Diver Fatality in Cozumel

[flots am]

Oh God, unbelievable

What was the name of the dive company????

It's called trustme-whatcouldpossiblygowrong.

It's a huge operation with locations all over the Caribbean, and from what I've head Asia also.

 

[Mike]

I'd rather not shame the entire dive op, as this one DM was an aberration.

There is no shame in a dive operator having a truth told about them, only shame if through information a pattern can be detected. Without people offering the information no pattern can be detected and no good comes of it. If it's a one time incident, the dive master is no longer with them or he has been corrected and educated then divers would hold nothing against them, on the other hand if it's business as usual, as shown by others collaborating similar incidents over time, people in our community rely on information like this to make safe choices to protect themselves, their wives, girlfriends, brothers and sisters, children and friends. Often also a very good owner or manager of a dive operation cannot know every detail of what every dive master is doing on every dive or intermittently which is even harder to detect and a good owner wants to know about things like this so they can correct them and protect their business and their customers.

 

[MMM]

It was said that the diver asked another boat to radio their boat to come for a pick up. I wonder why the diver didn't board that boat and change over? Is that not done in this location? It just seems strange to me to leave the diver in the water alone. One would assume the diver did not appear to be in distress at that point which would make me think perhaps a medical event

no, it is not done in Mexico. As it was explained to me, if you assist someone here, you assume liability and can be sued. I was advised that if assisting anyone in trouble(whether that is swimming, auto, scooter etc), that I should turn them over to officials on the scene (police, ambulance etc) without giving my name, ID etc. So that is probably why the other boat called to hers.

 

[Scubagolf]

I wonder if you die while playing golf.....is it a golf fatality?

Betty

If a heart attack while walking from the cart to the green, no. If you are hit in the head with a wayward drive, yes. BTW I have witnessed both and it didn't matter. Both guys were dead.

 

[forgeahead]

Any updates as to the cause of death? It would be instructive to know, especially the attention to equipment failure. Yesterday my wife/buddy had a hard time clearing her mask. Without being able to see, maintaining a safe ascent rate is difficult. Indeed we weren't too deep (20ft) but she was about to pop up if I weren't holding on to her and assisting.

 

[DandyDon]

Any updates as to the cause of death? It would be instructive to know, especially the attention to equipment failure. Yesterday my wife/buddy had a hard time clearing her mask. Without being able to see, maintaining a safe ascent rate is difficult. Indeed we weren't too deep (20ft) but she was about to pop up if I weren't holding on to her and assisting.

We seldom learn the cause, but with speculations here - were are usually exposed to a number of possibilities, and it's good to train & prepare for all you can think of.

My bud & I like to do practice dives in nearby New Mexico before traveling to dive in Mexico where we can expose many of our likely mistakes and gear problems in a more comfortable environment. It helps with weight adjustments some as we've diving fresh water, but in heavier suits, so can go from what we used in Santa Rosa NM, then consider reducing in warm, salt water. We always practice ditching weights the first dive of any trip, either direction.