An unfortunate accident occurred at Arrow Pt in Catalina early yesterday morning, opening day for lobster season. I consider my self a seasoned diver, a medic and I operate the chamber. I learned a lot from this. I think we all can.
Some of this is fact and some will be speculation and the facts will never really be known. But we have all done what these divers did, at one time or another in our diving careers.
1. They were a group of three, which I have always believed was not a great scenerio. But how many times did one of my friends opt not to dive leaving his buddy to dive with us? Many.
2. One diver was low on air. We will never know how low. He opted to surface and head for the boat. The other two stayed as a buddy team. They saw him reach the surface safely.
3. He was found tangled in kelp, tank empty at 18' only a few feet from where he surfaced, (less then 100). He had one weight pocket gone and his BC cumberbund was undone. It appeared he tried to remove his gear.
After much speculation we all agreed that he tried to duck under the kelp canopy, something we all do to pass it. Only he didn't have enough air to get through a problem....which he had by getting tangled. The way the kelp was wrapped around him, it appeared he also paniced.
All these seemingly small problems added up to death by drowning.
We dive kelp here on a regular basis....getting tangled is not a problem. Kelp does not get you, but panic will.
I never surface with less than 500#...but now it is reinforced. For those of you who try to get the last drop of air out before you surface....I say...get a bigger tank and dive safer.
Some of this is fact and some will be speculation and the facts will never really be known. But we have all done what these divers did, at one time or another in our diving careers.
1. They were a group of three, which I have always believed was not a great scenerio. But how many times did one of my friends opt not to dive leaving his buddy to dive with us? Many.
2. One diver was low on air. We will never know how low. He opted to surface and head for the boat. The other two stayed as a buddy team. They saw him reach the surface safely.
3. He was found tangled in kelp, tank empty at 18' only a few feet from where he surfaced, (less then 100). He had one weight pocket gone and his BC cumberbund was undone. It appeared he tried to remove his gear.
After much speculation we all agreed that he tried to duck under the kelp canopy, something we all do to pass it. Only he didn't have enough air to get through a problem....which he had by getting tangled. The way the kelp was wrapped around him, it appeared he also paniced.
All these seemingly small problems added up to death by drowning.
We dive kelp here on a regular basis....getting tangled is not a problem. Kelp does not get you, but panic will.
I never surface with less than 500#...but now it is reinforced. For those of you who try to get the last drop of air out before you surface....I say...get a bigger tank and dive safer.
