I know this is an old thread and I appoligize to any friends or family if it brings up painful memories. I am fairly new to scuba board and have just came across this story. The only reason I bring this up is because even though it is an old thread, I believe there is still leasons to be learned from it. My wife and I were actually gearing up a few parking spots behind Mr. Martinez when he entered the water. I noticed that he appeared to be going in solo and I remember making a comment to my wife about it. As he left his vehicle he walked down toword the water and placed his fins on maybe 10 feet from the waters edge. He then walked straight toward the water. He was having a very hard time because he was walking forward with his fins on and it was a very rocky area. I made a comment to my wife that he does not look like he is an experianced diver. At that time I would not have called myself an experianced diver either, but none the less he seemed like a fish out of water. I could be wrong but It appeared that he may have been using some vintage equipment. My thoughts were that he just picked them up from a garage sale and decided to try and teach himself scuba diving. Being a rookie myself I guess I didn't feel it was my place to say "Hey, you shouldn't dive without a buddy" OR "Hey, wait a minute and we will buddy up with you" These are the words I have regreted not saying since the minute I seen them taking him to shore and seeing his tank floating. I remember seeing who I guess was his brother waiting by his truck when we entered the water. And I remember thinking about how hard it would be to see them pull a friend or family member from the water.
I guess a few things I have learned is, I don't care if you look like you are a dive master, an instructor, or you have a million dives under your belt, I'm going to Say "Hey, you shouldn't dive without a buddy" OR "Hey, wait a minute and we will buddy up with you" If you want to tell me to bug off then I guess I'll bug off but you still may see me underwater following your ass.
Another thing that I think can be learned is that if you take a few years off from diving...Take a refresher course.. My LDS has them for I think $50.00
If any family or friends of Mr. Martinez is reading this Please forgive me for not being a "buddy" and I Pray this post will remind us to be a good "buddy" even to strangers. I Should have done more.