Incidient Dutch Springs 4-3-2011

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a22shady

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2nd dive there was a female OW student be towed in to the docks by the instructor. She was still breathing and semi consciousness and taken from the quarry in an ambulance. I am sure there will be a thread on this soon. I just do not get doing a class in a wet suit at this point in the month.

Jeremiah Hupka


I also was there at dutch exiting the water when the had the woman on the dock.

The one issue I find which is the woman was diving Dutch in a wetsuit. 1st the water is very cold and to be a new student and worrying about tasks skills while freezing is alot. Personally I do not think anyone should be doing OW student checkouts till atleast end of May. Unless diving Dry, Which I did in *May and was still cold myself more my hands than anything.

Outside the incident since there is no exact proof yet what is everyones thought about doing an OW checkout dive in wetsuit this early?

Surface Temps was about 55 windy felt cold
Water temps at 25' I got 42F
 
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But to be clear... You don't really know if it was an OW class, or a class at all. If there was rope, or any actual entanglement.

What you do know is that someone (a woman) left in an ambulance, and that's about it?
 
If she dropped her weight belt, it surely would have been a speedy ascent...
 
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Thanks in advance,
Rick
 
Outside the incident since there is no exact proof what is everyones thought about doing an OW checkout dive in wetsuit this early?

Regarding the above question, if the student divers have the appropriate exposure protection and are prepared for the conditions, it should be fine.

Around here, our OW checkout dives start in late May in Tobermory, for example, and the water temp is about 38F. Our student divers are wearing at least a 2 piece 7 mm wetsuit, thick boots, thick gloves, and a hood. When I did mine, it was in early June at 38 - 39F and I was perfectly fine since the air temp was warm, my exposure protection fit me like a glove and the bottom time in checkout dives is fairly short. Doing mask replace and removals with a hood interfering and in 38F water is the least pleasant part, but it is reality for this location and it is all doable.

How cold are we talking about at Dutch Springs?
 
I would like to better understand the concern of diving wet in that area on an OW student? My assumption would be this person OW or not would be familiar with temps in that area and able to decide if they can handle them or not. Being from OH myself and falling in water while sleding in dead of winter and walking back home I am very much familiar with those conditions. Also, just doing my AOW last weekend with low air temps at 33 and water temps being in mid 40's to 50 max and diving wet, know the diffuculties of doing this. To add to this I have Raynauds, I could not feel my feet and hands after each dive. Other than the physical issues with the cold and the increased risk of DCI what is the concern? And why do you feel that this would have been a cause of this? Would like to better understand.
 
I am not saying for fact that diving wet caused any of the issues just personally, I feel its quite cold to be doing checkouts in a wetsuit. Going off my own course each dive lasted roughly 40-45min there was I believe 6 students in my class so waiting for each to do the skills. We were in a drysuit so again was different but my hands were hurting at end of each dive. Just my opinon I think its too cold to dive this early in a wetsuit for New OW students. As they yet to experince this and really is difficult to prepare and understand just how cold 42F water is.

But to be clear... You don't really know if it was an OW class, or a class at all. If there was rope, or any actual entanglement.

What you do know is that someone (a woman) left in an ambulance, and that's about it?

Howard all I seen was the woman on the dock and then carried into Ambulance, I spoke with someone at dutch that was assisting and that was the story he told me. I am not sure if the instructor told him, she did, or someone from Ambulance. I don't want to speculate only relaying what info I was told. The process of what or why it happened was not the intent but more curious as to qhat others thought about having New OW students do checkout's in these conditions while diving wet.

I believe surface temps were about 55ish but was windy and felt colder. My shallow dive 25' recorded a bottom temp of 42F.
 
Temps were in the upper 30s at Dutch yesterday. I passed on a dive there yesterday due to other obligations. Since most classes there run sat-sun there is a chance that this wasn't the first dive of the class there, if it even was a class, and that they were prepared for the temps. People dive wet around here all year long. Without knowing more I would say that a rapid ascent or some other issue we don't know about is a more realistic cause than the cold.


Scott
 
And for the record, I wear whatever exposure suit my students wear, so if they are wet, so am I. If it is too cold for me to dive wet, we don't dive. If they want to dive dry, I will be happy to assist them with that choice.

Scott
 
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