AOW student dies in training: Alberta

[DandyDon]

Scuba diver dies in Jasper-area lake

EDMONTON —A 20-year-old man died last Sunday morning during a scuba diving class in Lac Beauvert near Jasper.

The man is presumed to have drowned, but a medical examiner has not released any information on the cause of death.

The RCMP, which is investigating, has not released the man’s name, saying only that he is from Alberta, but not from Jasper.

The man was training with Edmonton-based Northwest Scuba. Company owner Ken Holliday said he would not provide details of how the man died.

The man had open-water diving certification and was taking an advanced scuba session.

Northwest Scuba has membership with the Professional Association of Diving Instructors, a worldwide diver-training organization that uses a graduated certification system. Advanced open-water certification requires five dives — a deep dive and navigation dive are mandatory, with instructors choosing three other dives.

Northwest Scuba would not says what kind of dive the man was doing.

Perry Sollway, a diving instructor and owner of Flamingo Divers in Edmonton, said conditions at Lac Beauvert are colder and darker than other lakes in the Jasper area. He said the risks increase the deeper a diver goes. The lake is sometimes used for deep dives, typically reaching 18 metres.

He said he trains divers how to deal with emergencies under water, but accidents can happen when panic sets in.

“Running out of air is not a problem unless you panic and then you forget all the different ways of reaching the surface safely.”

The buddy system is standard during training, he said. If a diver loses oxygen, the person’s partner can share oxygen long enough to return to the surface.

The Red Cross has issued a warning on the recent drownings. In the past three weeks, there have been six reported drownings in Alberta. In Canada, there are about 400 a year.

Marta Gorski, an Alberta water safety representative with the Red Cross, said the biggest misconception about drowning victims is that they can’t swim. “Strong swimmers can get caught in a strong currents.”

Gorski said proper supervision and CPR training are important to preventing water-related fatalities.

 

[tstormdiver]

I would like to know, also, Devon.

Running out of air is not a problem unless you panic and then you forget all the different ways of reaching the surface safely.

Not saying this is what happened, but, running out of air is one of the leading causes of a diver to panic.

Also, considering that area the training was taking place, cold water could have also been a factor. A lot of times, it seems, divers go into the courses ill prepared/ equipped for those environments. It happened to me also, when I did my AOW. I had absolutely no idea of what to expect. It was my first time in a wetsuit, let alone a 2pc 7mm one, I was fresh out of OW & was massively underweighted for the dive. It was a recipe for disaster. Although I did not panic, I did struggle & the dive was not fun. Just 2 weeks ago our local quarry had an incident where an AOW course was under way. A student wearing only a 3mm wetsuit & a vest (no hood or gloves even) went down on the deep diving portion of the dive. He got just below 50 ft where the water temps are approaching 45 degrees. The student panicked & bolted to the surface. He was closely followed by another, assisting instructor, who was nearby but couldn't get to him quick enough to catch him. He came to the surface unresponsive & not breathing. The assisting instructor pulled the diver to the shore, very nearby & the quarry's emergency procedures were activated & EMS called. Once on shore, the victim vomited & resumed breathing on his own. Oxygen was administered & supportive care by several EMT's that were on site until EMS arrived. There was not much information about the diver after that other than he was transported to a hospital in Louisville, KY & did have to undergo recompression therapy. A few days later he was back to work.

I have also seen several instances of divers having freeze-ups & free flows that have caused them to panic.

Cold water is nothing to be trifled with. Many people who do not dive & many divers unfamiliar with cold water diving go into it thinking that cold water is like cold air. Nothing is further from the truth!

 

[elan]

That sucks

We have got at leat 2 close calls this year in Ontario with AOW training. We do not know what has happend in this particular case but It appears that in general Murphy is teased too much and started charging the toll.

The shops take students to advanced places with only OW training and no dives. Forest City and Arabia in Tobermory can be a good example. One girl paniced and poped from 100f a couple of weeke ago. One poped from a drift in St Lawrence.

 

[markmantei]

I was diving at a nearby lake when this occured, and spoke with some of the individuals involved in the attempted rescue so, while it is nothing but rumor and heresay as I have no direct knowledge, I think I can add some information to help with the discussion.

My understanding is that the student was seperated from the group with his buddy, when he had a free flow. I am not perfectly clear as to if the buddy was able to get the student to the surface, but in any event, he fell back down. The buddy was able to get the attention of someone onshore to call emergency services. Some other divers entered the water to attempt to locate and rescue the diver. When the diver was located @ about 60 feet by the first diver she was unable to get the diver to the surface. Additional divers assisted, however it took 2 divers with fully inflated equipment to lift the diver to the surface, again, rumor, but it sounds as if the diver had close to 50lbs of weight on him. Emergency services had arrived by the time the student had been removed from the water. Estimated time to recover the diver was around 15 minutes. I know this is overly simplistic analysis, but it seems to me that a semi-common equipment failure was exacerbated by the diver being severly overweighted. Failure to release the weights in a timely fashion ultimatly led to this poor young mans passing. I don't want to turn this into a PADI rant, and I don't know how experienced this diver was, but maybe it is time to review the practice of divers with next to no experience outside of their OW course being allowed to do AOW courses. We have had 2 fatalities in this province in 2 years with students that are on AOW courses.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Not saying this is what happened, but, running out of air is one of the leading causes of a diver to panic.

Not saying this had anything to do with the accident, but one of my biggest complaints with the way most scuba divers are taught is that there is way more emphasis on what to do when you run out of air than there is on how to not run out of air in the first place.

Logic would dictate that the best way to deal with any accident is to prevent it from happening.

