A FB friend posted his brother died today in Ginnie Springs

[PfcAJ]

Ginnie and maybe little river)at pretty much the ONLY two caves in Florida where you have to consider someone stealing your deco bottle. Everywhere else, no one is around to mess with it.

Why does everyone keep saying that breathing the wrong gas is a 'rookie' mistake? Seems like its not rookies who make that error, but people who have a fair number of dives and get comfortable.

 

[Tortuga68]

He had progressed from open-water punter to trimix and cave in a short space of time. He had the money, time and desire, and the over-arching assessment from the people I know who knew him was that he was very confident... perhaps too much so

Dave Shaw?

---------- Post added August 16th, 2013 at 12:47 AM ----------

He didn't think he was taking a high mix into the cave

Maybe you could shorten that to "he didn't think"

 

[HIGHwing]

Maybe you could shorten that to "he didn't think"

I can't profess knoweldge of what motivated Carlos to enter the water with unverified gas. What I can do is implement more stringent analysis requirements of my students, friends, and dive team members. That's all I can do.

 

[boulderjohn]

Some of you may recall that there was a death in south Florida, on the Hydro Atlantic wreck, last year that had almost the same circumstance. I did a dive with the man's buddy on that dive earlier this year, and I got the background. The diver, a highly experienced instructor who was reportedly meticulous about these things, was preparing to do a dive and then broke his foot, which meant he could not dive for a number of months. When he returned to diving, his first dive was the Hydro Atlantic, 170 feet to sand. He took the doubles he had prepared for diving before breaking his foot, which he remembered being filled with air. Unfortunately, he had misremembered--they were filled with EANx 36.

Once again, it is a case of a highly trained and usually very careful individual breaking protocol because of a trust in memory over protocol. I would bet many of us have done something similar more than a few times and gotten away with it.

 

[imasinker]

The bigger picture here is simple... Firstly Carlos, filled his tanks at home and I know he would have checked them. The thing here is he didnt label the tank, having many simular tanks as he did he grabbed the wrong one while packing up his vehicle for holidays.

Secondly when asked about its contents he should have checked to show verification. If he had, he would be alive and we wouldnt be talking about it.

As stated above NUMEROUS times, it was a bad lack of judgment on his part. Perhaps complacent, never the less a mistake that cost him his life. If you knew him as I did, you would have a very hard time understanding why he didnt just labell and check the damn tank..It was a one off that cost him. Please folks leave him some dignity...

So again, we repeat it over and over again the importance of analizing and labelling your mixes. When in doubt check it if its yours or your team.

We remind divers new and old of what they have to lose by not doing so...their lives. We educate to follow the right routine and not develope "BAD" habits. We learn from others and keep eachother safe....

R Smith

 

[tkdgodess]

Im very sad for his family and friends heartache. As the diver in the family and mom to 2 little ones, it took me 3 years of diving and training, on an over 15 year base to achieve full trimix. Ive seen people come n go from the sport, and i have friends and friends of friends get seriously hurt or die. I struggled with the risks of technical diving thru my training and assume those risks, and have a happy moment on the last stop that i am ok. Never take the risks for granted, and be humble.

 

[Darol]

Sorry to hear of this. Prayers for friends and family....

 

[Dive Bug Bit Me]

One question hit me today. Carlos dived his tank because he "knew" it had air in it. I read somewhere that his computer was set for air.

A dive team planned an extended dive requiring stages at Ginnie and decided on air as a gas for a stage? WTF?


Addendum:
the back gas was 30%. From what I can gather the offending tank was a stage, not back gas. Per post #24 his computer was set for air (not 30%) when recovered.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

The bigger picture here is simple... Firstly Carlos, filled his tanks at home and I know he would have checked them. The thing here is he didnt label the tank, having many simular tanks as he did he grabbed the wrong one while packing up his vehicle for holidays.

Secondly when asked about its contents he should have checked to show verification. If he had, he would be alive and we wouldnt be talking about it.

As stated above NUMEROUS times, it was a bad lack of judgment on his part. Perhaps complacent, never the less a mistake that cost him his life. If you knew him as I did, you would have a very hard time understanding why he didnt just labell and check the damn tank..It was a one off that cost him. Please folks leave him some dignity...

So again, we repeat it over and over again the importance of analizing and labelling your mixes. When in doubt check it if its yours or your team.

We remind divers new and old of what they have to lose by not doing so...their lives. We educate to follow the right routine and not develope "BAD" habits. We learn from others and keep eachother safe....

R Smith

I thought the story was that it WAS labeled as Oxygen and his buddies noticed this and inquired about it and he did not check the tank and assured them it was air and not oxygen (as it was labeled)? If I got the story wrong, please accept my apology, but I am confused.

Was the bottle unlabeled, or labeled as oxygen?

 

[imasinker]

I thought the story was that it WAS labeled as Oxygen and his buddies noticed this and inquired about it and he did not check the tank and assured them it was air and not oxygen (as it was labeled)? If I got the story wrong, please accept my apology, but I am confused.

Was the bottle unlabeled, or labeled as oxygen?

The bottled was labelled with a MOD 20 sticker. Carlos insisted it was just air. He had many tanks, and used one and filled it with air at home. Other than that MOD sticker there was no verification on the contents mix or date. Yes his computer was set to air as the planned to started that way, again believing his tank had air not 02.

He would have switched his computer (shearwater predator) later to back gas of 30% when he switched gases.