Accident on Southern Cal Oil Rigs Dive

[yle]

I did the oil rigs dives 2 weeks ago. I am nowhere near calling myself an experienced diver but I do have a fair bit of experience diving weekly in California and off boats here where, as
The blue water below you is absolutely hypnotic. I was anxious enough as it is about this dive and not having anything below me was nerve wracking. It's not hard for me to imagine this taking a large mental toll to the extent that you can lose situational awareness. My solution was to always swim over a crossbar for pretty much the entire dive (lame, I know).

Not lame at all. You were a bit anxious about the dive and you found a way to mitigate your anxiety, while keeping the dive safe... and you gained experience diving the rigs. Sounds like good conservative planning, and will set you up nicely for your next trip to the rigs.

Lame would have been ignoring your anxiety, exceeding your ability and comfort level, and possibly causing a problem for your buddy and the crew.

([I]My comment here should not be construed as a criticism of the incident in this discussion. As I mentioned in my previous post, the victim in this incident was very experienced and the dive was well within his experience limits.[/I])

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

...also as I remember, we were told to watch our depth, in fact they pretty much drilled it into our heads that the bottom was 330’ and they were NOT going to go down to look for us.
I remembered about the crossbar spacing and used them for spacial awareness. The thing I remembered most was the vis. At the first crossbar the second cross bar only looked like a little ways deeper, but it was a LOT deeper.

 

[scubadada]

I would imagine that something else went wrong, not just controlling buoyancy and depth. You still have a vertical marker, the oil rig. The same thing could happen at a deep vertical wall, Little Cayman or Grand Cayman, for instance. Perhaps this is another example of a nonrecoverable medical emergency while diving?

 

[scubafanatic]

...also as I remember, we were told to watch our depth, in fact they pretty much drilled it into our heads that the bottom was 330’ and they were NOT going to go down to look for us.
I remembered about the crossbar spacing and used them for spacial awareness. The thing I remembered most was the vis. At the first crossbar the second cross bar only looked like a little ways deeper, but it was a LOT deeper.

The oil rigs we dive here in the Texas Flower Gardens are even deeper, just sayin'.

 

[scubadada]

The oil rigs we dive here in the Texas Flower Gardens are even deeper, just sayin'.

And should be no more dangerous

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

There is a lot of stuff that could go wrong diving the rigs.
Diving in a thick wetsuit overweighted for instance. The wetsuit squeezes down to paper thin losing most of it’s buoyancy, the diver has too much lead on, the BC can’t keep up with the lift demands past a certain depth that could have been passed by, the diver gets into a runaway descent and starts to panic and can’t undo the integrated weights on their BC - narcosis compounded by extreme stress, maybe they drifted out of the structure because of current so there is nothing to grab and hold onto. Who knows?
I’m not saying this is what happened, I’m just painting a picture of what could happen.
The rigs are considered a double diamond dive, AFAIC.

 

[Kevrumbo]

I’m not knowledgeable on diving on an oil rig. A working oil rig allows recreational divers on site? I assume the sea floor is at 270 feet?

I would imagine that something else went wrong, not just controlling buoyancy and depth. You still have a vertical marker, the oil rig. The same thing could happen at a deep vertical wall, Little Cayman or Grand Cayman, for instance. Perhaps this is another example of a nonrecoverable medical emergency while diving? . . .

I'm not underestimating the difficulty in diving the oil rigs, as I have never had the opportunity to do so. However, I assume this was designated a recreational dive, 130 ft, no deco, I would hope that most divers doing this would have experienced the the depth and their weighting, wet suit squeeze, and narcosis. I still can't quite grasp what went wrong here outside incapacitation. If there was current, one could send up one's DSMB and ascend away from the structure, just like getting blown off a wreck.

Precipitating cause is usually Exertion Hypercapnia and metabolic Carbon Dioxide poisoning along with extreme inert gas narcosis exacerbating any other underlying medical disorder such as heart disease/atherosclerosis for example, inducing a myocardial infarction (heart attack) or cardiac arrhythmia into ventricular fibrillation.

Deep Air/Nitrox to 40m or any working depth on a particular breathing mixture with a gas density of 6 g/L or greater, you may not be able to efficiently expel metabolic CO2 by respiration fast enough in heavy physical exercise; you should be utilizing a DPV/Scooter to minimize mobility exertion -especially if you anticipate long finning distances against strong currents at those depths, and are "loaded up" with carrying deco & stage bottles.

In this short video link on the nearby Oil Rig Platform Eureka, observe the current impacting the OC tech divers and how little headway they make with strong frog kicks. Deep Air will quickly have you into CO2 retention (and concomitantly increases the chances of Oxygen Toxicity Symptoms & Seizure) within a few minutes of attempting to maintain this level of exertion -and even a standard Trimix breathing gas may not provide much more WOB margin trying to sustain this physical activity as well. . .

 

[dytis-sm]

Condolences to the family of the diver.
This is a popular dive among divers of the socal community and everybody recognizes that when something goes wrong it can escalate fast due to currents and 230ft bottom (for Elly). Really sad to hear that it happened.

 

[scubadada]

There is a lot of stuff that could go wrong diving the rigs.
Diving in a thick wetsuit overweighted for instance. The wetsuit squeezes down to paper thin losing most of it’s buoyancy, the diver has too much lead on, the BC can’t keep up with the lift demands past a certain depth that could have been passed by, the diver gets into a runaway descent and starts to panic and can’t undo the integrated weights on their BC - narcosis compounded by extreme stress, maybe they drifted out of the structure because of current so there is nothing to grab and hold onto. Who knows?
I’m not saying this is what happened, I’m just painting a picture of what could happen.
The rigs are considered a double diamond dive, AFAIC.

Hi @Eric Sedletzky

I'm not underestimating the difficulty in diving the oil rigs, as I have never had the opportunity to do so. However, I assume this was designated a recreational dive, 130 ft, no deco, I would hope that most divers doing this would have experienced the the depth and their weighting, wet suit squeeze, and narcosis. I still can't quite grasp what went wrong here outside incapacitation. If there was current, one could send up one's DSMB and ascend away from the structure, just like getting blown off a wreck.

 

[Marie13]

I have to say that this does not sound like my idea of a fun dive.

How far off shore are the rigs?