Cozumel Incident 9/4/11

[redacted]

This is very important. You have a woman and two guys. One is an employee of the woman who is loved by all. The other guy is reported to be her "boyfriend." Certainly he would be watching her intently whenever they got to a point where it became risky. Actually both guys should be watching her closely.

Plus you have a planned depth of 250' - 300'. Would you not slow down around 240' to assess each persons condition before going deeper? If fine at 250' then drop to perhaps 275' to see if all is well before trying 300'? If I were doing it I would be vertical (heads up) by 250' and stay that way while in an area that is new and hazardous.

Given these two factors that would have all three close together, how does the woman drop lower without being stopped soon?

Narcosis.

 

[c0r3yz]

Let's not forget what I think is the single most broken rule in diving - not staying close to your buddy. Had Opal and her dive buddy remained within close proximity of each other there would have been no need for Gabi to have had to go another 100 ft deeper to have rescued her.

Absolutely. They were a buddy team and should have been in closer proximity. That brings up a scary thought in my mind. What if Opal made this dive as a solo dive? Would she have just kept descending until she was OOA? I have felt the early effects of nitrogen narcosis, but I haven't felt the need to keep descending, which is something I am hearing is common at a certain point of being narced. What is it that causes that?

 

[c0r3yz]

This is very important. You have a woman and two guys. One is an employee of the woman who is loved by all. The other guy is reported to be her "boyfriend." Certainly he would be watching her intently whenever they got to a point where it became risky. Actually both guys should be watching her closely.

Plus you have a planned depth of 250' - 300'. Would you not slow down around 240' to assess each persons condition before going deeper? If fine at 250' then drop to perhaps 275' to see if all is well before trying 300'? If I were doing it I would be vertical (heads up) by 250' and stay that way while in an area that is new and hazardous.

Given these two factors that would have all three close together, how does the woman drop lower without being stopped soon?

While I agree with your thinking, you are still assuming that common sense or logic played a role in this dive when clearly it did not.

 

[Tortuga68]

Absolutely. They were a buddy team and should have been in closer proximity. That brings up a scary thought in my mind. What if Opal made this dive as a solo dive? Would she have just kept descending until she was OOA? I have felt the early effects of nitrogen narcosis, but I haven't felt the need to keep descending, which is something I am hearing is common at a certain point of being narced. What is it that causes that?

nar·co·sis (när-k s s): A condition of deep stupor or unconsciousness

 

[c0r3yz]

nar·co·sis (när-k s s): A condition of deep stupor or unconsciousness

I know what narcosis is, but that doesn't explain the common thread of wanting to keep diving deeper. The accounts I've heard when this happens is that there is a desire to keep going deeper. Being in a stupor only explains the inability to reason why you shouldn't keep descending, not the development of a desire to do so.

 

[Ron Lee]

Since the dive outcome is surely not what they would have wanted, would you not be cautious and evaluate your narcosis impact? If it became more than "minor," you ascend.

I have felt minor effects of narcosis but my self evaluation was still lucid.

 

[boulderjohn]

Given these two factors that would have all three close together, how does the woman drop lower without being stopped soon?

Narcosis.

Yes.

To explain more completely, the divers were bounce diving to 300 feet on single tanks. That requires a rapid, head-down, swimming descent. Imagine the three swimming downward at high speed. Two of them are aware enough to look at their gauges and put on the brakes (stop swimming, pull to horizontal, and add air to the BCD) at the appropriate time. The third is so narced she does not put on the brakes and keeps swimming furiously down. If either of the two react immediately upon seeing this, dump that air and start down after her, her full speed head start will be hard to overcome. In fact, I think it would take a very strong swimmer to catch her in only 100 feet.

 

[boulderjohn]

I know what narcosis is, but that doesn't explain the common thread of wanting to keep diving deeper. The accounts I've heard when this happens is that there is a desire to keep going deeper. Being in a stupor only explains the inability to reason why you shouldn't keep descending, not the development of a desire to do so.

Narcosis manifests itself in many forms. It is hard to predict what it will do to a diver, especially at that depth. In this case, all that was needed was a failure to look at the gauges in time to stop at the pre-planned depth.

By the way, one of the problem with fast swimming descents on bounce dives is the creation of CO2. Narcosis is not caused by nitrogen alone. It is also cause by both O2 and, especially, CO2. many people think a deep dive that includes heavy physical effort increases narcosis significantly.

 

[Ron Lee]

By the way, one of the problem with fast swimming descents on bounce dives is the creation of CO2. Narcosis is not caused by nitrogen alone. It is also cause by both O2 and, especially, CO2. many people think a deep dive that includes heavy physical effort increases narcosis significantly.

So just descend normally. Not adding air to your BC will allow you to descend plenty fast without hard exertion. When at some suitable depth, descend horizontally or heads up. You don't have to approach your target depth head down swimming furiously.

 

[boulderjohn]

So just descend normally. Not adding air to your BC will allow you to descend plenty fast without hard exertion. When at some suitable depth, descend horizontally or heads up. You don't have to approach your target depth head down swimming furiously.

If I descend horizontally without effort I can only do so at a pretty high speed if I am overweighted. I cannot attain the needed speed. When I am in a situation where I am dive bombing a wreck, for example, if I don't swim down I will miss it.

For those of you who don't know what I mean by "dive bombing," if one is planning to hit a specific site, like a deep wreck, in a heavy current, you suck the air out of your BCD to remove any buoyancy in it, and when you hit the water you swim down hard. The experienced captain has estimated the speed of the current and made his best guess as to where to drop you off so that your descent in current will let you hit the target. If you drift down, you will miss it. The difference in speed is significant.