Scuba Death at Monterey

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ishmaelcat

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Location
Santa Barbara
# of dives
500 - 999
Scuba Diver Died Sunday in Monterey
Info from CA Accident & Injury Blog:

AUGUST 4, 2009 - A 49-year-old man died after swimming to the surface and pleading for help off McAbee Beach on Cannery Row, authorities said. Alec Piplani of San Jose was scuba diving when he surfaced about 11:30 a.m. and yelled for help, witnesses said. Not long afterward, he stopped breathing, according to the Monterey County coroner’s office. Piplani was treated at the scene by bystanders and rescue crews, then taken by ambulance to Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, where he died. Piplani had not been diving in about three years and had no known medical conditions, associates said. An autopsy is pending


My sister and her family were kayaking in the bay and saw folks performing CPR on this diver. Lots of people were still in the water diving.

Does anyone know what happened here? Was an uncontrolled ascent involved at some stage of the incident? (I ask this because a couple of descriptions said the injured diver "popped up" to the surface)
 
Does anyone know what happened here? Was an uncontrolled ascent involved at some stage of the incident? (I ask this because a couple of descriptions said the injured diver "popped up" to the surface)

From someone already at the surface, a diving coming to the surface, no matter what the ascent was really like, will appear to "pop" out of the water. I will not totally discount that it may have been an uncontrolled ascent, but I do not believe that a surface witness would be able to tell one way or another what the ascent rate was.

With just the bare details in the account posted, I don't think anyone can really say anything definitive as to what exactly did happen.
 
An interesting absence from any of the reports is any mention of a buddy.
 
Just diving there in that exact area this last weekend. We were right between MacAbee and Cannery Row. That area was swarming with brown jellyfish for both days we were there (Sat & Sun). Thousands of them. I've never seen anything like it before and I've been diving Monterey since 2001. They were mostly shallow to about 20 feet and manageable for a quick descent and much fewer in numbers on the bottom, but doing a safety stop was nearly impossible. It was like swimming in jellyfish soup. Since my dive was only to 50 feet, I aborted the safety stop after one minute. My bf and I were diving from my inflatable. If this guy was diving from shore, he may have traveled some distance before he ran into them. Water was 52 degrees, so divers are covered from head-to-toe. Only the face area below the mask is exposed. Even at that, these were good-sized jellies of at least 5-inches up to 24-inches across and I had a hard time keeping them off my face, that's why I gave up on the safety stop. I did not feel any stinging underwater, so I wasn't too worried. However, I felt a minor tingling burning sensation on the surface that dissipated after about 30 minutes. If he ran into these, and has not dove for a while, the combination of cold water and the thick mass of these jellies could cause a lot of stress. Viz was 15 to 20 feet on the bottom and worse the shallower you get and could be hard to see all the jellies coming at you.

There was one diver diving from a Kayak about 30 feet from us, but he quickly came up and aborted his dive and moved off. My bf and I stayed and did the dive because we wanted to photograph the jellyfish. It was really a rare opportunity and I did get some gorgeous shots.

Guys at Aquarius dive shop on the Breakwater said some of the people claimed a bigger reaction to the jellies and were asking for sting medicine, but they seemed to think that it was more mental than anything.

I am so sorry for the loss of this man. We heard the ambulance sirens and prayed that it wasn't a diver. We were headed out to Lover's Point in my inflatable at about that time. I would just feel horrible to think we may have drove right by him. However, there were no inflatable dive boats or kayaks in that area at the time and I remember seeing the mass of jellyfish still in the water off MacAbee. That's why we decided to keep going headed-out to Lover's Point for our Sunday diving.
 
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The Sea Nettles cause a nasty reaction in SOME people. I had a friend
diving off my boat get stung on the lip, and it puffed up real good. His
wife said he looked like one of the African tribe that puts the hocky puck
disk in their lip.

You can wrangle the Sea Nettles. If one is head at you, tap the edge of
their bell, and they will turn away from where you tapped.

The Sea Nettles also tend to be somewhat stratified. Move your stops up
or down a bit. They don't have to be at EXACTLY 15' 0".

I've had a private e-mail from someone who was there that said the victim
was quite heavy. That's a common thread in Monterey dive accidents.

You can tell there's been a very rapid ascent when they come out of the
water far enough to see their weight belt. I've seen that once, fortunately
it was very early in the diver's dive, and he vented well, so no injury.
But it was impressive.
 
Hm. Some correlation between Monterey, accidents and a diver's weight?
 
Chuck, was the implication heavy (as in overweight and out of shape) or, heavy (as in excessive lead)?


All the best, James
 
Chuck - the jellies were really thick on Saturday it was like swimming in jellyfish soup between 25 feet all the way up to about 5 feet. We saw even more jellies on the surface on Sunday that's why we kept going to Lover's Point. Problem was seeing the ones that were just above your head. I was gently pushing the water towards the ones in front of me to them to keep them away, then I would see tentacles move past my mask from one above my head. And you don't want to look up. I've never witnessed anything like it.

We were pulling out of the Breakwater when we heard the sirens, so not sure if rescuers had gotten him out of the water when we passed MacAbee, but I'm assuming so. We didn't notice any activity on the beach, but not sure where they took him out. I have just a 15-horse motor on my inflatable, so it takes quite a while to get to Lover's Point (we were at the far end) and we were pretty leisurely getting into the water. My dive computer said I hit the water at 12:20 pm.

I think Chuck probably means overweighted as in lead. It takes a lot of weight to sink a 7-mil suit and many divers will overweight themselves to get down. But then once you are down, you can be quite heavy. Finding the right balance of weight to sink and not be overweighted on the bottom is much trickier in cold water. If you are a warm water diver who rarely puts air in your BC when on the bottom, this is something you have to learn in cold water. If you start diving a dive a dry suit, you feel like a beginner all over again, no matter how much experience you have in a wet suit. I dive 12 pounds in warm water and I dive 24 pounds in a dry suit in cold water. I usually have to kick down a couple of kicks in cold water to get going, but I don't want to put on more weight just to sink at the beginning of the dive. I am able to hold the safety stop with no problem with the weight I have. And for me, that is the key. Chuck, do you know what kind of suit he was diving?
 
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Problem was seeing the ones that were just above your head. I was gently pushing the water towards the ones in front of me to them to keep them away, then I would see tentacles move past my mask from one above my head. And you don't want to look up. I've never witnessed anything like it.

Hmmm... I can see a new invention for such situations... a hood that is cone shaped and has a broad rim to deflect the jellies well away from your face as you ascend through them.

Is their presence a fairly regular thing up there or just very sporadic? That is a serious question.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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