Two fatalities in Monterey

[TSandM]

Everyone who dives in Monterey is familiar with the diving procedures there. Divemasters do not enter the water. No one expects it, and neither the kids nor their supervisors on this boat would have done so. It is exactly the same here in Puget Sound.

If these two young men were certified in Monterey (which is likely), then they were familiar with the area, the water conditions, and the procedures. I don't know how you end up with two people together, on the bottom, out of gas -- but I suspect one had problems and the other tried to assist. We may never know, unless they were wearing computers that can be downloaded and these data are made public.

But don't blame the dive op. This is the way Monterey diving is done.

 

[ChadK]

From what I read in the NORCAL forum one diver was found with a completely empty tank and the other with very little.

 

[Jorbar1551]

The conditions werent too bad. I was launching kayaks all day long at hidden beach with no issues, and there were plenty of boats out in the water. The accident happened in the waters off of Macabee beach. I believe the depths at Macabee are between 45-80 feet, and its a pretty easy area.

Like the above poster said, monterey diving is not like florida diving. If monterey boats waited until the weather was perfect and the ocean is flat, they would be out of business. From what I saw from my limited view at hidden beach, the USCG and Monterey Fire boat was searching for the divers for a good 45 minutes before I saw the boats speeding back to the harbor. A friend of mine saw both divers receiving CPR from the CG and FD. One was heavily bleeding from the head area.

RIP to both divers. I hope we can learn from this accident.

 

[Jarred Fedor]

This was posted in a local bay area forum just a bit ago thought I would share.

"I spoke with two gentlemen who are with the commercial dive boat that
the two kids dived from. One was working as the Captain of the vessel
and the other was one of the divers who recovered one of the bodies.

They said that one of the tanks was totally empty. The other tank had
a small amount of air left in it. The kid with air still in his tank
did not have his mask on.

Neither had dumped their weights."

: (

 

[ChadK]

Wierd, i wonder why one would have been bleeding from the head??

 

[kathydee]

This was posted in a local bay area forum just a bit ago thought I would share.

"I spoke with two gentlemen who are with the commercial dive boat that
the two kids dived from. One was working as the Captain of the vessel
and the other was one of the divers who recovered one of the bodies.

They said that one of the tanks was totally empty. The other tank had
a small amount of air left in it. The kid with air still in his tank
did not have his mask on.

Neither had dumped their weights."

: (

I wonder if they recovered the equipment. As of mid-afternoon today, searchers still reported it missing.

 

[mobeeno]

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[DandyDon]

Well, weights shouldn't be dropped below normally, generally only with difficulties at the surface and I have seen no mention of them being seen on the surface.

Wierd, i wonder why one would have been bleeding from the head??

Yeah really. I don't think a rapid ascent in a rescue could cause that. My mind wanders to possibilities, but certainly got to wonder - and how it might fit with one being OOA, the other without mask?

I wonder if they recovered the equipment. As of mid-afternoon today, searchers still reported it missing.

They were brought up without their gear? I'm confident the rescuers did their best in a horrible situation, but that is curious.

I have noticed a few first time posters on these two threads. Dealing with the post incident stress can be a big challenge with undeserved problems. I wish the best for all involved on the scene and hope they feel welcome to talk here.

 

[Blue Sparkle]

Wierd, i wonder why one would have been bleeding from the head??

I suppose it's possible that a head injury of some kind could have occurred during the rescue, maybe when getting aboard the boat. That's not to say the rescuers were being careless; sometimes a very small cut on the head can bleed profusely. Of course too, maybe they meant this had already happened at depth - I'm not totally clear on it.

You know, oftentimes if I read an accident thread, it has taken place in a situation I am not likely to be in (or at least not until sometime in the future with a lot more training). A cave or a deep technical dive, maybe. Or it's something obviously "foolhardy" that I probably wouldn't do in the first place (diving way beyond training, for example). But this... this is "just" two newish OW divers on an open-water dive - and they didn't even get separated (or at least, they were apparently together at the end). Either way, this is closer to "my" category of dive, if you know what I mean.

I don't know if we will ever know enough detail to learn really specific lessons, but I'm certainly listening.

Blue Sparkle

Edited to add: This is not to say that I don't take away valuable points from reading about more advanced or different diving, because I do (one of the great things about SB).

 

[seven_dollars]

Wierd, i wonder why one would have been bleeding from the head??

I recently read in Submerged that when a drowning victim is brought to the surface and the pressure is lowered the victims can lungs can rupture and blood will come out of the divers mouth and nose. This might explain the blood. Lastly, I got ahold of a friend who was out on that research vessel Jarred_Fedor was talking about and she said it was 5 feet of vis and 6-10 feet of surge at 35 fsw. Not a great day to go diving. If they are coming from carson city nevada so they should would be diving high altitude lakes like Tahoe so they know cold water but they were likely new to the surge and low vis.

Jon