Also, considering that area the training was taking place, cold water could have also been a factor. A lot of times, it seems, divers go into the courses ill prepared/ equipped for those environments. It happened to me also, when I did my AOW. I had absolutely no idea of what to expect. It was my first time in a wetsuit, let alone a 2pc 7mm one, I was fresh out of OW & was massively underweighted for the dive. It was a recipe for disaster.

Whatever the water temperature, one of the major weaknesses of how AOW is currently taught is that the students often go into the class ill prepared/equipped for those environments. The fact that AOW is often sold as "five more dives with an instructor" should be your first clue ... if you go into it feeling like you need supervision after OW class, then you are not prepared to take on more challenging dives in new environments. You would be better off hiring a DM or finding a mentor to take you diving in the environment in which you trained until you get comfortable with the skills you were supposed to have learned in OW. This is the most significant reason why so many people come out of AOW feeling like they didn't learn anything ... because, frankly, they weren't in a position to learn. All of their mental and physical bandwidth went into hanging on for dear life while they "survived" the AOW dives.

And you're right ... it's a recipe for disaster. That sort of "training" is just setting people up for an accident ... if not in the class itself, then shortly thereafter ... when they go off feeling like they're now somehow ready for deeper dives or more challenging conditions.

Folks need to slow down and remember that the whole point of scuba diving is to have fun ... dying isn't fun ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Ken Kurtis]

. . . one of my biggest complaints with the way most scuba divers are taught is that there is way more emphasis on what to do when you run out of air than there is on how to not run out of air in the first place.

Not to hijack this into an out-of-air thread but I agree totally with Bob. This is a scary quote (if it's accurate):

"Perry Sollway, a diving instructor and owner of Flamingo Divers in Edmonton, said: 'Running out of air is not a problem unless you panic and then you forget all the different ways of reaching the surface safely'.”

In a previous thread months ago when we were talking about running out of air, I opined that we inadvertently tell divers it's OK to run out of air because we tell them there are acceptable (and successful) "options" like octo, buddy-breathing, ESA, etc. Many of you took issue with my opinion and essentially said, "We don't (as an industry) do that."

I would suggest Mr. Sollway's quote (if it's accurate) sort of proves my point. Again, I'm not saying EVERYONE does it, but - through our collective actions - we may say out-of-air is a serious issue but we also say it's not a big deal. I would again hope everyone would take a good look inward to see what message you're REALLY converying to students and make whatever rhetorical adjustments you deem necessary and appropriate.

- Ken

 

[markmantei]

I hated the newspaper coverage. The suggestion that this is a bad lake for training is absolute garbage IMO. The water is cold, but there is colder around here. Water temp the day before was 44f @ 55ft. The water however, is very clear, I'm horible at estimated vis, but I'd say 30-40 feet, provided it wasn't stirred up by the students. The bottom slopes gently and it is a very easy dive, again, IMO.

I did alot of thinking about ways the accident chain could have been broken, given what little I know, and speculating about the rest.

1. Diving within ones ability.
2. Less weight. There seems to be a cavalier attitude to properly training weighting to a diver. I often here the comment better too much than too little, and while that may be true for being a little overweight or a little underweight, it does nothing to teach a diver proper weighting, which makes things difficult for new divers with changing equipment configurations (i.e. warm water to cold, fresh water to ocean). This is one skill that needs much more attention in OW classes, generally speaking.
3. While the student was out of air due to free flow (not improper air management or failure to check gauges), the buddy was not, while you have air, you have a opportunity to resolve the problem. Octo breathing, even on the bottom should have provided ample time to release weight and get both divers safely to the surface.
4. The student should have released weight. I'm assuming the student was in a 7mm wetsuit (could have been a drysuit). Bouyancy would likely have been positive with an empty AL80 and a 7mm wetsuit.
5. Too many places to release weight. I don't know, but I believe there was both a weight belt and integrated weights. Again I don't know the configuration, but for new students releasing 2 weight pouches and a weight belt is too many steps when OOA. There might be advantages in more advanced diving to having the ability to drop smaller amounts of weight, but KISS.
6. Cavalier attitude in students, because diving is made to sound safer than it is. We play in an unforgiving environment, and need to have a healthy respect for the things that can go wrong. Scubaboard accidents and incidents should be required reading for all OW students

 

[elan]

The part that always scares me is that attitude that is taught in the OW class is that diving is a piece of cake. They take OW students to advanced places. One if the instructors once mentioned that if they did everything properly they will run out of business as people will not come seeing how much effort it takes to train properly. Yes the students should be smart enough to realize it is dangerous. But I think they are also at the stage when they do not know what they do not know. Cowboy diving seems to be a standard.

 

[Ken Kurtis]

My understanding is that the student was seperated from the group with his buddy, when he had a free flow.

What's troubling about this (assuming the info is correct) is that you can breathe off of a free-flowing regulator. I teach this to all of my basic students. It's easy enough to do in the pool. They come up and face me (they're told ahead of time what we'll be doing), I depress their purge button and hold it, and they keep breathing off the free-flowing reg (a minute or so) until I release the purge. Then I tell them, "If it happens in the OW, just keep/hold the reg in your mouth, and do a normal ascent to the surface. Try to grab the pressure gauge if you can, but the point is to abort the dive and fix the problem."

- Ken

 

[markmantei]

What's troubling about this (assuming the info is correct) is that you can breathe off of a free-flowing regulator.

Agreed, but you need to make a rather quick decision at that moment on what to do. A free flowing reg can empty a tank awful fast. Do you, fix the problem underwater, go to your buddy and his octo and abort the dive, or do you swim up aborting the dive. All these answers are right under different circumstances, but I suppose the only wrong answer is the one that gets you killed. Panic is the wrong answer, but like tstormdiver says, running out of air is one of the leading causes of panic. Ken, at least your students are trained what to expect and have an idea on what to do.