Hollywood FL accident

[DennisS]

It looks like a diver died off our local beach dive spot




By Linda Trischitta, Sun Sentinel 6:47 p.m. EDT, August 10, 2011


HOLLYWOOD—
A man who was diving with a group on a private vessel and was found in distress and taken to shore by lifeguards has died, a Hollywood police spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
Detectives are investigating the incident, Lt. Diana Pereira said. The man was stricken near a reef 200 yards off Hollywood beach, offshore from the Marriott hotel at 2501 N. Ocean Dr.



His name is not being released by police pending family notification.

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The Hollywood Fire department responded to a 911 call around 2 p.m. after boaters reported that a diver had floated to the surface, Hollywood Fire Rescue Division Chief Mark Steele said. The diver was using a "hookah" dive system comprised of an onboard air compressor and hose.
The diver, estimated to be in his 30s, was at underwater depths of 25-to-30-feet, according to Steele.
Two lifeguards drove a WaveRunner and sled across the water to the boat and took the diver back to the beach, where paramedics performed advanced life support, Steele said. The diver was taken to Memorial Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
LTrischitta@Tribune.com or 954-356-4233.

 

[openmindOW]

A diver in his 30s?

 

[=C=]

I am not familiar with rec hooka diving other than seeing the machines on eBay. Does anyone know what kind of track record it has amassed?

 

[John C. Ratliff]

A hookah unit is comprised of a compressor of some sort, a line to the diver, to which is attached a second stage of a dive regulator. They have been around for many, many years. One of the original double hose regulators, the DA Aquamaster, had an oxygen fitting in the first stage for a hookah unit, and that was in the early 1969s. So they have been around a long time. Potential problems:

--CO poisoning if the compressor is a gas engine-operated unit and the intake is close to the manifold.
--Hose hooking on stuff on the bottom.
--Entanglement with the hose.
--Boat drifting and pulling the diver.

Pluses of the units include longer bottom times, and no tank to drag around (but hoses do cause problems--see above). No need for air fills, and less equipment than traditional scuba (which stands for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus; Hans Hass and Cousteau both envisioned a diver free of the restriction of lines to the surface--Hass, I discovered recently, was the one who coined the "scuba" acronym; Cousteau popularized it). These types of units have been around longer than the open-circuit scuba. Hans Hass is still alive, and has his own website. Here is one of his bios on-line by Michael Jung. Dr. Hans Hass is currently 93 years old.

SeaRat