Hollywood FL accident

[DennisS]

It looks like a diver died off our local beach dive spot




By Linda Trischitta (http://bio.tribune.com/LindaTrischitta), Sun Sentinel 6:47 p.m. EDT, August 10, 2011


HOLLYWOOD—
A man who was diving with a group on a private vessel and was found in distress and taken to shore by lifeguards has died, a Hollywood police spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
Detectives are investigating the incident, Lt. Diana Pereira said. The man was stricken near a reef 200 yards off Hollywood beach, offshore from the Marriott hotel at 2501 N. Ocean Dr.



His name is not being released by police pending family notification.
Video: Fugitive Florida siblings caught (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/videobeta/d7feee2c-b711-463a-acf6-d75fea8aa1b9/News/Cops-release-chase-video-of-3-fugitive-siblings?track=ss-mark-promo-news-3-fugative-siblings)

The Hollywood Fire department responded to a 911 call around 2 p.m. after boaters reported that a diver had floated to the surface, Hollywood Fire Rescue Division Chief Mark Steele said. The diver was using a "hookah" dive system comprised of an onboard air compressor and hose.
The diver, estimated to be in his 30s, was at underwater depths of 25-to-30-feet, according to Steele.
Two lifeguards drove a WaveRunner and sled across the water to the boat and took the diver back to the beach, where paramedics performed advanced life support (http://www.scubaboard.com/topic/health/emergency-health-procedures/advanced-life-support-HEMSP000016.topic), Steele said. The diver was taken to Memorial Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
LTrischitta@Tribune.com or 954-356-4233.

[openmindOW]

A diver in his 30s?

[=C=]

I am not familiar with rec hooka diving other than seeing the machines on eBay. Does anyone know what kind of track record it has amassed?

[John C. Ratliff]

A hookah unit is comprised of a compressor of some sort, a line to the diver, to which is attached a second stage of a dive regulator. They have been around for many, many years. One of the original double hose regulators, the DA Aquamaster, had an oxygen fitting in the first stage for a hookah unit, and that was in the early 1969s. So they have been around a long time. Potential problems:

--CO poisoning if the compressor is a gas engine-operated unit and the intake is close to the manifold.
--Hose hooking on stuff on the bottom.
--Entanglement with the hose.
--Boat drifting and pulling the diver.

Pluses of the units include longer bottom times, and no tank to drag around (but hoses do cause problems--see above). No need for air fills, and less equipment than traditional scuba (which stands for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus; Hans Hass and Cousteau both envisioned a diver free of the restriction of lines to the surface--Hass, I discovered recently, was the one who coined the "scuba" acronym; Cousteau popularized it). These types of units have been around longer than the open-circuit scuba. Hans Hass is still alive, and has his own website (http://www.hans-hass.de/Englisch/index_english.htm). Here is one of his bios on-line by Michael Jung (http://www.julz.com/Hassbio.htm). Dr. Hans Hass is currently 93 years old.

SeaRat