Catalina Diver died today w/ Instructor

[AfterDark]

Let me begin this post with a two brief caveats. First, I have no facts whatsoever about the Catalina incident. Second, I am not speculating. But I do wish to make an observation concerning what it feels like to hyperventilate whiel on SCUBA. (I am not suggesting that this is what occurred in this case.)

Years ago, when I was young, I went diving in cold water with an experienced Divemaster. I hyperventilated. We were at about 65' of depth. I felt like I was not getting enough air and that scared me. I switched to my Octo to see if if would give me more air.

I still felt air-starved, but I wasn't. I just felt that way. I signalled to my buddy that we need to ascend and we aborted the dive.

We slowly ascended and surfaced. All turned out fine. I learned a valuable lesson.

My point here is that this experience taught me that when hyperventilating it is possible to feel like you're not getting enough air. That can scare a diver, particularly a new diver.

I don't mean to hijack here but maybe this might be useful. In the case above a gentle pressure on the purge button to cause some free flowing might be enough to convince ones own self that enough air is coming and quell some of that feeling. Make the trip up better. Just a thought.

 

[DandyDon]

A simple question with no attached insinuation, denegration, or allegation; whatever a victim's SPG reads, wouldn't it be prudent to offer someone who signals OOA your secondary (or long hose, or whatever) until things are sorted out; if nothing more at least to comfort them?

Ok, that was my thot when I read Bill's paragraph #3, or that's what I do: offer my octo* or pony reg, purging to show air available in case the OOA diver is confused - then investigate spg, reg, etc. further. HOWEVER, Bill was not there but is being kind enough to convey info as he understands it from a very stressful interview. While I would be interested to know more when more is available, I feel confident that the Inst dealt with the OOA call quickly and prudently. For whatever reasons that remain to be seen here, a scuba diver who was taught to ascend slowly and never breath hold even if OOA did bolt from 3 ATAs to 1: Bad! At two days after the accident with more info likely to arrive as soon as possible, how about we accept that's the "don't do that" lesson for now and see what else is offered here this week...?

* I dive a special mouthpiece and caution my buddies to not grab it as it cannot come out. Grab either alternate without asking; I'll understand.

 

[drbill]

I cannot remember whether the instructor said she donated her long hose or not, so any comments regarding this without factual knowledge of what happened is merely speculation. Knowing the instructor and her training, I would assume she did donate... but that itself is speculation. However, whether she did or didn't, once the diver bolts it would be next to impossible for the donated second to be of much help.

 

[scubafanatic]

How about when they signal to you that they're out of air?

....yeah, ...but also since when does the typical newbie-ish diver, who's just run out of air (or thinks they've run out of air) calmly give the 'signal' versus just grabbing the working 2nd-stage out of the buddy's/instructor's mouth anyway ??? .....it's almost as if the victim knew something 'wierd' was happening....could feel herself breathing but that wasn't making any difference, so why bother 'going for' someone else's reg anyway ? ....hence the immediate realization something 'wierd'/serious was happening and the bolt for the surface......

 

[diver 85]

From the L.A. Times;
November 1, 2009 | 1:40 pm

A 55-year-old woman seeking her deep-sea certification died after scuba
diving off Catalina Island today, according to the Avalon sheriff's station.

Sheriff's dispatcher Connie Shepard said the woman was transported from the
Avalon dive park, along with her diving instructor, to a hyperbaric chamber.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department sent a helicopter to the scene, but
the woman was transported by boat to the Two Harbors facility, which is run
by USC, according to Fire Department Inspector Frederic Stowers.

The woman, who was not identified, was reportedly seeking her deep-sea
certification when she suddenly rose to the top from more than 65 feet below
the surface at the park, which is near the Avalon Casino.

-- Margot Roosevelt

Came up from ?65+ ft. on a checkout dive???...---Is this correct?....tia...

 

[mikemill]

Came up from ?65+ ft. on a checkout dive???...---Is this correct?....tia...

Not an OW checkout dive. An AOW dive. Presumably the deep adventure dive.

 

[diver 85]

Not an OW checkout dive. An AOW dive. Presumably the deep adventure dive.

Thanks, now I have to ask, what's a 'deep adventure dive'???.....ie why not use 'deep dive' as we used to...


Oh the words people use to describe something sometimes, lol.....

 

[Jax]

* I dive a special mouthpiece and caution my buddies to not grab it as it cannot come out. Grab either alternate without asking; I'll understand.

What, you think your teeth are permanent? Never underestimate the power (or strenght!) of panic! :blinking:

 

[DandyDon]

What, you think your teeth are permanent? Never underestimate the power (or strenght!) of panic! :blinking:

Uh, no - dentures with a Manta mouthpiece. It probly could be jerked out but this is why I donate my alternates and caution buddies to go for those in hopes that pre-dive request doesn't get forgotten. If it fails, plan B.

 

[Ken Kurtis]

I hyperventilated . . . I felt like I was not getting enough air and that scared me. I switched to my Octo to see if if would give me more air. I still felt air-starved, but I wasn't. I just felt that way. I signalled to my buddy that we need to ascend and we aborted the dive. We slowly ascended and surfaced. All turned out fine. I learned a valuable lesson.

There's another lesson here. It may or may not have been applicable in the Catalina accident, but it's a good general lesson for all of us.

It sounds like what you were doing was shallow hyperventilation, sort of like panting. When someone starts to get nervous (even if they don't realize it) or maybe starts working harder than planned, it can be a common breathing pattern.

The problem with shallow hyperventilation is that you are now not exhaling fully. So what's happening is that the CO2 your body is producing, which would normally have been expelled when you exhale, is slowly building up.

As you were (hopefully) taught in your basic class physics discussion, CO2 is the stimulus to breathe. The more CO2 we have, the more urgent that need feels like.

When you shallow hyperventilate and the CO2 builds up, you start to feel like you can't catch your breath. You may take a breath off the reg and it doesn't satisfy the feeling of air starvation. But it has nothing to do with you not getting enough air IN. It has to do with you not getting enough CO2 OUT.

So if you find yourself in this situation, the thing to do is . . . EXHALE. As big as your can. Take a breath. Exhale BIG again. Take a breath. Exhale BIG again. Generally two, three, or four BIG exhales will blow off enough CO2 that the not-getting-enough-air feeling will go away.

And once you get rid of that need-more-air feeling, you can decide whether or not to continue the dive. To me, this is all part of the walk-away lesson from your experience. Thanks for sharing.

- Ken