Cozumel Incident 9/4/11

[stevep4444]

This thread really disturbs me!!!!!
You are all completely speculating about an incident that has left 3 people seriously hurt. They are hurt enough without people making up stories and creating hear say and rumours about what did or did not happen. While 2 of them are in very serious condition you guys are making up hurtful bs. Have some respect for two good people in need of support not hurtful speculation! This is a tragic situation so treat it as such. I am sure the facts will come out at an appropriate time in the proper perspective. Have some respect. If you do not know it to be factual then keep it to yourself. Shame.

 

[BTravlin]

Six pages of analysis on a dive where nobody knows the facts of the dive in question. What a waste of time.

 

[Crush]

I would submit that any diver with the training and experience to perform this dive, would not have made this particular dive.

James, that is brilliant. To my mind a bounce-dive to 200 feet (if that is in fact what happened) reminds me of OW instructors who are just going to poke around a bit in a cave...

 

[CozumelAntonio]

I've been to Cozumel once. It was where I decided I wanted to learn to scuba dive. But the more I read over the years on this board the less I want to go there. Bad judgment and what I consider to be unsafe practices by some ops and "professionals" more and more turn me away. I will not recommend it to any of my students.

With all due respect to your obvious expertise, I believe your above statement is terribly unfair, and does not reflect in the least bit, the reality of diving in Cozumel. Now if you had said you have been coming to Cozumel for years, and dove 100's of times, and based on what you saw personally, you have that opinion, it would be a different matter. But you've been in Cozumel once?? So you "read" all these reports over the years, I assume the accident reports? How many positive reviews and comments have you read? For the 1000's, probably hundreds of 1000's of divers that have dove in Cozumel in the last 20 years, the % of accidents is probably not much different that other dive destinations.

If you were in Cozumel in the late 70's early 80's, when the island started to see an increase in dive activity, yes, there were at that time, a rash of accidents due in part to the sudden affluence of divers and the inexperience and lack of facilities of most of the new dive operators at that time. Several of them got together and realized that if that trend continued, they might not be in businnes for long, they formed the ANOAAT and promoted safety standarts among dive operators, they pushed and got first one chamber, then a second, and since the mid 80's Cozumel has been a safe dive destination overall.

As others have pointed out here, there will always be a few mavericks and hotdogs pushing the envelope anywhere you go, unfortunately people do stupid things, and accidents happen, can some of them be prevented? sure they can, but please don't slam the entire island because of a few things you have read, that is utterly obtuse and unfair to the many people in Cozumel that provide good and safe services. And I believe you are being untruthfull to your students, telling them not to come here because somehow diving here is not safe.

 

[Christi]

Christi, with the greatest of respect, I must disagree. The dives "off the clock" do indeed reflect on the safety of the day-to-day diving.

The fact a DM does these kinds of dives implies many things. That they have no grasp of basic gas planning jumps to the forefront. Add to this a lack of planning for failure(s); slim understanding of decompression; a mindset which easily breaks simple rules of safety; a feeling of invulnerability; little experience in managing emergencies at depth.

If you knew someone had all these traits, would you let your loved one dive with them, no matter how seemingly benign the dive? I would not.



All the best, James

Hi James - no disrespect taken. Perhaps that statement was poorly worded on my part. My point was that the general safety of Cozumel as a dive destination and/or all dive shops should not be shed in a negative or "unsafe" light as a result of this tragic incident.

 

[waterartist]

I would still dive with this operation They are among the BESt

Btw John....they appear to have some very loyal customers and to preserve the reputation of the business going forward you might want to consider taking the diveshop name out of the title....maybe just list the date?? Just a thought.......

 

[Crush]

FWIW, I think bounce dives by recreational divers are ludicrous.

Of course they are, but recreational divers are the only ones doing them. Trained tech divers don't do bounce dives. DM's leading groups would rarely (if ever) take a group on a bounce dive as a DM. However, in my experience young, healthy, testosterone-filled DMs/instructors will do bounce dives with their young, healthy, testosterone-filled DM/instructor buddies or significant others on their days off, as recreational divers. It happens all over the world, not just in Coz.

 

[Crush]

My point was that the general safety of Cozumel as a dive destination and/or all dive shops should not be shed in a negative or "unsafe" light as a result of this tragic incident.

Not quite sure if I believe you Christi. If a downwelling is solely responsible for taking Heath and slamming him and his well-trained buddies from a safe dive straight to Davy Jones' locker then it might just be too dangerous in Coz for the rest of us.

Yes, I am being sarcastic.

 

[boulderjohn]

To my mind a bounce-dive to 200 feet (if that is in fact what happened) reminds me of OW instructors who are just going to poke around a bit in a cave...

I have to admit that a similar thought crossed my mind.

I realize that there is no agreed upon definition of the difference between recreational diving and technical diving. For me, though, it is simple. In a recreational dive, the surface is always an option in an emergency. In a technical dive, there is a ceiling between the diver and the surface. It may be a physical ceiling, like the deck of a ship or the roof of a cave, or it may be a "soft" ceiling, like the deco stops that MUST be done to prevent DCS. The training technical divers go through is intended for only one purpose really--to prepare them for a situation in which they are in an emergency and cannot breach that ceiling.

When the most highly advanced recreational diver exceeds recreational limits and creates that ceiling without using the training and equipment that technical divers use when they are beneath that ceiling, then they are rolling the dice. Everything will be just peachy, as long as nothing goes wrong. If something goes wrong and they don't have the safety mechanisms in place that trained technical divers use, then there is a problem.

 

[BTravlin]

Not quite sure if I believe you Christi. If a downwelling is solely responsible for taking Heath and slamming him and his well-trained buddies from a safe dive straight to Davy Jones' locker then it might just be too dangerous in Coz for the rest of us.

Yes, I am being sarcastic.

Pure speculation. No where have I seen a detailed explanation of the dive and what actually happened.