Yet another scuba death at Tioman (Black Pearl)

[Zippsy]

From what I have heard on local forums, a young male Malaysian diver was doing his third dive of the day from the Black Pearl (Mentari Scuba) LOB on Friday, 4 October. He was a fairly new diver with little experience. The victim was slightly built and apparently chilled easily. At the time of the dive, he may also have been sick and on medications. He had a shorty wetsuit and was seen shivering during the two hour surface interval before the dive. Water temperatures were a normal 28C (84.5F).

The dive site had poor visibility and moderate currents. He became separated from his buddy. When the buddy and other divers surfaced, they could not see the victim so a search was conducted and authorities called. The diver was only found the following day, close to the original site. He was fully geared except for his mask. There was 130bar in his tank and he was found in a self-hug position.

Sorry, I know there are lots of questions that this third or fourth hand account brings up but at the moment, this is the best that I can do about specifics of the accident. As is usual at least around here, the people that have the most information keep quiet.

 

[CarcharodonCarcharias]

From what I have heard on local forums, a young male Malaysian diver was doing his third dive of the day from the Black Pearl (Mentari Scuba) LOB on Friday, 4 October. He was a fairly new diver with little experience. The victim was slightly built and apparently chilled easily. At the time of the dive, he may also have been sick and on medications. He had a shorty wetsuit and was seen shivering during the two hour surface interval before the dive. Water temperatures were a normal 28C (84.5F).

The dive site had poor visibility and moderate currents. He became separated from his buddy. When the buddy and other divers surfaced, they could not see the victim so a search was conducted and authorities called. The diver was only found the following day, close to the original site. He was fully geared except for his mask. There was 130bar in his tank and he was found in a self-hug position.

Sorry, I know there are lots of questions that this third or fourth hand account brings up but at the moment, this is the best that I can do about specifics of the accident. As is usual at least around here, the people that have the most information keep quiet.

That is a lot more information offered than in the local forum.

Tioman has been quite eventful the past few months to say the least.

 

[Zippsy]

"Local" Malaysian forums rather than the Singapore one.

 

[CarcharodonCarcharias]

"Local" Malaysian forums rather than the Singapore one.

LOL. Got it.

Is it just me or this year has been a bit more rough than previous years?

 

[Zippsy]

I think that's 5 this year around Tioman. Very sad.

 

[CarcharodonCarcharias]

I think that's 5 this year around Tioman. Very sad.

Yeah. Seriously, is quite somber to hear about all these events.

 

[8u88les]

singaporeans should be banned from diving! they go to tioman to dive because there's no where in singapore to dive, they make up a minority of divers in tioman but account for all of the accidents. Pulau Aur has been destroyed by coral kicking singaporean divers. when i read recently that divers will have to pay rm200 to dive there from now on i was very pleased that the sealife will get a chance to recover. i think singaporeans should be charged rm200 a day to dive tioman as well since they also contribute more than their share to its destruction and also give it a bad name due to their lack of any aquatic ability. if singaporeans must leave the city and take a break from starring at their phones, go to indonesia!

 

[Goodtime Adventures]

Whoa there 8u88les, I don't think its fair to put all of the blame onto just one country of origin. There are several bad divers from lots of different countries. Shouldn't the onus be on the instructors training them to make them better and more competent, not to suggest they're not cut out for diving at all?! Its really an issue of causality, bad divers in general are really just the effect of bad training.

It's sad that Tioman is getting such a bad name for itself. One of our instructors was there personally earlier in the year and was appalled by the safety standards - unregistered, uninsured dive boats boats, unlicensed captains, lack of O2 and safety equipment etc. Perhaps if these issues were resolved and some better instructors were brought in to oversee training, the safety of Tioman would improve. Just to make it clear I'm sure not all the dive centres there are bad though, but as with most things it only takes a small minority to spoil it for everyone else. Sad times for Tioman.

 

[8u88les]

not all, but most of these accidents on tioman are singaporeans whom are trained in mass quantity in a swimming pool in singapore by singaporean instructors, then brought out to tioman in groups by their singaporean dive shop/instructors, often on their own liveaboards from singapore.poorly trained and not familiar with the dive conditions (singaporean instructors and dm's included)!

 

[Phil_C]

Do we know what surface (temp) conditions were like? - 28 c as the water temperature should mean that chilling, with even moderate exposure protection should be minimal and not too much for a reasonably fit person to contend with.

The other warning flags for me are firstly that the tank still had 130 bar in it - a 'warm' fill on a tank probably didn't run to much more then 200 bar to start with so there was barely ⅓ of the air used and plenty to surface safely, even without a mask, from recreational depths. How deep is this site? Secondly what medications was he on, and do they contra-indicate diving?

Obviously this wasn't an OOA situation, so either there was a problem with tainted tank air, or some form of medical issue or panic leading to the diver losing mask and regulator whilst thrashing around.

Whatever it is a sad situation, especially if it is happening on a regular basis. - Phil