned, up the line. The partner then ran out of air in his pony. In the process, he apparently dropped his weight belt before ascending unconscious to the surface. The son’s body, being negatively buoyant drifted back down. It is believed that the father either witnessed this event from the anchor line or saw the partner ascend alone, and went back down to save his son. The father and son were found together on the bottom.

 

[eelpout]

If I recall correctly, they left their deco bottle outside the wreck and when they got back to the area where they were supposed to be, they were gone. I am not a 100% sure because I read the book a while ago. My wife purchased the book from Bernie at the Dema show and proceeded to read it when she was done. I also recall that Shadow Divers has a picture of the deco bottles that were missed by the Rouse's in their picture pages.

Their decision to try to save money and not dive with Trimix is usually reason that people give for their accident. I require my Tech students to read the book, it is an eye opener and is a good book to have discussions about.

Jim

 

[jim T.]

hunterb4, Just curious...at 78 are you still diving?

If you haven't seen it already, in Kurson's "Shadow Divers" paperback edition, on the next to last photo insert page, there is a picture of the son's line, tangled from his paniced struggle. It looks like it was so "cats cradled" that even if the divers hadn't been narced and paniced it would've taken a l-o-n-g time to cut and sort out the remainder of the line.

There are somewhat contrary accounts of this incident in "The Last Dive" and "Shadow Divers".
I read "Last Dive" about a year ago and from what I remember narcosis and diving on air caused the father and son to exit from a different place than they had entered the sub (possibly on the opposite side) and then they swam the wrong way. (bottles near the stern and they swam towards the bow or vice versa). I seem to remember that they passed divers on the decompression/anchor line without asking for assistance on their way up in at least one of those books.

The son was extremely paniced and narced after being trapped and struggling against "monsters" under a fallen cabinet in zero viz/silting for "some time". The father went in to get him before they headed out the wrong exit point and swam in the wrong direction.

It seemed that the father thought he knew the way out so he didn't use the line at all, contrary to his cave training or it was too tangled to figure out in the low viz.
Hope that helps...

 

[H2Andy]

has anyone the specifics as to why the son's line into where he was trapped was not useable for both father and son to follow back out to where they left their backup tanks.

first, i must say i love your book. very well done. i recommend it to everyone.

apparently, the cave line was found strung all around the sub compartment,
and parts of it were burried.

the line then leads out of the sub a different way than the way they entered.
thus they exited with the line still in their possession.

a likely explanation is that they tried to follow the line back, but due to the
debris and confusion with the line, they had trouble following the line.

or perhaps they simply saw an easier exit and took it, thinking they
could re-orient themselves once outside and find their stage bottles.

no one will really ever know.

 

[DiveNav]

hunterb4,
I just bought your book.

If I like it I will buy also the others.

AM

 

[Seuss]

In the process, he apparently dropped his weight belt before ascending unconscious to the surface.

Reminds me of something my instructor used to say... "Never let them find you dead with your weights on."

 

[siebharinn]

The son’s body, being negatively buoyant drifted back down. It is believed that the father either witnessed this event from the anchor line or saw the partner ascend alone, and went back down to save his son. The father and son were found together on the bottom.

As a parent, I can understand the situation, but that's a case of one victim turning into two. When the father tried to perform a rescue when he was already out of gas, he just made a bad situation worse. I'd like to think I would do things differently, but if it was my daughter drifting down like that, I would probably go after her.

Although, if my daughter was ever in a position where she had waited to ascend from 130' until she was out of air, I would club her with a lead pipe and never dive with her again. That's a pointless way to die.

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

I'm reading The Last Dive right now, and it's a gripping story... I've got Shadow Divers on order from Amazon.com

 

[jim T.]

Shadow Divers is an incredible book. I just hope that Ridley Scott does it justice in next year's movie version. The way that Robert Kurson weaves the main "characters" early years, exciting deep dive experiences, N.E. Diving history, WWII history and the pervading theme of honor, ethics/"doing the right thing" together throughout the book is a masterful writing job.

I had a hard time putting down either book.
I'm currently reading: "Dark Descent" about the "Empress of Ireland" sinking and dives. Also well done.