Additional details starting to come out, according to investigators:
- Male had some permanent medical issues but reportedly was relatively experienced (how experienced that was remains to be determined).
- However, he was wearing gear purchased previous day, which included an integrated weight system. He may have added weight following his first dive.
- First diver to reach him could not inflate her BC; the hose apparently had been disconnected due to a leak. She survived.
- Second diver to reach him did not have an octo. She and the male apparently died while trying to share her main (and only) second stage.
- No one knows exactly what happened after the first would-be rescuer surfaced.
This is very interesting and useful information. Since everyone is making wild guesses, i might as well too.
The survivor sounds like she decided to dive with a non functioning power inflator. To me, that is indicative of either a stupid risk taking diver or possibly someone who is confident in her skills and does not want to miss a dive due to a minor gear problem. Saturday, I let me 13 yr old do a 60 foot dive with an unconnected inflator hose because it was auto-inflating. Neither he nor i thought it to be a big deal, but to be honest, a power inflating BC can be a huge help in a rescue situation when you have your hands full. The diver WAS handicapped without a power inflator.
As for the newly purchased BC and an inability to dump integrated weights... I can easily see someone who is experienced not worrying too much about the details and not being comfortable with ditching weight. Lets's face it, if you have never used a weight integrated Bc and have never developed the muscle memory and "finger touch familiarity" with the gear through multiple practice sessions, it is very easy to see how someone could be unable to ditch lead in a true emergency.
As for the female fatality who was reported to not be using an octopus, that also sounds to me like some old time diver who feels comfortable buddy breathing and has no desire to add an additional failure point that an octopus represents.
I myself had an OOG situation with a diver in 90 feet and without power inflating BC's I was NOT at all happy about sharing a single second stage and having to orally inflate a BC and not drop my loaded speargun, light and bag full of lobsters.. After that dive, I always have an octopus when diving with a buddy, so I personally think that diving without an octopus was a poor decision, even if you yourself are very comfortable with buddy breathing.
This incident is fitting into the classic scenario of cascading failures or inabilities (i.e., no redundancy, no octo, no power inflator, and unfamilarity with new gear) all come together in a perfect storm after one individual makes the simple mistake of running low on air.
Remember this was an accident in relatively shallow water with probably little or no exposure protection (water was probably 83-86 degrees), so suit compression and those types of issues were probably non existant or minor.
I continue to prefer weight belts over weight integration and I also wonder that if the guy was over weighted, why the female couldn't just fully inflate her BC and drag him to the surface?
Wonder if she had one of those super low volume BC's that work fine for diving in a bathing suit, but do not have the capacity to really help much in an emergency with a bigger and stronger victim? Along with an having an octopus, I prefer to have a BC that has some extra lift in reserve for that rare emergency.
Very sad accident.
And the other one had a leaking inflator huh? Gear safety is paramount at depth.
