A FB friend posted his brother died today in Ginnie Springs

[TechDeep]

What I try to remind myself when a well resepcted, highly trained, strong technical diver dies....is that no matter how much training and experience I end up with - none of our safety rules and procedures should ever be taken for granted. Every one of them has a strong purpose. Never get to comfortable regardless of how good we think we are and how much fun we are having in this sport.

+1 Ever vigilant, but even then.... Of course the same can be said for driving down the highway.

 

[Stoo]

Any idea if it was an accidental switch to a properly labeled tank, a non labeled or mislabeled tank or what? What are the details that caused him to make the mistake of going onto o2 at that depth?

I knew Carlos reasonably well but rarely dove with him. I spoke with one of the guys with him last night and he advised that Carlos had filled the tank himself (he has a full mix/blend station at home), labelled it as O2, but at the site, insisted it was air and dove it in spite of repeated questioning from other members of the team. Please note that the person who passed this along was NOT diving with him, and that I am passing this along second hand. I cannot verify this as true.

However, if this is true, then it is going to leave many scratching their heads. Including me. What many people don't know is that while Carlos had done a lot of training, and had mounted some serious dives (including the Doria, just a couple of weeks ago), he was a relatively new diver, only having been certified, I believe, about three years ago. In that time, he earned everything up to and including Full Trimix and Full Cave. He had done a ton of diving in those few years...

What I can absolutely confirm, is that Carlos' larger than life personality often channeled itself into rabid enthusiasm for the sport and he was a highly enthusiastic mentor and cheerleader for less experienced divers. My experience diving with him, while limited, indicated that he was skilled and competent. He was a character in every sense of the word. This same big personality rubbed more than a few people the wrong way, especially in the Internet world. His FB personality was nothing like the real man, who I quite liked.

Those of us that knew him will miss his frequent pranks. His wife and young daughter are in our thoughts.

There's a lesson here... besides just testing, testing, testing. I'm just not sure what it is yet.

 

[ianr33]

I knew Carlos reasonably well but rarely dove with him. I spoke with one of the guys with him last night and he advised that Carlos had filled the tank himself (he has a full mix/blend station at home), labelled it as O2, but at the site, insisted it was air and dove it in spite of repeated questioning from other members of the team.

IF that is true (and I have no knowledge of this incident) then it's really sad. What's the point in labeling tanks if you just ignore the label?

 

[TONY CHANEY]

From CDF:

"1. He did not die in the cave. He recovered breathing at two intervals on way out and at the surface prior to possible total arrest. He was alive at hospital and died there.
2. Place of seizure was about 1/3 the way between park bench and Hill400. Approx 400 feet penetration.
3. He was highly confident he was breathing air and computer was set for air; cannot say more myself on this."


From what I understand is the tank was marked 100% O2 but he believed it really contained air. That makes more sense than bring an O2 tank past the start of the gold line in Ginnie. We always, unless planning for an alternate exit, drop the O2 bottles at either the tie off or at a depth of a few feet deeper than they can be used. A very sad lost to his friends, family and the dive community as a whole. I pray for a speedy healing / recovery for those left behind...so sad.

---------- Post added August 10th, 2013 at 01:16 PM ----------

Was he in side mount?

 

[shoredivr]

Damn, this is senseless. Only met him a few times, I'll remember his sense of humour.

 

[Stoo]

Was he in side mount?

I'd love to know this and should have asked. It occured to me that that might explain how he got so far in. If he was alternating regs, then he could have been on air to start with. I have trouble imagining that someone could make it 400', on 100%, at that depth, going upstream...

Why he apparently dove what he seems to have believed was a mis-labelled tank, is beyond me. It's one thing to accidentally suck a rich mixture in error, but quite another thing to ignore a (your own???) label that says you're about to suck a lethal gas. How long does it take to analyze an 02 bottle... a minute, maybe two???

 

[PfcAJ]

~3.6ppo2, and that spot is maybe 8mins into the cave (swimming) for those interested.

 

[Stoo]

The Deco Stop

 

[TSandM]

I think there is a lesson here. There were TWO failures. One was the diver's, in not analyzing the gas he was going to breathe, especially given that it was in a tank marked for another gas (and maybe the lesson is that a tank should ALWAYS bear the appropriate markings for the contents?). But the other was a failure of the buddies, that they were willing to dive with him with that tank. I'm sure they regret it, but this incident has just reinforced my determination to remain a major PITA as a dive buddy, as far as checks and protocols go. They are there for a reason. I don't know if this diver would have gone solo, if his buddies refused to dive with him with that tank, or whether enough stubbornness on their part would have made him analyze the tank, but we could hope it would have changed things.

 

[Jax]

I think there is a lesson here. There were TWO failures. One was the diver's, in not analyzing the gas he was going to breathe, especially given that it was in a tank marked for another gas (and maybe the lesson is that a tank should ALWAYS bear the appropriate markings for the contents?). But the other was a failure of the buddies, that they were willing to dive with him with that tank. I'm sure they regret it, but this incident has just reinforced my determination to remain a major PITA as a dive buddy, as far as checks and protocols go. They are there for a reason. I don't know if this diver would have gone solo, if his buddies refused to dive with him with that tank, or whether enough stubbornness on their part would have made him analyze the tank, but we could hope it would have changed things.

I'm torn on this. On the one hand, the buddies asked.

On the other, if a buddy said, "Dude, those tank markings make me nervous. May I analyze your tank, just so I feel better?", then it would have been a 'catch point'.

There are many who immediately want to "blame the buddy" for someone else' ****-up. Where does one draw the line? How big of a PITA does one be??