Diver dies after getting caught in rocks.

[diver_doug]

I wish we had more details because the story only says that the diver was stuck and his buddy left to get help. As a noobie, I am trying to understand why he couldn't have gotten out of his BCD or drop fins or something and buddy breath? I understand that dropping a BCD would result in a rapid ascent, but considering the alternative? I guess I just want to know. It shakes me up.

Tough to say. I will say that that crevice is pretty narrow, so if you ended up in it, and you were dealing with surge and panic, you could definitely have a difficult time turning around/focusing sufficiently to fix the problem/etc. Even if you did turn around, or free yourself from an entanglement, that crevice is narrow enough that you could get banged around pretty easily by the surging water. His buddy probably wanted no part of that crevice so buddy breathing wouldn't really be an option. As far ditching gear is concerned, he may have been too panicked to think to remove his gear; plus I really don't know if that would have even been of any benefit because, on really surgy days, the surf pounds in that little crevice (and there's some pretty nasty looking rocks)...surfacing may have resulted in death by rocks instead of death by drowning. Anyway, who really knows at this point...all I can say for sure is that, having seen that crevice from above on surgy days, it is definitely not something I would want to end up in.

 

[stakanak]

Oh man, what a sad week for Cali divers. My best to the families and friends of those lost.

 

[CA Diver]

For anyone that has not done some California beach diving, any California beach can be a diving challange. We have "Surf!" Most scuba diving locations where beach diving is the norm do not have surf as regularly or a large on a regular basis than here on the west coast.

First my condolences to Kenny's family, friends and dive buddies.

The important thing in SoCal beach diving is to know the conditions. Another post mentioned how Divers Cove can be closed by the Lifeguards at times for high surf. In these conditions the lifeguards generally close beach diving in all the coves in the city. Beach diving in Laguna is not inherently unsafe, but it does take common sense to know the conditions. The coves are undivable less than 20% of the year.

btw - The photo referenced above actually looks like the Surfing site southeast of Divers Cove below Heisler Park.

 

[LLKZ16]

Growing up in the Laguna Beach area, we use to enter the Giggle Crack either for fun (no gear just local swimming) or sometimes in snorkel gear if the surge was super calm. Some people even dive into the crack from the rocks above when the water hits its apex. This is not a place that I would recommend ANYONE enters in SCUBA gear. Just learning how to swim in and out of it with the surge is hard enough to do let alone anything else.

 

[OCdiving Deb]

Divers, I posted a press release about recently deceased diver, Kenny Lee. I had requested it from his firm, LPA, and they asked that I share it with the local diving community. I am appreciative of LPA's assistance because it is important to acknowledge and honor our fellow divers and their families when these tragedies occur.

Kenny Lee had been a fairly new diver and I never had the pleasure of meeting him but from reading his posts here on ScubaBoard I had the impression that he was a careful and thoughtful diver.

My condolences to his family, friends and his diving buddies, especially the one who tried to save him.

You'll note in the press release that there is an upcoming memorial service and a scholarship fund for his young daughters.