San Carlos Beach/Breakwater Cove, Monterey, CA

[jamirocake]

Accident at a popular spot with beginners and OW classes. Saw the incident and called 911 I but don't know the details. I only post this for two reasons: one would really like to find out the woman was able to be resuscitated, the newspaper note is not updated; two, I would like to learn what happened and to learn from this episode.

Monterey diver taken to hospital

 

[HenryG]

I saw this happen as well and would like to know the same information. From what I heard, of course not the most reliable source, it was a training dive and she was in about 20', so to me, that appears to be an OW training dive. Saw a lot of CPR, but not much AED shock. Hope it went well for her, looked like her dive buddy was really broken up.
But, I do have a question, with so many divers there (looked to be about 60 when the incident happened) why is there no sort of life guard with a jet ski on scene? From when the group surfaced blowing whistles and the good samaritan kayakers were able to get to her and started paddling in it seemed that an awful lot of time went by.

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

why is there no sort of life guard with a jet ski on scene?

Certainly not trying to be a smarty pants - but it costs money to have support from lifeguards, EMTs and helicopters as needed. How much money should we spend on covering the coastline with onsite support and who is going to pay for that convenience?

 

[jamirocake]

I think the key here is capacity. Just like building codes dictate that if a building will house more than an specific number of people special safety measures (yes, sometimes expensive) must be installed. Likewise, if a dive spot is going to have more than a critical number of people, extra safety measures are a reasonable request. Nobody is suggesting that every inch of coast be covered, but how about hot spots in high season?
To take the other side side though, We don't know if that applies in this specific case; if it would have made a difference here. But overall, statistically, it would make sense to at least analyze the economics of the idea (the government does loose money when people die early since they won't be a source of taxes or consumption anymore)


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[eelnoraa]

I think incident like this is kind of rare on break water. Having a jet ski zooming in and out potential cost more problems or injuries.

Hope everything work out for the diver.

 

[jamirocake]

It's just an awfully sad and unnerving thing to see. Specially right before one steps into the very same water.

 

[glock34girl]

When I went there for my OW training I was observing classes going in and was wondering why they were so large. I counted 16 divers with one instructor in one class. I'm not suggesting that this is what happened to this woman but it is something I have always noticed out there.

 

[KevinNM]

16 to 1? No DMs or AIs? The most I ever see around here during OW is 4:1.

 

[eelnoraa]

Well, not sure I can speak for all dive shops. Those that I am familiar with, they usually do less than 4:1 ratio. One instructor for sure, there must be DM or assistant instructor in the group. A lot of DM can't afford a drysuit, so they may just look like students. My OW class ad 7 student in the group, there were 1 instructor and 1 DM. My AOW had 6 students, 1 instructor, 2 DMs.

 

[glock34girl]

Well, not sure I can speak for all dive shops. Those that I am familiar with, they usually do less than 4:1 ratio. One instructor for sure, there must be DM or assistant instructor in the group. A lot of DM can't afford a drysuit, so they may just look like students. My OW class ad 7 student in the group, there were 1 instructor and 1 DM. My AOW had 6 students, 1 instructor, 2 DMs.

I was just chatting with my instructor friend about what I had posted about the large groups and as we were chatting I did recall some others there so I probably misspoke. Apologies! However; even with one or two extras.... That just seems like a lot of peeps in the water. Yikes! When we did our checkouts it was four or five I think. My friend did say he was there with his class when this happened and said they worked on her quite a bit. He hadn't heard the final outcome and there wasn't anything in the paper other than a listing of an accident. I think we can all say that we are hoping for the best for her! He did say it wasn't rough conditions and it was about 15 feet for vis where they were diving. I dive there a lot as Iam new to the sport and working on skills so I will be keeping my ears open to try and understand what went wrong. He did mention that people indicated she was separated from her group but he also mentioned that it's all speculation and I agree with that. Whatever the case is she's in my prayers as Iam sure she is in all of yours as well. One thing I've learned about the dive community is the need to learn from all accidents. I hope no one interprets my thiughts as rude or insensitive. I wish her family the best.